So far, one third of American states have decreed that Segway's uber-scooter, which is about as wide as an average adult and can travel up to a maximum speed of 12.5mph, will be able to operate wherever a pedestrian can walk. Dazzled by glitzy product demonstrations and incredibly effective lobbying, the hired help occupying the various statehouses have helped to usher in a new era of urban chaos involving man and machine.

If I were a trial attorney, my mouth would be watering at what lies ahead. So says Charles Cooper on ZDNet. So, is Segway safe? It's an interesting question. You will find the story here.

I said I'd post any of your comments about Dolly the Sheep here. Ken Whistance writes, "I have a problem with the fate of Dolly. Sheep normally live until they are around twelve years old so the death of Dolly must surely be regarded as premature. Of course this may well be a one off and the technology will prove to be advantageous. However, I'm afraid that at the moment I think it to be an indication that we are on the wrong course here!!"

It's a good point Ken. Back In January, the team were concerned about one of Dolly's "knee" joints, but said it would probably be OK. It didn't take her long to degenerate from there, I guess. The age span thing is interesting. I'll look out for any more comments from the team!

Dolly, the first clone from a mammal, died last week at the age of 6 years old.

Where were you on July 5, 1996? What did you think when you read the news about the accomplishment of Ian Wilmut Professor and Head of the Department of Gene Expression and Development at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh, and his team? What is Dolly's lasting historical significance? How does Dolly's life change our view of humanity?

I don't have the answers, just the questions. I guess future historians will decide upon how to slant the moment. Will Dolly be remembered as a forerunner of the greatest single improvement to the life of mankind or as a first step towards a technology that brought chaos to the world? Meanwhile, a whole group of 24 cloned calves is being monitored in the United States! Email me if you have a view and I'll post some here.

All previous attempts to implement "bookmarks" in the Blog Archives (so as to create permament links to individual posts) have completely failed! last night however, I grasped the nettle once more. I don't consider myself to be an unintelligent individual, and if thousands of pople can understand this, so can I! With this thought in mind I tackled the help pages on Blogger yet again and read it all slightly more carefully than maybe I have previously.

Result? A little extra item at the botom of each post saying [Link to this post]. What's more, it works! So, now, if you happen to want to refer someone to a pearl of wisdom (?) buried here, just click on the link and copy the URL that appears in the address bar (or right-click and choose Copy Shortcut). The benefit is, this link wil remain permament and will not wither away as each post slides off the bottom of the page and into oblivion!

It also lets me provide links to some of my favourite posts from the last year and a bit, so there's a new frame on the right - Favourite Posts. Click a few and see what you think!

Remember I promised you a second "True Professional"? (See the entries from 2/5/2003 and 1/28/2003) A while ago, I mentioned a team of "True Professionals" I have worked with on conferences, exhibitions, staff and customer events over the years. I was moving some files to an archive network drive last week and I came across a few incriminating pictures. So purely to embarass him, here's No. 2. This is Martin Sayers, who works with Colin Grimshaw at Imperial College TV Studio and yes, that's a wig as well !

Isn't this a great picture? A lone pedestrian walks along Barnett Street in Vincennes, Ind. as snow falls. (Photo: AP) For me, it's partly the colouring, those dismal, cold browns leading into the bright electric blues ahead and partly the fact the pedestrian is walking in the centre of the road. Clearly he expects no traffic - you can almost hear the silence.

The weather has been so bad in the US of late, we've even heard about it here in the UK! The picture comes from CBS News and is my personal favourite from their current Photo Essay of the weather and the effects it's having over there. With windblown snow up to 4 feet deep halting air and rail travel and causing at least a dozen deaths, the snow was part of a huge system that had charged in from the Plains and up the Ohio valley during the weekend. It also produced ice that snapped trees and power lines, leaving more than 230,000 homes without electricity.

In the UK, the weather is a continual topic of conversaton because it's so variable. There's a saying here, "if you don't like the weather, hang on ten minutes!" It doesn't stop us appreciating all aspects of how it affects us and others though. I recommend the CBS pictures! Click here first then click on the 'Snow Daze Photo Essay'.

Google, which runs the Web's most popular search site, (I've proved this for myself in watching the Website stats for this site) has purchased Pyra Labs, the company that created "Blogger" which is the backbone of this and around a million other Websites. The buyout is a huge boost to an enormously diverse genre of online publishing that has begun to change the equations of news and information online. Weblogs, like this one, are frequently-updated personal Websites in which the topics range from technology to politics to just about anything you can name. Blogger was created by Pyra Labs and Evan Williams, the founder of Pyra said, "I couldn't be more excited about this. He went on to add, "It gives Pyra the resources to build on the vision I've been working on for years."

Just three and a half years old, Pyra's Blogger software now has 1.1 million registered users - and I am one of them. The fact that the search box on this page is Google powered is a nice indication of how good a match I feel this could be!

Today is Feb 14th., Valentines Day. You can see it everywhere. The Slough and Bournemouth Weather Girls are feeling romantic I see, and if you go to Google today, you'll see the middle two "O"s have been replaced with hearts. This is how it all started. (Factoid: In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their Valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. The origin of the phrase, "Wearing your heart on your sleeve"!) Happy Valentines Day to everyone.

Regular readers will know of my interest in Dean Kamen's Segway Human Transporter. I want one. :-) The price is relatively high, but personally, I rate it as one of the great inventions of the last 100 years. I recently came across a website run by Philip Torrone, who bought an HT about two months ago. He writes about his daily commute, all the ramifications of losing his car and how he interacts with the people around him when using it. It's a well put-together site, a mine of useful links and information and an excellent read. It adds fuel to my desire to own one. Click Here. Read his "100 Miles on a Segway HT" article.

Coming to the UK on 1 July, is the Book "Codename Ginger" the behind-the-scenes story of the creation of this new marvel. Paperback - 368 pages Doubleday; ISBN: 0385605226. Watch out for it.

He's a techie, a musician, a photographer, and he has a really interesting and well designed Weblog. He also wrote this for the Columbia crew. Well worth listening to.

Coming to a home or office near you could be the Electric Web: high-speed internet access via power lines, making every electrical socket an always-on internet connection. In the USA, St. Louis-based Ameren Corp. and other utilities already are testing the technology, and many consider it increasingly viable. If proven safe, it would bolster broadband competition, lower consumer prices and bridge the digital divide in rural areas.

I found a wonderful collection of miscellaneous bits of BBC folk lore. One of these reads as follows... "While carrying out some audience research in 1958, a researcher called at a house and was greeted by a young woman with a toddler at her side. The researcher started, ‘Good morning, I’m from the BBC …’ upon which the young child screamed and ran down the passage. The woman apologised for her daughter’s behaviour but explained that she had taken to switching the television set on and off. Her mother had said that if she did not stop doing it, the BBC man would come around - and he did!" Read the collection for yourself. here.

If you've read the "Show Biz Post" below, you'll see I mentioned a team of "True Professionals" I have worked with on conferences, exhibitions, staff and customer events over the years. I was moving some files to an archive network drive yesterday and I came across a few incriminating pictures.

So purely to embarass them, here's No. 1 in a short series. This is Stuart Butte of CTF and that's a wig he's wearing! Strangely, many of the picures I have of these guys seem to have been taken while they've been wearing wigs. :-)

Next week, (unless he pays me a lot of money) Martin Sayers from Imperial College TV Studio!

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So many websites are mourning the crew of seven astronauts of the space shuttle Columbia, I felt this might be a different kind of tribute.

This saddening series of radar images comes from the US National Weather Service 's Shreveport, Louisiana site.

The images show a bright, dense streak crossing the Texas-Louisiana border after the US Space Shuttle Columbia broke up in the skies over Texas on February 1, 2003.

Captured by a radar system more used to tracking storms and rainfall, the smoke plume and fine, airborne debris resulting from Columbia's disintegration are clear for all to see.

I found a quote, so I can't claim originality, but this echoes my thoughts nicely, "At a time when much of the world is gripped by the oppressive fear of war and terror, the crew of Columbia were devoting their considerable talents and courage to work that was creative, internationally cooperative and constructive."

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