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As I browsed the news wires this morning, nothing really grabbed me as a great topic for discussion so I thought I'd just do a bit of a round-up and leave readers to decide what was worth talking about.
First up, the Philae lander has slipped into a coma after exhausting its batteries on the surface of Comet 67P. Despite the few snafus, this was a great mission with a result that promises to give us greater understanding of the origins of the universe and the potential source of life on earth.
It's hoped that, as the comet gets closer to the sun, the solar arrays onboard will be able to generate enough power to recharge the battery for another chance at doing some science on this 2Km-long lump of space rock. In the hope of increasing the odds, scientists at the ESA have rotated the body of the craft to try and give the largest PVA maximum exposure to the scant 1.5 hours of direct sunlight that falls on Philae each day.
And, in other news...
It was announced last week that Amazon.com is looking to hire drone pilots in the UK as part of its announced intention to launch a drone-based express delivery service.
It's widely accepted by those who understand the complexities and limitations of the technology that, at least for the foreseeable future, this is just a publicity stunt by Amazon. I guess however, that for the price of a few full-time salaries, they'll get plenty of free advertising from the media who are ever-eager to print stuff about the subject-de-jour: "drones".
Quite a few newswires are carrying reports that, because of climate change, we're going to be far more at risk of being hit by lightning.
Really?
What are the risks now? Pretty damned small I'd say.
Even doubling the risk still makes for pretty long odds and the actual effect is reported to be just a 50% increase in lightning strikes by the end of the century.
Yawn!
That venerable tome of highly objective and accurate scientific reporting, The Daily Mail </SARC> is reporting that climate change is driving yet another polar vortex that enveloped much of North America in a blanket of icy wind and snow, driving temperatures to more than 10 degrees (F) lower than the norms for this time of year.
In the UK, a five-year-old boy has become the youngest ever Microsoft Certified Professional, after passing the necessary exams.
Wow... I think Microsoft should try to get as much mileage from this as they can and the promotional opportunities are endless: "Microsoft makes computers 'child's play".
But seriously -- is this kid just super-smart or are the Certifications issued by MS just a money-making joke?
An old Hasselblad camera has been sold at auction for a cool $275K. What made this camera so desirable?
It was one of the first bits of photographic kit carried into space by early astronauts.
Purchased originally in 1962 by astronaut Wally Schirra for a the sum of $400, the two were lifted into space during the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission and thus it has great provenance. It's rather interesting that back then, Schirra had to buy his own camera :-)
And finally, YouTube announced the imminent launch of its subscription music service called "YouTube Music Key". For US$10 a month, subscribers will get access to unlimited music and music vids without advertising.
Sounds great -- but the savvy folk out there are probably already getting all the ad-free music they want from YouTube, thanks to ad-blocking plug-ins and software that enables you to download the raw video files as and when you want.
I haven't included links to any of the stories mentioned above because I know that Aardvark readers are proficient in the use of Google and other search tools ;-)
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