Silicon Asylum

I just came across this bit about asteroid Apophis and the chances of it impacting earth . "NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid known as Apophis and now say it has only a very slim chance of banging into Earth.. The Apophis asteroid is approximately the size of two-and-a-half football fields, and updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036 for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a million, NASA stated." So here's the bit that rubs me wrong: "four-in-a million". Why not say "one-in-250,000". If the authors are really stuck on the whole "four-in" thing then they should have said four-in-180,000 to start with. I really find inconsistencies like this baffling, I wish I knew the author and could understand what they hoped to gain by reporting the number in this way.

Here's a short list of shows starting this month that seem interesting. Returning: Burn Notice (USA) June 4 The title refers to the burn notices issued by intelligence agencies to discredit or announce the dismissal of agents or sources who are considered to have become unreliable. When a spy is burned, they are wiped off the "grid". According to the narration during the opening credits, the burned spy has no prior work history, no money; basically no identity. The television series is a first-person narrative (including frequent voice-overs providing nuggets of exposition) from the viewpoint of covert-operations agent Michael Westen, played by Jeffrey Donovan. After fleeing a Nigerian operation blown apart by the sudden and unexplained non-cooperation of his U.S. contact, Westen finds himself in his hometown[3] of Miami, Florida, attended to by his ex-girlfriend, Fiona Glenanne, but abandoned by all his normal intelligence contacts, under continuous surveillance with his

Just caught this over on slashdot "The unmanned vehicle is remotely operated by pilots aboard a surface ship via a lightweight tether. Its thin, fibre-optic tether to the research vessel Kilo Moana allows the submersible to make deep dives and be highly manoeuvrable. Nereus can also be switched into a free-swimming, autonomous vehicle. ... The Challenger Deep... is the deepest abyss on Earth at 11,000m-deep, more than 2km (1.2 miles) deeper than Mount Everest is high. At that depth, pressures reach 1,100 times those at the surface." Hmmmm lets see 11,000m that's 11km. Yup 11 > 2 ... good job! For anyone in a nation that hasn't switched to the metric system and still care how long the king's foot is, that's >6miles . Orignal source seems to be the BBC . As Homer would say " SMRT ".

"The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur; the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer." I just watched two trailers and two teasers and all I can say is "Wow!" http://www.thehuntforgollum.com/ "By fans for fans", it looks like they've done an excellent job. Release date is Sunday May 3rd 2009.

So how did the City of Ottawa do for EarthHour 2009? http://www.hydroottawa.com/NewsEvents/news_display.cfm?LANG=e&act=form&News_ID=175 The FACTS: Hydro Ottawa measured the city’s usage at 697,270 kilowatt-hours (kWh) between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. a reduction of 43,581kWh (6%) – compared to the same hour on the previous Saturday. This represents enough electricity savings to power 58 homes for a month. Hydro Ottawa is responsible ... delivery of electricity to more than 291,000 residential and business customers in the city of Ottawa and the village of Casselman. So ~1.1 Million people in Ottawa Carleton managed to save enough power for ~0.000199312715% of Hydro Ottawa's customer base for a single month. (Rounded that's 1/5,000th of their customer base). I'm still trying to find numbers that show how 9:30-10:30 right after Earth Hour compare to the same hour the week before. I also tried finding Ottawa's annual consumption numbers with little luck (if anyone has an