A recent NASA report to Congress declares that the Agency is willing to share the International Space Station with other government agencies as well as commercial businesses. Of course, there’s a caveat – they want to wait until it’s finished, which is currently timetabled to occur in 2010. Which offers private space outfits like Bigelow a chance to not just undercut their prices but jump the gun as well …

There’s no shortage of people who’ll build you a jetpack, but they’re noisy, dangerous, and far from ecologically friendly. All that could be set to change, however, if the new design just patented for a remotely-powered ion-propelled jetpack makes it to the production line. Yeah, I’m a little skeptical, too … but apparently the patent has overwritten the ones NASA already had in the field, so there must be something to it. If PFS need beta-testers at any point, I hope they know who to email …

Science/tech story of the day has to be MIT’s wireless electricity system by a long margin. Looks like we’ve finally caught up with Tesla after Edison led us astray. Oh, and if you’re a Tesla fan, or a Mark Twain fan, or both – or if you simply appreciate quality graphic novels – you really should get hold of Fraction and Sanders’ Five Fists of Science.

Good news for aspiring transhumanists – the discovery of a protein that slows the onset of aging in fruit flies may lead to the equivalent treatment becoming available to humans. After some considerable development time, of course … by which point someone is sure to have patented it.

The Luddite, Wired’s resident contrarian, is getting all hot under the collar about the new Street View function from Google. He’s usually got a pretty sharp angle in his columns, but this one just comes across as grouching for the sake of grouching. Personally, as much as I’m opposed to increased private and governmental surveillance, I’m inclined to side with Brian Dunbar’s recent take on the all-seeing GOOG – I’d rather they were taking photos of me and letting the whole world see them than my government doing it and keeping them to themselves.