From Dyson spheres to cat herding

- Interesting article in The New York Review of Books by Freeman Dyson (Dyson spheres) - What Can You Really Know?. Picard asks, "Mr. Data, could this be a Dyson sphere?" ...




- The Tablet on women deacons ...

The Catholic Women's Association in Germany (Katholischer Deutscher Frauenbund, KDFB), which has around 220,000 members nationwide, has questioned a proposal for a special deacon's office for women. Last week Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, president of the German bishops' conference, floated the idea of an office for women that would not require ordination.

That "is not enough", the KDFB said.

KDFB spokeswoman Ute Hücker told Germany's newspaper in English, The Local: "Catholic women in Germany want to see deacons who are women. We want the full office and the training that goes with it," she emphasised. "Eighty per cent of the active members of the German Church are women," she said. She noted that women were already voluntarily doing the work done by deacons such as visiting the sick.

See, it's not just me.


- I'm reading Seabiscuit: An American Legend for the second time and liking very much again. Seabiscuit, who first made his name on the west coast, had as his biggest rival the east coast favortite, War Admiral. Seabiscuit's owner tried to stage a race between the two for a long time before War Admiral's owner finally agreed. Here's a video of the race - the Biscuit won :) ...




- And finally, this is why I miss having tv - funny commercials like this one ...