Stunning discovery
AMERICAN astronomers have determined exactly what colour our home galaxy - the Milky Way -is when looked at from the outside.
From the inside it looks the way we see it. But that's not good enough. So they gathered data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has information on about a million galaxies.
They compared that data with what they knew about the total mass in the Milky Way, as well as the rate of star formation, looking for near-matches among other galaxies.
For those most nearly matched to our own galactic home, the team took an average and came up with a precise measure of what colour it must be. It turns out that, looked at from the outside, our galaxy – the Milky Way – is, er ... milky in colour.
March of science
THE ABOVE might seem like a waste of time and effort. But it's important we should know for sure that that, viewed from outside, our galaxy is not made up of technicolor polka-dots.
You can't stop scientific inquiry. One of these days they're going to get round to answering the question that has troubled us for centuries. How many angels can balance on the point of a needle?
Real scoops
THE LEVESON inquiry into the values and ethics of the British press continues. Last week we had the proprietor and editorial management of the Express group of tabloids trying to explain how the Express came to splash for days on end the total fabrication that the McCann couple had killed their own daughter. Also their fixation with the conspiracy theory that Princess Diana was murdered by the royal family.
It seems that in the McCann case they unfortunately relied on faulty information from "sources" in the Portuguese police and the Portuguese media. Princess Diana? Er, burble, burble.
How long before the inquiry calls in the executives of the Sunday Sport? This is a tabloid which specialises in such exclusives as the wreckage of a World War II Lancaster bomber being discovered on the moon and a double-decker London bus being found frozen into the ice of Antarctica – plus lotsa cheesecake.
Lord Leveson would probably find the Sunday Sport refreshing after all he's heard so far. It might be hogwash but it's harmless hogwash.
Kung-fu presidency
FRENCH footballer Eric Cantona wrote to mayors across France asking them to support his candidacy for President in the next election.
Cantona, who also played for Manchester United and was embroiled in controversy when he jumped into the crowd and aimed a kung-fu kick at a spectator, now says his candidacy was a hoax. It was a publicity stunt for a campaign he is involved in for better housing for the poor.
That's a great pity. Nicolas Sarkozy has shown himself to be somewhat deficient in launching kung fu-kicks while at the United Nations, the European Commission and other arenas of dispute.
Big cat alert
THEY'RE on the lookout for panthers, cougars and the like in Gloucestershire, England, after the mutilated carcass of a roe deer was found on National Trust land near Stroud.
The experts speak vaguely of "big cats" being sighted occasionally in the Cotswolds over a very long time, though it's not explained where they would have come from. Escapees from zoos?
It's only a matter of time before they start blaming Rupert Murdoch, proprietor of News International and the erstwhile News of the World.
Sea food stall
SCIENTISTS at Britain's National Oceanographic Centre and Southampton University have discovered undersea vents 5km down in the Caribbean which spew out mineral-rich water that teems with life, including a new species of shrimp, in spite of temperatures of more than 450 degrees Celsius.
"Whelks! Oysters! Boiled shrimps straight from the Caribbean!"
Delivery glitch
BECAUSE of an unfortunate glitch, I did not take delivery until a few days ago of cards and good wishes for 2012 from various readers, in particular 91-year-old Joyce Steadman who sent me a beautiful hand-painted Christmas card.
Thank you, all of you, and your good wishes are reciprocated.
Tailpiece
Doctor: "This is a most mysterious affliction. I just can't find any reason for it. It's probably because of drinking."
Patient: "OK, Doc. I'll come back when you're sober."
Last word
Too much of a good thing is wonderful.
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