The Tunguska Event, 100 years on.

Posted on June 29, 2008 by Fordiebianco

This week’s New Scientist has a superb feature on the current state of research on the Tunguska event. Just to refresh your memory, on 30 June 2008 an explosion 1000 times more powerful than the nuclear detonation over Hiroshima incinerated the sky over the northern half of our planet. Originating somewhere above the Tunguska river in Siberia, it knocked down trees over an area of 2000 square kilometers.

image courtesy of wikimedia

This week, a bunch of scientists will be meeting in Moscow to discuss the current state of knowledge about this immense event. The theories are mindboggling. There’s the usual UFO theories, the more plausible explosion of an asteroid, and the intriguing idea of the ‘Verneshot‘: with other words an ‘Earth Burb’, in which a large bubble of C02, accumlated via vulcanic activity, suddenly gets released, spewing toxic gases and large chunks of matter into the atmosphere.

And why am I interested in all this?

Ghostbusters, of course.

Something has significantly improved in Zimbabwe

Posted on June 29, 2008 by Fordiebianco

….or how else could you describe the remarkably fast counting of votes in the presidential run-off. While in March the electoral commission wasn’t able to announce results for more than a month after the ‘election’, ‘President’ Mugabe is scheduled to be sworn in today, 2 days after the poll.

Congratulations to the Zimbabwean electoral commission for a significant improvement in performance, but I can’t help wondering what kind of incentives were being introduced to bring the commission up to speed.

Axes?

G’day from Portugal

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Fordiebianco

The best girlfriend ever and myself have been spending the last days travelling down the atlantic coast from Oporto via Torreiras to Lisbon. The last two nights were spent at the delightful Pousada da Ria. Classic sixties architecture with a sprinkle of Bauhaus and a dose of Art Deco, it’s a wonderful building, full of surprising spaces, comfy corners, a great bar and an excellent restaurant. The choice of meat on the menu was nevertheless surprising:

The best girlfriend ever and I were made thoroughly welcome and its location meant we had easy access to the marvellous beaches at Torreira and Sao Jacinto.