Rainforest tree eats up pollution

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Here’s an interesting story on the BBC News.

Jatoba, or hymenaea, a rainforest tree, has been found to grow much faster in atmospheres with high levels of carbon dioxide.
This could be important in fighting climate change, as carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that is making the planet warmer….
Simply planting large numbers of Jatoba trees may not be the answer, as they can take a very long time to reach maturity and specimens 500 years old are not unknown.

The article goes on to mention isolating the gene which causes the desired effect and applying it to other plants.

But that idea is controversial, because it would in effect create a large number of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
“It will take years for us to understand how these things work,” Professor Buckeridge conceded.
“I’m not saying we should have GMOs everywhere. But we have to be prepared.

Full House

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This morning, I had to go to my Mums to fetch an automatic washer for her. She’s acquired it from a friend of a friend, and wanted me to get it for her. I called at her place to meet up with some guy who was going to help. I picked him up and we went to fetch the washer. Ah ha! My mother seems to have neglected to mention that it is on the fourth floor, and there is no lift! We managed to get it down, me sweating a little more than I should be for the effort involved, and into the car.
Back at my Mum’s house we discovered that it won’t actually fit into the space she has for it. So she asked me to “Just chop a bit off the side of this cupboard”. Yeah right! I managed to convince her she needs to buy a narrower cupboard to replace the one she has now, as ‘chopping a bit off’ would be too difficult. Even if it had fitted, she wouldn’t be able to use it: she has yet to arrange for someone to plumb the washer in!

Back home we had full house all day. All the kids from overnight, plus their parents, plus Paula, plus me and Jan. It got a little noisy and a bit stressful for me at times, but I coped.

Kids And Stuff

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We’ve got all the kids staying tonight, Thom, Bekki, and Megan, along with Jamie. It got more than a little bit noisy earlier, but the girls are all asleep now, so things are quiet. Thom is watching TV, but should be going to sleep soon.
Earlier, we had a lazy lie-in because Jamie had stayed over at her friend, Jess’ house. When we eventually got up in time for Jamie returning, I did some shopping, and finally got round to buying a fixing kit for the rear view mirror in the car. It fell off a couple of weeks ago, and has been falling off regularly ever since. I got it fixed on; the instructions said to fix the back part first and hold it in place for a minute, then leave it 15 minutes before attaching the mirror. Unfortunately our mirror does not detach from the back, so I ended up holding it in place for 10 minutes or so! By that time my arm was aching! I hope it was long enough.

Microsoft SQL Server Patent Problem

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This could be quite serious for a lot of companies: SQL Server developers face huge royalty bills.

The judgment concerns a contract dispute between Timeline Inc. and Microsoft, over three patents relating to datamarts. In Microsoft’s interpretration of its licence with Timeline, published in a press release in July 1999, “all users of Microsoft SQL Server 7, Office 2000 and other Microsoft products that utilize this type of technology are unencumbered by Timeline’s patents.”
Timeline disagreed. The Washington Court of Appeal judgement plumped for the company. The company reckons that some SQL Server developers could face bills in the millions of dollars. The “damages they face may be material to Timeline’s future financial results,” Charles Osenbaugh, Timeline’s president and CEO.

News.com also has the story.

In a ruling that could force royalty fees on some developers working with Microsoft’s SQL Server 7 data-management software, a Washington state judge said Microsoft could not sublicense another company’s patents to SQL Server customers.

Story from slashdot

BBC calls off nude interview

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BBC calls off nude interview.

A radio interview between veteran DJ John Peel and a nude rights campaigner was called off after the interviewee refused to cover up.
Bosses at BBC South asked their guest, Steve Gough, to put some clothes on because they thought he may offend some members of staff.
…
The naturist, who is well-known locally, said that covering up would defeat the object of his campaign to be accepted in his birthday suit.

Hee hee. 🙂