I'm super lucky to work in a creative job. But creativity doesn't just spring out of nowhere. The environment and the people all help. I often read a blog called Creating Passionate Users.

The owner of CPU has an office in a vintage Airstream trailer! How cool is that!

I was recently told that I wasn't allowed to work from home. But today, Sunday, I spent hours working on a feature at home, in my own time. Workspaces need to be flexible, and they need to be inspirational. I have a great home office that looks over my (overgrown) garden. I'm gonna work on making it even cooler - sticking a couple of vintage surfboards on the walls, adding some great art. Because I feel that I do my best work in a creative environment.

enough for now. My daughter and I are about to watch little brown bear.

The US military reports that the Chinese have been zapping US satellites with lasers as they cruise over Chinese territory. Space based surveillance has been the backbone of US intelligence since the cold war, and eventually lead to the phasing out of the high speed SR 71 Blackbird

Could this mean that the mythical Aurora surveillance aircraft, allegedly responsible for weird sonic booms over the Mojave Desert in California, could be a goer? And could this mean a return to high speed overflights of hostile territory?

And does this signal, along with China's nascent space program, a return to the space race and a shift towards the militarisation of space?

Mars Rover reaches opportunity crater
Two years after arriving on Mars, the Opportunity rover has arrived at the Victoria crater. The rover has lasted ten times longer than its original design life. The crater, around 800m across, was formed by an object hitting Mars. Scientists hope to learn more about Mars' early history by studying the crater's geology.

Images: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/
 


Banking sleep

Taking a nap at nighttime could help shiftworkers? The Medical Journal of Australia reports that a long afternoon nap, along with brief naps of 10-15 minutes at night, help improve alertness. "TO a limited extent it is possible to bank sleep," the journal reports.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/185_07_021006/mce10652_fm.html

What Armstrong really said
An Australian researcher has proved that Neal Armstrong really did say "that's one small step for a man," when he took his first step onto the moon. His original words have been mired in controversy, with the audio transmission making him sound as though he said "that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Which didn't really make sense.
http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,71885-0.html?tw=wn_index_6

T-Rex Tissue
American paleontologists have found tissue inside the Tyrannosaurus Rex bone. The scientists made the discovery when they had to break the bone to fit it into a helicopter. The flesh, which is 70 million years old, was examined and the blood vessels were examined using a scanning electron microscope. The vessels resemble those in modern ostriches. It's believed that birds are the direct descendants of dinosaurs. But it's unlikely that we'll be cloning a Rex anytime soon – DNA probably won't have survived the lengthy interment underground.
http://www.calacademy.org/science_now/headline_science/T-rex_soft_tissue.html

Gum's good for you
A chewing gum company has applied to raise the amount of calcium it puts into its gum. The company wants to make health claims about the gum, such as that it improves dental health and bone strength.
http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/standardsdevelopment/applications/applicationa577addit3376.cfm

Ever written a computer program? When I was a kid, that was what you did (ja, I was crappen at it), copying the basic code from computer mags and textbooks.

Salon has a fab piece

by SF writer David Brin about how hard it is to learn a basic computer language like, well, BASIC on modern computers.

This puts me in mind of a story my colleage, Diana Bagnall, wrote a little while ago about the decline of math teaching in Australia. And it puts me in mind to do a story on what we're teaching kids today about how computers work - and how to make them work.

Am I the only person on earth that hadn't heard the term chocolate teapot?

I haven't updated for a while. I forgot my password, then discovered that the MacOSX browser was no longer supported by WIndows Live.

Anyway, now that I've embraced FireFox, I'll update more often.

I started wondering why Apple's iTunes Music Store URLS all begin with phobos and ended up finding Apple's RSS aggregator. What this means is that you can customise an RSS feed for new releases in any genre you want... it's kinda rad. I'd like to see some additional customisation, but this is cool.

Paleontologists have found a 110 million year old spider web preserved in amber. Read about it at New Scientist. The web even has pieces of prey still attached!

Have you ever wondered what butterflies do when it rains? It's not a question that's really kept me awake at night, but now you mention it ... what do they do when it rains?

Those brains over at scientific american have answered the question. It turns out that basically butterflies hide from the rain in foliage or in their night time roosts.

interesting, huh?

It's been some time between updates. I've had some health problems and I've been busy writing stuff for the Bulletin. Anyway, enough about me... I've come across this interesting site called Damn Interesting. This particular story is about a woman that survived an explosion on a DC9 and fell from 33,000 feet....