Yawn ornaments… a night at the Oscars

Space: When is garbage day in Earth’s orbit? Good question. The Guardian reports the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety fears the amount of junk currently in orbit — including more than 200 dead satellites — is a serious threat to future space missions. “‘Failure to act now to regulate space to protect property and human life would be pure folly,” the association’s president said.

World: The Post Chronicle reports that Israel has warned all airlines with incoming flights to “tighten security measures to minimize the possibility of a terrorist attack.”

Business: Der Spiegel reports on Siemens streetcar designed to withstand collisions with cars. The company hopes it will be a boost to the light rail transportation industry in America.

Science: The Globe and Mail reports about a Virgin 747 flight from London to Amsterdam that “was powered by three tanks filled with standard jet fuel and a fourth tank carrying a blend of 80 per cent standard fuel and 20 per cent oil from the coconut and Amazon babassu nut.” That’s one small flight for man, one giant leap for biofuel. Babassu me, baby!

Business: The next threat to service industry jobs will come from robots, The Christian Science Monitor reports. “The service sector, which is a gigantic part of the employment landscape in the United States, is inevitably going to be a place where you can replace millions of people with robots that work 24/7 for less money,” futurist Marshall Brain told the newspaper.

O P I N I O N

What was more of a yawn: the 80th Academy Awards ceremony or the news that Ralph Nader is running for president again? Hmm. Tough one.
     Don’t you feel sorry for the Oscar winners in a group who don’t get to give a shout out to their spouses and kids because that darn “get off the stage, you’re not important” music swells and silences them. That’s why perhaps the biggest surprise of the night was to see Marketa Irglova get a chance after a commercial break to come back out and give her thanks for winning an Oscar. She won Best Song with Glen Hasard for their “Falling Slowly” from the Irish film “Once.”
     If you wanted to summarize the fashions for the ceremony, you might say “There will be red. Lots of it.” And if you wanted to discuss Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis’ wife Rebecca Miller’s getup, you’d have to say “There will be regrets!” What the hell was she wearing? Haute NO!