astronauts

The first live Twitter messages from space were less than a year ago, but already astronauts have moved on to geolocation: Douglas C. Wheelock, commander of the Expedition 25 mission, earned the "NASA Explorer" badge on Foursquare for checking into the International Space Station on Friday morning.

Foursquare business development rep Eric Friedman said on the company blog that Wheelock was "the first human to ever use a location-based service from space," leaving open the possibility that aliens somewhere else in the universe may have developed their own social-networking services and consequently, as far as we … Read more

As NASA's space shuttle era draws to a close, the space program is inviting online fans to partake in one of its traditions: voting for the "Wakeup Song" traditionally played for astronauts to roust them in the mornings, which have in the past been chosen by family and friends of the shuttle crews.

"Space shuttle crews really enjoy the morning wake-up music," shuttle commander Mark Kelly said in a NASA announcement from last Friday. "While we don't have the best quality speaker in the space shuttle, it will be interesting to hear what … Read more

You really can't escape Twitter. Even in space.

NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, on board the International Space Station, made social-media history Friday morning when he became the first person to send a Twitter message from space. Creamer, under his Twitter username @Astro_TJ, tweeted, "Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station--the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s."

The astronauts on the International Space Station have connected to the Web through Crew Support LAN, which significantly enhances the private communication access that astronauts have while floating above the Earth. … Read more

Just because there's a recession, it doesn't mean you can't find your dream job. So allow me to direct your boundless ambition toward an ad on Craigslist's Calgary site.

While many people scour Craigslist to see if Starbucks or Bed, Bath and Beyond might be seeking additions to their cheery teams, the poster of this ad is searching for an altogether more adventurous type, proudly announcing "Astronaut Needed (Northern Alberta)." Is that the cough of a million scoffs I hear? Perhaps. But this is truly an interesting opportunity, to say the least. Just look … Read more

They pissed it. You may have missed it.

Recently, there was a fascinating glow in the sky that moved observers to ponder just what it might be.

I am assuming that Space.com is an authoritative source of information, for it informs me that the glow that was seen in the sky by so many last Wednesday was, indeed, astronauts' urine.

NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem told a press conference that this aurora boreapiss was the result of the space shuttle Discovery releasing an unusual amount of water and urine into outer space.

I have never consciously weighed urine--not even my … Read more

Rafe and Molly square off over the reuse of air conditioning technology, the fail whale sinks a deal between Facebook and Twitter, Gmail is cracked, and an enterprising astronaut creates the ultimate in must-have space tech: a zero-G coffee cup.

Twitter rebuffs a Facebook poke? http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10106391-2.html

Gmail exploit may allow attackers to forward e-mail http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10106275-83.html http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/breaking-gmail-security-flaw-more-domains-get-stollen/

EU strikes down French “3 strikes” copyright infringement law http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/11/23/1952248

Has … Read more

So we talked about a lot of serious news today including the Justin.tv suicide, the new Google wiki search, and the unauthorized access of Barack Obama's Verizon calling records. But really, Rafe's description of Net-connected Deer is what I'll remember about this episode. How about you?

19-year-old Commits Suicide on Justin.tv http://newteevee.com/2008/11/20/19-year-old-commits-suicide-on-justintv/ http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10104716-93.html

SearchWiki: Make search your own http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/searchwiki-make-search-your-own.html http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_to_turn_search_into_wik.php http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081120-roll-your-own-search-results-with-googles-new-searchwiki.html… Read more

It's 404 time! Wilson, MTI and the Mantern hijack the show while Jeff tours Canada and Justin suffers from radiation poisoning. With Wilson at the helm, the show starts to sound like NPR, but a few below-the-belt comments from the Mantern get things back on track. We talk golden earbuds (not showers), unarmed German thieves, astronaut fitness and Chinese spies. For the show's second half we gear up for the new Xbox Live Experience that launches tomorrow.

Dan the Mantern here. I must say, I'm pretty excited about the launch of the new Xbox Live Experience. Having canceled my cable subscription because I can't afford an additional gajillion dollars every month to surf 700 channels of crap, I'm hungry for a new way to entertain myself. I can't wait to start streaming to my big screen in full HD. As for the new "avatar" features, I'm petrified. Almost nothing is worse than getting pwned by an 8-year-old in Call of Duty 4 and having to listen to him trash talk. Getting pwned by a cutesy cartoon avatar of an 8-year-old who has a mouth like a sailor? Completely humiliating. Here's to the last hours of a Mii-free Xbox Live.

I know readers of this site have strong constitutions.

But as the NASA rocket thingy shot up to the skies last night for another interesting mission, the only thing on my mind was the water they will drink.

Because it appears that they will be testing the idea of sipping their own recycled urine.

I know, I know. There are many cities in the world where the tap water is undrinkable. And I had hoped that this was merely a cost-cutting move in our tight times. But the fact is that this wastewater recycling gizmoid cost $250 million and is … Read more