Children of The Atom

A massive resource of really interesting talks and speeches

The one I’ve linked to is a really interesting angle on poverty and the difference between developin and developed countries. But there are hundreds of good talks to explore

click here

Really really sad to make this post. Friend of COTA and a real life friend renegadedog passed away some time last Sunday. I’ve met him a couple of times in real life and known him for years over the internet and he always came across as a genuinely good person.

A kind word to everybody, very creative guy, and he leaves behind a young family

He was taken from us way too soon, there just isn’t any sense to it. People have been very shaken up by this, it’s a complete shock to everyone so sorry I’m not able to make a very eloquent post about him, it’s still sinking in with everyone

RIP mate.

and now I am drunk and you are still gone
the words from your fingers silent, still
at least I know you are troubled no more
but there was so much more left to say

if I could have given you sager advice
if you could have had more love in your life
would you have left us, gone your own way
could you have been happy, still here today?

goodbye matthew, father and son
goodbye Rd, you were a one
goodbye brother, husband and friend
so sad to hear that that this is the end

A very sad loss. Bobby Robson lost his battle with cancer this morning

A real hero, a real great, and a true gentleman, not just in football, just in public life. My friend met him once using the cashpoint outside St James’s and Sir Bobby was leaving work, he said that he stopped and chatted with them for a few minutes about the team and asked them what they were doing etc

And that was the story you always hear about him, it wasn’t just some image thing, he was just a genuinely good man

He did have a good life, and his dignity is still inspirational. Don’t be sad that he is dead, be glad that he was alive

Raise a glass

Bobby Robson Cancer Foundation

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A terribly interesting site darlings, with writings and pictures and music… All of that in one place and its all rather clever and cool. This is the sort of thing we should be making, not more fucking LOLCATZ.

(Clicky piccy)

A clock that shows the number of people being born, dying, the earths temperature. Scary stuff

LINK

Exciting day for JAXA! Japanese robots arrived on the moon for the first time today. Like most Japanese robots that make great um things, the lunar probe has a woman’s name Selene (short for Selenological Engineering Explorer). It was launched on September 14, four years behind schedule, but safely arrived at its destination, where it will hang out for a year investigating the evolution of the moon. It’s the largest lunar mission since Apollo. More here.

No pictures though

If you are bored, then you can help scientists classify galaxies. I think everyone should do at least 20 galaxies each, this is the internet at it’s coolest

link here

Online Help Sought to Organize Galaxies
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer

Thu Jul 12, 2:05 AM

LONDON - Scientists need help sorting through an unusual digital photo album: pictures of about 1 million galaxies.

They are asking volunteers on the Internet to help classify the galaxies as either elliptical or spiral and note, where possible, in which direction they rotate. It would be the largest galactic census ever compiled, something scientists say would provide new insight into the structure of the universe.

“We’re in the golden era of astronomy,” said Bob Nichol, an astronomer at the University of Portsmouth in southern England. “We have more data than we can assimilate, and we need help.”

Astronomers say computer programs have been unable to reliably classify the star systems.

Without volunteers, researchers would need years to wade through the photographs, which were taken automatically by a massive digital camera mounted onto a telescope at the Apache Point Observatory near Sunspot, N.M., Nichol said. With 10,000 to 20,000 people working to classify the galaxies, the process could take as little as a month.

Volunteers would sign on to the Web site, complete a brief tutorial and pick through one galaxy after another. The galaxies would be identified by several people to guard against errors and pranks, and scientists would rule on any disputes.

The catalog would help researchers understand how galaxies form and interact.

“At some level, what we learn about these galaxies could tell us something quite fundamental about cosmology and particle physics,” Nichol said.

The project was inspired by similar projects at NASA, such as Stardust(at)home, which enlisted the help of thousands of volunteers to sift through grains of space dust gathered during a 2006 mission

Political pranksters/Situationists Lite Space Hijackers are trying to raise the spondoolinks to buy a tank, or, at the very least, some kind of armoured personnel carrier…

There comes a time in every activist groups development when they realise that there is something missing in their set up. We have been striving to cause trouble, save the world and wind up the powers that be for 8 years now. However we still don’t own a tank… Please help us right this wrong.

For more info on how to help, see the Tank-O-Meter page.

Barry Cooper sells a DVD on how to stash pot in your car without getting caught. This fall he will release a second one on how to keep police from raiding your home for marijuana.

Now for the kicker: Cooper is a former narcotics officer once considered among the top cops in Texas, where more marijuana is seized each year than in any other state.

The formerly straight-laced lawman has become a shaggy-haired militant for the legalization of weed.

Six months ago he released “Never Get Busted Again,” in which the former star of West Texas’ Permian Basin Drug Task Force gives tips on hiding marijuana (dashboards are rife with nooks and crannies) and throwing off drug-sniffing dogs (coat your tires in fox urine).

“I’m not helping them to break the law. It’s clear the law is already being broken,” said Cooper, 38, who left law enforcement a decade ago. “I will do anything legal to frustrate law enforcement’s efforts to place American citizens in jail for nonviolent drug offenses.”

CBS News story
Never Get Busted website