Russia Will Mine Moon by 2020

This just in, Russia has plans to mine the moon for the isotope Helium-3, used (theoretically) in nuclear fusion. I say theoretically because no one expects nuclear fusion to work by 2020, so Russia might be a tad optimistic on this one. From the article at News.com.au:

"The International Space Station (ISS) would play a key role in the project and a regular transport relay to the moon would be established with the help of the planned Clipper spaceship and the Parom, a space capsule intended to tug heavy cargo containers around space, Mr Sevastyanov said."

It has to be said: In Mother Russia, Moon Mines You!

Gathering Stardust of Dusty Stars

It seems that humans have finally embraced the Solar System and their home and are slowly but surely taking ownership and responsibility for it. In what was the first of many such missions, NASA spent a lot of millions of dollars to sweep the outer reaches of the Solar System to clean up the notoriously dusty region. Scientists where extatic at the results:

"It's a huge success. We can see lots of impacts. There are big ones, there are small ones."Professor Brownlee calculated there might be more than a million microscopic specks of dust embedded in Stardust's aerogel collector.

Of course, specks of dust is a tentative start, even if millions where collected. In all likelihood, future missions will be more ambitious and might even deploy a very experimental and high-tech 'Dyson' instrument. Showing once again that Hollywood is far ahead of real scientists, the concept was first illustrated in the cult classic Spaceballs.

Reading At the John

Can't let go of your news reports? Get the Restroom Reader, which will print out incoming news stories from sites you have registered for directly into your toilet paper! You don't have to worry about reading your wife's beauty tips-site news because the device can tell who you are by your weight as you sit on the toilet. Of course, you might then be a different person at the beginning and at the end of your 'session'. Through The Adventures of Teapot the Cat.

Cyclops Kitten

To the best of my knowledge, this is not a hoax. From the AP story:

Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond, Oregon, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy. (AP Photo/Traci Allen).

I found the link through Boing Boing here.