Google and Virgin Join Forces, Plan Mars Colony

The new endeavor, named Virgle, has been written up on the Google blog by Sir Richard Branson.
Radcliffs, get your rockets ready!

mirrors and moonbeams

Is anyone interested in a road trip to Arizona for some moonshine? No, not that kind of moonshine. I’m talking about moonlight reflected off a five-story mirror array in the desert near Tuscon.
A Tucson-based inventor and businessman Richard Chapin and his wife Monica are behind the giant device, which gathers up and focuses the light [...]

anyone up for Norway?

When Michael Moore made his recent documentary “Sicko”, he left out a segment because he thought no one would believe it. Now, through the power of the Internets, you can watch for yourself and discover the amazing infrastructure and services in Norway.

Hong Kong Chronicles

Those of you with an interest in things Chinese and para-Chinese (I’m looking at you. Ahem.) might be interested in reading the blog that anthropologist David K. Jordan has been maintaining while spending a semester teaching in Asia. It’s chock full of linguistic and religious observations, all with that pleasant snarkiness that DKJ has mastered.

because I know you want to go

…to Poseidon!

Yup. I’m torn between “err, it’s kind of resort-y” and “Oh my Gosh,
it’s keen! We each get personal submarines! We can feed fish at our
room window by pushing a button on our control console! Each suite is
independently able to be lifted to the surface in case of emergency!”
Everything is exclamationy.
Because [...]

And You (I) Thought They’d Never Be Able To …

image and story courtesy Springwise
SilverJet recently announced they have crossed from the dark side into the neutral side… CO2 neutral, that is. And being the first airline to do so gets the official wooden nickel from me. I never thought the airline industry would come close to getting CO2 neutral.
Heck, if they can [...]

Maps! Of! War!

This is the coolest 90 seconds I’ve spent on world history.

first images of SpaceShipTwo, inside and out

Gizmodo has posted the first images of SpaceShipTwo, the ship being built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic flights starting next year.  (Ships, rather.  The VSS Enterprise is the first to be named, but a total of five are on order.)  It’ll hold two pilots and six space tourists, with big comfy seats (for soft [...]

happy World Carfree Day

Nate and Eventful remind me that it’s World Carfree Day today.  Celebrate!
Ironically, we’re going camping this weekend so we’ll be driving up to the mountains.  But no driving for 48 hours after that!

shall not be silen(ced)

Here’s a ponderable: was a man at JFK actually required to remove his t-shirt because it had a peace protest slogan in arabic? If so, what does that say about the (police) state of our airports?