Orbital wins contract for four NASA launches. Orbital Sciences Corporation reported Thursday that it has won orders for four launches of NASA... [spacetoday.net]

OK, this is cool- NASA is outsourcing satellite launches to a privately developed launch vehicle company. A modified Lockheed L-1011, carrying an X-15-like unmanned launch vehicle, will carry the LV to a high altitude where the LV will be released and make its way to orbit. It's cheap and reusable and gets the job done.

It's the privatization of things like satellite launches that will make the utilization of orbital space a viable long-term prospect and free NASA to concentrate on exploring the solar system.

10:55:18 PM     leave/read comments []

Way to go OWC!!!

10:43:40 PM     leave/read comments []

Fox threatens to sue Fox over Simpsons. Fox News threatened to sue Fox Entertainment because a Simpsons parody of the Fox News crawler hurt Rupert Murdoch's feelings.

"Fox said they would sue the show and we called their bluff because we didn't think Rupert Murdoch would pay for Fox to sue itself. We got away with it," Mr Groening told National Public Radio in the US.

"But now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls [tickers] on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the viewers into thinking it's real news," he added on NPR's Fresh Air programme.

Link [Boing Boing Blog]

Wow, whatta maroon!

10:41:05 PM     leave/read comments []

Happy Halloween!

Grovers Corners says, "I am soooooo embarassed."

Radio play upsets Americans

"Martian invasion " of United States taken seriously

Tuesday November 1, 1938

A wireless dramatisation of Mr. H. G. Wells's fantasy, "The War of the Worlds" - a work that was written at the end of last century - caused a remarkable wave of panic in the United States during and immediately after its broadcast last night at eight o'clock.

Listeners throughout the country believed that it was an account of an actual invasion of the earth by warriors from Mars. The play, presented by Mr. Orson Welles, a successful theatrical producer and actor, gave a vivid account of the Martian invasion just as the wireless would if Mr. Wells's dream came true.

6:07:32 PM    

From http://www.pe.net/

6:03:55 PM     leave/read comments []

Lawmaker gives thumbs-up to RIAA clampdown [CNET News.com - Front Door]

Yes, he's the best congressman money can buy, friend to the multi-national downtrodden and enemy of the creeping menace that is the American Music Fan:

The head of the House of Representatives panel that oversees copyright law on Friday applauded the music industry's recent lawsuits against peer-to-peer file swappers. "The legal action taken by the recording industry is necessary to protect intellectual property rights from being violated," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Tex., chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.

5:53:57 PM    

Spotty display riles some PowerBook buyers. Hundreds of owners of Apple Computer's new 15-inch PowerBook G4 are complaining about an apparent design fault that causes white spots to show up on the notebook computer's display. [CNET News.com - Front Door]

Nooooooo!!!! Another illusion shattered! Oh the woe! The heartbreak! The......what?

They're HOW much?

Well, by the time I've got the cash for one, this should be sorted out. As for folks with bucks, caveat emptor norton. Or something like that.

5:49:33 PM     leave/read comments []

Yo! Everyone's side-talkin' these days!

Side Talkin'!

I WONDERED IF PEOPLE MIGHT BE like ot talk ON THE SIDE... I KNEW THE HUMAN DUDES WAS BUILT FOR TOTAL SIDETALKING STYLE... BUT I NEVER EVER EXPECTED THIS! for the most part

5:38:35 PM    

A Concorde Heads to New York to Make the Intrepid Its Home. People in New York will soon be able to see the Concorde doing what it was never built to do: sitting still. By Edward Wong. [New York Times: Business]

11:32:35 AM     leave/read comments []