Telling it like it is

It amazes me that things like this can happen because people let them happen, by using these "services". Royal Mail have finally joined the 20th century (only 100 more years to go) and are offering digital postmarking - you can print valid stamps directly on to envelopes. You download the software free and then.......well this is where it just gets stupid. There's a monthly subscription of £4.99 or an annual fee of £49.99 - and each time a stamp is printed it is deducted from a pre-paid user account. So it costs £50 or £60 just to use the service, per year , before you've printed your first stamp! That's retarded! Who on earth is going to pay that much a year for the "convenience" of printing stamps at home ???? To put it into perspective, Pitney Bowes offer the identical service over here on behalf of the USPS for $4.99 a month - equivalent to £30 a year. Half what they want in England. Jeebus! Is everything back home always more expensive?

Funny . Mars is warmer than New Hampshire right now... Location Temp. (Fahrenheit) Gusev crater, Mars 12 Providence, R.I. 9 Scranton Wilkes-Barre, Pa. 8 Hartford, Conn. 7 Buffalo, N.Y. 7 Rochester, N.Y. 3 Ithaca, N.Y. 3 Albany, N.Y. -2 Binghamton, N.Y. -2 Concord, N.H. -3 Syracuse, N.Y. -4 Burlington, Vt. -10 Montpelier, Vt. -12 Caribou, Maine -13 Mount Washington, N.H. -36

All it took was 78 seconds, and the martian lander is now a useless piece of space junk. Spirit rolled off the lander this morning and is now free to do its thing on Mars. The lander is just left to gather dust now - it has served its purpose. The pictures coming back from the Spirit rover are amazing.

To the moon......and beyond! I'm not sure what to make of it. Obviously its an election-year stunt, but could it happen? Bush wants NASA to go back to the moon, first with robotic vehicles by 2008, then with humans by 2015 or no later than 2020. From there, on to Mars. The critics think the same - election year stunt. They also ask about where the money is going to come from. Bush reckons he only needs and extra $1bn over the next 5 years - the rest will come from the current NASA budget allocations. Erm. Well. Hooray! I'm all for it, IF it actually happens. Hell we went to the moon over 30 years ago and haven't sent anyone further than 400 miles since then. That's the distance from here to Vegas. We could drive further than we've sent astronauts in the last 30 years, in 7 hours...... (this still doesn't mean I think Bush is any good)

What the.... Obviously I'm happy for a friend of mine back home - he's sorted himself out a new house, and he sent me the pictures and info to browse through. But holy hell! The house prices in England are retarded! His new place is about 1200sq.ft, for - wait for it - $692,000 !!! That's 2.25 times what we paid for our house over here, and we've got 500sq.ft more and two gardens for that. $692,000 for 1200sq.ft ? That's insane!

Wow -either the dollar is in freefall or the pound has had a resurgance of strength. I just checked the exchange rate and its 1 quid = $1.84 !!