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"When someone from the audience asked Mary McDonnell, who plays President Roslin, if Barack Obama had approached her to be his running mate, she replied that Hillary had. At which point Douglas quipped: 'Hillary's the final cylon.' Badabum!" The promotional campaign for BSG Season 4 gets rolled out of drydock, including a stop on Letterman's Top 10. [Text.] Not great, frankly, but it's redeemed by #5, #1, and the World's Most Dangerous Band's mean version of "All along the Watchtower." If you're not caught up, Season 3 came out last Tuesday. If you are, Season 4 premieres Friday, April 4.

By the way, the first link is via High Industrial, who's also recently linked to this great dog-cylon friendship, one considerably more symbiotic than Berk and the now defunct Roomba. (It apparently got distressed by all the dog hair and up and pulled a Marvin. Now it just sits there "recharging" and won't vacuum a frakking thing.)

"Thoughtcrime is death. Thoughtcrime does not entail death. Thoughtcrime IS death. I have committed even before setting pen to paper the essential crime that contains all others unto itself." The shape of things to come? Scientists at Berkeley conceive a way to use MRI imaging to "map" images in the brain. "Our results suggest that it may soon be possible to reconstruct a picture of a person's visual experience from measurements of brain activity alone. Imagine a general brain-reading device that could reconstruct a picture of a person's visual experience at any moment in time...It is possible that decoding brain activity could have serious ethical and privacy implications downstream in, say, the 30 to 50-year time frame."

"Depending on how you look at it, the Chinese government’s attempt to rein in the Internet is crude and slapdash or ingenious and well crafted. When American technologists write about the control system, they tend to emphasize its limits. When Chinese citizens discuss it—at least with me—they tend to emphasize its strength. All of them are right, which makes the government’s approach to the Internet a nice proxy for its larger attempt to control people’s daily lives."

Forget Ohio and Texas, Sen. Clinton...Want to see a "real" firewall in use? The Atlantic's James Fallows explains the nature and workings of China's "Great Firewall." "What the government cares about is making the quest for information just enough of a nuisance that people generally won’t bother...When this much is available inside the Great Firewall, why go to the expense and bother, or incur the possible risk, of trying to look outside? All the technology employed by the Golden Shield, all the marvelous mirrors that help build the Great Firewall—these and other modern achievements matter mainly for an old-fashioned and pre-technological reason. By making the search for external information a nuisance, they drive Chinese people back to an environment in which familiar tools of social control come into play."

"It's very deep, like in a forest on the darkest night,' said Shawn-Yu Lin, a scientist who helped create the material at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. 'Nothing comes back to you. It's very, very, very dark.'" Dick Cheney's soul? Tonight's lunar eclipse? No, a great leap forward in "transformational optics"...and invisibility cloaks. The "paper-thin material...absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black."

The 2005-2008 format war is over and the verdict is in: The winner is Sony's Blu-Ray, and HD-DVD goes the way of Betamax. "Toshiba Corp...is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high-definition video, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp ." (So much for the Total Hi Def compromise.) I stopped buying DVDs when the war started three years ago. Looks like it's now safe to return to the fold.

Outside, it's America, with all its stirring, hard-fought, and often thoroughly draining primary election drama. Inside the IMAX at 68th St., however, it's Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington's U2 3D, an impressive state-of-the-art concert film of Dublin's famous foursome doing what they do best, and in three dimensions! Anyone who's ever thrown in The Joshua Tree -- that's millions of people, obviously -- and listened to the thrilling opening strands of "Where the Streets Have No Name" can probably imagine the potential of U2 filtered through an IMAX sound system and projected in multiple dimensions. All I can say, it's pretty darned cool. If you're not at all a fan of the band or their music, I'd guess you'd enjoy the 3D-effect but might get bored at some point. But, if you're at all into U2, it's definitely worth checking out. I'd consider myself an above-average fan of the band, although I've probably listened to the last two albums -- All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb -- all of twice. ("My" favorite U2 is the Achtung Baby/Zooropa/Pop period, and I thought they took a step backward when they reverted back to instant-classic-rock. But, like I said, I probably haven't given the new stuff its due.) At any rate, U2 3D really feels like the future in concert films. As a music experience, it's better than having the best seats in the house (and the drunk girl on her boyfriend's shoulders in front of you -- while in 3D -- never actually obscures your vision.)

So...U2 3D recounts the tale of four Irishmen -- arguably the biggest rock band of the last 25 years (although I'm personally partial to R.E.M.) -- in the midst of a huge sold-out stadium tour on the far side of the world (South America, to be exact.) Let's see, we've got Bono (Paul Hewson) on vocals, Adam Clayton on the bass, Larry Mullen, Jr. on the drums, and The Edge (David Evans) on guitar. And, that's about it, really -- It's just the show, no backstage banter or time on the bus or anything. With perhaps one exception (the start of the encore), the guys are definitely in their post-ironic, UN high commissioner mode for the show's entire run, and the setlist mostly reflects that. Ok, sure, I had the usual concert quibble: Despite all the rousing political numbers in their back catalog, I'd love to have heard some of their more conflicted love songs therein too ("Love is Blindness," "So Cruel," "Running to Stand Still," "If You Wear that Velvet Dress.") (And, for that matter, I kept thinking it might've been more fun to catch the more subversive MacPhisto or PopMart tours in 3D instead, but ah well.) But while there are very few surprises therein, U2 do a surprisingly good job of covering most of their main bases over the past three decades. You can guess most of the songs they play, sure, but, they still fit almost all of 'em in there.

And, the actual concert notwithstanding, the 3D aspect of U2 3D is particularly impressive. I didn't really know what to expect going in, but based on Beowulf I figured there'd be a lot of Bono trying to brain me with his mic stand. But that's not how it plays. Yes, Larry Mullen has the most hyperreal three-story drum kit I've ever seen. But the real magic of 3D here is in how directors Owens and Pellington use it to transpose different images over each other to fashion a unique and wholly different visual perspective, just as The Edge layers various guitar parts atop one another to create his own sonic landscape. In short, too much is not enough. It's actually possible to watch completely different things at once, because the various shots are operating in disparate planes -- We may have Bono singing in the foreground, a close-up of Clayton jamming in the middle distance, a shot of the crowd in the lower background, and a view of the screens along the upper tier, all at the same time. It's actually a much more striking effect than just a regular 3-D image, and it indicates more than anything else I've ever seen that 3D technology could really create an entirely new cinematic language. (See also Matt Zoller Seitz gushing about the medium.) At any rate, look, I gotta go, I'm running out of change (although, hopefully, Sen. Obama isn't.) But, to sum up, if you're into U2 or 3D, see U2 3D -- you won't be disappointed. Okay, Edge, play the blues!

Ten stunning ultra-geeky home cinemas. (Via the Daily Dish.) If I ever become inordinately, stupendously wealthy, this sort of thing would be on my short-list (after setting up a progressive think tank and working to end world hunger, of course.)

Blah Blah Blah Berkeley...Scientists in Hungary have apparently developed a computer program that speaks basic canine. "After analyzing digital versions of the barks, overall the computer program correctly identified the kinds of barks the dogs made 43 percent of the time — about the same as humans' 40 percent...The software identified 'walk' and 'ball' barks better than people, although people identified 'play' and 'alone' barks better than the software."

Hmm. I don't want to dismiss the advance of science, but that's a pretty low success rate. (And I'd wager most dog owners can get the thread of their own pet's barking more often than 40% of the time.) More interestingly, though, "'I'm pretty sure this could work with any animal vocal signals,' Molnár told LiveScience" So, when the Dolphin Wars start, you'll know why.

Which reminds me, longtime readers may remember that Berk and I were part of the test group for the American release of the Bowlingual. Alas, that version of this technology wasn't really ready for primetime.

"'This raises a range of big questions about what nature is and what it could be...Evolutionary processes are no longer seen as sacred or inviolable. People in labs are figuring them out so they can improve upon them for different purposes.'" A front-page story in today's WP announces we're on the threshold of completely synthetic life -- as in 2008 -- made from enhanced or even artificial DNA. "Some experts are worried that a few maverick companies are already gaining monopoly control over the core 'operating system' for artificial life and are poised to become the Microsofts of synthetic biology...In the past year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been flooded with aggressive synthetic-biology claims."

"'Nature is the final arbiter of truth," said Seager, the Lawrence Livermore computer scientist, but 'rather than doing experiments, a lot of times now we're actually simulating those experiments and getting the data that way. We can now do as much scientific discovery with computational science as we could do before with observational science or theoretical science.'" Developers tease the premiere of the first "petascale" computer, due out next year. It will be "capable of 1,000 trillion calculations per second [and] akin to that of more than 100,000 desktop computers combined." Well I, for one, welcome our new petascale overlords.

The computer is personal again for Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: By way of mkh at Hidden City, check out this swanky steampunk Victorian laptop, powered up via windup key and down via feather quill.

"What was once seen as a liability for Democrats and progressives in the past -- they couldn't get 20 people to agree to the same thing, they could never finish anything, they couldn't stay on message -- is now an asset,' Leyden said. 'All this talking and discussing and fighting energizes everyone, involves everyone, and gets people totally into it.'" The WP's Jose Antonio Vargas examines why the Dems are winning the Web War. "'For Republicans, the Internet is where bad things happen. Take [former U.S. senator] George Allen and his 'macaca' moment...You can kind of understand why Republicans have this almost instinctive fear of the Internet, where the mob rules."

NASA prepares a probe, named Phoenix, to dig for water on Mars. "Upon reaching Mars in May 2008, the spacecraft is to land just as the winter ice begins to recede around the polar cap."

"If you've never been listed in Wikipedia, you can always argue that your omission is an oversight. Not me. I've been placed under a microscope and, on the basis of careful and dispassionate analysis, excluded from the most comprehensive encyclopedia ever devised. Ouch!" Slate's Tim Noah discovers he's not famous enough for Wikipedia (at first.)

"A drop of Budweiser (the 'King of Beers') immersed in mineral oil will form a beautiful 4 sided pyramid with sharp edges. Tiny bubbles accumulate at the top of the drop acting like a buoy that pulls on the droplet to create the growing pyramidal shape. The bubble cluster eventually spouts off in unison to the surface." Robotics engineer and old college friend Danny Sanchez has recently created VideoPhysics.com, a site containing mpgs of various scientific properties at work, all demonstrated with the safe confines of the Sanchez Laboratories. Check it out.

Hopefully (and cleverly) taking the sting out of the looming format wars, Warner Brothers announces the Total High Def disc at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. "If broadly adopted by the industry, the Total Hi Def disc would eliminate consumer confusion by including both formats [HD-DVD and Blu-Ray] on a single disc. Tested with leading manufacturers and replicators, the Total Hi Def disc would also simplify point of sale issues for retailers by reducing the shelf space required to carry two versions of the same content."

The source of that Hawaii link above deserves its own posting: DISCOVER magazine presents the Top 100 science stories of 2006.

By way of my sister Tessa, a robotic gastronome determines human flesh tastes exactly like bacon (or possibly prosciutto.) Sigh...I was afraid of this. Once the machines acquire the taste, we're all in deep, deep trouble. Or have they already figured it out, and cubicle culture is really just an attempt by the mechs to fatten us up for harvest? Hmmm...is it too late to install a vegetarian subroutine?

"In the early years of the microcomputer, a special kind of game was being played....in the early 1980s, an entire industry rose over the telling of tales, the solving of intricate puzzles and the art of writing. Like living books, these games described fantastic worlds to their readers, and then invited them to live within them." Found via Genehack and Recursive Bee, a filmmaker by the name of Jason Scott is prepping Get Lamp, a documentary on the Golden Age of text adventures. I've said this several times here in this space, but I'd pay top-money for a new Infocom game any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

So, as of this morning, I've been moving up in the smartphone world. I awoke at 7am to find my long-suffering, increasingly indignant Treo 400 had decided overnight to up and die completely, so I bit the entropy bullet and picked up a brand-spankin' new Treo 700 this afternoon (after, I might add, a rather miserable customer service experience that resulted in a good two hours of grappling with the Verizon Wireless bureaucracy. Apparently, despite all the hype about the national network in those aggravating ads, Verizon Kauai and Verizon NYC don't play very nice together. Really, people, I'm trying to give you my money.) At any rate, I'm looking forward to playing around with the new apparatus, even if I did end up losing some txt conversations I wanted to keep, not to mention some truly righteous Dopewars scores.

"I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially." Via my sis-in-law Lotta, GOP Senator Ted "Bridge to Nowhere" Stevens (R-AK) seems more than slightly confused about the functioning of the Internets, to use Dubya's parlance.

"You have an innovator and a world business leader -- the combination of the two making such a huge personal investment of time and wealth, it does raise the bar and raise the profile of philanthropy.." A tip of the hat to Warren Buffett for his recent decision to turn his considerable assets to philanthropy and help the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation better our world. "The foundation, already the nation's largest with a $30 billion endowment that has largely come from Bill Gates, will hand out more per year than the gross domestic product of nearly 40 countries, including Mongolia, Togo and Zimbabwe."

Authors of postapocalyptic sci-fi yarns, take note: Norway has announced it will host a post-Doomsday seed bank on the Svalbard archipelago. "While the facility will be fenced in and guarded, Svalbard's free-roaming polar bears, known for their ferocity, could also act as natural guardians, according to the Global Diversity Trust."

Also in news-of-the-future, China sets a lunar launch date of 2024.

"'It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,' Hawking said. 'Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.'" Stephen Hawking makes the case for colonies in space. And Stephen Hawking is a very smart man (and, of course, not a bad MC.)

So maybe this is why Berk can't stand the droid...experience yet another freeloadin', Magnolia Bakery-filled day in the life of a NYC Roomba. (Via High Industrial.)

"It costs about $1,200 for a print and about $200 for a digital print. So what you do is charge the distributor the same $1,200 they would ordinarily be charged, and $1,000 of it goes into a pot that eventually pays for all the projectors and everything. In about five years you would basically reconvert the entire industry." TIME's Richard Corliss discusses Indy 4, the Star Wars TV show, and the future of cinema with a "retired" George Lucas.

Are the Clinton 2008 team taking their toys and going home? With financial backing from George Soros, Clinton lieutenant Harold Ickes announces he's kicking off a private Dem-data mining firm, which will amass information on left-leaning voters and, theoretically, sell it to interest groups and campaigns that get the Clinton stamp of approval. "Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party. Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front."

Well, I'd like to know more about the supposed deficiencies of the DNC's voter outreach system, but this sounds like a troubling development all around. A house divided against itself cannot stand, particularly one as divided as the Democrats these days. (And, given how lackluster many Dems feel about a prospective Clinton candidacy anyway, a seeming attempt to put her own 2008 prospects before the good of the party is, to my mind, probably going to redound badly.)

More James Cameron news: Harry of AICN has a wide-ranging conversation with the director which, if you can get past the usual Knowlesisms, reveals that Project 880 is in fact Avatar, and that Cameron has been working with NASA on a "Live Video Stereo Motion Image" (3-D) camera for the next Mars Rover.

I've been extremely derelict in my space coverage around here lately. So, as a quick catch-up: Welcome back, Stardust, and Godspeed, New Horizons.

"What's going on? Google has become the new ground zero for the 'other' culture war. Not the one between Ralph Reed and Timothy Leary, but the war between Silicon Valley and Hollywood; California's cultural civil war. At stake are two different visions of what might best promote authorship in this country. One side trumpets the culture of authorial exposure, the other urges the culture of authorial control." University of Virginia Law professor Tim Wu surveys the controversy over Google Print, and makes a cautious plea for writers and academics to get behind the project.

"'It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path,' Griffin said. 'We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can.'" In an interview with USA Today, NASA head Michael Griffin calls the Space Shuttle and ISS programs mistakes. Hmmm, interesting. This article reminded me of a quote I've seen attributed to Jerry Pournelle: "I always knew I'd live to see the first man walk on the Moon. I never dreamed I'd see the last."

Via a friend in the program, the VR Milky Way Panorama. Definitely worth a spin.

"It's a horrible precedent, allowing the subject of an entry determine what can and cannot be written about them. It would be one thing if the slanderous and innaccurate entries from one particularly psychotic fan were allowed to go through and remain in place, but the entire Wikipedia project has shown that self-policing is it's greatest strength." By way of LinkMachineGo, longtime and often-controversial comic writer-artist John Byrne goes to war over his Wikipedia entry. (Comparison of the two entries here.)

"'We must deal with our short-term problems while not sacrificing our long-term investments,' Griffin said. 'The space program is a long-term investment in our future.'" While nodding to the funding issues created by Katrina, NASA unveils its ambitious plans to return to the moon by 2018. The plan, involving a lunar-lander like CEV that can carry 4 to 6 astronauts, basically seems to be a hybrid of the Space Shuttle and "Apollo on Steroids," and has been designed with future missions to Mars in mind. In general, I've been impressed with NASA head Michael Griffin despite Dubya's faulty emphasis on space-weapons (and I generally agree with his take on NASA funding), so if he thinks this rocket-hybrid is the way to go to get to the moon and beyond, I'm all for it.

"'I don't believe piracy can be easily beaten; fighting fire with fire by releasing movies on DVD at the same time as cinemas is probably where the industry is heading in the next few years,' said Mr. Jackson." The NY Times discusses King Kong and the current industry effort against movie piracy.

Via a friend in the program, Google maps the moon to commemorate the 36th anniversary of Apollo 11.

"Current U.S. space policy presents a paradoxical picture of high ambition and diminishing commitment...Pursuit of the NASA Plan, as formulated, is likely to result in substantial harm to the U.S. space program." A new report by experts at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy finds the Dubya space program is a mess. The two writers (both active during the Clinton years) do praise new NASA head Michael Griffin, who may be the only Bush appointee out there that I have positive feelings for. But, in keeping with the general unilateralism of Dubya's tenure, the scientists bemoan the demise of international cooperation in recent years, with our move to weaponize space a particular stumbling block.

All systems are go today for the launch of Cosmos 1, a satellite designed to test the possibility of interstellar travel via solar sail. "Because it carries no fuel and keeps accelerating over almost unlimited distances, it is the only technology now in existence that can one day take us to the stars." (Well, it worked for Chris Lee.) Update: Uh oh...

"Watching the original 'Star Wars' movie as a mathematically inclined 11-year-old, Helen Greiner dreamed of someday creating a robot like the heroic R2-D2. After enduring plenty of lean years chasing that elusive vision as a co-founder of iRobot Corp., Greiner can now boast a product that whirs and chirps much like the character she to this day calls her 'personal hero.'" The Globe profiles iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner, whose company boasts Roomba, Scooba, and the Packbot, a military minesweeper that, if Greiner has her druthers, won't be breaking Asimov's First Law anytime soon.

Roomba, meet Scooba, the robotic mop. Sorry, Berk...in the future, no room will be safe.

Eager to try out new experimental weapons systems with dubious names like "Rods from God," the Air Force looks to Dubya to greenlight space weapons programs. The Air Force believes 'we must establish and maintain space superiority,' Gen. Lance Lord, who leads the Air Force Space Command, told Congress recently. 'Simply put, it's the American way of fighting." Hmmm. I might feel less uneasy about all this if this fellow Lord didn't sound like he's channeling Buck Turgidson. 'Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny," he told an Air Force conference in September. "Space superiority is our day-to-day mission. Space supremacy is our vision for the future."'

Behold the future: At E3, Microsoft unveils the XBox 360, and Sony shows off the Playstation 3. On one hand, the 360 will "automatically connect and stream digital media -- including video and digital pictures -- stored on any PC running Windows XP." On the other, "the PlayStation 3 boasts an engine 35 times more powerful than the PlayStation 2." Either way, the next GTA should be something else...

By way of Supercres, here's a really neat time-killer: Omnipelagos, a.k.a. Six Degrees of Anything (on Wikipedia.)

A month into his new gig, new NASA administrator Michael Griffin argues for speeding up the shuttle replacement by four years, with a new proposed launch date of 2010. "To execute the new strategy, sources said, Griffin intends to assemble a small, Apollo-style team of NASA experts and scrap the current plan to have two civilian contractors compete for several years for the right to direct development of the exploration vehicle."

To the purported consternation of some privacy advocates, Google unveils its funky new satellite map feature. I'm not too worried yet -- the images are apparently between 6-12 months old...but wait, isn't that Berk and I frolicing in Riverside Park? (Direct link via Supercres.) Update: In keeping with the meme (seen at Girlhacker), here's home from above. This satellite image is at least a year old, as attested by the missing Columbia School for Social Work across the street -- it's been completed since last summer.

"I'd give it a 50-50 shot that you could find it somewhere underground. But then that's a guess." The NYT surveys the current thinking about prospects of Martian life, and how astrobiologists plan to go about proving or disproving its existence. (To wit, the European Space Agency plans to send an tricked-up rover to the red planet after 2011...hopefully, it'll get past the Dubya Pentagon's rash of Moonraker weapons.) Update: In somewhat related news (to the second story), Slate's Fred Kaplan assesses the Pentagon's overly enthusiastic vision for ground-based future tech.

Despite feeling kinda rotten, I did venture out to the movies on Saturday night (armed with a hefty bag of throat lozenges) for an impromptu double feature. At the top of the bill was James Cameron's IMAX extravaganza Aliens of the Deep and, all I can say is, if Cameron wants to make Battle Angel Alita using this funky 3-D technology, hail to the King. Granted, I haven't seen a 3-D movie since the days before Captain Eo. Nevertheless, the effect was much improved, and made what could have been a staid underwater documentary comprised of what look to be outtakes from The Abyss into a riveting, jaw-dropping wonder.

I'll admit, I was also fond of Cameron's central conceit here, which is that our best bet for finding life in this solar system -- at Europa, say -- would be of the kind inexplicably thriving around thermal vents in the darkest, deepest parts of the ocean, where the sun never shines (and thus photosynthesis never takes place.) And what strange life it is! Innumerable swarming shrimp scuttle between ice-cold and boiling-hot water with nary an antenna twitch. Strange symbiotic tube worms ensnare food for their inner bacteria, which digests for them. Ethereal jellyfish float by, improbably yet undeniably alive. And, thanks to the 3-D, it seems you can reach out and touch all of these creatures just before your eyes -- in fact, you can see them better in their natural habitat than any human being possibly could. It's really quite amazing.

Like I said, I don't know if Aliens of the Deep would be everyone's cup of tea -- most of the film just involves young astrobiologists and underwater explorers enthusing over their wild and crazy jobs in tiny little subs. But, whenever a strange new animal popped up on the screen, and particuarly when the camera hurtles past the moons of Jupiter on its CGI-way to far-flung Europa, I thought to myself, "Now, that's Edutainment!"

"In the quest for artificial intelligence, the United States is perhaps just as advanced as Japan. But analysts stress that the focus in the United States has been largely on military applications. By contrast, the Japanese government, academic institutions and major corporations are investing billions of dollars on consumer robots aimed at altering everyday life, leading to an earlier dawn of what many here call the 'age of the robot.'" And to think I was geeking out over the Roomba just a few weeks ago.

For the last time, Berkeley, this is not the droid you're looking for. As any of you who've met me in person know, I love the little guy, but sheltie hair is the bane of my existence -- it's invariably all over my carpet, clothes, possessions, etc. (If I ever tried to commit a serious crime, the CSI guys would be at my doorstep in 24-48 hours, carrying Ziploc bags full of the stuff.) Whatsmore, Berk's archnemesis (other than possibly the Door Buzzer) is the Vacuum Cleaner. Whenever I had it out (which was often, due to the endless shedding), he'd go absolutely ballistic, barking up a storm you can hear in the lobby five floors down.

So, given that my old vacuum had died yet again (which has twice cost me $100 to fix), and that I had to go to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters anyway, I procured my first Roomba droid early this afternoon. Alas, it doesn't speak Bocce, but I must admit, it does a pretty solid job of haphazardly sweeping every corner of my nook-and-cranny-filled apartment. Plus, it's a droid. How cool is that?

As for Berk's reaction, the jury is still out. On one hand, he doesn't recognize the (quieter) Roomba unit as a member of the Vacuum clan, so mercifully there's no more barking. But, he definitely doesn't seem to like it tooling around his territory either, and spent most of its first cycle trying to flip it. Ah well, baby steps. I'm sure I'll have 'em playing holographic chess in no time...Roomba, let the Berkeley win.

"Bob Rogers, BRC's founder and chairman...draws two circles, labeled 'scholarship' and 'showmanship,' on a sheet of yellow paper. The circles overlap, but only slightly. That tiny slice of shared space, he says, is where the museum needs to be."
By way of Dangerous Meta, the Washington Post examines the mild controversy surrounding high-tech exhibits at the Abe Lincoln library. If BRC is consulting a sizable number of outside historians on the scholarship, as they seem to be doing, then what's the problem? Gimmicks like Tim Russert introducing 1860 campaign ads are a bit facile, sure, but if they help get more laypeople intrigued in Lincoln's life and times (and don't unduly misrepresent the history), I'm all for it. Besides, my feeling is, if historians don't get behind such efforts, they're going to happen anyway, and with much less historical rigor to them.

It didn't look good before, but now it seems the Hubble's days are really numbered. NASA, who otherwise comes out ok under the new Bush budget, nevertheless cancelled plans to service the telescope by robot (strangely enough, before the engineers in charge could even present their work.) I have a bad feeling about this.

By way of Blivet and 20-20 Hindsight, the Bush administration announces plans to decommission the Hubble Space Telescope, possibly as an opening salvo in a game of Budgetary Chicken. Grrr...if I give my life-changing $300 tax rebate back, can we keep the Hubble?

Just skip over this entry if you don't feel like reading a long-winded customer complaint. Still here? Ok, Verizon Wireless is seriously annoying me. I don't use my phone for very much -- I'm not a chatter by any means, and my telephone conversation skills are legendarily lousy (Ask any of my exes.) Nevertheless, I've been using a Palm-Phone hybrid for many years now, and have thus forever lost the ability to memorize nine-digit numbers. So, given that my well-worn Kyocera QCP6035 is on its very last legs these days -- I drop calls constantly and my friends and family often sound like they're underwater -- all I want to do is replace it with a spiffy new Treo 650, available on Sprint since November. But Verizon will have nothing doing. They keep trying to ply me with a Treo 600 -- the outdated model with cruddy resolution and low battery life -- which Verizon obtained a good year after its competitors.

Really, y'all, why wouldn't you rush to offer your customers the newest phones and assorted gadgets available? (Verizon says its due to their rigorous testing procedures, but most people seem to think it's because they want to disable the Treo's Bluetooth functionality, so as to hawk further their lame Get it Now service.) Hmmm...what to do? I'm thinking of switching providers, but Verizon (nee Bell Atlantic/NYNEX) kinda owns this town. Or I might try out this widely-circulated 650 hack, if I thought my soldering skills were up to snuff. We'll see...I can probably put up with another month or so of terrible phone reception, but after that I'm resorting to drastic measures. Verizon really needs to get on the ball with the new technology. (I'm not the only ticked one, as evidenced by this petition.)

As reported by The Digital Bits, the upcoming hi-def format war began in earnest at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas: As the HD-DVD camp announced a slew of titles for 4Q 2005, Blu-Ray signed on more powerful allies, including EA and Vivendi Universal. It's gonna get ugly soon, folks, 'cause one of these formats is going the way of Betamax and DivX. Right now, it seems Blu-Ray is probably the better product (66% higher capacity), but HD-DVD is closer to cornering the market. Either way, I doubt I'll be buying all that many DVDs until the new format is chosen, Highlander-style.

"'Space is virgin territory,' Branson says, trying out a prospective marketing line and shooting another grin. 'Is that 21st-century enough for you?'" In this month's cover story, Wired checks in with Richard Branson and his ambitions for Virgin Galactic. I am so loving this space race among the mega-rich.