Mars and Ikea sitting in a tree

More proof that Mars had water... LOTS of water. OCEANS of water.  And a lot of it was lost to space.  Which is where our water is going if we keep on heating it.

We're going to check out Ceres and see if those lights were somebody's car....

The dumbest and the smartest presidents.

Medieval woman buried near where Richard III was found.

Stephen Hawkings upsets some Israelis by shunning science conference because of their treatment of Palestinian academics.

Booman on the Republicans cutting defense spending.

Plastics are harming us.  And food additives are too.

Ikea furniture will soon be able to charge our phones.

Buy IKEA

Catholics in Poland are calling for a boycott of furniture retailer IKEA because its catalogue features pictures of same-sex couples.

National newspapers and news websites have covered the story and the concerns of some religious people that the Swedish company is "trampling" on Christian concepts of family.

"I would not like to cease doing shopping in IKEA but if the firm does not stop promoting homosexual relationships, I will, unfortunately, feel compelled to do so and I will notify about it all the people I know so that they do the same," one Catholic woman wrote.

For their part, IKEA has robustly defended its advertising and has refused to respond to the boycott.

"Homosexuality is one of the essential elements of living in contemporary society," said IKEA spokesperson Karolina Horoszczak.

And:

IKEA Family Live in Poland is the most recent focus of ongoing debates about what constitutes a family. In the most recent IKEA Family Live 2009 publication, 12 archetypes of different family makeup are presented under the slogan “Family life is changing … Welcome to the new era.” One of the 12 example families presented is Ian and Steve, page 54 -57, who have no interest in having children, but enjoy their IKEA Kitchen and herb garden (and their AWESOME HOUSE!).

Apparently Poland has a very strong catholic stance on the issue of same sex partners, to the point where In 2007, in a debate in the European Parliament, Poland was denounced as hateful and repulsive for its “defence of the family” when the country refused to allow the “promotion of homosexuality in schools”.

All I want for Christmas

is an Ikea house!



"Now, though, Ikea has decided to export BoKlok -- which translates roughly to "smart living" -- to the United Kingdom together with the UK real estate firm Live Smart @ Home. Perhaps just the thing for the island's chronic housing shortage.

As one might expect from an Ikea product, the houses put function over form -- but form counts too. Nice wood window frames with double-paned windows, for example. They also come with your very own Ikea kitchen should you so desire.

And in 2007, they will be popping up across the country. That, at least, is what company strategists are hoping. And with Ikea selling some 800 such houses a year in Sweden, the optimism seems well grounded."

Where I would put it is something I'll worry about later...