Th lfhcfs hair club

http://improbable.com/category/lfhcfs-hair-club/

What is the lfhcfs? The the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists is an odd invention of the Journal of Improbable Research in which the only membership criteria is, of course, long flowing locks of hair. A perusal through the list shows only two Canadian entries. Two? I suggest the we, as a nation, should seek better representation. If you know of any long-haired scientists, encourage them to apply. Unfortunately, those of us who are, ahem, "folically challenged", will applaud you.

Wii manuals: Gizmodo style

In my morning perusal of the RSS feeds, I can across this entry on Gizmodo consisting of a re-interpretation of a Japanese safety manual for your new Wii system. The original post was by Jason Chen (Gizmodo staff writer) which I've summarized below.

Says Jason: "This crazy Japanese Wii safety manual is pretty much indicative of Japanese people's general insanity. Our theory: a secret battle between Godzilla and several Gundams in the early 1980s bombarded the whole of Japan with cosmic G-rays, which allowed then-youths to grow up and draw these weird-ass manuals."

"...hitting your husband in the face with a Wiimote is not acceptable even if you're pregnant. Do not blame it on your hormones."

( More after the cut.... )

To the moon, Alice...

(points for anyone who catches the reference to the subject line)

The US has anounced that it will somehow, after repeatedly cutting funding to NASA, go to the moon by 2024. They appear to plan on accomplishing this by inviting other countries to join in, something Canada immediately did. Not only is it, a trip, but a lunar base, probably on the moon's south pole where sunlight is available for most of a lunar year. They hope that a moon base (called Alpha, perhaps?) will be a stepping stone to a manned mission to Mars.

Speaking of Mars, several ideas have been floated to attempt to make the dead planet livable. For example, one idea that is being examined it to place giant mirrors in orbit to fucus sunlight on one region. Meanwhile, India plans to join the international crowd around the Red Planet with an unmanned mission of its own by 2013.

Meanwhile, we're just learning that a space elevator, even if it were technically feasible, could be hazardous to your health. Seems there's this thing called the Van Allen belt that acts as a buffer against high energy particles. So far, nothing surprising, except that it is a little known fact that the charged particles it traps form a layer of charged particles that could themselves be deadly to anyone passing through it, say, on a space elevator. Pass through it quickly and you're ok, but increase the exposure time and you could have serious health problems.

The Russians and Chinese are also planning to head to the moon. In fact, Russian scientists envision using a series of space elevators (pictured here) to payloads from lower to higher Earth orbit, thus allowing materials to be moved fster and cheaper... they think. NASA, is interested, probably because it's as likely as any other plan to get someone back to the moon.


See Also: http://www.discover.com/issues/jul-04/cover/?page=2
http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Russia_Will_Develop_Space_Elevators_Part_2_999.html