Physics of Superheroes

an interesting read? I don't know... (EDIT: in fact quite a boring one. the first part with the history of superman powers is nice, but in the second one the author goes to infinite lenghts to explain how he computes the force necessary for superman to leap a tall building... or may be I'm just forgetting that most people don't leave as I do in the Mathemagic realm)

I'll be trying to finish Judas Unchained during the flight, and in the small bites of free time during my holidays...

time to go now...

see you soon!

Richard "Hamster" Hammond hurt in car crash

Many of you know of my fascination for the BBC program TOP GEAR. I do enjoy the mix of light entertainment and car news, get angry to their unreasonable stand against global warming (albeit some of their stances are reasonably put). anyway, it's possibly my fav program...

Today's news is that one of his presenter, Richard hammond has been seriously hurt during the filming of the next series of episodes.

what can I say? get well soon, Hamster...

My Pirate name is...

keeping up with yesterday's Talk Like a Pirate Day, here it comes!!!

My Pirate Name Is...

Cannibal Sultan of Timor

What's Your Pirate Name?

WOW!!!

a lots of visits (37 pageloads) yesterday...

it must depends from the fact that I posted a lot so it did often pop up in the 'recently updated' list of blogspot... let's see if I can repeat the exploit today...

before the hyatus of my holidays... I guess I will not be posting a lot during the coming ten days...

will try to put up some holidays pictures when I get back... :-)

How much does the National Security budget of the US amounts to?

I can't know (you have to pay to get access). I wish I did though. I have always been wandering what a drag the "Defense" expenses are on countries. How better will we be if we didn't have to spend all those money and energies in unproductive things? Of course we may niot be that better as our neighbours would invade us to rob our richs...

It is a sad, sad world...

Wii is wiith us...

No pesky PS3, thanks, I have been a Nintendo fans since I saw Pikmin on the gamecube... I love challenging, yet cute-looking videogames, and there's nothing like nintendo for them...

And Gamecube successor, the Wii, is coming out soon... featuring a new two-pieces, motion-sensitive, free-hand controller which I really believe is going to make games more fun... think about playing soulcalibur by really punching your opponents sitting in the sofa close to you... or most likely standing in front of the TV...

I can't wait to play next gen's Zelda: Twilight Princess



and Wii Sports:



and what else? well, I don't care. I play very rarely (not at all in the last nine months or so), so even very few (possibly PARTY/multiplayer) games will do for me.

But I hope they keep up a decent pipeline so that the user base will not switch over to the more muscular PS3 and X360... XP

Personally, I think M$ is going to loose anyway. Nintendo has shown with the DS that it can keep up and beat the crap out of Sony, let's hope tey keep up with the good job...

Project Bioshield: The Mess

No, it's not a new videogame title for PS2...

it's the US initiative to protect themselves from unlikely bio-weapons terrorist attack...

Tara talks about it. Original source from the NY Times.

apparently, big pharma companies are not interested in the deal (I wonder why), so small start ups with no proven track record are stepping in. I feel like making unsubstantiated allegations today, so I will put out mine: is this the truth? or is just simply that lots of these start ups sprouted from nowhere are just clocely linked to government personalities in charge of assigning the fundings? Are americans, once again, lining someone's pockets with public money? nothing wrong, mind you, if they were getting something in return... but... let me doubt this...

Now that I've sprouted non-sense, I can even read the article :-)

EDIT: read the article... it seems I wasn't so wrong. As Andreotti says, to think bad of someone is a sin, but you always get it right.

quote from the article:

“A torturous labyrinth of federal fiefdoms into which billions disappear,” Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut, said of the program. “Yet few antidotes have yet to emerge.”

I am a Tiger!!!

thanks to the chick

Men's issue with their body...

Too many hair, too smelly, too much... male? yep, that's it...

some scientists tackle the fact that we men are not all Brad Pitt

We smell, we fart, we have hair spread all around our bodies, and so on... some people are ok with it. I am ok with myself, but my GF sometimes complain about my body odour - strange, since previous acquantainces never raised the issue - age effect?
mah...

interestingly, the people most obsessed are those addicted to MTV and such 'entertainment'... not surprising... potato couches sitting on the sofa all day looking at beautifully sculpted male/female dancers. your self esteem isn't certainly going to go up...

again, I find strange that am not disturbed by the fact of spending my free time watching Desperate Housewives or Ally Mc Beal. it must be 'cause I enjoy the stories more than the picture (albeit the girls in the show are certainly hot). or may be I don't need to fantasize on them. I have a real woman sharing my life - kudos to her... ;-)

It's Talk Like A Pirate day!!!

A bit everywhere in the big ol' net. (that's the official site though)



I first found out about it looking for a movie (will not tell you which one) in the Pirate Bay.

but even Pharyngula is celebrating it, with a very weird tampons ad:



if you want to know more, just google it

I can not believe this...

a piece of news as a follow up to my post regarding Steve Irwin: (some of) his fans may be taking their revenge by mutilating sting-rays...

no, really, what do they think they're achieving?

(thanks to Boltgirl)

A new species of bird!!!

It doesn't happen every day. in fact it hasn't happened at all in the past 50 years...
A new species of bird has been identified in India...



Shelley has more about it.

(also on yahoo news)

SubNormali

Now I can't stop posting... it's raining anyway and don't want to get wet going home, so... will wait for it to stop. in the meantime, enjoy this nice amateur sub-movie of a nightime immersion:

No AdSense, thanks...

At least, not if the ads presented are unappropriate as in this case: Scientific Evidence (is this Gore the ex US's VP? who knows?)

I mean, a weblog about science and google put in it pseudo-scientific burble like "Modern Science Finds God" and "The Final Theory"? pu-lease...

I better keep AdSense at bay, then... poor but honest. augh!

To the Movies (II)

Frankly, though, this one, featuring my old-time favourite Edward Norton, seems to be so much better: The Illusionist

In turn-of-the-century Vienna, a magician (Norton) uses his abilities to secure the love of a woman far above his social standing.

looks like a plan. I'd do the same, if I had magical powers :-)

To the Movies

Snooping around the IMDB, I found the trailer for this nice movie: School for Scoundrels... there's no vote as of yet, but I'll check it out on the torrent to see how it is and report to you... have a nice evening, guys and girls... ;-)

wellcome to all visitors... (updated)

My counter below is burgeoning toward the one-hundredth visit. who will it be?

Until now, I've had mostly visit from Italy, and the UK (from my ex-lab). The one from Italy come from Turin, but mostly from Tuscany... The usual suspects here too...

Unexpected visits from all over the world, the US, Australia, India and so on... you're all wellcome!

now that I have a referrer list you can check where visiting people comes from, too. ;-)

UPDATE: and the one-hundredth is... PAC, if I am not mistaken, who's checking me out from his university public station. Him, or someone else from Pisa. Gio' may be? no way of knowing unless they come forward and confess...

Judas Unchained

What does Judas Unchained means? Frankly, I don't know. It's just the title of the book I am reading now. Follow up on last week's book, Pandora's Star, it did arrive in the post the same day I was done with its prequel...

The commonwealth traversies goes on and on, charachters become more tri-dimensional, or may be not. Frankly, I enjoy the book but its main players are far from the detail of Hamilton previous cycle. It certainly is a page turner for me, and am looking forward to discovers what the Guardians are up to. i only hope it won't be another Deus Ex Machina like in the Naked God. In there, the solution did look enat, but lazy too... Too easy postulating a superhuman intelligence which fixes things for us... well, enough spoiling...

I just hope I'll manage to finish reading it before I fly to sardinia. or may be in flight. who knows?

have a nice week you all!

The Intermediate Countdown

Minus three to the so long delayed holidays...

Minus two Presentations to go: one for Management, one for the Cardio Vascular Centre Of Excellence...

Minus one back pain to get rid of...

and then it's GO! Fly away where no gufo has been before!!!

(I dis-like Star Trek but have to admit liking their tag-line)