Those Woodpeckers

Researchers from Idaho University have been using a satellite-borne laser to predict areas where North American pileated woodpeckers may be living.

It seems that the woodpeckers, the sort with tall red crests, are very selective about where they decide to live and are usually found in high-density forests. The scientists’ work has enabled maps to be drawn up of the areas favoured by the noisy birds. One of the scientists explained that the woodpeckers make cavities which are then used by other species for nesting and roosting.

It is interesting work but if these woodpeckers like high density forests, I wonder if our own species have similar tastes.

And if that is the case, why are the managers of our local reserve, cutting down so many trees in what they say is an exercise in coppicing?\.

Journey Into Space

Yesterday saw the demonstration flight of a privately-funded rocket which took off from Cape Canaveral bearing a space capsule which, after orbiting earth for a while, will return to earth by splashing down in the Pacific.

Both the rocket and the capsule were designed and constructed by California's SpaceX company which has won a contract with NASA to provide twelve spacecraft with payloads of twenty tons each to resupply the International Space Station through to 2016.

Private enterprise is a great thing and SpaceX deserves to succeed in this $1.6bn venture.

Let’s hope though that none of our cheap airlines get involved!
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Worlds Apart

In 1838 Frenchman Louis Daguerre took a photograph of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris which researchers have now found also captured the image of a shoeshine boy cleaning someone’s shoes.

This is now thought to have made history by being the first ever photograph taken of a human being, replacing one taken in Cincinnati in 1848 which was previously thought to have been the first.

Contrast this photograph with that taken a few days ago by NASAs EPOXI Mission Deep Impact spacecraft of the peanut-shaped comet Hartley 2 belching out jets of gases some 13 million miles from Earth. The spacecraft came within 435 miles of the comet before sending back amazing monochrome photos of it.

Deep Impact was originally supposed to photograph the comet Boethin in 2008 but it disappeared, after supposedly breaking up. So the spacecraft was redirected towards Hartley 2, capturing along the way scenes of a cluster of nearby stars with known planets circling them.

Two black and white photographs separated by 162 years and, for once, literally worlds apart!
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Protecting The Environment?

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NASA has successfully crash-landed two spacecraft onto the Moon in an attempt to detect water-ice there. It is said that scientists anticipated 350 tons of debris to be hurled up to altitudes of over six miles in an experiment costing $73 millions.

One hopes that NASA feels they got value for money from this programme which had the first spacecraft crashing onto the Moon’s surface at twice the speed of a bullet.

Nonetheless, 350 tons (I refuse to recognise the European interference in our language by calling them tonnes!) is a lot of rubbish.

And I wonder if there are hidden inhabitants of the Moon that would prefer that we kept our rubbish to ourselves and to concentrate on our own environmental issues?
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Hacked Off

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Suppose an American hacked into the computer system of the MoD or MI5 and caused half a million pound’s worth of damage. Would the British public support the government if it sought the extradition and trial of the young man concerned.? Very probably.

Why then is there so much fuss over the American government’s bid to extradite Gary McKinnon who is said to have hacked into 97 US computer systems, including those of the US Navy and NASA, causing $800,000 worth of damage? Is it because he is said to have Asperger's syndrome and/or because he faces up to 70 years in jail if convicted?

As it happens, though the High Court has rejected an appeal against the decision of the Home Secretary to allow Mr McKinnon’s deportation, the appeal process will doubtless keep the man safe for some time to come.

The case brings to mind the 1983 movie ‘War Games’, starring Matthew Broderick, whose character hacked into the US military’s central computer system and so started off a war game which threatened to initiate a real thermonuclear war. In the end, of course, he managed to stop the game and so avert disaster.

Perhaps the Americans should pay Mr McKinnon to show them exactly how he managed to hack into their computers and so make them a little safer from such attacks?
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