I just read an article over at Salon about the Chinese space program. Did you know that they finally launched a man into space? No kidding: they did it in the Gobi desert today! Against a clear blue sky, China fired its first astronaut into orbit without any visible hitches Wednesday, becoming only the third nation capable of manned spaceflight. The government said the mission was going smoothly and its “taikonaut” radioed back: “I feel good.” Now, I predict that this will bring about comparisons about the poor kid who never got a bicycle till he was 14, and rode …

We used to think that only primates could understand language, and that to other animals, it was just noises… even to parrots, who can imitate us. But that seems to have been wrong. Over at Edge there’s an article about “THAT DAMN BIRD”, which is an African Grey Parrot whose behaviour has led a researcher to claim he is actually understanding what he’s saying in tests. Which is absolutely fascinating since it challenges a lot of what we thought we knew about language and brains. But it’s also frustrating to some scientists, which is why the title of the article …

That’s right. As posted on the Transhumanity webpage, the BBC recently reported on a 100% effective contraceptive for men. And you don’t even need to remember to take your pills daily. I don’t know if I’d be lining up to take it right now (I’d let some people try it for a few years to see), but then again I (sadly, waah waaah waaaaah) don’t need any contraceptives these days. Here’s the blurb, cribbed from the Transhumanity page: Male contraceptive 100% effective October 07, 2003 BBC – Scientists have developed a male contraceptive which was 100% effective and side-effect free …

Dairy giant Fonterra has bought the rights to use certain bits of human DNA… Does this disturb you? It doesn’t really bother me. After all, most humans are mildly allergic to non-human milk, but you’re never going to find a human-milk industry in mainstream agriculture on Earth, and any images of one are strictly for propaganda use. Yes, it’s a nasty image. Look at it up close, you can do that too if you want, and you should. And then remind yourself that it’s a dramatic bit of propaganda. There will be no human milk-farms, not in the next couple …

Bruce Sterling has published a list over at MIT’s Technology Review, of Ten Technologies That Deserve to Die. You should especially look at the comments, there. I’m among them, but not one of the majority… most people are shrieking and wailing about how nasty and wrong and stupid they think Sterling is. Hm. I don’t get the frenzy. They must feel threatened.

An ex-girlfriend and I once discussed the idea of life on other planets. I, of course, told her that I was rather certain life had developed all over the universe, but that the universe is such a dangerous place that probably most of it gets routinely wiped out by Mass Extinction Events (more, more, more, more, more, more) before it has a chance to get offworld, develop tech powerful enough to sustain it after a MEE, and that would be why we never see any evidence of anyone else out there. I was flabbergasted to hear her thoughts on the …

Yeah. You just knew it, didn’t you? Damn Microsoft. This comes to you courtesy of Dan Hon’s ext|circ. And yes, today seems to be trackback day. I’ll stop after this and go watch a movie and get to bed. I swear. I won’t even reinstall my aggregator. I can do that tomorrow. Really!

I’ve heard of celestial music, but I’ve never heard of the music of black hole. And of course none of us will ever heard it, since it’s way too deep for any of us to hear… 53-odd octaves below middle C. But it’s there, and it’s a B-flat. Then again, apparently the Earth has it’s own music, too. And Myoung says that some Russian Symphony orchestra’s gonna make music in Jeonju next Wednesday. Smetana and Dvorak and all… so even Jeonju has celestial music of a sort.

Sure, everyone’s heard about the Chinese Space Program and the Manned Missions they’re planning, right? And the Moon Base they want to build? Whether as the butt of jokes around the world, or the subject of excitement (mainly on the part of the Chinese), it’s hardly escaped notice. But I hadn’t heard about India’s program until today. Indian Prime Minister Announces Mission to Moon Bangalore – Aug 20, 2003 The Chandrayan-1 mission, announced by the Prime Minister yesterday (August 15, 2003) during his Independence Day address to the nation, represents India’s foray into a planetary exploration era in the coming …

WELCOME TO EARTHSTATION 5!! Here we go. I’ve been expecting this for a while, though I guess I was imagining it would be in Turkish Cyprus or maybe Uzbekistan. Where’s the best place to run a P2P system from? To launch the updates and administrate the whole thing? Why, from somewhere where the lawyers and suits daren’t go. Napster had reappeared as a for-pay network? Pbbbbbbt. No, no no, they have it all wrong. See Earthstation5: We’re in Palestine, in a refugee camp,” said Ras Kabir, the service’s co-founder. “There aren’t too many process servers that are going to be …