Twitter Lists

Well I'm not if anyone should follow all of these, but some may be useful if you use Twitter.

Twitter Lists You Should Follow:
"Twitter is officially launching Lists, its new feature to organize the massive group of users obsessively sending out 140 character messages.

An independent web development company wasted no time setting up Listorious, a directory much like Kevin Rose's WeFollow, tracking all the most popular and influential Twitter Lists."

Google's New Free GPS Service

Hikers, 4-wheelers, & boaters will still want a GPS that has an internal database, but the far larger market that is always near a cell-tower will probably be quite satisfied with the new, free service.

Cell phones (like classic Palm's) that can't use this service will also be at a competitive disadvantage.

Google's Free GPS Service Crushes Garmin, TomTom Shares (GOOG, GRMN, NOK, AAPL):
"Investors fled GPS-makers' shares today after Google announced it would offer free turn-by-turn GPS directions in its Android phones and as a service for other mobile phones, like Apple's iPhone."

Augustine Commission has harsh conclussions for NASA

The entire article is worth reading, but this quote summarizes many of the issues for me:

Full Augustine Commission Report - Surprises from the Full Review of Human Spaceflight - Popular Mechanics:
"6) NASA is handicapped by rules that limit the way it does business.
Unlike other federal departments, NASA's relationship with the industrial world is antiquated, discourages innovation and suffers from inflexible bureaucracy."

A good looking Wind Turbine

There are a lot of new ideas in wind-power that make home use more palatable. Here is an idea that should look good and work well in many locations. It won't generate enough power to take most people off the grid, but it could easily reduce your monthly power bill.

Inhabitat » Ridgeblade Wind Turbine Silences NIMBYs:
"Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing."

Privacy threat - Medical Records for sale

Outsourcing is a fact of life in many industries. If this kind of thing worries you then you should consider lobbying your government for regulation on such activity.

Outsourcing data is probably a far greater risk to your privacy than the outsourcing of labor is a risk to your job. These days even your doctor or other service provider may not know if your data is being sent overseas for some processing.

Medical records sent for computerisation to India up for sale- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times:
"NEW DELHI: In a development that is certain to lead to a hardening of stance on the outsourcing industry by the western world, investigations conducted by a British TV channel have come up with the stunning revelation that confidential medical records sent to India for computerisation are being offered for sale, triggering heightened concerns about breach of data security here.

The revelation has forced police of the two countries to join hands to launch an official investigation into the data pilferage of the records stored by the Indian BPOs.

. . .


The files procured were of patients of London Clinic, one of Britain’s top private hospitals. Several hospitals in the National Health Service have also outsourced their transcription to India, sparking concern over data safety following the latest investigation. "

NASA unveils rocket for shuttle's replacement

Things seem to happen slowly at NASA, but at least some things are still happening . . .

Ares1X rollout - NASA unveils shuttle's replacement:
"NASA's pristine white Ares I-X rocket rolled out of the enormous Vehicle Assembly Building just after 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. Reporters and space center employees joined program engineers and executives for the grand unveiling which took place under bright white spotlights.

>> Photos of the rollout

“This is really the first chance we've had to see it in all its glory,” offered John Cowart, deputy manager for the Ares test flight. “Not since about 1975 has something this large come out of the VAB.”

The Ares I-X is 327 feet tall – much taller than the space shuttles that usually make the slow roll to the launch pads. But it's primarily built from a space shuttle solid rocket booster, and is meant to test the flight characteristics of NASA's planned shuttle replacements.

“It's a different shape than what people are used to. It's that tallest rocket in the world, it's very thin for its height. But we're very confident it's going to work and we've done all that we can possibly do,” Cowart continued.

The two-minute flight, planned for next week, should give engineers plenty of data about rotation, vibration, and even parachute deployment before the rocket splashes down in the Atlantic. It's taking place early enough in the design process that lessons learned from this flight can be applied to the final design."

Little drama, but lots of data from NASA's LCROSS mission

Listening to mission control, it was evident that the NASA folks were engaged & excited by this mission. We're developing the information required to support a permanent station on the Moon. There's no law that says the language spoken in space will be American English - this data will be in the public domain for whichever nation has the nerve to become explorers again. The benefits of living & working in space may be unimaginable, but based on past performance, they'll far exceed the invest made to get there.

No plume, but a firehose of data from NASA moon bombing - Ars Technica:
"Regardless of the public expectations, LCROSS clearly performed as planned. It recently separated from the Centaur stage that helped bring it to lunar orbit, and both of the spacecraft were directed towards the Cabeus crater at the Moon's south pole. The Centaur vehicle went first, creating an impact that could be observed from instruments on LCROSS, which followed it in. Less than four minutes later, LCROSS itself struck the lunar surface. The impacts were observed with a variety of telescopes on Earth and in Earth orbit, although the actual site of the impact was obscured by the Cabeus crater walls.

Clearly, a lot of people were hoping that dropping hardware onto the lunar surface would create a spray of debris that would rise above the crater walls, and be visible to the Earth-based observatories. Unfortunately, from the perspective of the Earth, LCROSS struck not with a bang, but a whimper, as if it had landed on a comfy pillow."