Global Spin

When will people learn that advertising doesn’t work on the Web? Apparently, not until they try every colossally stupid idea first.

Posted by Karen in Technology on April 30th, 2003 | Comments Off

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, has started a private space development company called Blue Origin. It’s nice to see all this interest in private space exporation, especially by folks with money to spend. Oddly enough, Neal Stephenson is being listed as one of the advisors. I say “oddly enough” because all of his sci-fi [...]

Posted by Karen in Space on April 28th, 2003 | 1 Comment »

Looks like Chewie will be back in Episode III, along with C-3PO and R2-D2. Specifically, Peter Mayhew, Anthony Daniels, and Kenny Baker have been signed to star in the next (and final) Star Wars prequel. Go Chewie! (Thanks to Deana for the scoop.)

Posted by Karen in Fun on April 28th, 2003 | Comments Off

Deb writes: Put this on your global blog and smoke it!:
Toyota announced a new Prius that manages to have more interior room and better gas mileage (about 55 mpg). They also reiterated that the hybird is profitable at its $20,000 price point.

Posted by Karen in Technology on April 23rd, 2003 | 2 Comments »

Of all places, MSNBC has a good article with specifics on SpaceShipOne’s flying characteristics. It really looks like they’ve put a lot of thought into it, down to using the same flight controls for the carrier ship and rocketplane so that maneuvers can be practiced in either.

Posted by Karen in Space on April 22nd, 2003 | 1 Comment »

Scaled Composites revealed their passenger-carrying spaceship today. This is an actual, working vehicle they’re planning to use as part of a commercial space program. It would also get them the X Prize once flown. Wow!
For those who don’t know Scaled Composites, it’s an aerospace firm run by Burt Rutan. His plane Voyager was the first [...]

Posted by Karen in Space on April 18th, 2003 | 3 Comments »

Just in case it gets clouded, the main justification for attacking Iraq was the supposed presence of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Let me know if anyone finds any.

Posted by Karen in Politics on April 17th, 2003 | Comments Off

Looks like Paul Allen wants to create a Science Fiction Experience multimedia museum in Seattle. I’ll reserve comment until it opens, but it should be interesting to follow.
(Nitpick note: it’s Heinlein’s “Rocketship Galileo” that inspired him as a kid, not “Spaceship Galileo”. Ya-hey.)

Posted by Karen in Fun on April 17th, 2003 | Comments Off

Not sure if it will happen, but it would be nice to see Segway kiosks the next time we go to Paris. I’d love to be able to rent a couple of Segways at the train station, strap our bags to them, and zip over to the hotel. Tooling around the museums and such would [...]

Posted by Karen in Technology on April 15th, 2003 | 1 Comment »

Ever wonder who thought up the mouse? Now you can watch the 1968 demo that introduced it to the world, along with hypertext, the “document”, WYSIWYG editing, and a host of other staples of modern computing.

Posted by Karen in Technology on April 15th, 2003 | Comments Off