Dear Mr President

President Obama gave a televised talk yesterday about the oil spill situation in the Gulf and how it is going to be remedied.
This begs one huge question: has anyone ever told him those curtains in the oval office are a faut pas?

They keep on coming

One of Mr Useless Farmer's™ horses popped out another wee one. Hope this one lives longer than the one last year. It's been up and about for eight hours now. The Killer Pony™ already had a go at the little nipper. The other horses are quick to defend it. It's still a bit unsteady on its stick legs. It has some trouble reaching for the udders, it kind of looses its balance now and then, or when it looks around the yard.

What would the BP oil spill be like if you lived there?

I'm a sucker for maps and all things map related.
I've transponated the area of the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico unto Belgium.
As it stands now the entire region of Flanders and the Low Countries are completely covered by it if I set the centre of the spill to Heist-op-den-Berg.
See what area the spill covers in your area at ifitwasmyhome.com

Trappist operated from Belgium

Scientists really have a thing for giving awesome names to the expensive high-tech stuff they are allowed to toy with.

Cop a load of this:

A new robotic telescope has had first light at ESO's La Silla Observatory, in Chile. TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) is devoted to the study of planetary systems through two approaches: the detection and characterisation of planets located outside the Solar System (exoplanets) and the study of comets orbiting around the Sun. The 60-cm telescope is operated from a control room in Liège, Belgium, 12 000 km away.

Telescope. Trappist. Operated from Belgium.

I love science!

From more on the TRAPPIST project and pictures got to the research web site.

Image credit

Amfibian breakfast

This little creature gave me a slight scare this morning. As I was trying to jump start my mushy brain with some coffee this morning, I heard a banging noise behind me. I spun round and saw this Rana temporaria jumping up against the back door.
Poor thing. I couldn't quite fathom what was going on, still being very sleepy-eyed. I think it must have come in through the garage or something and during the night hopped up the stairs into the kitchen.
Mouser's bowl of water was all muddy, Kermit must have used it as a bed or something.
I had to shoo it out of the house. It abligingly hopped as fast as its tiny frog legs could carry it to the nearest moist grass.

A day out

Well, not really a day out.
It was a day out for my hair and my car.
First the hair gets the full works down at the hairdressers and then the car gets a treat too.
The Pakistani car wash is on the way back.
Oh, and I stopped to blow up the tires again.
Must go to that tire shop to let them put a new tire on. The rear right tire must be punctured somewhere. It loses 1.2 bar of pressure overnight.

Rubens, van Dyck, Jordaens @ Hamburg

Works by Jan Brueghel, Quellinus, Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens are being crated in the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp for the forthcoming exhibition in the Bucerius Kunst Forum in Hamburg which opens on Friday 11th June and runs until the 19th September 2010.

I must say I cringe slightly at the use of the words Antwerpener Schule in the exhibition text.
Even if they are between brackets.

(cross posted from The Art Detective)

Food is cheep

Mouser gave me a scare today. I've been trying to give one of those Drontal cat pills to make the worms clear out of the cat-hedral. (Geddit? Cathedral, Worms)
Kitteh ate everything, even licked all the jelly off the cat food, but left the tablet. I've refused to give any more food until the bowl is finished.
My personal lolcat has been going in and out all day, I'm at my desk studying Byzantine Art. Every now and then a 'meow' comes out of the kitchen and Mouser's next to the dinner bowl, mentally pointing at it.

Just now I heard some strange noises yet again, but didn't turn round as I wanted to know what happened at the council of Nicaea in 787. Then I heard pleading moans uttered from the hall.
I went to look and found Mouser devouring a chick. It was already headless and missed a leg. The carpet was full of insects and a small snail. Apparently the bugs had not been digested yet.
My guess is it must be one belonging to Mr Useless Farmer.™
I had to fling it out into the garden to get rid of it. Mouser sped out of the house in pursuit but then didn't bother to search for it. It just gave me the 'you know what I want, that'll teach you' look.

All I could think of was:
'I feel like chicken tonight'

And of course I'm stuck with that Ella Fitzgerald song in my head.
It has a line in the song that goes 'So please be sweet, my chickadee'.

I'll have to be more vigilant and close doors and windows so Mouser doesn't come home with those pocket sized chicklets again.