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."

Comments

Why are all of them minorities?

[C0llegeSTUDent]

Hmm I just looked over the mugshots - it looks like most of them are african-american. Few hispanics too.

I don't think google is going to like this...My bet is it will be pulled down today or sometime this week.

Re:Why are all of them minorities?

[ManoMarks]

I believe the dataset used on the site is incomplete. There are 599 registered sex offenders in D.C. right now. D.C. Sex Offender Registry Also, African Americans in D.C. are disproportionately poorer than Whites in D.C., which makes them more likely to be prosecuted, and less likely to get effective legal counsel that would allow them to avoid the registry. If you're trying to imply something else, come out and say it.

Re:Three things

[cancrine]

I hope you are hurt by this. Then we'll see if that is perfectly fine.

Re:LOST????

[Mycroft_VIII]

I watch very little tv myself. Mostly because I took an unintended break from it for over a year (got stuck to poor to do satalite and to far out to get more than 2 snowy channels SOMETIMES.
When I finally moved back into an area where I could get decent tv reception I found 99.99% of about as entertaining as watching paint dry and pduced by and for people with an IQ<60, expecially the 'big hits'.

Mycroft