U.S. Military Looking for Ideas on How to Curb the Threat of Orbiting Junk – “Gazing up into the sky on a clear night, the heavens can appear as pristine as a mountain stream. But in truth, at least in Earth’s vicinity, the trash factor in space may be more akin to what is found in New York City’s East River. The region known as low Earth orbit (extending from 160 to 2,000 kilometers above Earth’s surface), which is where many satellites spend their lives and “afterlives,” has a litter problem caused by decades of neglect, and it’s one that currently lacks an expedient solution…”

SGI releases first new product since bankruptcy, Octane III – “In contrast with standard 2P workstations with only eight cores and moderate memory capacity, Octane III’s superior design permits up to 80 high-performance cores and nearly 1TB of memory.” See also: SGI Unveils Octane™ III Personal Supercomputer

Courier: First Details of Microsoft’s Secret Tablet – “It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet. But maybe we’ve all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft’s astonishing take on the tablet…”

NetFlix Everywhere: Sorry Cable, You’re History – “By the end of 2009, nearly 10 million Netflix-equipped gadgets will be hanging on walls and sitting in entertainment centers. And Hastings says this is just the beginning: “It’s possible that within a few years, nearly all Internet-connected consumer electronics devices will include Netflix.”"

Toyota Prius vs BMW M3:

Interesting Facts About the Internet and Social Web

Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine – “Yarynich is talking about Russia’s doomsday machine. That’s right, an actual doomsday device—a real, functioning version of the ultimate weapon, always presumed to exist only as a fantasy of apocalypse-obsessed science fiction writers and paranoid über-hawks. The thing that historian Lewis Mumford called “the central symbol of this scientifically organized nightmare of mass extermination.” Turns out Yarynich, a 30-year veteran of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces and Soviet General Staff, helped build one….”

Intel Plans Even Tinier Circuits in 2011 – “Moore’s Law coming to an end? Not if you ask Intel, which announced Tuesday that it plans to offer chips based on a 22 nanometer process technology in the second half of 2011…”

The Dev That Came in From the Cold: iPhone Camera App Goes Legit – “The application brings the features of the jailbreak, or hacked, version to the store for $2 (the launch price), and we can see it becoming rather popular. Snapture offers a 5x zoom and pan, using the familiar pinch gestures, it will shoot bursts of up to three frames and even gives a level aid to get the camera straight and avoid droopy horizons…”

Miraculous aerocraft may fly 5 continuous years – “The aerocraft, with its 150-meter-long Z-type wing, can adjust its posture to absorb as much solar energy as possible. When flying in darkness, it will adjust the wing into a more aerodynamic position driving the plane with energy stored in the solar panels…”

Saturn Equinox Reveals Mountains in Rings – “The fortuitous lighting of Saturn’s equinox has revealed the planet’s famously smooth, flat rings are actually corrugated…”

A Stick Figure Guide to the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

Apollo moon rocks lost in space? No, lost on Earth – “The discovery of a fake moon rock in the Netherlands’ national museum should be a wake-up call for more than 130 countries that received gifts of lunar rubble from both the Apollo 11 flight in 1969 and Apollo 17 three years later…”

PSI: My Kitchen – The Art of the Pressure Cooker – “The idea of a pressure cooker is that instead of cooking food slowly at low temperature as does its cousin the crock pot, it cooks food quickly using high pressure…”

Scientists unveil plan designed to cut cost of space travel – “Gravitational corridors could help spacecraft ply the solar system like ships borne on ocean currents, it has been disclosed by scientists investigating space travel… “

Well, Why NOT a (750-Horsepower) Chevrolet Corvette Hybrid? – “The Vette is an icon, and GM messes with it at its peril. So a throwaway line in Automotive News set hearts pounding and Corvette fans sweating: If it had to, General Motors would do a hybrid-electric Chevrolet Corvette to meet Federal fuel-economy standards. We think that’s a great idea. Here’s why: What would you say to a 750-plus horsepower Vette…with better gas mileage to boot?”

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