links for 2009-08-13

"The United States cannot afford to send humans anywhere beyond the space station — especially Mars — unless it wants to spend more money."

"Astronomers have discovered the first planet that orbits in the opposite direction to the spin of its star. Planets form out of the same swirling gas cloud that creates a star, so they are expected to orbit in the same direction that the star rotates. The new planet is thought to have been flung into its "retrograde" orbit by a close encounter with either another planet or with a passing star."

"Sudoku Grab is a collection of some fairly basic image processing techniques that most engineering students at University could probably figure out how to put together. All of the algorithms used are either commonly available and can be found on the internet or can be written pretty easily. Obviously tweaking them and getting them all running together seamlessly is the real trick…" Very cool programming.

"On Thursday, Sony Electronics, which sells e-book devices under the Reader brand, plans to announce that by the end of the year it will sell digital books only in the ePub format, an open standard created by a group including publishers like Random House and HarperCollins. Sony will also scrap its proprietary anticopying software in favor of technology from the software maker Adobe that restricts how often e-books can be shared or copied. After the change, books bought from Sony’s online store will be readable not just on its own device but on the growing constellation of other readers that support ePub. Those include the Plastic Logic eReader, a thin device that has been in development for nearly a decade and is expected to go on sale early next year." Cool.

"Focus on the Family, founded by child psychologist James Dobson, is on pace to fall $6 million short of a $138 million budget for the fiscal year that began last October, spokesman Gary Schneeberger said. Schneeberger said that one staff position will be eliminated and that other financial steps are under discussion. Last fall, budget problems prompted Focus on the Family to eliminate more than 200 positions."

First he's for then he's against.

"Most seemed to reflect the feeling that despite its shortcomings, the British remain defiantly pound of the health service in the face of transatlantic criticism."

"This weekend, while attending the annual gathering of science fiction and fantasy fans in Montreal for Worldcon, I overdid it a bit."

"Illinois Circuit Judge Daniel Rozak sentenced Clifton Williams to 6 months in jail for yawning in court." Maybe there should be a limit on contempt charges.

"Joey Hess has taken a closer look at the code inside webOS that reports information back to Palm and found some details on what the Pre is sending back to headquarters." Uploaded is Location, used apps and how long, app crash logs, installed apps.