What the heck is happening at SpaceDev? First founder Jim Benson left, now head of the Starsys division Robert Vacek is taking off. Is there something we should know about from this plucky underdog space company?
Monthly Archives: November 2006
Start ‘Em Young
Some of us rise slowly to greatness (I’m on a logarithmic curve, I reckon), but some people can be seen to be destined for success from an early age. Like Arfa Karim Randhawa, for example, who at eleven years old is the world’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional. What’re the odds she rebels and embraces open source once she hits her teens?
X-37 becomes Air Force’s baby
NASA gave up on the reusable space vehicle X-37 project, so the Air Force is all up on that, with DARPA getting involved. Flight tests begin in 2008.
Fetch The Minority Reports!
I’m of two minds about the news that UK police are using psychological profiling to pre-emptively target potential rapists and murderers before they actually commit any such crimes. On the one hand, I’d rather live in a world where rape and murder were distant memories. On the other hand, this seems like one more in a sequence of exceptionally totalitarian moves by the British government. Is freedom the necessary price of safety?
A Farewell To Floss?
Anyone who, like myself, has suffered indignity and discomfort (and a serious dent to the bank balance) at the hands of the dentistry profession will probably be overjoyed to hear that scientists have discovered a way to cause the regrowth of teeth in mice. This indicates that the ability to regenerate dentition may still be dormant in human DNA as well, which is definitely something to smile about.