A skip and a jump
Sorry for the late release but I've been crazy busy in the last two weeks. Okay so a lot has happened over the last few weeks, we shot a nuclear rocket off to Pluto, Google doesn't play nice with the DoJ, and China wants to build a mini-sun. Oh yeah and a word about Disney.
Okay first let's talk about the rocket, first of all if you weren't aware, NASA launched its first probe to the planet Pluto on Thursday January 19, 2006. A mere two days after the scheduled launch, mainly due to bad weather conditions. Now that's not really all that interesting to most people except this one is nuclear powered. More accurately its a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that uses plutonium dioxide to power it, hence nuclear powered rocket. So what does this all mean and why do you care? Well for one if you lived near the cape you were probably worried about 1 and 450 chance of something going wrong, I don't actually know if those were the odds, but I hear it was in that range. With odds like that and the words "nuclear" in the phrase let's just say that I was thinking, "hmm I wonder if I'll glow in the dark?" Well needless to say the only glowing thing around me is my laptop screen. Okay so there isn't much to talk about for this one until we collect the data the probe is suppose to gather, but think of it this way it's been a long time since we've launched a rocket with plutonium and didn't kill anyone. Check out Space.com's article on the launch and the mission here.
Okay its unlikely that you haven't heard about the Google vs DoJ, I'm gonna fill those of you who've in a hole for a while. Basically the current government administration wants to implement a law that basically makes it harder for little children to find porn on the web. The first time they tried this they failed and the Supreme Court back down to a lower court. In either case they have a chance to appeal this thing by proving the only way to stop this is by showing there is no other way to keep "harmful" materials away from children. Basically the administration doesn't want "harmful" materials to be easily accessible to children. Now before I get into what in the world is "harmful", let's talk about why Google is involved. After their first failure the DoJ is out to prove that harmful content is out there and easily searchable through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and others. Hence the DoJ tapped those search companies for their search records and in short Google said "no." So now there is a lot of attention coming from the media and civil liberties groups all clamoring about the issue. In short the loose definition of "harmful" to children could put the US government in a position to directly influence information that is available over the Internet. Sounds bad huh? Well there is a bit more too it and the actual implementation of a law would be pretty difficult and probably impractical, but its the precedence that worries most people. News.com has good little FAQ about the issue here other wise I suggest checking SearchEngineWatch.com for more information.
China want's to build and artificial sun. Well its more like a crazy fusion reactor but their getting help from Russia to push the project. China hopes that this may provide a clean source of energy but only time will tell. So basically if your going to China stay away from the big glowing fusion device, otherwise let's hope that these reactor are as good as they're cracked up to be. By the way China will join Russia, France, and Japan as the fourth country to have such a device, so at least they aren't just winging it. You can get the whole story here.
Disney has purchased Pixar Animation Studios for a little over 7 billion dollars. However, that's just the beginning it seems the acquisition of Pixar has lead to some changes in Disney's own animation studio's and Pixar's CEO will join Disney's board. So what's so interesting about that last part? Well Pixar's CEO is the same as Apple's CEO Steve Jobs who will not only be on Disney's board but will be a one of the companies major share holders. News.com has a decent article on what troubles may come with Disney's latest purchase, here.
Okay first let's talk about the rocket, first of all if you weren't aware, NASA launched its first probe to the planet Pluto on Thursday January 19, 2006. A mere two days after the scheduled launch, mainly due to bad weather conditions. Now that's not really all that interesting to most people except this one is nuclear powered. More accurately its a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that uses plutonium dioxide to power it, hence nuclear powered rocket. So what does this all mean and why do you care? Well for one if you lived near the cape you were probably worried about 1 and 450 chance of something going wrong, I don't actually know if those were the odds, but I hear it was in that range. With odds like that and the words "nuclear" in the phrase let's just say that I was thinking, "hmm I wonder if I'll glow in the dark?" Well needless to say the only glowing thing around me is my laptop screen. Okay so there isn't much to talk about for this one until we collect the data the probe is suppose to gather, but think of it this way it's been a long time since we've launched a rocket with plutonium and didn't kill anyone. Check out Space.com's article on the launch and the mission here.
Okay its unlikely that you haven't heard about the Google vs DoJ, I'm gonna fill those of you who've in a hole for a while. Basically the current government administration wants to implement a law that basically makes it harder for little children to find porn on the web. The first time they tried this they failed and the Supreme Court back down to a lower court. In either case they have a chance to appeal this thing by proving the only way to stop this is by showing there is no other way to keep "harmful" materials away from children. Basically the administration doesn't want "harmful" materials to be easily accessible to children. Now before I get into what in the world is "harmful", let's talk about why Google is involved. After their first failure the DoJ is out to prove that harmful content is out there and easily searchable through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and others. Hence the DoJ tapped those search companies for their search records and in short Google said "no." So now there is a lot of attention coming from the media and civil liberties groups all clamoring about the issue. In short the loose definition of "harmful" to children could put the US government in a position to directly influence information that is available over the Internet. Sounds bad huh? Well there is a bit more too it and the actual implementation of a law would be pretty difficult and probably impractical, but its the precedence that worries most people. News.com has good little FAQ about the issue here other wise I suggest checking SearchEngineWatch.com for more information.
China want's to build and artificial sun. Well its more like a crazy fusion reactor but their getting help from Russia to push the project. China hopes that this may provide a clean source of energy but only time will tell. So basically if your going to China stay away from the big glowing fusion device, otherwise let's hope that these reactor are as good as they're cracked up to be. By the way China will join Russia, France, and Japan as the fourth country to have such a device, so at least they aren't just winging it. You can get the whole story here.
Disney has purchased Pixar Animation Studios for a little over 7 billion dollars. However, that's just the beginning it seems the acquisition of Pixar has lead to some changes in Disney's own animation studio's and Pixar's CEO will join Disney's board. So what's so interesting about that last part? Well Pixar's CEO is the same as Apple's CEO Steve Jobs who will not only be on Disney's board but will be a one of the companies major share holders. News.com has a decent article on what troubles may come with Disney's latest purchase, here.
posted by Steve at 2:50 PM
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