Stalking Venus

These two… er… things are named Wenlock and Mandeville, and they are the two official mascots for the London Olympics in 2012. Thank God, the Mayans and Roland Emmerich we’ll all be dead by then! The story goes that some steel worker was putting the final beam in place for the Olympic stadium, when some [...]

Every now and again, I come across someone who doesn’t believe in global warming. They say it’s hype or some sort of scientific conspiracy to um… well, to do something or other. Maybe get funding or recognition or something. Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so check this out. These [...]

Eartha Kitt, throaty-voiced Broadway singer of the hit Santa Baby died on Thursday at the age of 81. Strangely enough, my wife had compiled a playlist of Christmas tunes to play during our family Christmas party, and I even commented to someone that the random selector on the iPod was choosing Santa Baby quite a [...]

Coz I’ll choon you right back, “Moenie kak praat, bru. Tsekkit the Vennis, ou pel.” Once again, the Big Picture astounds and amazes us with pictorial news from the big wide world: “The recent “acqua alta” (high water) in Venice, Italy reached a depth of 1.56 meters (5 ft, 1 in.) on Monday – the [...]

Once again the Big Picture over at Boston.com (oh how we praise thine incredibleness!) has come up with a series of photographs that are literally jaw-dropping. California has been plagued by wildfires, and this is a collection of some of the best photographs from the series of fires that have devastated the area, including some [...]

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — Miriam Makeba, the South African singer who wooed the world with her sultry voice but was banned from her own country for more than 30 years under apartheid, died after collapsing on stage in Italy. She was 76. In her dazzling career, Makeba performed with musical legends from around the [...]

Here’s a scary little story from The Independent. Apparently scientists have recently discovered huge Arctic regions that are releasing millions of tons of methane – a gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Basically what’s happened is that because of global warming, the sub-sea layer of permafrost that used to form a lid on [...]

Sad news indeed. Richard Wright, Pink Floyd’s incredible keyboard player, founding band member and genius songwriter died of cancer at his home on Monday. He was 65 years old. Wright was the sole songwriter on “The Great Gig in the Sky”, a spectacular piece of free-floating vocals that forms an integral part of the masterpiece [...]

It kinda makes you gasp, doesn’t it – suddenly seeing this indelible image when you weren’t expecting it. That’s how I felt when I browsed over to the Boston Globe’s Big Picture feature and saw these images. Somewhere inside me, I knew we were approaching 11 September, but I hadn’t really allowed the thought too [...]

A bunch of scientist types were hanging about in their aeroplane on September 2nd doing sciency things and studying the ice shelf at Ellesmere Island in Canada’s northern Arctic region. The weather came down around them, and they were surrounded with cloud for a bit. When the cloud cleared, suddenly – hey presto! – a [...]