Don’t really know what to make of this (hacked correspondence allegedly reveals climatologists hiding and even forging research to shape the public discussion). Sounds like a sensationalist agenda to me; on the other hand one person has already confessed that at least a part of the news is true. But if there’s anything to the story, I guess we’ll be hearing a lot more of it in the near future.

Some very interesting recent developments. Both are at a very early stage, so they shouldn’t be taken as something that will happen, but something that might. But if that happens, even not fully to the optimistic projections, the world will change.

India is planning to start exporting thorium nuclear reactors, the first one is meant to start construction in 2012.

EEStor has applied for certification for their ultracapacitor technology that would revolutionize things that now require inefficient batteries (such as electronic cars). They might actually have some kind of a product even by the end of the year.

• 22:54 Ursula LeGuin reviews Margaret Atwood's latest and comments on Atwood pretending it's not science fiction. bit.ly/zR0Nk
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• 16:37 The Abominable Charles Christopher: an absolutely beautiful webcomic bit.ly/J84IN
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Just in case you want to see more puppy pics, I put some online.

This is Tara, our new puppy. She is a Japanese Spitz, 11 weeks old, and she moved in with us today. She is lively, friendly, and totally adorable. We’re probably in over our heads, but who cares…

• 11:40 A day without Internet: xkcd.com/597/ #

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• 11:38 The police to get wider authority to search the clothes and possessions of minors.tinyurl.com/m6qk7h #
  (Is it any wonder the young people flock to the only political party that seems to have respect for their rights – the Pirate Party?)
• 11:40 The library ethics worgroup takes a sensible stand: net censorship not part of libraries' job. tinyurl.com/krtatf #

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Warning: bragging of a proud parent ahead. Don’t read on unless that’s your thing.



School ended today with the report cards given to the pupils. I was extremely happy with Inka’s: she got one “good” grade (penmanship) and all the others were “excellent”, with a perfect 10 in behaviour and manners (young children aren’t graded with numbers here; the behaviour grade is an exception in Inka’s school, and 10 means exceptional behaviour and initiative to help others above what can normally be expected; it’s a very hard grade to get). And in the awards ceremony she got called in front of the whole school to receive an award for winning the school poetry writing competition, in the first and second graders’ category.

We celebrated by going to the mall and buying her a new summer dress (in the picture) and totally rocking sandals. And by having lots of ice cream.

Summer vacation, here we come!

The final tweets from Åcon:

• 12:07 Gripe session only has minor gripes. People are generally happy with #åcon3. #
• 12:08 Åcon 4 will be held on May 13 to 16, 2010. #åcon3 #fb #
• 17:40 Travelling home double whammy: drag show + Finncon meeting. #åcon3 #

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• 14:42 The Finncon association meeting v. productive. #åcon3 #
• 15:17 The copyright panel got much more interesting after getting the mandatory Mickey Mouse and copyright companies gripe over with. #åcon3 #
• 16:09 GoH is doing wonderful things. #åcon3 #
• 21:33 Will find out what "Sci Fi Babble" means. #åcon3 #
• 21:34 Skipped the banquet, but the alternative meal was very good, and accompanied by very entertaining conversation. #åcon3 #
• 21:35 Hmm, seems to be "Sci Fi Babbel," actually. No wiser yet, though. #åcon3 #
• 21:51 In scifi båbbel the audience gets to vote whether the competitors are being boring. Should be included in regular panels as well! #åcon3 #
• 01:57 Great game show, good chats in the bar. Room party. @JohanJ being painted green. There are pictures. #åcon3 #
• 02:32 The post-midnight Incredible Hulk photo shoot. #åcon3 #
• 03:41 Need... sleep... must... leave... room... party... #åcon3 #

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These are the ongoing twitterings of the sf convention Åcon, its four-day mission to drink strange new bheers. To seek out new books and sfnal conversations. To boldly smof where no one has smoffed before.

• 08:34 At breakfast. #åcon3 #
• 09:50 Åbout to go on a tour to Stållhågen Brewery. #åcon3 #
• 13:02 Back from the brewery. Burp. #åcon3 #
• 14:15 Today's surprise hit is the ice cream the lobby bar sells. #åcon3 #
• 18:49 The state of Swedish science fiction (or rather the lack of it) is being lamented. #åcon3 #
• 19:10 Marianna waxing lyrical about current sf & f in Finland. #åcon3 #
• 19:45 3 panelists with laptops - I wonder if anyone notices me mentioning they abandoned the topic quite a while ago, talking about how to start writing instead #åcon3
• 19:50 As soon as I had tweeted the previous comment, Ben (not with a laptop) got the panel a bit more back on track. #åcon3 #
• 22:23 Jukka's quiz show starting by designating the volunteers to compete and delivering various instruments that make noise. #åcon3 #
• 03:09 Bar closed a while ago; crowd migrated to room party. Nobody painted green yet but there's always tomorrow. #åcon3 #

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• 07:19 On the way to #åcon3 #fb #
• 09:54 Dissecting Star Trek at Ölcon. #åcon3 #
• 16:35 Arrived in Mariehamn. In true relaxcon manner there are no badges. Some promised for tomorrow though. #åcon3 #fb #
• 18:38 The convention is åpen. #åcon3 #
• 18:40 People were instructed to use the hash tag #åcon3 when tweeting about the con. #
• 18:53 Innovative sf panel with Steph Swainston & others is about to begin. #åcon3 #
• 21:47 Tragic setback - seems nobody remembered to make sure the bar stays open later the first night. Lobby bar to the rescue! #åcon3 #
• 23:41 Only Finns left, hanging out in the bar. #åcon3 #
• 23:47 Found the Swedes. Lots of conversations going on all around. #åcon3 #

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• 22:18 OMGWTFPONIES! My Little Pony - The Action Movie bit.ly/jnmqw
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Note to self: Editing tags apparently isn't enough to trigger crossposting from DW (need to explicitly select crossposting).

• 12:13 Cautiously optimistic about the effectiveness of a double dose of ketoprofen and a cup of coffee for a mild case of migraine. #
• 17:01 Leaving early for the pub meeting to meet the visiting alien. #
• 17:03 Book your room for Finncon! bit.ly/cWUQG
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• 17:27 Bheer! #
• 00:11 Continuing the evening at Terrakoti #
• 00:38 Browsing through Val's sf collection @ Terrakoti #
• 01:00 Everybody's planning Katimaria's medieval life for her... #
• 01:47 Time to call it a night #

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Hmm... these don't seem to automatically propagate to LJ. Must play with settings more.

Happy First of May everybody!





(And no, this song doesn’t have anything to do with today’s picnic…)

Posted in Dreamwidth; should also appear on LJ.

(For those also on Dreamwidth: my user account there is 'tero'.)

• 15:52 Stupid MP demands mandatory mask wearing for people with flu. bit.ly/qZuXK (Uusi Suomi) #

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• 14:13 Ireland scraps e-voting systems after admitting they wouldn't work to cut costs at current >50M€. tinyurl.com/c47zk6 #

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