Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
The death of the double click.
The story includes some nice history behind the invention of the GUI.
Interestingly, I could probably count on one hand the times I have double-clicked on a computer, since I rarely use the mouse at all. Instead, I have found it is far faster to use the keyboard to access commands, files, programs, etc.
The uncertainty of science: New data from a neutrino telescope in Antarctica has found that cosmic rays don’t come from gamma ray bursts, as had been believed by astronomers. You can read the paper here. [pdf]
Which means that astronomers at this moment have no idea what produces these high energy cosmic rays.
Is asteroid mining about to begin?
Considering some of the major players who are either investors or advisers for this company, this story could get very exciting when the company’s full plans are revealed on April 24.
NASA budget battles: House panel proposes giving commercial space $500 million.
The Obama administration proposed giving commercial space $830 million, the Senate appropriations subpanel earlier this week proposed $525 million. All in all, this looks good for commercial space.
One other thing: that the House did not propose taking from NOAA the job of launching weather satellites and giving it to NASA is more proof to me that the proposal was merely an attempt by Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) to shift federal dollars to the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Uh-oh: That Mexican volcano near Mexico City is now spewing ash a half mile into the sky.
Amen to that.
The first stage of the Antares rocket is now vertical on the launchpad at Wallops Island in preparations for launch tests.
Senate Democrats don’t even bother to show up for a budget meeting called by their own leader.
Since the year 2009, not one single Democrat or Democrat-aligned member of the United States Senate has voted “yes” on any budget. They’ve refused to present their own ideas, of course, but they’ve also unanimously voted down every last alternative, from both Republicans and their own party’s president. Think about that.
Dawn’s mission at Vesta has been extended for forty days, while still allowing the spacecraft to reach Ceres as scheduled.
We’re here to help you: Two seniors “lose” $300 in cash going through a TSA security checkpoint.
Only two? “Two scandals could hurt Obama’s reelection lead.”
The article only mentions the GSA spending spree and the Secret Service sex scandal in Columbia. I wonder how this reporter missed Fast and Furious and Jon Corzine, just to name two that come to mind immediately. And there are others, for sure.
“Our spaceships to fly from here to Abu Dhabi to New Mexico in no more than an hour.”
The suggestion from this story is that not only will Virgin Galactic fly suborbital tourism flights out of Abu Dhabi, but the deal includes an effort to turn SpaceShipTwo into a transportation vehicle as well. Most interesting.
Caving for science! A bacteria, naturally resistant to all antibiotics, has been found in Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico.
Eleven ancient buildings built on a cliff’s edge.
You can’t make this stuff up: A mathematical journal has retracted a paper because “the article contains no scientific content.”
Mexico has raised its volcano alert level in response to increased activity of Popocatepetl volcano, southeast of Mexico City.
We’re here to help you: New government regulations will likely end the ability of teenagers to get summer jobs on farms.
New simulations suggest that the magnitude of tsunamis predicted to hit Japan have been significantly underestimated.
The difficulty here is that these predicted giant tsunamis are still expected to be very rare events. It is thus unclear what is more practical, to build things at great cost so that they can survive these rare events, or to live with the risk and rebuild each time after disaster strikes.
The trial of an ex-JPL computer specialist who claims he was fired for his Christian beliefs ended today.
Closing arguments ended Monday after a five-week trial. The case will be decided by Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige, who must first review written arguments from both sides and could take months before announcing a verdict. Both sides agreed to forgo a jury.
Last week’s 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Mexico apparently caused a miniature tsunami in a spring pool near Las Vegas, 1,700 miles away. With video.
