In the latest issue (January 2008) of BBC Focus magazine (science for the intelligent 10-year-old) there’s a mini-interview with one of the few females on TV who really do make my heart beat faster: Dr Alice Roberts, “clinical anatomist, archaeologist, TV presenter and author”, also a very talented artist and a qualified medic. Those of you in the UK who’ve watched either Time Team (Channel 4), Coast (BBC2) or Don’t Die Young (BBC2) will know Alice Roberts as the slightly off-the-wall girlie with the dyed red hair. The interview includes:
What’s the greatest threat to humanity? Humanity.
Who would you clone? I wouldn’t. Sexual reproduction is much more exciting.
What would your epitaph say? Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni. And I’d be buried in a chariot just to fool future archaeologists.
Magic carpets are GO! According to a report in the Daily Telegraph of 19 December magic carpets are no longer a flight of fancy confined to the realms of the Arabian Nights. Professor Lakshminarayanan Mahadevan of Harvard has shown that the flying carpet is possible under the laws of Physics, although to be useful a lot of work will have to be done on the power to weight ratio. Good news for those of us who hate wasting time travelling.
Two excellent quotes today from the Quotation of the Day; both perpetrated by President George W Bush:
You can’t be the president and the head of the military at the same time. Phone conversation with Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf; 7 November 2007; reported by CBC
The power of the executive branch is vested in the President, who also serves as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. White House document explaining the role of the President of the United States
It does make one wonder how good these peoples’ grip is on reality.
Eccentric looks at life through the thoughts of a retired working thinker
