Superactinide or Unquadbium is an unstable temporary element, number 142 on the periodic table. Further continuing with the astronomy 142_Polana is a dark asteroid discovered over 100 years ago. It is in a 2:1 orbit with Mars. For every two orbits of Mars, Polana completes one orbit. This makes for strong orbital stability. There are around 1500 asteroids in this region with these properties. Interesting opportunities for future asteroid mining.

Back down to Earth, we had a few meetings this week for potential project leads, which if they pan out, we can talk a bit more about before the end of the year. It is hard sometimes when you are busy with deadlines and other projects to find the time to have potential client meetings, but you really need to schedule a certain percentage of your time and budget to be finding more work. It keeps the cash-flow steady and the interesting projects coming in.

We also started planning more with index cards, getting projects prioritized and planned for the next few months. Then having more frequent reviews of project status and what’s on-deck.

This weekend some of the team are teaching a course up at Bifröst University here in Iceland. It is a nice trip out to the country-side, a welcome break from the hustle and bustle of Reykjavik this week. It is the Iceland Airwaves music festival and everything manages to turn into a venue. Even the bookstore across the street from the office has a drum kit and speakers as part of the decor this week.

The SF Embassy is in town this week for Iceland Airwaves, and a bunch of them came around the office for a private screening of the new film “Heild”. It is a ~60 minute narrative less documentary about Icelandic life and nature.

Sometime in 02014 the film should have a theatrical release. It is an incredible film with some of the most amazing night time-lapse photography with awe inspiring northern lights.

Bric-à-brac

We’ve been on a Kickstarter kick recently. Last week we talked about GIFPop! and this week it is a more local kickstarted project: Kisa. Kisa is icelandic for cat, and this is a beautiful cat candle with a little surprise inside. It is great to see local projects popping-up on kickstarter and it is even better when it is this interesting. Congrats on already reaching their goal with time to spare.

There is a theory about taxoplasmosis and how cats have tricked us into loving them. It isn’t out of their cuteness, but a parasite we’ve been infected with which leads us to think they are even more cute and cuddly than they are. Cat related projects on the internet are a pretty solid bet.