Monthly Archives: May 2006

Welcome to the Future!!!

This could very well be the web site that changes your life. No kidding!

Are you ready for the future? Are you sure? And more importantly, is the future ready for you?

We’re so glad to have you here. You’ve landed on an archive page, so if you want to see what we’ve been up to lately, click here. For a quick dose of good news, visit out sister blog, L2si, where we feature dispatches from a rapidly changing, rapidly improving world. Or you can go here to see what’s happening with both blogs and find links to our podcasts.

So please, make yourselves at home. Have a look around. We’re glad to see you!

More Neat Stuff

Looks like Costa Rica is about to become home to even more neat stuff, in the form of rocket production:

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica Former NASA astronaut and researcher Franklin Chang-Diaz wants to bring the space industry to his native Costa Rica.

He tells the Costa Rican newspaper El Financiero that he’ll start looking for 50 Central American investors to finance rocket production in the region.

He says he hopes to set the project rolling in July and start producing his Magneto-Plasma Rocket by 2011 for sale to space agencies.

Pura Vida!

Via Rand Simberg.

This Got Me Thinking

Via GeekPress, here is a tremedous breakthrough in exercise equipment:

Cordless jump-rope can help the clumsy

WASHINGTON – If you think keeping fit is merely mind over matter, Lester Clancy has an invention for you — a cordless jump-rope. That’s right, a jump-rope minus the rope. All that’s left is two handles, so you jump over the pretend rope. Or if you are truly lazy, you can pretend to jump over the pretend rope.

This is a great idea, but jump-ropes are kind of last century. What about a more upscale and hip piece of equipment — say, a weightless, invisible pilates ball? People would shell out big bucks for that one. Or for those who really want to go all-out: how about a silent, invisible personal trainer? He’ll help you out for $250 per hour. Call me if you’re interested.

Comments Back Up

Comments are working again. Thanks for the head’s up, Kathy.

UPDATE: Wait, is it “head’s up” or “heads up?” Or maybe “headsup?” Anyway, it’s an important phrase — if you’re writing a poem and you need a word to rhyme with “catsup,” it’s about as close as you’re going to get.

The All New Report Card

If you want to avoid an enormous spit-take, please swallow your beverage before reading the following:

A look at what’s happening on the state level confirms this. In Arkansas, for instance, children’s report cards now include their B.M.I., or body mass index, along with their grades. The governor, Mike Huckabee recently lost more than 100 pounds and is passionate about stopping the “obesity epidemic.” Maryland is considering a similar standard.

Great idea! Let’s also put their current IQ, vision, and hearing scores on the report card. And height! Maybe it’s time for an all-out War on Shortness.

And what about some other important stuff: popularity, fashion sense, use of appropriate slang. Come to think of it, maybe we can reduce the entire report card to one pass-fail setting:

Hot or Not?

In my day they didn’t need to put a kid’s BMI on the report card. They fought an effective war on obesity by slopping generous doses of unpalatable swill onto our plates every day. Have the arcane lunch-lady arts been lost to the ravages of time?

Via InstaPundit.

SLAM!

It may be just about time for an interplanetary (or would this be intraplanetary) snowball fight. Let’s see if we can hit the broad side of the moon.

BOULDER, Colorado – A strikingly simple concept would provide efficient water provisions for human outposts/bases on the Moon. The idea is to repeatedly clobber our already crater-rich neighbor with tons of water ice—to establish an “anywhere, anytime” delivery system.

Not only could chucking a payload of water ice to the Moon help sustain an expeditionary crew there, the impact mimics—in experimental form—a comet strike. Therefore, it’s a double-whammy: A science mission wrapped within an exploration capability test mission.

Plus, it would be extremely cool. We’ll want to mount a camera and transmitter face-down (if possible) on that chunk of ice — the moon-slam video would probably become a popular screen-saver.

But seriously, this is an excellent idea. My only question is why they’re talking about using rockets for this thing, when they could be using this.

Memorial Day

To those who defend our freedom — thank you for your courage and your sacrifice.

To those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of our freedom — we have not forgotten. We will not forget. Thank you.

He's Back

Suraya and I spent the past week in Costa Rica. We saw some neat things:

Neat thing 1

Neat thing 2

Neat thing 3

Neat thing 4

Maybe I’ll put some of my own photos up eventually. But you’ll get the general idea just following the links to other people’s photos. Which clearly saves me some work.

Anyhow, it’s an amazing place. We had a wonderful time. Hope to get back there again soon.