So, it's Rio for 2016 Olympics

When the human world & its damage to itself & its planet gets too much, sometimes looking at a bigger picture can distract us from our distress & despair. (NB: Need better, official links for these two.)
Mysterious Mercury reveals more surface secrets to Messenger spacecraft

The Messenger team were hoping to take close-up pictures of other features glimpsed during the first two fly-bys, but an unexpected signal loss just four minutes before making the closest approach meant the craft went into safety mode. When returned to operational mode, it reported all systems were functioning normally again. [Conspiracy theorists will love that.]
Messenger will now enter into orbit in 2011 after it used the planet's gravity during the latest fly-by to help slow it down … Before the current Messenger mission only 45 per cent of the planet's surface had ever been glimpsed, using the Mariner crafts in the 1970s.
Now after three flybys in 2008 and 2009, around 95 per cent of the surface has been imaged. Only a few small sections around the poles have yet to be covered.
The team are hoping to answer six key questions about Mercury: Why is it so dense? What is its geological history? How does its magnetic field work? What is the structure of its core? What are the unusual materials at the poles? What volatile materials are there?

and
Turbulent Milky Way revealed in new light using British space camera

An image of a Milky Way region in the constellation of the Southern Cross has been constructed from individual SPIRE (UK-led camera) and PACS images in the European Herschel Space Observatory. It shows 'a very turbulent process', constantly forging new generations of stars. … Herschel, which launched in May, was designed to view the universe at far infrared wavelengths and carries the largest telescope ever flown into space … providing astronomers with information about how much material there is, its mass, temperature and composition, and whether or not some of it is collapsing to form new stars. The two instruments have imaged an area around 16 times as big as the size of the moon as seen from earth. … Large areas of the milky way will be systematically surveyed by Herschel in this manner, helping astronomers to unravel the mysteries of star formation.

OTOH, this world is the only one we know of that has mind, thought, feeling, art & created beauty, or the capability of appreciating any of the natural beauty we find.

Extraordinary Origami (there's a tiger)
www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/ worldnews/ article-1217194/ Origami-master-Sipho-Mabona-art-creating-paper-butterfly.html OR tinyurl.com/ye4l48c
Which can be another thing adding to the despair, when contemplating what damage we're wreaking, despite so many people trying to stop it.

Another comfort is cats:
Duststorm Boo ("one angry orange kitty!")
www.flickr.com/ photos/ velvetink/ 3946361231/

On Mount Olympuss
pics.livejournal.com/ serge_lj/ pic/ 0007ss5x/ g1

Agatha on desktop
pics.livejournal.com/ serge_lj/ pic/ 0005fth6/ g1

Cats Learning to Swim (somewhat dodgy)
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tu6fVdAFGSI

i are cute kitten
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_ZSbC09qgLI

Sharing a bath with Woody
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sGrQV23TTUY

Cat Shower 2 (Woody Style)
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8KswnjMa-MQ

From envy of the shelf-room of Neil Gaiman, seen at Gaiman's Bookshelf Details, at Ron Brinkmann's blog, Shelfari, we go all gooey seeing his cat posing there

Hate Crimes

One quote from a recent American Terrorist story jumped out. From my local paper's report (‘Gunman says murder of abortion doctors was 'justified'’), via Associated Press, also in variations from several sources

"The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew," said Lindsey Roeder … he became involved with the Freemen movement, an anti-government group that discouraged the paying of taxes.

That story seems to be getting more publicity than this one: ‘British hostage executed by Islamists in Mali’.

It'll be interesting to see how the Tiananmen Square massacre 20th anniversary, and some other anniversaries are remembered in the next few weeks.

A Minnesota January — Things People Do When It Gets Cold

Still Too Cold To Go Birding (15th January, 2009)
www.birdchick.com/ 2009/ 01/ still-too-cold-to-go-birding.html
There's a video of unusual banana use, and stories of bubbles and spray.
Elsewhere, there's ‘Is it cold enough for you’ (by dmilstein) showing the effect of cold air on hot water.
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=F-ugVrA8e5M
which led to matociquala
2009-01-16 05:13 pm UTC (link) saying

“When I was a kid, I remember it would get so cold we'd throw boiling water out the door and freeze it to make hot ice. Got so cold one night the fire froze--we kept it in the icehouse and chipped pieces off it for years, to warm our coffee.

Gotta handle it with tongs, though.”

More videos of the hot water throwing
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Qlwhk2ozb50

Humanist Podcasts through December

New Humanist Advent Calendar Podcasts (link to list)

From Monday, 1 December 2008 to Wednesday, December 24th, these were posted up day by day. There's a short entry and an embedded player in the blog, or you can listen directly to the MP3 file. Each interview subject was asked to pick a scientist or philosopher or writer who they'd suggest be commemorated by an annual day, rather like Christmas, and also any invention through history they'd like for a Christmas present.
Advent Podcasts Day 1: Stephen Fry (post)
MP3: media.switchpod.com/ users/ newhumanistmagazine/ 01DecStephenFry.mp3

Advent Podcasts Day 2: PZ Myers (post)
MP3: media.switchpod.com/ users/ newhumanistmagazine/ 02DecPZMyers.mp3

Nice Noises

MP3 extracts of Richard Einhorn's music - composer of Voices of Light, etc,
www.richardeinhorn.com/ Audio/ AudioIndex.html
Voices of Light link www.richardeinhorn.com/ VOL/ VOLHomepage.html
And another space … listen.to/ whitenoise

YouTube clip called Kaamelott - The perfect fifth. It seems to be part of series called Kaamelott, I think. I did LOL (quietly (LQ?)) at 'diabolus!', remembering being told about it in music class in my childhood.

What Cannot be Knitted or Crotcheted?

Knitted Tardis (don't let the BBC hear, tho'): TARDIS Knit Plush Pattern Instructions, and Pattern Graph; Knitted Tardis Flickr set; and Instructables page: The Tardis - knitted. I would love someone to bring one along to the Sixth Annual 702 ABC Sydney Knit In for the Wrap With Love charity (the Big Day is 1st August this year), 'cos our ABC is & has been the Dr Who purveyor in Australia since the show's beginning..

Mud of some sort or another

Someone mentioned mud, and I immediately sang in my mind “mud, mud, glorious mud” – from ‘Hippopotamus’ by Flanders & Swann.

Mud is something they'd love to find on Mars — see HiRISE images of the Phoenix landing site at www.planetary.org/ blog/ article/ 00001472

Mud also plays a small, but vital role in the film The Ballad of Cable Hogue

And for a picture that evokes quite different emotions, GW Bush officiating at an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony

Some English language alphabets

John Higgins's silent alphabet

A as in BREAD
B as in DEBT
C as in INDICTMENT
D as in HANDKERCHIEF
E as in GIVE
F as in HALFPENNY
G as in GNAW
H as in HOUR
I as in FRIEND
J as in MARIJUANA
K as in KNOW
L as in CALM
M as the first M in MNEMONIC
N as in AUTUMN
O as in PEOPLE
P as in PSALM
Q as in COLQUHOUN (a Scottish surnamepron “Cull-hoon”)
R as in FORECASTLE
S as in ISLAND
T as in CASTLE
U as in GUARD
V as in MILNGAVIE (a Scottish place name pron “Mull-guy” or “Mill-guy”)
W as in WRONG
X as in SIOUX
Y as in PEPYS
Z as in RENDEZVOUS

www.marlodge.supanet.com/ museum/ silent.html

Sites showing the 'spelling-out' alphabets (also called phonetic alphabets, not to be confused with the kind of phonetic alphabets used to show pronounciation)
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whisky, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu
morsecode.scphillips.com/alphabet.html
www.businessballs.com/ phoneticalphabet.htm
Wikipedia: Spelling alphabet
Wikipedia's disambiguation page: Phonetic alphabet

Relaxation and Enjoyment

I've had a lot of enjoyment looking through the list of 50 Greatest Cartoons

It includes, naturally, "What's Opera, Doc?" (pedantry), and Rabbit of Seville? (Una la volta!)