January 08, 2004

» Kilroy intro generator

Robert Kilroy-Silk : Television For A Generation

Instead of telling the viewer what the subject of the show is, [Kilroy] lures them in by posing a few questions. Usually two questions, pasted together to create more questions inside your head. Often they bear no relevance to the show, but Robert doesn't seem to care. He carries on regardless.

» A big year for space probes

Guardian Unlimited | Life | Space, the busy frontier

But by next Christmas, the Beagle 2, Spirit and Stardust missions will seem to have been warm-up acts to a year of space spectaculars, devised by scientists and engineers who have invested decades of their lives to snatch a few hours, days or months of glory in the heavens.

» The apes are fighting back

Times Online - World

CHIMPANZEES struggling to survive amid the destruction of their forest habitat are snatching and killing human babies.

» Why opera is hard to understand

CNN.com - Why opera is hard to grasp, even in English - Jan. 7, 2004

New measurements show that a soprano distorts pronunciation when she opens her mouth wide and adjusts her vocal tract to hit the highest, loudest notes.

In doing so, she sacrifices the acoustical nuances that listeners require to understand the words.

"It's not our ears," said Australian physicist Joe Wolfe. "In some cases, the information simply is not there."

» Spirit lands in something mysterious

Most Detailed Image of Mars Shows Mysterious Substance (washingtonpost.com)

't understand it. I don't know anybody on my team who understands it. . . . It looks like mud, but it can't be mud."