The iPhone App store opens next month… social applications like this will likely feature prominently.
And I for one welcome our new 3G iPhone overlords.
Archive for May, 2008
iPhone apps
Friday, May 30th, 2008Holy shit
Thursday, May 29th, 2008One way mission to Mars
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008Should we send a mission to Mars that is only one way? A soldier is volunteering to go.
I would prefer that a self-sustaining colony were created. It seems rather futile to go with no hope of return.
Secret Titanic mission
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008Bob Ballard has revealed that he went in search of the Titanic only after being required to find the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines.
Coincidentally, I was browing wikis only yesterday about the very same subject. On spotting a Dutch submarine (Walrus) in Cork, I looked it up, which led me to other submarines, like the latest Virginia class US subs, then on to a story about the Thresher and Scorpion and theories surrounding their loss.
One of the stories relates to K-129, which is rumoured to have attempted a nuclear strike on Pearl Harbour in 1968. The story went that the Scorpion was sunk by another Russian sub in retaliation for the Swordfish sinking the K-129 before it could launch its attack.
It also led me to the interesting anecdote of the falling H-bomb in, Palomares, Spain in 1966. The fisherman, Simó Orts, who saw where the bomb dropped into the sea, claimed salvage rights.
It is customary maritime law that the person who identifies the location of a ship to be salved has the right to a salvage award if that identification leads to a successful recovery. The amount is nominal, usually 1 or 2 percent, sometimes a bit more, of the intrinsic value to the owner of the thing salved. But the thing salved off Palomares was a hydrogen bomb, the same bomb valued by no less an authority than the Secretary of Defense at $2 billion—each percent of which is, of course, $20 million.
The Air Force settled out of court for an undisclosed sum
As we say in Cork, how bad.
Going, going…
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008Is Oprah losing her mojo? Ratings are falling and her magazine “O” is not selling as well these days. The article contends it has something to do with a backlash after her support for Obama over Clinton.
I can’t help but think it’s because of all that new-fangled nonsense she appears to be into. It follows her cancelling her own show a few weeks ago.
Repossessing houses
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008The NY Times has an interesting look at the work of contractors whose job it is to clean up and repair vacated houses following foreclosure. One of the things people might leave behind: pets.
Indeed a charity, No Paws Left Behind, has been started to try and find homes for pets abandoned after foreclosure. The banks hold on to the properties, boarding them up until the market comes right I guess.
World’s biggest airport
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008In China, and just completed. Gizmodo has some photos. It’s, erm, huge.
About oil
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008The Jed Report helpfully links to a video of John McCain using some interesting logic.
“I will have an energy policy which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East… that will then prevent us from having to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.”
But the war wasn’t about oil, was it John?
How to win the Lunar X prize
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008Popular Mechanics have a fascinating how-to guide on the Google sponsored prize to get private enterprise onto the moon.
They helpfully conclude:
Realistically, the odds seem to be against a prize-winning lunar mission by 2012. But take heart: Lindbergh and Rutan beat long odds. If you manage to snag a friendly billionaire and follow our how-to guide, there’s no reason you won’t be ready to join the pantheon of aerospace prizewinners.
Hegarty bows out
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008Shane Hegarty is bowing out of blogging, at least for now. I can entirely symphatise with his decision, having done so several times myself. It always dragged me back though.
Best of luck Shane!
Musical interlude
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008I must start adding more music… all time classic from the King himself here:
And the ultimate version of Burnin’ Love, great music to drive to:
Ive had enough of those Husseins
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008Phoenix arrives, MRO snaps a photo
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to snap a photo of the Phoenix during its parachute-aided descent to Mars. Our technology continues to amaze me, if we can have an orbiter of another planet take a photo of another satellite descending to that planet, what can’t we do?
This photo is truly historic, and is making the rounds on the web today. People really do get excited about this stuff, and I can see why.
Americans driving less
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008As petrol prices hit record highs in the US, people are driving less, and taking public transportation more.
According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to a record $3.936. That compares with an average price per gallon of $3.23 last Memorial Day.
“With it being near $4 a gallon, you definitely have to drive slower and pick and choose when you’re going to do it,” said Steve Kahn of Roswell, Georgia, at a Memorial Day festival in Atlanta.
Some Americans have turned to public transportation. Ridership increased by 2.1 percent in 2007, in part because of rising gas prices, according to the American Public Transportation Association.
Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest level in 50 years, the group said.
The Energy Information Administration says gas consumption for the first three months of 2008 is estimated to be down about 0.6 percent from the same time period in 2007.
For the summer season, gas consumption is expected to be down 0.4 percent from last year.
At current exchange rates I am paying $7.57 a gallon (€1.27 a litre) for petrol here in Ireland, most of that composed of taxes. It would be more if the euro was not so strong right now.
Oh for the days of $3.936 a gallon…(67 euro cent a litre).
Embed diary
Monday, May 26th, 2008I am enjoying David Smith’s latest embed diary from Iraq. Today he writes about an entrepreneur, Dr Moayad Hamad, in the Dora district of Baghdad:
Hamad, wearing an expensive watch, and smoking cigarettes despite his old profession, is the new breed of Iraqi entrepreneur. Captain Russell Matthews, Warrior battalion, 10th Mountain Division, told me: “He’s probably not been seen here before. The entrepreneur becomes leader, taking the place of the sheikhs. The sheikhs are trying to find their own in a world that’s changing around them.”
Later I walked with Matthews up what the Americans call “Airplane Road”. Chickens sizzled in flame ovens, smiling couples walked hand-in-hand, shoppers sought fruit or mobile phones or a haircut, and grandmothers pushed children on swings in one of Hamad’s new parks. Remarkably, Baghdad felt a good place to be. But the question that Hamad – and others I spoke to – don’t want to contemplate is what will happen when the Americans leave. “They must stay forever!” said one. Not likely, President Obama. The US is in danger of creating a culture of dependency here.