Ok, where do i start! Firstly some news from the states. A man was arrested last week for commiting an 'assault by pickle'! I kid you not, the victim is pressing charges after he was involved in an argument and had 2 pickles thrown at him. I think he's just feeling abit sour. Secondly, in Madrid, a judge has sentenced a total of 21 people for various charges related to the 2003 Madrid train bombings. He got the right idea by giving them huge jail terms - 3 people each received a sentence of 40,000 years!

Next, i'd like to clarify that 'sea-quakes' are a myth (you know who you are!), hence the name 'earthquakes' - they occur inside the earth! It is somewhat unknown for water (which is impossible to shear!) to produce seismic energy. Potential man-made sources for seismic exploration include - sledgehammer, buffalo gun, air gun (for marine seismic lines), dynamite, vibro-truck, nail gun, rolling a car off a cliff, nitro-glycerine or, as the Russian's effectively demostrated in the late 1950's, underground nuclear blasts!

I was going to rant on now about Max Mosley and his shear stupidity and comments on Lewis Hamilton but my friend Tim has done it admirably so i can't be bothered to compete. Go to: http://timnutt.blogspot.com/.

And, perhaps, finally. I hope everyone saw Top Gear last weekend because it had one of the best videos ever in it! Richard Hammond raced the Bugatti Veyron (without the pot plants in the photo!) against the new Eurofighter Typhoon strike plane.

The car had to race one mile along a runway, turn around and race a mile back. The plane had to take off, accelerate a mile vertically and then straight back down and cross the start line (in the air). Obviously the plane won but not by much! The pilot absolutely gassed it aswell - putting on the afterburners whilst plummeting near vertically towards the ground! I love our RAF! Would the American's do something like that??? No, they'd probably shoot it down! Being a bunch of gun-ho plane enthusiasts!

Full Throttle For The Main Stream

Haven't blogged in a while so its about time to keep all you blogo-maniac's happy with another dose of news and irreverent mumbo jumbo from Arizona. Last week was a busy week but next week is busier. Ive got a geochemistry midterm to revise for (oh joy!), a big geochem homework assignment, a seismic modelling project, an exploration seismology homework, a geology of the solar system homework and Mars GPR project to start! Hmmm!


So aside from Uni work, not a lot went down last week. The weather was, well, sunny (again) and Liverpool lost in the Champions League (again!). Friday we went, briefly, to a Halloween party where, besides the enormous amounts of free food, not a lot happened. Yesterday i biked to the Tucson Mall about 4 miles away just to have a look around. These things are huge - kind of like the massive one's you get in England but there everywhere. I read somewhere that at some point in the 1970's, a new Mall was opening every 90 minutes somewhere in the USA! Thats ridiculous! Even in Tucson, theres 2 Fry's supermarkets within about 2 miles of each other - whats the point? If they just build one, it'll make people walk abit further and maybe get some much needed exercise. Whilst on that subject, i called in at Walmart on the way back (actually brought a pair of shorts but anyway) whilst looking on the rack for a suitable size, i came across several 48in waist one's - if people are that fat, they should make them pay more for their clothes - perhaps as an incentive to lose some weight! Whilst the old stereotype that every American is fat and unhealthy is very generalistic and doesnt apply to everyone, it certainly applies to a lot of people! And just before i finish this mini rant - some American's are indeed very very dumb! A week last Saturday i was in Wilcox for the day. When entering the gift shop there, i didn't have to try very hard to over hear a woman say: "I'm not as stupid as i look you know!" Before prompty falling over the door step! The moment was priceless!

Rant over, now i must get on with some work. Although there was some interesting geology related news this week. An auction house in New York is having a meteorite session - selling 52 pieces of space rock with estimates from a few hundred $'s to $1.3million. The pick of the bunch is the only meteorite known to have caused a fatality by direct hit! Experts say the 1kg fragment has become a collectors item since it fell in South America in 1972, killing a cow!

And finally, a comment from Mihai Ducea, my tectonics lecturer (who also strongly thinks that the University of Arizona's Geology Department is the best in the USA and possible the best in the world judging by the number of resources available!) - "I finally realised this P.O.S (piece of ...) state university is actually one of the best!"

Chilli's in the wild west

A note of warning for you all - wear protection when preparing and eating chilli's! The sort of goggles you get in high-school chemistry class will do the trick nicely because you dont want any chilli juices in your eye now- or so i found out last night.

And once it started (to quote a Ducea comment) "it was like a car crash" - once it starts, it isnt going to get any better! The first 5 minutes after, i didn't notice anything but once i sat down to eat dinner the stinging pain was unbelieveable. So i went to the bathroom and dabbed it with a damp cloth. Bad idea! Just like drinking water after a hot curry, the pain got worse and my eye became seriously bloodshot. I couldnt win! Everytime i blinked, it rubbed my eye a little bit more making the pain a little worse. The meal was delicious to eat but possibly the most painful ive ever experienced! So be-warned! Don't do it!

I might just stick to fish and chips tonight - much safer!

Not a great weekend of sport

First England lost the Rugby World Cup and the Hamilton narrowly missed out on the F1 Championship. The latter could, however, be in doubt as controvosey over illegal fuel in 3 cars ahead of Hamilton (he finished 7th but needed 5th to take the title). If those cars get disqualified, Hamilton wins the championship so its going to court! Kind of a shameful way to end what has been the best season of Formula 1 in years but if it means Hamilton wins..... im not going to object!

As to the Rugby - im content with second place. We shouldn't really have reached the quater-finals yet alone beat Australia and France to get to the final. It was still a close match and England were severely disadvantaged by a disallowed try which, replays show, clearly should have been allowed. Did the match turn on that? Perhaps but it doesnt really matter - we beat the French on their turf again - thats all that counts!

The only good thing to come out of sport last weekend was Liverpool's 2:1 victory over dirty Everton who had 2 men sent off. They now sit 4th in the table with a game in hand over Man United and Man City who sit above them although even at this early stage we'll do well to catch Arsenal at the top. Although there not playing the smooth football that left them unbeaton in the 2002/2003 season, its effective! Now for Champions league this week - Liverpool play Besiktas away from home. A game we really need to win!

And finally, the news! (Sounds abit like the 2 Ronnies!) In Canberra, a cemetery is training its gravediggers in emergency first aid and how to use defibrillators in order to ressucitate grief striken mourners at a funeral. It's a good idea but from a business point of view, seems somewhat counter-productive!

Another criminal from Berlin got arrested last week after slightly misunderstanding the term "getaway". A construction worker stole a packet of cheese from a local store before making his getaway in his cement truck. Police caught up with him when he stopped at traffic lights 200yrds down the road.

And finally from Washington DC. The pentagon made something of a recording error regarding its contract with Boeing to maintain some of its airforce fleet. The draft contract named the pricely sum of $24billion, the single largest contract the DoD (department of defence) has issued. After pointing out the error, officials confirmed it should infact be $24million - 3 orders of magnitude lower! Boeing are probably disappointed!

The longest hours of my life...

As everyone knows, England played in the Rugby World Cup Final today and everyone probably knows the result. Except me! I'm waiting til the match becomes available on the net to download (about 6 hrs in itself!) and watch.

And its a long wait!

My theory is that if i find out the result, i wont want to watch the game (kind of like reading a book having read the last chapter first!). It also means i can't log onto MSN messenger, facebook, any news website and now, after this, my blog incase some smartarse reader posts the score and ruins it all!

Here's to a long night waiting. Waiting and more waiting. I might play my guitar actually - i could do with the practice!

See ya!