Monday May 21, 2007 6:30 am Lethbridge Sunrise 5:39 Sunset 21:16 Hours of daylight: 15:37

A. Morning Musings

6:30 am It is +7 C with a high forecast of +6 C.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: Israeli Airstrike Hits Home Of Hamas Politician

Israel stepped up its offensive against militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday by launching more attacks, including strikes on the homes of two Hamas men that resulted in the deaths of eight Palestinians. In the past week, dozens of rockets have landed in Israel, mostly in the community of Sderot, wounding seven people. Palestinian militants fired five more rockets into Sderot on Sunday morning. No one was reported killed or seriously injured in the latest attack. This area of the world is very light on verbal diplomacy to resolve differences.

Canadian Headline: Slain Conservationist Likely Targeted

A Toronto man who donated millions of dollars to wildlife conservation and environmental causes was likely targeted by the assailant who shot him to death, police said Sunday. This has the makings of a good story as more details emerge about the lives of the rich and famous. We have a hunger for such stories.

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): BP Eyes $2 bn Clean Coal Plant

TWO of the world's largest resources and energy companies have announced plans for Australia's first industrial scale clean coal power station, which could be operational by 2014. If it proceeds the proposed industrial-scale station will gasify coal to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide with the hydrogen used to fuel the power station and around 90 per cent of the carbon dioxide captured and stored permanently in a saline formation underneath the seabed off the Perth coastline. Finally, a good news story.

B. Actual/Notes

6:55 am The weather forecast is for rain, wind, and cool temperatures. Not a great day for outdoor pursuits. But okay for coffee.

2:20 PM And for buying books.

From Chapters:

• Quantum: A Guide For The Perplexed. (2003). Jim Al-Khalili. This looks like a book for me. I certainly qualify if one looks at the title.
• Moral Minds. (2006). Marc D. Hauser. Noam Chomsky, Peter Singer and Antonio Damasio all have "advance praise" for this book. I like all three authors, so this is likely to be a good book.
• The God Delusion. (2006). Richard Dawkins. A must read.
• Dreamweaver 8 (2006). Daniel Short & Garo Green. It is time I focused on XML and XHTML for creating this web site.
• Slaughter-House-Five. (1969). Kurt Vonnegut. Although I have most of his books, I do not have this classic. Until now

C. Plan

Immediate
Literature	Read & make notes for book 11 of "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky	1 hr
Later
Technology	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Learn how to attach a digital camera to my spotting scope
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
	Continue reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman
	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade
	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Purchase DCC system
History	Begin reading "Maya"
	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
	Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer
Literature	New York Times easy crossword puzzles
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals
Learning	Review week's pages each Sunday
	Review all pages for the month at the end of each month
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

D. Reflection