I am very happy to announce that, after signing on Monday, Mathilde and I received the keys to our new rental today. Sad that it is a rental, but it is a big step up for us from our timbre-post of a place where the shower, famously, opens into the kitchen.

Finally, we can entertain! Well, that is, once we:

-cover the carpet with plastic
-remove the current wallpaper
-skimcoat the plaster
-lay down two coats of fixer/primer
-lay down one coat of light grey satin
-clean up

We also have to move, and do something about the lighting, and all that fun stuff, but that’ll be cake. Above all else, we have a new place, a place to welcome people to, and (clutch for me) a proper 4-burner stove with an oven.

Hooray!

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Pretty damn crazy. And just yesterday I was hearing about how they’re looking for enzymes – or designer proteins – to speed up the degradation of cellulose to sugar so they can make biofuels from woodier feedstocks that have less carbon signature than corn. Holla! Let’s get it on! But for God’s sake – let’s keep any designer organisms cloistered and protected, as we should be doing with all GM foods *sigh*. The world will be post-evolutionary before we are even post-human at this rate.

These guys are just model rocket kids I reckon, but think for a moment… Everyone knows about the Ansari X-Prize. They’ve just taken it up another notch by challenging people to land a bot on the moon. But whatever. There has to be some internet billionaire somewhere willing to sponsor an “X-Wing Prize”, and enough Star Wars-beholden young engineers to make it happen.

Via Gizmodo