Normal Room is a really interesting idea for making the world a smaller place: provide a space for people to upload pictures of their houses and associate location information with it. Unfortunately, the international character of the variety of rooms is leavened by a healthy dose of universal geek-itude. I’m sorry, but anyone with an oscilloscope in their room does not qualify for the sobriquet, “normal room.”

The Environmental Protection Agency wants you to know what nasty chemicals are lurking in an abandoned lot near you, and will be making their data available to the likes of Google and Yahoo! for their mapping applications.

Former PayPal founder Elon Musk’s SpaceX is test firing his Falcon 1 rocket this Friday, and hoping for a launch on the 21st or 22nd. The previous attempt blew up, so here’s hoping the second time’s a charm. SpaceX is one of the winners of the NASA COTS competition, which could mean solid income for this private space company if the Falcon 9 is able to deliver test flights and then cargo.

Success is good for the body as well as the soul, it would appear, as a recent study reveals that winning a Nobel Prize could add two years to your life expectancy. I’m personally a bit dubious about these statistical studies at the best of times, but if it is true, would the effect still hold out if more people got prizes?

Ever wondered what the NASA-Ames Moffet Field Facility looks like if you drive around in it aimlessly for a little while late in the evening? Thanks to a recent research volunteer’s amateur video exploits, now you can find out. What the hell is that scaffolded thing that looks like an immense high-frequency speaker horn?