European Space Agency is looking for a few good persons

ESA is looking for experimental 'virtuonauts' (terminology mine) to man a virtual mission to mars. Finally a looming solution to migrant worker problems.

Read the full story here.

download application here

Blackminton

Not to be confused with speedminton
This sport played in an all dark court with neon clothing has nuances of Tron. You know how fond of that now banned movie I am.

Berkshares Can't buy Me Whuffie?

This article from Rueters details a whuffie system that co-habitates with US currency. The BerkShare is valued at .90 on the US dollar, and is mostly used by locals of Great Barrington, Massachusettsas a way to give a 10% discount. The Berkshare comes in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50. It is illegal for a state to issue it's own currency, however coupons are permitted as long as they do not resemble US currency. A local bank is hoping to convert Berkshares to a debit card.

Steve Jobs and the iPhone

"..everybody is quietly saying, er, what if people want to buy a $500 phone? What if, er, people have been waiting for a device that does all these things? What if this thing works as advertised? I mean, my God, what then?"
CEO of one of the planet’s largest communications companies

quote from long article at New York Mag about Steve Jobs and the iPhone

Keep them the Speed of Zombies please

Also from Gizmodo HUBO is getting around faster with Dean Kamen's Segway from Korea Advanced Institute Of Science and Technology

via RoboticRevolt

YouTube Launches mobile ap

According to Brian at Gizmodo, You Tube the online user content video source has 'soft launched' it's new mobile site. A few years back I blogged here about video becoming the new email. Soon literacy will become even less important (See Idiocracy post below) as we shift to video. My wife uses her camera regularly now to shoot both photos and video. And uses Photobucket to edit her video online. The paradigm that means everyone is a graphic artist, chef, movie producer marches on.