Bigelow big-ups, dino-spime, Bill Gates goes open source on AIDS…

• 1 – Bigelow’s Big Gamble: Building a Space Station
  Space.com quizzes the bigwigs of the space industries for their opinions on Bigelow’s success, both present and future.
  (tags: futurism enterprise private interviews success prototype station inflatable module Genesis Bigelow space)
• 2 – Spacewalks to be sold for $15 million
  That’s on top of the $20million fee for getting up to the ISS in the first place, mind you. Damn I want to go and do that…donations accepted via PayPal.
  (tags: orbit sensory experience astronaut excursion station ISS spacewalk prices tourism space)
• 3 – Early version of a dinosaur spime
  Extremely entry-level proof-of-concept for spimes – it’s a paper cut-out dinosaur! Er, yes. Link via the man who made up the term ‘spimes’, Bruce Sterling.
  (tags: humour Bruce Sterling dinosaur paper cut-out DIY concept proof spime basic)
• 4 – A Real 3D Display
  Yet another one…this one looks like a pretty good system though, if it works like the embedded video shows it doing.
  (tags: futurism images video HoloVisio screen holographic technology display 3D)
• 5 – Is Hell Freezing Over? Bill Gates Embraces the Knowledge Commons
  Bad-boy Billy tells AIDS researchers that they can have masses of cash for projects – as long as they make all the results ‘open source’ and free for all to access. Blimey, who’d have thunk it?
  (tags: source open grants research AIDS patents Foundation Gates Bill Microsoft innovation copyright)
• 6 – Man equals man
  Wired correspondent Momus holds forth on his personal blog about ‘proportionality’ as related to the current Israel/Lebanon travesty. It’s a great relief to realise that the whole world doesn’t think like the tabloid headlines. Go read.
  (tags: philosophy equality murder revenge ethics conflict war proportionality Lebanon Israel)
• 7 – ‘Community’, by Karl Schroeder
  A nice little specualtive short story from Schroeder, looking at the impact of ubiquitous internet platforms and fabricators on isolated communities. Well worth the ten minutes it’ll take to read it.
  (tags: fabricators internet impact technology futurism story short fiction speculative Community Schroeder Karl)
• 8 – Personal Nanofactories (PNs)
  Just how exactly will a home fabricator nanofactory work? The CRN boys have the lowdown. Link via AdvancedNanotechnology
  (tags: technology manufacturing futurism fabber nanofactory nanotech fabrication nanotechnology)
• 9 – City Gas Guzzler
  Great little Greenpeace ad on YouTube…for anyone who hates SUV drivers. Link via AmorMundi.
  (tags: popularity drivers SUV guzzler gas city advert environment activism Greenpeace)
• 10 – Custom flash drive icons
  Got a lot of flash-drives? Give each one its own little icon! Look professional, feel professional…or something. Link via Lifehacker.
  (tags: howto tutorial portable custom icons thumb drive flash usb)
• 11 – Guide to Useless Services (Windows XP SP2)
  Windoze XP eating too much RAM? “Fortunately, not all of the default services are required by all users, so you can turn some of them off to free up some memory.” Excellent! Link via Lifehacker.
  (tags: tuning performance memory hacks efficiency computer tips guide Services XP Windows)
• 12 – Parliamo Scots?
  A vocabulary guide to the Scots dialect. This would have been handy during my Eastercon experience this year!
  (tags: humour words Scotland Scottish Scots vocabulary slang dialect language)
• 13 – How Stores are Secretly Using Barry Manilow to Rob You
  “Every type of retail store has lures and tricks in place to get you to buy more, More, MORE than you ever intended to when you walked through its doors.” Sneaky b*stards – get wise with this article. Link via MetaFilter.
  (tags: supermarkets retail advertising experience business commerce marketing psychology shopping)
• 14 – How to Keep Beer Cold
  “Beer drinking is one of the world’s favorite pastimes. So as the weather started heating up, we felt a scientific duty to investigate this burning beer-related question: what is the most effective beer can cozy?” Link via Coudal Partners.
  (tags: weather hot maintain temperature cold cozy can project science beer)
• 15 – Ashes To Ashes, Dust To Dust: Litter Made To Degrade
  This is all well and good, but wouldn’t adjusting lifestyles to be less dependent on plastic bags and more mindful of recycling and reuse be a better move?
  (tags: environment ecology breakdown sunlight decomposition additive biodegradable bags plastic)

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