Day: June 14, 2005

Via Wired: Astronaut to Testify From Space

When Congress calls, you have to answer — even if you’re in space.

NASA astronaut John Phillips will provide the first-ever congressional testimony from space on Tuesday, June 14.

Phillips is currently circling the Earth onboard the International Space Station. His testimony, before the House subcommittee on space and aeronautics, is expected to focus on what it is like to live and work on the space station.

“This is a chance for Congress to get a unique perspective from someone who is actually up there,” said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel. “It’s a chance for them to talk directly and to ask direct questions.”

The House subcommittee called the hearing in advance of a meeting later this month in which members will review NASA’s goals and funding for the next several years.

Can you hear me now?

Via Yahoo: Could Jacko Make Live 8 Comeback?

Michael Jackson is being lined up for a sensational comeback at next month’s Live 8 gig. The King Of Pop has been tentatively invited to appear at the Philadelphia or London gig by organisers, after he was acquitted of child abuse allegations on Monday. Live 8 promoter Harvey Goldsmith says he would consider adding him to the line-up for the July 2 event – but questioned whether he was ready to perform yet.

Jacko walked clear from court in Santa Maria looking frail, but he is still believed to want to relaunch his career as soon as possible.

Interviewed on radio station Capital FM, Goldsmith said: “Obviously we’d consider it.”

He added: “Whether it’s appropriate or not is another issue, whether he’s in a fit state to work is another issue, whether he can work is another issue and whether he can work live is another issue.”

Jacko’s close friend Stevie Wonder, who was listed as a potential character witness, is on the bill.

Jackson ought to stay out of the limelight for at least a year, maybe two. He should hire the right people to get his financial house in order and generally disappear from public view. According to Gallup, a majority believe he is a child molester, but that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of the specific charges brought against him. The reality is this – many don’t want to see Michael Jackson right now – AT ALL. Not on TV, not in the newspaper, not in concert.

Take a long vacation Michael. You’ll do yourself, and the greater public, a lot of good.

Memo suggests oil-for-food link to Kofi.

The committee probing the U.N. oil-for-food program announced Tuesday it will again investigate Secretary-General Kofi Annan after an e-mail suggested he may have known more than he claimed about a multimillion-dollar U.N. contract awarded to the company that employed his son.

The e-mail describes a brief encounter in which officials from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspections S.A. discussed its bid for the contract during a summit in Paris in late 1998. Through his spokesman, Annan said he had no recollection of such a meeting.

If accurate, the e-mailed memo would contradict a major finding the Independent Inquiry Committee made in March – that there wasn’t enough evidence to show that Annan knew about efforts by Cotecna, which employed his son Kojo, to win the Iraq oil-for-food contract.

Looks like Kofi missed sending a payment to the guy who was in charge of destroying all the evidence linking him to this crime.

Who was the first person to look at a cow and say, “I think I’ll squeeze these dangly things here, and drink whatever comes out!”

Eric at Blogcritics discusses the first day of the rest of Michael Jackson’s life.

Happy Birthday Michelle.

Verrrrrry Interesting.

(You’re RIGHT JD! It was Arte. Obviously it’s my mind that’s going. Thanks! -ed.)

Be very, very afraid.

I’ve never been a big fan of these. I bought one once when I was out of the country and needed to take some tourist shots. The camera was one of those basic types – 32 pictures in a plastic black box covered with that annoying yellow colored cardboard. When I ran out of available film, I had to drop off the camera at a store and wait for a few days to get your pictures back (of course, I could have paid through the nose to have them developed in an hour). All a big hassle in my opinion.

I heard about the disposable camcorder the other day and I wasn’t immediately excited. The concept is intriguing, but the realities are not. The thing costs $30. That’s not a bad price I guess, but you only get 20 minutes of video. If you’re the type to film long shots of a room with multiple people talking for a lengthy period, this isn’t for you.

The other thing that turns me off is the ‘processing’ fee. Your $30 expenditure isn’t all inclusive. You’ll pay an additional $12.99 to get a DVD of your video. Worse yet, you have to go to a CVS store to do it. You can’t take it to KITS or any place else. 

From what I read, the video quality is good, not great. But, you’re not going to film an academy award winning epic with this thing either.

Here’s a review from a guy at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Your mileage may vary.

If it’s a slow news day, the main stream media will always pull one of these stories out of the ‘lack-o-news’ drawer.