BEIJING, China (AP) -- China hopes to conduct a spacewalk in 2007 and might recruit women into its next group of astronaut candidates, a senior space program official said Monday following the safe completion of the nation's second manned mission.

The Shenzhou 6 flight ended the first stage of China's plan, which focused on development of space vehicles, said Tang Xianming, director of the China Space Engineering Office.

The next stage focuses on developing ways for astronauts to walk in space and the ability to rendezvous and dock with other spacecraft, he said.

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How cute! “We raunch roket ships, too!!!”

Welcome to ~1962!!!

CNN - China to conduct spacewalk in 2007

Decius wrote:

Fuck Everything, We're Doing Five Blades

Thats funny. BTW - I've used the Mach 3 for years. Got a free sample of a Quattro, and the Quattro sucks. MACH 3 FOREVER!

-LB

RE: Boing Boing: Gillette's 5-blade razor predicted by The Onion

"BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A German inventor has angered animal rights activists with his answer to fighting the soaring cost of fuel -- dead cats.

Christian Koch, 55, from the eastern county of Saxony, told Bild newspaper that his organic diesel fuel -- a homemade blend of garbage, run-over cats and other ingredients -- is a proven alternative to normal consumer diesel.

"I drive my normal diesel-powered car with this mixture," Koch said. "I have gone 170,000 km (106,000 miles) without a problem."

Wonder if his engine really DOES purrr when it idles???

-LB

CNN - Inventor fuels car with dead cats

Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and opened the musical wave that became electronica, has died. He was 71.

Moog died Sunday at his home in Asheville, according to his company's Web site. He had suffered from an inoperable brain tumor, detected in April.

A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would lead Moog to a create a career and business that tied the name Moog as tightly to synthesizers as the name Les Paul is to electric guitars.

CNN - Synthesizer innovator Moog dies at 71

bucy wrote:

It now costs about US $20 000 per kilogram to put objects into orbit. Contrast that rate with the results of a study I recently performed for NASA, which concluded that a single space elevator could reduce the cost of orbiting payloads to a remarkably low $200 a kilogram and that multiple elevators could ultimately push costs down below $10 a kilogram.

We will build this. Believe it!

NOW!!! We need a space elevator yesterday.

LB

RE: IEEE Spectrum on Space Elevators

dmv wrote:

This 1883 book is without question the worst phrasebook ever written. The writer, Pedro Carolino, who was Portuguese, did not particularly speak English, nor did he have a Portuguese-English dictionary available. Instead, he worked with a French-English phrasebook and a Portuguese-French dictionary. The results, I'm sure you'll agree, are staggering.

Heh - this could have been written in 2005. Babblefish anyone?? :D

LB

RE: English as she is spoke: Introduction

"A Web forum where cryptographers collaborate on the puzzle went from attracting about 50 hits a day to thousands of hits a day, according to its moderator Elonka Dunin."

Way to go Elonka! :)

Elonka on CNN.com!!!

"Charlie Morgan says that if it weren't for digital photography, he wouldn't have a bustling business that specializes in publicity shots for musicians. That's because Morgan — perhaps being a bit modest — says he's not a very good photographer. He relies on Photoshop editing software to make his work look sharp.

But digital sometimes presents a puzzling problem.

When Morgan's mother and a client recently took CDs with some of his shots to a printing lab, the photo technicians spurned them. They said that since the shots seemed to have been taken by a professional, printing the pictures might be a copyright violation."

God bless the DMCA.
LB

Copyright-worried labs reject some digital printing jobs

"Since being in hospital Saturday 14th I've had no internet connection - there is no wireless here, nor any Ethernet, nor even a crappy bedside unit. There is a bedside unit that does TV and radio, and is supposed to do 'net but it doesn't work, and besides has an awful PDA-style keypad.

For the first few days Nik ever so kindly shuttled his powerbook back and forth with my mail downloaded for offline tinkering. This worked pretty well all-in-all but obviously I couldn't use the Web or do any work. We did try to set up a dev environment but it was quite hard work and out of both our areas of knowledge.

Word got out I was banged up in hospital and Saul Albert of wirelesslondon.info rocked up with two laptops, a 12V car jumpstart battery, a directional wifi antenna, and reams of various cables.

Thank you Saul! (And thank you unsecured hotspot owners!)"

LB

How to get internet from a hospital bed

IconoclasT wrote:

I am at a bit of a loss as to why DVD/PPV distribution still lags the cinema release date by 60-180 days.

I think its because a theatre run actally boosts sales on home video. The "direct to home video" route is reserved for most (not all) films that got poor reviews in front of test audiences. In the eyes of most people, films that go straight to DVD/PPV are seen as average at best, and more likely than not "crap".

Where as a national theatre run will pre-hype a film before it goes into the video stores.

LB

RE: Is the blockbuster the end of cinema?