The new Katamari game is released tomorrow (20050919).

We love Katamari

Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won't be your grandfather's moon shot.

The Exploration Architecture thing was officially released today. So now its really official.

NASA - How We'll Get Back to the Moon | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

A private commission led by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III is proposing new steps to strengthen state election procedures and recommending that Congress require the political parties to hold four regional presidential primaries in election years rather than allowing states to hold primaries whenever they wish.

Why wouldn't you just have a single nationwide primary?

Voting Panel Will Propose New Calendar for Primaries - New York Times

North Korea agreed to end its nuclear weapons program this morning in return for security, economic and energy benefits, potentially easing tensions with the United States after a three-year standoff over the country's efforts to build atomic bombs.

North Korea Says It Will Drop Nuclear Efforts for Aid Program - New York Times

Rattle wrote:

And now for the knee-jerk lefty response. Yes it's time to decommision old ones, no it's not time to build new ones. When we figure out what to do with the radioactive waste, then maybe it'll be time to start building new ones.

Screw that perspective. I'm probably more of a liberal than I am a conservative, and on both grounds I can find a way to refute it. You are very right in classifying that as 'knee-jerk".

There was just such a rambling piece in the Guardian this week.

If projects like Yucca Mountain were not mismanaged, we would have a solution already. On-site storage is even workable.

I have to say Yucca mountain is a pretty dumb idea; all storage *must* be recoverable; it is ludicrous to suppose that we'llhave any idea what will happen to the stuff on a geological time scale. Further, how on earth are you going to get the stuff there? As it stands, you have to cross something like 40 states to get there from all of the nuke sites. On-site isn't perfect but Yucca mountain certainly isn't the answer either. Put it in relatively low-density dry casks until we can come up with a better solution.

RE: Partnership Formed to Build Nuclear Plants

After a gap of three decades in orders for nuclear power plants, two companies interested in building new ones announced Thursday that they had formed a partnership intended to create a new business model for the industry.

Its crazy to be one-offing these things. It sounds like
there may be some progress here.

Partnership Formed to Build Nuclear Plants

Just when it seemed Bay Area home prices couldn't jump any higher, they bounded to another new peak in August, although sales counts hovered below record territory.

The median price for a single-family home in the nine counties reached $651,000 last month -- more than three times the national median and nearly 19 percent above last August's price, according to real estate research firm DataQuick. In July, the median was $643,000.

Still red hot, but slowing / Home prices hit new heights in August, but buyers seem less rushed

The White House has approved NASA's plan to replace the nation's aging fleet of winged spaceships with a new generation of vehicles meant to carry human explorers back to the Moon and onward to Mars and beyond, aerospace experts said yesterday.

White House Backs NASA Plan for Vehicles

The U.S. Senate approved a $200 million budget increase for NASA Thursday, giving the U.S. space agency most of the funding it needs to get started on a new lunar exploration plan to be unveiled Monday.

SPACE.com -- Senate Approves $16.4 Billion Budget for NASA

NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018.

The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday, Washington sources tell SPACE.com.

SPACE.com -- NASA to Unveil Plans to Send 4 Astronauts to Moon in 2018