Penguin


Bone Machine

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6320781.stm
Molecular engines that could power nanomachines have been built at Edinburgh University.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nico_pitney/2007/02/science_moves_forward_bush_mov.html
It must be repeated continually until people pay attention- Bush’s half-arsed nod to Climate Change is not as big a step as he pretends and his plans are still useless.

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2004693,00.html
Children are to be taught about climate change in geography.  Soon 13 year olds will understand the problem better than the "leader" of the free world.

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,,2003520,00.html
Penguin is to produce a "wiki-novel".  Spinneyhead has a wiki lying around somewhere, I just haven’t got round to doing anything with it yet.


March of the Creationist Monkeys

Some people are too sad. The Creationists/ Intelligent Design monkeys have decided that nature documentary March of the Penguins is evidence of God’s hand.

Andrew Coffin, writing in the Christian publication World Magazine, said such miracles of nature were evidence that life is too complex to have arisen through Darwinian random selection: ‘That any one of these eggs survives is a remarkable feat – and, some might suppose, a strong case for intelligent design. It’s sad that acknowledgment of a creator is absent in the examination of such strange and wonderful animals. But it’s also a gap easily filled by family discussion after the film.’
……
Steve Jones, professor of genetics at University College London and an atheist, said: ‘I find it sad that people with intrinsically foolish viewpoints don’t recognise this as a naturally beautiful film, but have to attach their absurd social agendas to it.

‘The problem with intelligent design is that there is no conceivable observation in nature that can disprove the idea. It’s not part of science, which is why scientists are not interested in it. A group of penguins standing upright looks like co-operation, but in fact the ones on the outside are struggling to get in and those on the inside are trying to stand their ground: it’s a classic Darwinian struggle. The idea that the life of a penguin is any more beautiful than that of a malaria virus is absurd.

‘Supporters of intelligent design think that if they see something they don’t understand, it must be God; they fail to recognise that they themselves are part of evolution. It appeals to ignorance, which is why there is a lot of it in American politics at the moment.’

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Every great story has a Penguin in it

We were discussing this earlier. Who can possibly forget Mr. Darcy’s penguin, which accompanied him everywhere? Or that heart rending warming moment in Romeo and Juliet where the penguin gives young Romeo a helpful boost on the way up to Julie’s balcony? (It is a measure of the Bard’s genius that he could slip this in so effortlessly but at such a key moment in the story.)

Matrix 1 “What do you need?” “Penguins. Lots of penguins.” Excellent movie.

Matrix 2 & 3, no penguins- major disappointment.

Throw the penguin up the crevasse, bouncing it off the walls. Get as high as possible.

via Look At This


Desktop Penguin

The first and, sadly, only time I used Linux was in 1996 when I was on a C++ course that was actually all about earning cash for the training providers. I’ve often wished since then that I had learnt more about it. I’m not brave enough to install it on my main machine, for fear of screwing up a double boot setup and the lack of desktop programs. The second problem, at least, is diminishing. As for the first, one of my aims for this year is to pick up a cheap old laptop and install the bare bones needed for writing- Linux and OpenOffice- so that I can sling it in a backpack and go write in Castlefield or out at the end of a summer ride.

Of course, what I really want to do is build a Beowulf cluster. Back at The Gas, after refurbishing the Manchester office, there was a room full of surplus equipment. It was like the King Solomon’s Mine of base units. If they’d only let me borrow a dozen or so…..