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Slashback: Summer, Sail, Sex Offenders

Slashback this evening brings you updates on recent and ongoing stories about the lost (or just possibly not lost) solar sail launched earlier this week, Website tagging (this time client-side), Google's Summer of Code, and more -- read on for the details.

A new definition for optimism. Rei writes "According to a weblog entry from the Planetary Society, it appears that Cosmos 1 - the world's first controlled solar-sail spacecraft - has been found. The data is still tentative, but they have detected evidence of the spacecraft's signal in multiple tracking stations. There is a chance that it is in the wrong orbit, but it appears to be up there. This is after it was reported that the Volna rocket that launched it lost an engine after 83 seconds, and many had assumed that the craft was lost."

The power of the tag can only grow with time. An Anonymous reader writes "Saw your coverage of YubNub - I've been playing with a similar tool for a while that might interest your readers. It's called Ambedo and works in a way that you can tag search engines or bookmarks with a bookmarklet (you can also enter them manually if you want to). These are then added to you own tag directory. You then access these tags by typing them in a search box -- but all the matching is done client-side in javascript. It also has nice features like matching IP addresses, domain names, FedEx packages, calculator in the search box and so on."

If you like it so much, why don'tcha marry it? Mad Merlin writes "Groklaw has an interview with Chris DiBona of Google with regards to their Summer of Code program (as previously covered here). When asked why Google is doing the SoC program, Chris responds, 'It is simple: We love open source. A great number of Googlers have and are donating their 20% time to the open source efforts that we're doing.'"

Just kidding! scotty777 writes "Japan plans to give up its bid to have the world's first nuclear fusion reactor built in Aomori Prefecture. Japan Today reports the government decision, which means that the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) site decision can be made. Japan Times reports that the government announced the decision by saying 'it plans to back down [from the Aomori site proposal] if the European Union stands firm on bringing the project to Cadarache, in southern France.'"

Surely this won't cause any controversy. davenaffis writes "Here's a little site I developed that uses Google Maps to map sex offenders. Only Washington, D.C. data is available right now, but I'll be adding more states soon."

25 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. Now why Did I think.... by 3seas · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Solar Sail was lost due to no wind in space?

    1. Re:Now why Did I think.... by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Listen, lad. I built this sailing ship up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was space. Other agencies said I was daft to put a sailing ship above the atmosphere, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It fell into the atmosphere. So, I built a second one. That fell into the atmosphere. So, I built a third one. That lost a booster stage, lost its transmitter, then fell into the atmosphere, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest solar sail in this star system.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    2. Re:Now why Did I think.... by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 3, Funny

      But I don't want to sail... I'd rather...

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
  2. LOST???? by 808paulson · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard it was transmitting this:
    4 8 15 16 23 42

    1. Re:LOST???? by Rei · · Score: 3, Funny

      Odd - I just heard a report that it didn't actually lose an engine, but was *struck* by a jet engine after broadcasting 28:06:42:12. They still don't know where the engine came from...

      --
      What a crazy random happenstance!
  3. The solar sail wasn't lost... by LowbrowDeluxe · · Score: 4, Funny

    It was just on a three-hour tour...

    (There's gotta be a better Gilligan joke in all of this, I just can't think of it now.)

    1. Re:The solar sail wasn't lost... by Rei · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
      A tale of a fateful trip.
      That started out in the Barrents sea
      Aboard a sub-sea ship

      The sub was unpronouncable
      The Volna's risk unsure
      One spacecraft took off that day for a three month tour ("a three month tour...")

      The Volna burn was getting rough, the tiny craft was tossed
      If not for the courage of the CPU, the Cosmos would be lost ("the Cosmos would be lost..").

      The craft impacted far away, on a tiny desert moon
      With Obi-Wan!
      The Princess, too!
      The Jedi Knight!
      And his droids!
      A speeder car!
      The wookie, and Solo (Han)
      Here on Parody Isle!!

      --
      What a crazy random happenstance!
  4. "Summer, Sail, Sex Offenders" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Was deemed Carnival Cruise Line's least effective tag line of last year's ad campaign.

  5. Neo-neo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    that you can tag search engines or bookmarks with a bookmarklet

    Bookmarks of bookmarks. I like it, very meta. Very paradigm shift. My web chakra is like ascendant and stuff.

    But it's not quite what I need. What I need is a search box on my browser where I can type in something like "Now, what was I just thinking about?" or "What was that one site, you know, with the guy?" and have it bring up appropriate content.

    If someone could come up with like a Firefox plugin or whatnot that would be terrific.

  6. Google and open source by The+Bungi · · Score: 1, Funny
    Yeah, it's been a great love affair.

    But it's Google|Apple, so it's OK. Everything's OK. These are not corporations, they're warm, fuzzy friends of ours. I'm having lunch with Sergei and Larry next week, and they promised to bring a box of chocolates. It's OK.

  7. Re:Mapping Michigan Sex Offenders by Leroy_Brown242 · · Score: 2, Funny

    You should colour code for females.

    You know those girl put out.

  8. If you're afraid of sex... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Here is a map with a red pixel where sex has occurred in the past.

  9. (Warning Soviet Joke Imminent) by fimbulvetr · · Score: 4, Funny

    In Soviet America, Sex Offenders map YOU!

    1. Re:(Warning Soviet Joke Imminent) by Monkeman · · Score: 0, Funny

      Holy Jesus I must be drunk because I laughed at that.

    2. Re:(Warning Soviet Joke Imminent) by Cutriss · · Score: 2, Funny

      In Soviet America, Sex Offenders map YOU!

      +1, Creepy?

      --
      "Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
  10. In other news: the idiot mapper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The idiot mapper.
    So far only 1 idiot is listed there, but it is the biggest idiot on this planet.

  11. If only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Great job on the sex offender map. Now somebody get started on the slut map, please. Start with the Chicago area?

  12. Re:Mapping Michigan Sex Offenders by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) · · Score: 5, Funny
    For a while now, I've been crawling the Michigan Sex Offender Registry
    My! That's a healthy hobby you have there. Hobbies are good, they make you into a nice well-rounded person.
    --
    Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
  13. Re:Three things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
  14. sex offender map by tiberiandusk · · Score: 3, Funny

    i was looking around on the sex offender map and i found something interesting...
    I had no idea...

  15. The Summer of Code has truly been wild... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just last weekend, a whole bunch of people spontaneously gathered in a park Haight-Ashbury to listen as luminaries like Steve Ballmer gave impromptu speeches on the importance of code. Topless women rolled about in mud, not to embrace nature (or some nonsense) but to adopt the fragrance of their unhygienic geek boyfriends, and then went back to their tents for massive code orgies, where sometimes 10, 15, or even 20 people would hunch over their laptops and feverishly write code as purplish insence floated about. Unfortunately, just as we were finishing a valuable patch for Mozilla and the revelry had apexed, a whole bunch of pigs arrived with stun sticks and it became fucking bedlam. So much for peace, man. I bet our hippie parents never experienced shit like this with their Summer of "Love".

  16. Where to build a big fusion reactor .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    ... obviously somewhere a long way from your electorate. If the damn thing blows up it's best if it's a long way away.

  17. Japan can now focus on real science by thetan · · Score: 2, Funny
    Japan's decision to retreat from plans to host the nuclear fusion reactor means they can pour more resources into their national obsession with scientific whaling. Their research method - killing and eating hundreds of whales - aims to answer such pressing scientific questions as:
    • Are humpbacks a leaner alternative to minkes?
    • Soy sauce or wasabe?
    • Do the whales even mind when they've been harpooned?
    • High-protein, low-carb - can whale flesh play a role in the Atkins diet?
    • And why are they just so damn tasty anyway?
    Naturally, this rigorous program requires repeated application of the same test methodology: firing grenade-tipped harpoons into inquisitive whales and electrocuting them. Well done, Japan, on deciding to focus on core business.
  18. Re:The question is... by FullCircle · · Score: 2, Funny
    --
    If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
  19. Re:Sex Offender boogeyman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Does she have a friend?