The three MIT students are doing real remote sensing, but in the cheapest way. No need to buy expensive satellite images to have photos of the earth from the upper atmosphere or near-space. You can do it yourself for under $150.

I visited the students’ Project Icarus website and they said they will be posting a step-by-step illustrated guide on how they did their $150 launch. The guide will be free of charge.

Was it really too much too soon for President Obama to win the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize? There were 205 nominations and the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee chose to give the prize to a president whose presidency is just few months old. What has Obama done to deserve the award?

Following the announcement, Geir Lundestad, Secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told senior editor Simon Frantz in an interview why President Barack Obama fulfills the statues of Alfred Nobel’s will.

Is there really water on the moon? NASA will soon have answers as the world awaits for the historic event that will happen tomorrow, October 9, 2009. NASA will bomb the moon to see what is underneath the lunar surface.

You can be part of the big blasting event (LCROSS mission) by watching the live online streaming through NASA TV.

According to NASA, the live streaming will start at 6:15 am EDT/3:15 am PDT. The first hour will include commentary and status reports. The actual impact should start at 7:30 am EDT/4:30 am PDT (11:30 UT).

Grab a copy of The Peg Leg Update volume 1, issue 2 from few locations in Brookings. If you haven’t read the first issue, you should.

The Peg Leg Update second issue has improved a lot compared to the first print. The inside layout gives more good-looking pages, presented in columns. The articles are still very interesting and the varied topics are keeping true to what the LeClair wrote in his first editorial — just anything under the sun.

I am blessed to have the best friends in the world. I find consolation, boosting support and cheer when I am with them. Proof: they helped me the countless times I fell, cheered for me when they saw me about to quit and pushed me to the limit so I would learn how to skate on ice.

This past weekend, I had a conversation with a friend about going to the ice skating center again. She wants to learn how to skate, so I told her the story of the day I finally set foot on an ice-skating rink. Coming from a tropical country where ice is more associated with shakes, ice cream and ice candy (ice water in plastic pouches) rather than snow, ice-skating is the least likely topic of conversation among friends. Thus, my knowledge of the sport is way below amateur level.

Oh my gully! Poor Philippines. My country ranks 105 (out of 182 countries) in the just released 2009 rankings of the UN Human Development Index (HDI). The report shows the Philippines down by 15 spots from 90 in the 2007/2008 rankings.

Norway dethrones Iceland moving up from no. 2 to no. 1.

I am re-posting this piece — one of the longest articles I have written.

Would I sigh for more?

“Mi pozo parece agua lluvia (My well water tastes like rain water)”, remarked grandma who had her artesian well on our backyard dug when I was still 6. February 11, 1980, that was. As a child in the 80’s, I had countless sweet memories of the well. Take for instance grandma who arduously took time to tip pail after pail of water over my head as she bathed me every morning. Coming from a sea swim, she would tenderly sprinkle a little water on my feet to give caution of the coldness the well water would probably bring on me. There were moments that I did not stop bathing with friends, until grandma hollered at us that it was suppertime. Joyful memories cut, I sighed…

Are you among the world’s best lovers? OnePoll.com conducted a poll of 15,000 women from 20 countries asking them to rate nations on the ability of their men in bed and to give reasons for their answers. Who are the world’s worst lovers? Results of the poll showed that the German men are the worst, because they are “too smelly.”

The world’s best lovers are the Spanish men.

American men are considered worst too — being too rough in bed! Do you agree with the poll results?