The Big Think

Thanks to Scott for this link: Airship to Orbit. It looks like some, erm, enterprising engineers may have figured out a way to take a balloon all the way to orbit. Yup, folks. That’s not a giant boomerang, it’s a 2 mile wide, mach 25 bag of hot air. Figure three to nine days from launch to orbit, and the view just gets more spectacular as you go. So why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?
The thing is, in spite of polyannic hyperbole we’ve heard about space travel the past few years, it really does look like we’re poised to make the Big Break any time now. Between Spaceship One, the 20something other Xprize teams, this crazy airship idea, China’s space program, Bush’s new Moon/Mars initiative, and a host of other breakthroughs, I may just get that big list item (see the Earth from space) checked off before I’m outta here myself.
Keep working guys, I only have five or six more decades…

(in my best StrongBad voice): GMAAAAAIL!
Patrick hooked me up with a Gmail account. To avoid spambots I won’t post it here. Instead, let’s have a little contest: See who can guess my account and send me my first real Gmail. The prize for winning is that I’ll mention you on the blog here and literally dozens of people will see it. Imagine! Your chance at immortality!
ready, set, gmail…
And thanks, Patrick. I just realized that he spent his one gmail invite on me. Just goes to show you that Barelytones are thicker than… er, not Barelytones. What a hoser.

If you ever watched the documentary “Roger and Me”, you might remember it was about a small-time, scrappy documentary filmmaker who tried unsuccessfully to get an interview with the evil head of General Motors, Roger Smith. The film was the springboard for Moore’s career, made him a multi-millionaire, and gave him a national platform to speak.
Well, the size 14 is on the other foot as another Michael is currently making a documentary called Michael Moore Hates America. In it the small-time, scrappy documentary filmmaker tries (apparently unsuccessfully), to get an interview with Michael Moore’s evil-headedness. Oh, and he also talks about media bias.
The trailer is worth a look. Schadenfreude.

Fed up with slow wireless speeds? Try the WiFi Speed Spray to increase your connectivity! (wink wink)

Just had a kernel panic in OS X. Went to homestarrunner.com/sbemail and immediately got a crash. Going to try it again to see if it’s repeatable.
Bummer

via msnbc: Can Star Wars, Episode III be saved? (thanks John)