As our week begins, some interesting stories:

On most days during my work week, the last hour of the day has been quite slow, so I get time to surf the 'net and get caught up on stories others may miss.

All of these stores come courtesy of Yahoo! -- my employer's choice of safe sites to visit.

So, there really may be another planet like Earth in the Universe?  Seems the answer is yes.  Though, mathematically, the odds of another planet orbiting a star being close enough to sustain life and that planet being close enough in size and of similar composition to support some sort of life are quite good.  There are A LOT of stars in our galaxy, never mind the entire Universe!

This is sort of like crossing the Mojave by car from L.A and seeing Las Vegas in the last 10 miles of the journey -- it always feels like you can reach out and touch it and it never gets close enough to you fast enough.

Where's that warp drive technology when you need it?

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A new book to read?  What may have turned out to be an exercise in cynicism turned into, according to the article, an interesting semester of a liberal finding common ground with Christian conservatives.  I've been trying to do this very same thing here and wherever I wander on-line -- maybe the author has a few pointers on how I could be more effective.

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Finally, a fascinating story from the world of amateur Mixed Martial Arts (MMA, or Ultimate Fighting) about Kyle Maynard.  I'll link direct to the author's site for this story.  It all comes down to whether a mixed martial arts fighter has a fair opportunity to win matches in spite of issues with his arms and legs.

The interview below was posted a couple of days before his first match yesterday.  Though he lost his match, it was lost after fighting a full match - no TKO, no tap-out.  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an after-match interview with Kyle.  By their and Kyle's account, he had already won by just fighting all of the way through the match and defying those who predicted he couldn't last through the entire match.

The only way in this life that anyone loses is by doing nothing.  Imagine if we stopped looking for planets outside our solar system, stopped trying to infiltrate groups who are not like us then finding common bonds and stopped training for the next fight.

Keep fighting, infiltrating and training.  WTG, Kyle !

@ Yahoo! Video