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Google? Googe? Google?

Google has a very nice little tradition of modifying its logo for special occasions. A friend here noticed that today's Valentine-Day logo is--well, take a look. Do you think the letter "l" is missing? Or is it the stem of...

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February 14, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

Free Long-Distance? It Couldn't Last.

Back in October we did a story about a startup company called FuturePhone, which promised international phone calls--simply for the cost (often nothing) of a call to an out-of-the-way number in northern Iowa. The company would then route calls over...

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February 13, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

Lake Effect

Take a look at this picture, offered over the weekend by NOAA and NASA: Just south of Lake Ontario, they've added a label to point out where the lake-effect snow is piling up. You may want to click to enlarge....

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February 12, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Low-Definition TV

In a couple of years, we're told, conventional TV sets will be obsolete and we'll all be watching HD. That's Hi-Def. High Definition. Poke through our HDTV GUIDE if you haven't. But the road to success is paved with--no, wrong...

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February 9, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Starfall

NASA managers say their people are very good at "compartmentalizing." Two of the Space Station astronauts, Michael Lopez-Alegria and Sunita Williams have a spacewalk to do today (they're a bit more than halfway through at this writing), so they have...

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February 8, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

On the Fall of Astronauts

A professor of mine once said, "stop doing research when you meet yourself coming in the other direction." I went poking around the blogosphere, looking to see what the world is saying about the Lisa Nowak story, and got the...

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February 7, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (9)

The Strange Story of Lisa Marie Nowak

I've met my share of astronauts, and while they're probably as diverse as any other group of people, they have some things in common because of the selection process they pass. NASA looks for bright people, certainly, but also for...

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February 6, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (17)

Wanna Talk?

One environmental tidbit comes from Australia, which, after the U.S., ranks as the largest developed country not to sign on to the Kyoto climate treaty of a decade ago. Now, in the aftermath of Friday's IPCC report, there's a comment...

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February 5, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

You're Being Watched. Live With It.

Take a look at three related-but-unrelated stories today: New York Times: "U.S. Set to Begin a Vast Expansion of DNA Sampling" USA Today: "Websites Crack Cases." (It's a story about evidence in various crimes having been posted on MySpace or...

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February 5, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (4)

"Very High Confidence"

"Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750...." says the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is the big climate report, and all the superlatives are being...

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February 2, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (13)