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A new project called the Great Australia Shark Count has thus far determined at least 4,022 sharks swim in waters surrounding the land down under.

Read the whole story:
Discovery News – Australia Shark Count Breaking Records

I recently came across a fascinating literary term – “mushroom talk” or “talking about mushrooms”. It refers to a passage in Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” where two characters go out picking mushrooms. It is Sergei and Varenka who are deeply and tragically secretly in love. And although Sergei would like to offer his hand in marriage, all he dares to talk about is mushrooms. It starts with an invitation for a day out in the forest:

“Take me with you. I am very fond of picking mushrooms,” he said, looking at Varenka; “I think it’s a very nice occupation.”

While in the forest both of them they realise Sergei is about to propose.

“A softened feeling came over him. He felt that he had made up his mind. Varenka, who had just crouched down to pick a mushroom, rose with a supple movement and looked round. Flinging away the cigar, Sergey Ivanovitch advanced with resolute steps towards her.”

Sergei thinks to himself about declaring his love and offering his hand.

“They walked on for some steps in silence. Varenka saw that he wanted to speak; she guessed of what, and felt faint with joy and panic. …”

Finally the moment is right and both know what is about to happen.

He even said over to himself the words in which he meant to put his offer, but instead of those words, some utterly unexpected reflection that occurred to him made him ask:

“What is the difference between the ‘birch’ mushroom and the ‘white’ mushroom?”

Varenka’s lips quivered with emotion as she answered:

“In the top part there is scarcely any difference, it’s in the stalk.”

The most tragical thing has happened. They should have declared their love and ended up talking mushrooms. He only had that one chance on that day in the forest. Sergei is too torn apart by his loyalty to a mere memory of deceased lover from his youth.

Sergei never marries Varenka. All they enjoyed that day was tender talk about mushrooms.

Pure tragedy.

ASUS EEE PC

When I first got my EEE PC, I thought that it really missed a touchscreen. Why? Because it’s a very light little device that easy to hold in your two hands while using it. The touchpad is quite small and its tricky to type on the small keyboard while balancing it on your knee. The EEE PC is after all made for more than standard desktop use – it’s a “legtop”.

Other than that the screen is very small, so there wouldn’t be much area to cover. One could almost get everywhere with your thumbs.

So I ordered a solderless touchscreen kit from Ebay seller Kiddshop. It made its way over here all the way from Hongkong even a little faster than expected (in 13 days instead of 3 weeks as promised).

Opening up the EEE PC was more fiddly than I thought, but I managed without inflicting any damage to the plastic casing. I had to consult loads of YouTube videos showing the procedure to be sure what to do. But after 2 evenigs, the touchscreen was installed and ready to go. So I looked into the issue of installing the drivers. That’s when I found out that Kiddshop’s touchscreen is mainly used on EEE PCs running Windows XP, but mine is still running the pre-installed Xandros Linux operating system. The Linux system is easy to use and boots up in 20 seconds, so I was in no mood to replace it with a big slow Windows setup.

An entire week and legions of helpful hands from forum.eeeuser.com later I finally got the drivers installed and working. The setup is now summarized in an easy to follow guide on the eeeuser.com WIKI:

Howto install drivers for the Kiddshop touchscreen under Xandros

I love my new touchy-feely EEE PC. Pressing buttons or scrolling webpages is a real joy. It clicks where you touch – that’s how all small ultra-mobile PCs should operate!

About five short-snouted seahorses (Hippocampus hippocampus) have been spotted during routine conservation surveys over the last year or so, leading scientists to think they have probably established a resident population.

Read more:
Seahorses discovered in the River Thames – life – 07 April 2008 – New Scientist