Christmas Day is only two days away..........
but it doesn't feel yet like Christmas , to me at least.Everyone is full with coughs and colds, some getting better, some getting worse (and guess who that is - 
).
).I always feel a little sad at this time of year. I miss my Dad. He loved this time of year, family, trimmings, decorations - the full set. He adored Christmas, he adored his grand kids, and they are all mad about the festive season.
I nearly cried the other day. Laura found some of the fun Christmas badges that my Dad had given them a few years back. They lit up, and, surprisingly, even after all this time they still work. Anyway, looking all angelic and apologetic as little girls can do sometimes (how do they do that?), she asked if it would be "alright" to wear them for a family party - because they were "Grandad's".
I know everyone will have lost someone at sometime, and he could be a right miserable devil at times (I wonder where I got it from - LOL), but when he enjoyed something, the whole thing became infectious.
Never mind - my worry!!!!
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Been digging across the net again for a few news stories of interest to me
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I like space related stories, and this one is particularly poignant at this time of year. The beagle module is scheduled to land on Mars on Christmas Day.
Nearby Star May Have Planetary System Like Ours "Astronomers scanning the skies for far-flung planets have found that the area surrounding a nearby star is very familiar. A report published in the current issue of the Astrophysical Journal suggests that Vega, located 25 light-years away from our sun, may have an orbiting planetary system that is more similar to our own than is any other yet discovered. Mark Wyatt of Edinburgh's Royal Observatory designed a computer model based on observations of a faint disk orbiting Vega, which is three times bigger than the sun and is part of the constellation Lyra, the Harp. Images taken in 1998 by the world's most sensitive submillimeter camera, known as SCUBA, showed extremely cold dust orbiting the star. 'The irregular shape of the disk is the clue that it is likely to contain planets,' Wyatt says. 'Although we can't directly observe the planets, they have created clumps in the disk of dust around the star.' The calculations indicate that the formation of a planet similar in size to Neptune--and orbiting the star at a distance comparable to that between Neptune and the sun--can best explain the observed structure of the disk."...
Christmas Day Mars Landing "It's wintertime in the northern hemisphere of Mars, and a flying saucer is about to land. Back on Earth where it comes from, the craft is known as the Beagle 2, sent to Mars by the European Space Agency in search of life. More accurately, the Beagle 2 will be looking for chemical traces of life--telltale signs that life once existed, or perhaps, exists right now on the red planet. Touchdown is scheduled for Christmas Day 2003. The Beagle 2 will precede two NASA rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, slated to land in January. Named after the ship that carried Charles Darwin, the Beagle 2 is a self-contained laboratory shaped like a saucer, or a pocket watch, about three feet in diameter. Although it carries many powerful scientific tools, it weighs a mere 70 pounds. Being so light and compact, the Beagle 2 was able to hitch a ride to Mars onboard the ESA's Mars Express spacecraft launched last June. While Mars Express, an orbiter, surveys the planet from a few hundred miles up, the Beagle 2 will be able to stick its devices right into Mars, sampling rocks and soil on the surface and below. NASA's Everett Gibson, the interdisciplinary scientist for the Mars Express/Beagle 2 mission, explains: ?We have two [ways] to get samples: a rock abrasion tool, and a burrowing mole." Both are embedded in the Beagle's robotic arm."...
I do wonder sometimes though. Mankind has sent numerous "vehicles" into space, and quite a few have "bombarded" Mars. If there is/were/could be (delete as appropriate - 
) life and Mars, intelligent life on Mars, and you saw all this metal falling from the sky, obviously not of your world, and from somewhere else , peopled by some other intelligence, you would have to wonder WHY?
) life and Mars, intelligent life on Mars, and you saw all this metal falling from the sky, obviously not of your world, and from somewhere else , peopled by some other intelligence, you would have to wonder WHY?_____________________________________
Colombia hostages freed at last A Briton and four Israeli hostages are released by their Colombian rebel captors after three months.
Colombia hostage tastes freedom A British hostage released by Colombian rebels after 102 days marks his freedom with a meal of cheese and cola.
I have been watching this story, on and off, over the last few months. His parents have been on TV several times. And in all that time they have carried themselves with dignity and great self control. And in all that time they have always maintained that they knew that their Son would be released.
And yesterday they got the "Christmas Present" they really wanted - a call to say their beloved son was on his way home.
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Are You Addicted To Google? An opinion piece from the BBC is wondering if people are addicted to Google. The premise is that Google searches are no longer as relevant as they used to be, and are increasingly cluttered with advertising. However, we all still use it everyday. In many cases, "searching the internet" and "Google" have become synonymous, and so the writer worries that we're all stuck on Google. There's a simple solution, of course: come up with a better search engine. Others are trying, and are probably thrilled with articles like this one.
[via Techdirt]
I like this one, addicted to Google. Most of the people I know are "addicted" to their Computer, the Google phenomena is just a little extra on the back of that.
But I do know what they are getting at though. Google is becoming "swamped" in adverts, and there are definitely other "good" search engines out there, but is it an addiction or is it just being lazy. I know which mine is. I have a Google Toolbar on my browser, and have just recently tried the Desktop Toolbar (although that has now been removed).
Is that "addiction", or is it a case of trust, if that is the right word. I know how it works, I know that it DOES work, and even more importantly it does what I want it to do - so why should I change
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