Sophont

John Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace has provisionally won the million dollar Level II first place in the 2009 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge. Other teams planning to compete are Masten Space Systems , Unreasonable Rocket and BonNovA .

Mistabishi - Printer Jam from Hospital Records on Vimeo .

If you’ve been hesitant to jump on the e-book bandwagon, you’re not alone. Book lovers everywhere have resisted digital books because they still don’t compare to the experience of reading a good old fashioned paper book. But all of that is changing thanks to Smell of Books ™, a revolutionary new aerosol e-book enhancer.

"Late last year, a New York Times column whipped Silicon Valley innovators and bailout-weary taxpayers into a frenzy. Valley professor and writer Randall Stross wrote that Tesla was hoping for government money to produce its cars, which only the very wealthy could afford. It wasn't exactly true, since the loan was intended to produce the $50,000 Model S sedan, not the $109,000 Roadster. .....We sat down with Tesla’s well-known founder, investor and CEO Elon Musk at the unveiling of the Model S in Silicon Valley this week. He gave us the latest on the loan and had harshe words for critic Stross:"

"'KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana,' claims a release from NeverGetBusted.com 'When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.' 'The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster's attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster's secret mobile office nearby. 'The attorney was handcuffed and later released when eleven KopBuster detectives arrived w...

Isaac Newton Christmas Cards : "On December 25th, a famous man who changed history forever was born... Sir Isaac Newton! Consider Newton's contributions to mankind. Calculus. The discovery of gravitation. The laws of motion. The modern world is built on the ideas that he originated. The kind of life we live now was unimaginable in the 17th century, but much of our scientific development began then, in the mind of one man. Sir Isaac Newton's ideas changed the world, and he deserves to be celebrated on December 25th. This Christmas, my friends will share in the excitement. Yours can, too. Order Now (more details below) $18.00 for 18 cards envelopes. Shipping is $4.75 in the U.S.; varies internationally."

"The lolcats, the Internet's most famous felines, may be hilarious. But in their yearning, I see nothing less than the tragedy of the human condition."

By Orson Scott Card Editor's note: Orson Scott Card is a Democrat and a newspaper columnist, and in this opinion piece he takes on both while lamenting the current state of journalism . An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America: I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism.� You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know. This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere.  It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration. It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans." (click on title for more)

 "I AM JOE"

"In 1964 the eminent physicist Richard Feynman served on the State of California's Curriculum Commission and saw how the Commission chose math textbooks for use in California's public schools. In his acerbic memoir of that experience, titled 'Judging Books by Their Covers,' Feynman analyzed the Commission's idiotic method of evaluating books, and he described some of the tactics employed by schoolbook salesmen who wanted the Commission to adopt their shoddy products. 'Judging Books by Their Covers' appeared as a chapter in 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' -- Feynman's autobiographical book that was published in 1985 by W.W. Norton & Company."

 "Andrew Lahde, manager of a small California hedge fund, Lahde Capital, burst into the spotlight last year after his one-year-old fund returned 866 percent betting against the subprime collapse. Last month, he did the unthinkable -- he shut things down, claiming dealing with his bank counterparties had become too risky. Today, Lahde passed along his 'goodbye' letter, a rollicking missive on everything from greed to economic philosophy. Enjoy."

Wired Article : "Sleep Dealer is remarkably topical for a film set in the future (albeit one described by Rivera as taking place 'five minutes from now'). Central themes include outsourcing, corporate ownership of water, remote warfare, confessional internet diaries and military contractors who are accountable to no one. It's the rare political film without any reference to contemporary politics; like Blade Runner and other big-brained sci-fi flicks, it's about ideas, not selling merchandise." The director/writer's site: http://www.invisibleamerica.com/movies.html

So after having a sushi dinner downtown I decide to bike into Tomkins Square Park to read my software manual printouts instead of staying in my rat filled cave. It's very nice, not too hot, feet propped up on my folding bike, not too loud 80's music coming from the "movies in the park" set up, and the occasional distraction of hyperactive small dogs chasing each other on the grass. A man holding 2 shopping bags approaches me, holds one out; its filled with DVDs, and he says "triple x, triple x" I shake my head no and look back to my manual. He holds out the other one and says "photoshop office autocad final cut" I heart NY

TrueZer0

Speak, Dog! Speak!: News Flash! Hard-working American NOT a Socialist! : "Here's a video of a plumber asking Barack Obama about why he wants to raise his taxes, and The One says he doesn't want to 'punish' success, he just wants to 'spread the wealth around', because that's 'good for everyone'..."

World - smh.com.au : March 5, 2006 A 15-YEAR-OLD girl with a peanut allergy did not die from kissing her boyfriend after he ate peanut butter but from another cause, a coroner has ruled. But coroner Michel Miron would not reveal what caused Christina Desforges's death, saying he simply wanted to speak out before her case was cited by the food allergies association. 'The [association] intended to use the Desforges case to launch an education campaign,' Mr Miron said. 'I had to tell them the cause of death was different than first believed.' At the time of Desforges's death last November, officials said doctors had been unable to treat her allergic reaction to the kiss. Thinking she was having an asthma attack, Desforges had desperately searched for medicine. Friends called an ambulance as her breathing grew laboured but she collapsed. She died four days later in a Quebec hospital."

World - smh.com.au : " By Mark Coultan Herald Correspondent in New York March 4, 2006 MOVING countries and starting a business involves taking a lot of risks. But when Lincoln Mayne left his native Perth for London, then New York, he could hardly have imagined that the greatest threat to his successful design business would be anthrax. The 34-year-old has built up a business as an artist and fashion designer in five years in New York. He arrived with a backpack, hitched a ride into Manhattan and started sewing and printing. From humble beginnings on the Lower East Side, he now supplies clothes to stores in Japan and Hong Kong. He has had five animations on cable television in the US, and has exhibited his work in New York. But it all was brought to a halt by the deadly spores, apparently brought into the country in animal hides imported by a drum-maker three levels above him in a Brooklyn warehouse. When Vado Diomande, 44, came down with the symptoms of anthrax, he caused a panic...

A 2005 Rollick By James Lileks Behold: 2005 was the most important year in human history. Okay, maybe not. There have been better years, and worse ones. The Goths did not sack New York City. No plague. Asteroids didn’t deform the globe. The center held, and if some rough beast was slouching toward Bethlehem it appears he was diverted to a time-share in Branson for the season. Nothing blew up—over here at least. Despite the usual rash of false alarms, Americans no longer seem to be waiting for the other shoe bomber to drop. The economy grew much more than gloomy reporters expected. The Batman movie was good, for a change. No one on the Supreme Court tested positive for steroids. Politically, the Administration seemed determined to get the third year of its second term out of the way in the first."

Over on thisisbroken luser Susan Dombrow is upset with Symantec's response to her request that a question be answered in "plain english" and not "conmputerese" here is part of Symatec's response: Please note that the Email Protection feature of Norton AntiVirus works by monitoring traffic on the ports used by the POP3 email protocol. All data that enters or leaves your computer through these ports is stopped and scanned before being passed onto its destination. HTTP email services, such as those offered by America OnLine, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail, do not use the POP3 ports, and cannot be scanned by Email Protection. I think that she would have been happier with the following: Please note that the Email Protection feature of Norton AntiVirus works by monitoring little dancing electric fairies that travel through the magic doorways used by the Garden Gnome's email protocol. All fairies that enters or leaves your computer through these magic doorways are s...