Well, this is intriguing.  They want to announce a discovery in the field of astrobiology that they expect to affect the search for evidence of life among the stars.   The media event will be held at 1 pm CST.

http://blog.al.com/space-news/2010/11/nasa_sets_press_conference_on.html

Apologies for the low number of posts, I've been busy over the holidays.   

So, the biggest story around is definitely the WikiLeaks scandal.   Many political websites such as Huffington Post and Drudge Report have already covered this in great detail along with the world's initial reaction to the fascinating/horrifying information that can now be freely read on the internet.   You may view these websites at these addresses:

For those on the Right: http://www.drudgereport.com/

For those on the Left: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Leaving aside the actual contents of the 250,000 leaked cables, probably another important aspect being overlooked is the retarded security surrounding the storage of this information.   I worked a few years around the periphery of government.   Often I would see memos by various think tanks concerned about national security.    

One of the articles that struck me was a horrendous account involving ...

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With Cyber Monday just around the corner, millions of online shoppers will be scouring the internet for good deals.   As always, do research on your suppliers before buying, as the story below will clearly illustrate. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html?pagewanted=all   

This NY Times article falls into our "Only on the Internet" category, telling a fascinating account of a man who runs an internet business based on enraging customers.   The idea here is to run an online merchandise business mostly above board, but then selectively choose a few customers to mess with.

Then, as those customers fight you, they leave enraged, negative reviews all over the internet, thus gaining the business a much higher search rank on Google...which in turn, drives more traffic to the unscrupulous website.  He never makes direct threats, but intimidates customers who demand a refund, by emailing pictures of ...

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Wife and I put the tree up early this year, right after all the crazy shopping.   Have a great upcoming season, everyone.

Today the Department of Homeland Security sent shockwaves through internet communities by seizing upwards of 75 websites suspected of pirating intellectual property, such as movies, music and TV.   Visitors to those websites are greeted by the DHS seal declaring that the sites are under investigation.  You may view an example here:

http://www.torrent-finder.com/

Honestly, DHS is supposed to be out capturing terrorists.   Perhaps, this administration would like to explain what exactly copyright enforcement has to do with national security...or where exactly this power is granted to them in the Congressional bill that created the DHS.    Article down below. 

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/130763-homeland-security-dept-seizes-domain-names-

Today is Black Friday!!!   Unlike many others, I actually find this day very fun.   My wife and I make a Bonnie and Clyde team and we clean out the town.   No, not really, but we do manage to catch some really good deals.  

Lots of people condemn this day as crass commercialism...and yeah it is...but if you can get into your own flow there's quite a lot of opportunities on Black Friday that don't involve waiting in line for an obscene number of hours.   We save hundreds of dollars every year and are able to close out our holiday gift shopping on this day.

I've included a video of a stampede at Target down below, lol.  

This year's haul:

FRYS:

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 (3 pc's) - $0 (after store rebate)

32 gb Flash Drive (x2) - $30 each

16 gb Flash Drive - $20

WAL-MART ...

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The turkey did, of course!   Happy Thanksgiving, you random people who visit this blog!

Was it:

A) Pink Floyd

B) Lockheed Martin

C) All of the Above

D) None of the Above

If you guessed "C" you are correct!  Your prize for winning...will be my eternal friendship.    Lockheed Martin has proposed to NASA to send an orbital vehicle to the dark side of the moon (Not to be confused with the FAR side of the Moon.  Far side and dark side are only the same during a Full Moon).   The idea is to place into orbit a craft that will have radar line-of-sight with both the far side of the Moon and Earth. 

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-11/lockheed-martin-proposes-manned-orion-mission-dark-side-moon

Michaelangelo...even more genius than previous believed or just another Rorschach test?

You decide.   Article and image below.

http://yubanet.com/scitech/Michelangelo-Hid-Anatomy-Lesson-in-the-Sistine-Chapel.php

 

Our government leaders are doubling down on their intrusive scans.   Napolitano has announced intended expansions of scanners for all forms of travel, including buses, ships and trains.

But, the cherry on top is their new mobile X-ray scanner which uses the same tech as the airport scanners.   Using it, police can look into your clothes, car and home without you ever suspecting.

My concerns only partially lie with the encroachment on privacy and potential for bureaucratic abuse, my real concerns are for if/when this technology falls into the wrong hands.   Using it, criminals or other shady groups would find it fairly easy to scout private and public locations, or maybe just spray random people and equipment with radiation.

The almost-never-funny Saturday Night Live managed to hit one out of the ballpark last weekend with this fake public service announcement for the TSA.  

2 Dead so far and 60 buildings, mostly homes, destroyed.  This isn't news to most of you since news headlines have been blaring this incident all morning.   For the past 20 years at least, North Korea's foreign policy has been in essence "Give us money or we'll develop nuclear weapons." or "Give us food or we'll develop nuclear weapons."  Then, after they break their agreements they create an incident and the game starts all over again.

This time there's a new element.  The 26 year-old son of Kim Jong Il apparently has his hand in this attack.   His father very ill, the dictator-in-waiting Kim Jong Un must find a way to unite North Korean factions around his authority.   Apparently, he's decided to do it by destabilizing the overall environment, sealing his authority in essence with the blood of his southern brethren.

Unfortunately, current Western ...

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I don't own an iPhone, so I got no experience with it, but these are pretty funny.

http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-10-amazing-iphone-auto-correct-fails/

Some people are worried that this will make kids lazier, kind of like how calculators were once criticized for dulling our math senses and GPS makes us more prone to be directionally-challenged.

But, as the article states, Nintendo wants to keep the game challenging for seasoned players of their console, while providing a means of teaching more casual players how to play the game.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/19/nintendo-shipping-video-games-auto-pilot-controls/

This is cool.  We've all seen videos of time-lapsed sunrises and sunsets.   However, this video shows what the sun looks like when it's in the sky for an entire week.

One of the most overused lines in Hollywood according to the video. :)

For those interested in global politics and trends, here's a fascinating article detailing how  the world faces an explosion of elderly people, even in places you least suspect, which will effect everything from war, power politics, prosperity and food supplies:

 http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/10/11/think_again_global_aging?page=full

There have been many articles about global aging in the past.   And aging demographics are one of the primary reasons many contrarian political analysts believe that China WON'T become a superpower.   Their One-Child Policy not only is creating enormous gaps in gender due to a trend of aborting female babies (by 2020 there will be 30 million more Chinese men than women) but also creates a fertility rate far below needed to keep their workforce young.

http://trueslant.com/ethanepstein/2010/01/26/china-isnt-growing-too-fast-its-growing-too-slowly/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1265068/China-The-worlds-new-superpower-beginning-century-supremacy-alarming-surplus-males.html

A load of sarcastic reviews of the off-limits military base Area 51:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/19/funny-area-51-user-r.html

Now with Spanish subtitles!

Entertainment Weekly has a slideshow of still photos for their upcoming series A GAME OF THRONES based on the excellent novels of George R.R. Martin.    The books come highly recommended by this blog.  HBO aims for a 2011 release.

http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20385926_20442931,00.html