Archive for March, 2004

Excellent SCO debacle roundup at NTK

Friday, March 5th, 2004

Need To Know 2004-03-05

“Who can be bothered to keep up with the SCO story these days? Only those who like a laugh.”

Life on mars? - The marketplace says yes

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2004

Placing bets on ideas is illegal in the US but not in the UK. Based on this model, Betfair is one of the few Internet startups that is doing very well in the UK but won’t be coming to the US any time soon.

To gauge the likelihood of whether there was life on Mars, look to the people that are trading futures on it.

MSNBC - Life on Mars? Don’t bet against it

“Ladbrokes said it has closed the book on evidence emerging that Mars had ever harbored living organisms.”

‘Following the latest news from NASA, we think it is now likely that evidence of past life on Mars will be found in the coming years,’

The odds: 16-1 at close, down from 1000-1 when betting started.

Mars was once habitable

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2004

Mars exploration rovers briefings

What tomorrow’s NASA announcement might mean

Monday, March 1st, 2004

Oliver Morton on tomorrow’s 2pm EST ’significant announcement’ by NASA.

The announcement will no doubt concern water on mars, ice or open water. Open water could leave signs that apparently have greater significance:

“It’s very hard to see how Mars could have been warm enough for open water without the benefit of significant amounts of methane in its atmosphere. Planetary atmosphere experts have told me that the only way they can imagine getting an adequate amount of methane into the atmosphere is by having methane-producing bacteria pump it out.”

Dasani is tap water.

Monday, March 1st, 2004

Soft drink is purified tap water.

“Soft drink giant Coca-Cola has admitted it is selling purified tap water in a bottle. It says the source for its new Dasani bottled water is the mains supply at its factory in Kent.”

At least snake oil sounds exotic.