The annual Perseid meteors are set to put on a spectacular sky show this weekend.

From the UK, the best time to see the Perseid shower is likely to be on the morning of 12 August before dawn.

Should be a good showing if the weather permits, could be up to 60 an hour.

Very cool article about Google's autonomous vehicles:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/07/google-cars-300000-miles-without-accident/

Soon, it will be just like The Sixth Day...where Arnold was in the driver seat of his van but he was not steering...the van was!
I think Will Smith's car in the movie, iRobot also did the same thing but allowed for human driver control if desired.

Coming soon to a dealership near you!!

I can just see the rewritten insurance forms now...

"In the event of a computer malfunction, a determination will have to be made by a qualified computer and auto-interface technician.
If the computer received the usual 'Blue Screen of Death' warning, then the company will, at that time, defer to the computer division
for clarification. Keep in mind that this will not be an admission of guilt by either the car manufacture or the computer manufacture.
The driver must first prove that he or she did not upset the car's computer by placing an undue strain on the CPU at any time, in which
case, liability will revert to the human for the entire event...." Blah...blah.....etc.

Heh!! You know how they are!!

So what do you do with a rare retired warbird that's 70 years young?

Give it a touch up on the old paintwork, put it in a museum and take it for the occasional airshow maybe?

Or would you rather cut of a few bits of superfluous fuselage and wing tips, tune the engine to near breaking point and race it at low level against other similar aircraft?

Well here are some good ol boys who do just that, welcome to the Reno air races ladies and gentleman

The Digital Plague
by: Jeff Somers

A very captivating writing style should hold the reader while flipping the pages.

Basically, a techno-thriller - ...once a single microscopic unit enters the body, it begins replicating.
Once there are enough units in the body, they begin...

Consuming!!

Very cool!

A friend just sent this to me this morning and I thought it was very nicely done and quite informative.
I hope is hasn't been presented here previously but here it is none-the-less:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120731.html

My planned "road trip" to visit some "long-lost" friends & family, has, sadly, hit upon a major snag, in the form of a rather serious auto accident. The good news is that I'll be ok (after some therapy), and that I should make a 'more or less' full recovery, though it's likely to take several months to do so. I'll keep you lot posted as to deveolpments.

Yes...of course...it's none other than one of the infamous Blonde jokes (poor souls they be whether possessing dyed hair or not).

Anywho...here 'tis:

An Italian tourist asks a blonde, "Why do scuba divers always fall backwards off their boats?"

To which the blonde replies, "If they fell forward, they'd still be in the boat."