Blogtools, movie reviews, abandoned mines, mutant tomatoes, black holes, ion engines…

• 1 – BackupMyBlog
  Totally does what it says on the tin – a web2.0 service that backs up yout MySQL blog for you. I shall be making use of this very soon.
  (tags: MySQL storage service security wordpress blogging database web2.0 tools backup blog)
• 2 – Movie Review: Clerks 2
  The Memepunks review the latest Kevin Smith movie. “Kevin Smith knows his fans and knows his comedy. Who else would make a million dollar film and run their entire myspace friends list in the credits?” Indeed.
  (tags: review film movie 2 Clerks Smith Kevin)
• 3 – Mutant tomato harvested in Kyoto
  Does what it says on the tin – a tomato with a face (though it’s not Jesus). Today’s ‘dead donkey story’, but featuring a member of the vegetable kingdom.
  (tags: Japan lion mask face tomato mutant)
• 4 – Abandoned iron mines
  Does what it says on the tin…lots of photos to satisfy your Freudian desire to return to the womb. Thankyou, Metafilter.
  (tags: subterranean underground caving spelunking galleries images pictures mines iron abandoned)
• 5 – Taste the Future
  The Memepunks (metaphorically) tuck into a big plate of barbecued vat-meat. Tasty and ethically sound!
  (tags: farming animals ecology consumption ethics protein cultured grown vat meat food)
• 6 – Researchers ‘text mine’ The New York Times, demonstrating ease of new technology
  “Performing what a team of dedicated librarians would need months to do, scientists have used new technology to complete in hours a complex topic analysis of 330,000 stories.” That’s one of the least popular jobs in libraries, you know.
  (tags: modelling topic mining text technology indexing catalogue analysis stories newspaper libraries)
• 7 – ‘Long Tail’ of music comes to cell phones
  “Lots of people would download music to their phones, if they could find something other than Gnarls Barkley, according to one mobile download infrastructure firm.” I can’t fault the logic of that statement.
  (tags: diversity content availability download phone mobile music economics Tail Long)
• 8 – New ion engine could propel spacecraft to Titan
  Does what it says on the tin – NASA groundtesting a new thruster design. Sounds like a winner.
  (tags: technology mission exploration unit propulsion engine ion Thruster Xenon Evolutionary NEXT NASA space)
• 9 – Prelife molecules present in comets
  There may well be atomic nitrogen in those dirty lumps of ice – maybe that’s how life on Earth got started? Kinda ‘panspermia lite’ idea.
  (tags: life Earth biology molecules organic nitrogen atomic clouds gas interstellar comets space)
• 10 – Birthplace of Hurricanes
  Despite their freshly-mangled mission statement, the NASA boys are off to Africa to help look after the home planet by studying how hurricanes form.
  (tags: prediction mitigation disaster change climate meteorology science thunderstorm hurricane weather storm NASA)
• 11 – What If You Could Google Objects, Not Just Words?
  Indeed…the ultimate tourist guide, with only one page, a GPS receiver and a net connection. It’s a nice idea, and at the moment that’s all it is. But you never know these days…
  (tags: concept tools guide tourist design technology hardware Google future gadgets GPS)
• 12 – Clutching At Straw
  Captain Sterling strikes again…laying out plans for a new America, one with a fuel economy based on locally grown ethanol crops.
  (tags: futurism transport straw grass prarie economy fuel ethanol America Design Veridian Sterling Bruce)
• 13 – Where are the supermassive black holes hiding?
  On the latest Muse album? Behind big clouds of dust at the centres of galaxies? Behind the fridge, perhaps? All those cosmic X-rays mean they must be out there somewhere…
  (tags: elusive mystery X-rays radiation cosmic supermassive holes black cosmology space)
• 14 – Island universes with a twist
  The more galaxies we discover, the more we realise that there’s no real ‘vanilla’ flavour. The Very Large Telescope has spotted a trio of them who have had some rough times in the past.
  (tags: irregular science cosmology images galaxies Telescope Large Very VLT space)
• 15 – The Terrafugia Transition – is this the first viable flying car?
  It looks good, and the company talk the talk pretty good, but I’m not making any bets yet.
  (tags: futurism transport technology invention aircraft automobile car flying PAV Vehicle Air Personal Transition)
• 16 – Outer solar system’s busy, busy, busy
  Loads more junk in the Kuiper Belt than previously thought…good news for posthuman prospectors.
  (tags: technology fibre optical telescope planetoids objects belt Kuiper Xena Pluto space)