Blame Charles Stross

I use "memetic prophylactic recommended" nearly 200 times, Charles uses it once and who shows up first in Google?

Sometimes Dan Simmons tries his hand at comedy

Wow, I haven't thought about Postman since someone was posing anti-usenet rants mentioning Postman on ... usenet. uw.general, if I recall correctly.

"Space environment of an asteroid preserved on micrograins returned by the Hayabusa spacecraft"

Records of micrometeorite collisions at down to submicron scales were discovered on dust grains recovered from near-Earth asteroid 25143 (Itokawa). Because the grains were sampled from very near the surface of the asteroid, by the Hayabusa spacecraft, their surfaces reflect the low-gravity space environment influencing the physical nature of the asteroid exterior. The space environment was examined by description of grain surfaces and asteroidal scenes were reconstructed. Chemical and O isotope compositions of five lithic grains, with diameters near 50 μm, indicate that the uppermost layer of the rubble-pile-textured Itokawa is largely composed of equilibrated LL-ordinary-chondrite-like material with superimposed effects of collisions. The surfaces of the grains are dominated by fractures, and the fracture planes contain not only sub-μm-sized craters but also a large number of sub-μm- to several-μm-sized adhered particles, some of the latter composed of glass. The size distribution and chemical compositions of the adhered particles, together with the occurrences of the sub-μm-sized craters, suggest formation by hypervelocity collisions of micrometeorites at down to nm scales, a process expected in the physically hostile environment at an asteroid’s surface. We describe impact-related phenomena, ranging in scale from 10-9 to 104 meters, demonstrating the central role played by impact processes in the long-term evolution of planetary bodies. Impact appears to be an important process shaping the exteriors of not only large planetary bodies, such as the moon, but also low-gravity bodies such as asteroids.

Interesting to run across this on International Women's Day

[F]ully half of all the women who have ever served as provincial or territorial premiers are the current incumbents of their offices.

Which would be a lot more impressive if the following was not also true:

A total of eight women have served, or are serving, as the premier of a province or territory in Canada.

A poll

[Poll #1825004]

So, for people in different political systems: technically the PM isn't directly elected as PM; individual MPs are elected and whoever enjoys the support of the most MPs becomes Prime Minister. In practice, a national election is often seen as a test of the leaders of the various parties and the election functions as though we were directly electing a Prime Minister. That said, when a Prime Minister dies in office (which has not happened in a century), or decides to retire or is forced to step down, the new party leader generally replaces them as PM. The new leader therefore becomes PM without facing the nation's opinion on them as Prime Minister, at least not until the next election (when traditionally people who have become PM in this manner are shot down in flames, not least because the odds are the previous PM overstayed their welcome and their party will suffer for it). Canada has had one female Prime Minister, Kim Campbell, but she replaced Lyin' Brian between elections and did not fare well at the next federal election.

A poll

[Poll #1825004]

So, for people in different political systems: technically the PM isn't directly elected as PM; individual MPs are elected and whoever enjoys the support of the most MPs becomes Prime Minister. In practice, a national election is often seen as a test of the leaders of the various parties and the election functions as though we were directly electing a Prime Minister. That said, when a Prime Minister dies in office (which has not happened in a century), or decides to retire or is forced to step down, the new party leader generally replaces them as PM. The new leader therefore becomes PM without facing the nation's opinion on them as Prime Minister, at least not until the next election (when traditionally people who have become PM in this manner are shot down in flames, not least because the odds are the previous PM overstayed their welcome and their party will suffer for it). Canada has had one female Prime Minister, Kim Campbell, but she replaced Lyin' Brian between elections and did not fare well at the next federal election.

Have a desire to write some letters?

A Canadian group whose homepage currently states that one of the biggest threats to families is the “homosexual lobby” and “the media” has been appointed to help government decide how to award Diamond Jubilee Medals to honour Queen Elizabeth’s 60 years of service to Canada.

Women’s economic opportunity 2012

Women’s economic opportunity 2012; A global index and ranking from the Economist Intelligence Unit
( Read more... )