Condoleezza Rice performed music by Brahms on the piano in an elegant music room at Buckingham Palace, with Queen Elizabeth II listening. Miss Rice was later presented with an audio recording of the recital by the Queen. The top US diplomat met UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband in London, who’s wife accompanied Miss Rice during the performance. Her visit to the United Kingdom is most likely her last as US Secretary of State. She will be succeeded by senator Hilary Clinton.
Johannes Brahms was a German composer, and is Condoleezza Rice’s favourite composer. She calls Brahms’ music “passionate but not sentimental”.
Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Johannes Brahms, piano, Queen Elizabeth II
As you may know, the Hubble Space Telescope has been experiencing technical difficulties, and has been operating in safe mode recently. NASA is slowly bringing back modules on the telescope, such as a camera, and are hopeful full operational status can be achieved soon. Some anomalies have delayed the restart that was planned last week. Hubble was launched in 1990. Aging hardware has caused an increase in technical issues.
NASA scientists late last week were hopeful that the latest attempt to fire up the Hubble Space Telescope’s long-dormant backup computer will be successful.
An effort to start the system a week earlier was halted because of two “anomalies,” said Art Whipple, chief of NASA’s Hubble systems management office at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Whipple said the main systems on the 18-year-old orbiting observatory were running smoothly late last Thursday, shortly after the backup computer was restarted.
Tags: hardware problems, hubble, hubble space telescope, NASA, space
Unless you have been living under a rock, you’ve heard of the 700 billion-dollar bailout plan (politicians prefer the term “rescue plan”) of the Bush administration to keep major financial institutions from collapsing. Now most of us will agree that the situation requires some dramatic action. Yet we have different opinions on whether it is wise to spend 700 billion dollars to help out these companies.
$700 billion is an impressive amount, just to illustrate how much it really is:
- It’s about the same amount as the entire Australian economy (IMF, PPP).
- You need about 12 times Bill Gates to come up with that amount.
- The Iraq War cost almost the same so far.
- You can buy more than 2 million Rolls-Royce Phantom sedans with 700 billion bucks.
The US House of Representatives has already rejected the bailout plan. Today, the US Senate will vote on a slightly modified package. Proponents of the plan insist that this package is needed to keep the US and global economy running, opponents fear that it will reward money hungry bank executives.
What do you think? Use the money to feed the poor, a fancy war against Iran, or perhaps not spend anything?
Tags: 700 billion, credit crisis, credit crunch, US congress