Monday Thoughts and Links

[chris_gerrib]

I am back from my Rotary district's annual conference at the lovely Blue Harbor Resort in lovely Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The weather was truly vile - cold, windy and rainy. Fortunately, I spent most of the weekend indoors, including some time in the resort's indoor waterpark.

Part of my Rotarian duties this year included taking a French exchange student (he's getting a degree at IIT) to the conference and back. It added a good hour to my travel time each way, but it was an interesting trip. On the way back, we stopped at Mars Cheese Castle, about which I've talked about before. Our exchange student was amazed that you could run such a store just selling cheese, and I was amazed at how packed the place was. They were truly doing a land-office business.

Now, have a few links:

1) A bit dated, but a reminder that Japan's nuclear disaster isn't much of a disaster at all.

2) A Trip Around the Moon: Yours for $150 Million.

3) Here's a nano-satellite the size of a loaf of bread that will look for extrasolar planets.

Comments

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

I think it is more accurate to say that the heroic efforts of Japanese nuclear workers averted far worse, but it is clearly a disaster for the 200,000 people evacuated from around the plant's exclusion zone for the indefinite future.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Since there has been no significant radiation release yet, those 200,000 have been evacuated as a precaution. They will be able to return.

[baron-waste.livejournal.com]

I like the phrase, “nano-satellite.”