it's a cold wintry night here in mission control, i'm still recovering from me strange sickness, the wind howls and my bones ache but it's okay my friends there's captain missions fave soup bubbling away in the pot, yummy vegetables and lots of garlic and ginger, strange exotic spices and herbs.

i been reading the book 'This Thing Of Darkness' by Harry Thompson, very good read about the Voyage of the Beagle and the relationship between the Captain Fitzroy and Darwin, Fitzroy suffering from a form of schizophrenia, a total product of his time, good Christian morality and disiple of the Empire, whereas Darwin, the rational scientist is a torn between his faith and the lack of evidence that supports it.
oh there's some great little scenes in it, for example the crew discover a group of natives from Terra del Fuego, they have no older tribesmen amongst them and the crew are puzzled where they could be. Later the Captain decides he will civilize these natives and four of them are taken aboard, they are educated in language and god, given lessons in social skills and the way of the english as they sail back to London. During one evening they all sit around the Captains table discussing the advantages of civilization when one of the crew asks where all the old people go. One of the natives, now dressed in a tuxedo and speaking proper english casually mentions how they eat the old people when winter comes and there is little food. 'The men eat the legs and the women eat the arms.'
It's a great book in the sense that it's a page turner and demands very little, but it's very well written and with just enough descriptions and information to keep it intresting.

Nuclear Power is all the rage at the moment, it's in all the papers and tv shows as people discuss the pros and cons, i heard Jonny Howard speaking the other day and figured as i read between his words, it's not going to be about building power stations, it's more about digging up the uranium and selling it. He knows theres a market for it, it's a resource we have in abundence and a potential income earner, it's a done deal China, India, yeah i can see the future, it's so bright we are going to have to wear shades. Actually we may be wearing radiation suits to, make mine black, i wanna look good.