Organization of American States – 35th meeting taking place right up the street from work. It’s going to play heck with traffic, and a lot of security hubbub as a result.  More info here.

I wonder if anything of significance will take place there? Some interesting milestones in the past. Lots of protesters out and about… Bush’ll be there about 11am today.

I’ve been learning a lot more of my South American history, with a focus on Colombia lately, for obvious reasons.  Previously, I knew more about Brazil, mostly due to Wilton, Sabrina and the dense Brazilian community down here.

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Some Web logs in my neighborhood. This one is about 7 blocks from my place.

Another list of locals.

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Monday morning meeting in a couple of hours. I try to find something positive in it, and it’s usually such a drag! Lots to do this week. – Quarterly hubbub again, already.

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I’m glad to see a trend of burlesque making a comeback.

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Yesterday’s wet dried up about 9am, and became a beautiful day! I hope that the run for the bus is dry this morning.

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I forgot until just now that I look more like Silent Bob than Jesus when I have a full beard.

Comparison:

vs.

Truth be told, I usually wear a ball cap brim-front.

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Journey to the center of Earth

Japanese scientists are to explore the center of the Earth. Using a giant drill ship launched next month, the researchers aim to be the first to punch a hole through the rocky crust that covers our planet and to reach the mantle below.

The team wants to retrieve samples from the mantle, six miles down, to learn more about what triggers undersea earthquakes, such as the one off Sumatra that caused the Boxing Day tsunami. They hope to study the deep rocks and mud for records of past climate change and to see if the deepest regions of Earth could harbor life.

Asahiko Taira, director general of the Center for Deep Earth Exploration in Yokohama, near Tokyo, said: “One of the main purposes of doing this is finding deep bacteria within the ocean crust and upper mantle. We believe there has to be life there. It’s the same mission as searching for life on Mars.”

Rocks in the upper mantle produce compounds essential for life when they react with seawater. “This is a system which we believe created early life. There may be a chance that we can catch the origin of life still taking place today,” Prof Taira said.

The 57,500-tonne drill ship Chikyu (Japanese for Earth) is being prepared in the southern port of Nagasaki. Two-thirds the length of the Titanic, it is fitted with technology borrowed from the oil industry that will allow it to bore through 7,000 meters of crust below the seabed while floating in 2,500 meters of water – requiring a drill pipe 25 times the height of the Empire State building.

The deepest hole drilled through the seabed so far reached 2,111 meters.

After final sea trials this year, the scientists will set sail for the deep Pacific where the Earth’s crust is thinnest. Drilling is expected to begin next year.

It could take more than a year to drive through miles of crust and reach the mantle, so the ship is fitted with six rotating thrusters controlled by GPS satellites to keep it directly over the hole. The drill is surrounded by a sleeve that contains a shock-absorbing chemical mud, and a blowout valve will protect it should the team strike oil or superheated rock in the crust.

The project is part of an international effort called the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program which also involves the US and Europe.

Shinichi Kuramoto, one of the Yokohama team, said Chikyu’s main objective is to retrieve mantle samples for analysis. “Humans have brought back lunar rocks to understand the universe, yet we have never reached the mantle which accounts for most of earth.”

Previously undiscovered bacteria that can survive the anticipated 100C temperatures of the upper mantle could be useful on the surface. Heatproof enzymes isolated from bugs brought back by earlier Japanese drill missions are now used in washing powders.

Cores of rock and sediment from the so-called “earthquake nest” where the mantle meets the crust could also help geologists understand seismic events, and to perhaps give more warning.

“We can estimate how frequently marine sliding or earthquakes occur from learning the history of earth but we still don’t know when they will occur in the future.

“We take cores to better understand the mechanisms involved,” Dr Kuramoto said.

Sensors placed in the bore hole could detect changes in strain, tilt and pressure in the ground miles below the surface. “That will be a great advantage in giving us a few days or hours warning before something happens. Current warning systems in Japan only warn us 10 minutes before a large earthquake strikes. We need real-time data from the exact point.”

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The beta Yahoo messenger has a voice chat & voice mail capacity now.. I rather like it! The photo sharing still seems a bit buggy, though.

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Episode 11 of Doctor who was a weird “continuity filler” tossing together elements from a few past episodes into a story. Mentioned Bad Wolf scenario outright.

Don’t much like ol’ Cap’n Jack. He’s too much of a one trick pony… like a fat character on a TV show always talking about food. Typical, and funny at first if well written, but the shine is coming off. He needs more definition than just “horndog”.

The villain of the piece looked a lot like Big Kahuna, too. That’s an unfortunate coincidence. I liked the resolution of the issue, too. I was a lot more enthusiastic about the preview for next episode, although I’ve never been keen on reality tv, and the weakest link isn’t my thing.

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After Getting Drunk, Becoming Sober in the Night

by PO CHU-I

Our party scattered at yellow dusk and I came home to bed;
I woke at midnight and went for a walk, leaning heavily on a friend.
As I lay on my pillow my vinous complexion, soothed by sleep, grew sober;
In front of the tower the ocean moon, accompanying the tide, had risen.
The swallows, about to return to the beams, went back to roost again;
The candle at my window, just going out, suddenly revived its light.
All the time till dawn came, still my thoughts were muddled;
And in my ears something sounded like the music of flutes and strings.

-translated by Arthur Waley

swiped from flying_blind ‘s Sunday verse.

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Favorite Icon of the moment:

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Moment of Lyric:

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Federal agents raid ‘slave’ labor camp in Fla.
Four face charges in connection with potato farm operation

EAST PALATKA, Fla. – Federal agents raided a migrant farm labor camp where homeless men and women were kept in what labor officials called a version of modern-day slavery.

Four people, including the camp’s owner, Ronald Evans, face federal charges in a case that officials said is likely to grow. Investigators are looking into alleged environmental violations and drugs found at the camp in Friday’s raid.

“The word is out that we are concerned about human trafficking, and we will leave no stone or camp unturned,” said Steve Cole, a spokesman for Jacksonville U.S. attorney Paul I. Perez.

Officials said homeless people were recruited to the Evans Labor Camp through offers of room and board, along with alcohol, tobacco and drugs, which they bought on credit. But they never made enough in the field to pay it off, according to an investigative summary.

“A lot of times, they get them indebted even before they get back to the camp,” said federal agent Rebecca Hall.

In a small central shed, investigators found about 100 rocks of suspected crack cocaine along with cigarettes and beer. Detective Lt. John Merchant described the shed as a “shop” where the rocks were sold for $20 each.

Department of Labor agents were joined in the raid by local officials and agents from the Environmental Protection Agency, which was investigating illegal dumping of raw sewage into a tributary of the St. Johns River.

“They’ve found what clearly looks like EPA violations, discharging raw sewage into the environment,” said Putnam County Sheriff’s Capt. Gary Bowling.

Seventy-eight potato field workers were interviewed at the compound south of Jacksonville. Some were arrested on unrelated, outstanding warrants.

Federal civil rights attorneys waited outside the camp to talk to the workers, offering them help getting out of the camp and finding other work. About 20 left with the attorneys.

Well, this would happen right after the presentation, eh?

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1 year ago – D-Day / Normandy, Cold Reading, plague cookies, shockwave, meme, chill out, first appearance of eryx_uk in my comments.

2 years ago – Hobbit Pub w/danny pics, DARPA

3 years ago – Troublesome evacuation issues for fumigation

4 years ago – evil news, laconic, hobbit names, aimbot, hungry, lj DDos, glow text abuse, misc wacky html, Scotto quirk, COPS, long chat with CEJ, Rudy-fibber, poo-health chart.

5 years ago – nil