600 Million Metric Tons of Ice Found On Moon’s North Pole Surface, Could Be Enough to Supply Base [Space]

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Around 600 million metric tons of water ice were discovered in shadowy craters at the moon's north pole. How much is that, in terms that mean something to you? Possibly enough to sustain a mother-F-ing moon base, that's how much.

A piece of NASA radar equipment hitching a ride on an Indian probe made the discovery, which was reported earlier today. It was only last September that water ice was confirmed to exist on the moon's south pole, but these significant deposits bring us that much closer to the ultimate space nerd dream of a base on the moon.

"The new discoveries show the moon is an even more interesting and attractive scientific, exploration and operational destination than people had previously thought," said Paul Spudis, a NASA engineer who works with the Mini-SAR radar equipment.

Scientists say the water, which may be more readily available than that found at the south pole, could be mined for fuel and oxygen or distilled into drinking water for lunar dwellers.

Sure, there's that whole issue with the budget and how its steering our space program away from the moon. But 600 million tons is a lot of water, especially for a nation thirsty for some new space adventures. [Space.com via PopSci]


Newsweek admits Bush’s War on Iraq a stunning success

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Mission truly accomplished

An astonishing admittance from liberal Newsweek magazine in the feature story in the new issue to hit stands March 8.

The headline: "The Rebirth of a Nation." And the Nation they are referring to is Iraq. Newsweek writers Babak Dehghanpisheh, John Barry and Christopher Dickey even went so far as to call Bush's Iraq War success, "a watershed event," that represents a "whole new era of history."

Excerpt:

"Iraqi democracy will succeed," President George W. Bush declared in November 2003, "and that success will send forth the news from Damascus to Tehran that freedom can be the future of every nation." The audience at the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington answered with hearty applause. Bush went on: "The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution."

Bush's rhetoric about democracy came to sound as bitterly ironic as his pumped-up appearance on an aircraft carrier a few months earlier, in front of an enormous banner that declared MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. And yet it has to be said and it should be understood—now, almost seven hellish years later—that something that looks mighty like democracy is emerging in Iraq. And while it may not be a beacon of inspiration to the region, it most certainly is a watershed event that could come to represent a whole new era in the history of the massively undemocratic Middle East.

Guy Tries To Destroy Evidence—A Flash Drive—By Swallowing It [Wtf]

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You've been skimming credit cards and the cops know—they've already executed a search warrant and found a flash drive full of evidence against you. If you're Florin Necula, this means that it's time to swallow.

After being arrested, Necula decided that it was a good idea to snatch up one of the pieces of evidence against him, shove it into his mouth, and swallow. Hard. Youch.

Not only will the poor guy probably wind up in jail with a tummy ache, but he's being charged with obstruction of justice because of his attempt to destroy evidence. [Smoking Gun via The Loop via Jim Dalrymple]

The X-Ray pictured obviously isn't this guy's. It's of some dog who swallowed a fork instead of a flash drive and was found at Mental Floss


Prototype work?

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I work for a medium size sheet metal prototype company that I believe shines in todays market. I am looking for some companies that are seeking the need for a great and quality sheet metal prototype shop.

The Only Indoor Biking That’s More Dangerous Than Its Outdoor Alternative [Bicycling]

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So you want some cycling practice but you're worried about all of the reckless drivers out there. You don't want to resort to one of those lame stationary bikes, either. The solution? Free motion bicycle rollers. Updated: More danger!

I would love to bike more often, but the thought of cycling here in New York City is utterly daunting. This alternative, however, seems even more terrifying.

If you want to brave your unfinished basement on two wheels, a free motion set up only costs about $35 in parts and can be assembled by following this Instructable. Just don't say I didn't warn you. [Make and Instructables]

Update: Giz reader Daniel and his buddies laugh at free motion bicycle roller danger. Why's that? Because they get down with free motion moped roller danger.

Thank you Daniel, I'm glad you are still alive to share that with us.


Libertarians react to Jim Bunning’s standoff; Give the finger to Washington!

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Bill Wilson, Americans for Limited Government

The simple reality is that the money to pay for extending unemployment benefits by $10 billion indefinitely does not exist on budget. Senator Bunning deserves credit for offering a proposal that does pay for it without steeping the nation further into debt...

Tim Daniel, Left Coast Rebel

In the most basic sense, he is holding Obama and the socialist-left in Congress to their own credo - PAYGO, passed just last month. The Democrat/Media/Industrial complex have all gotten together in a massive orgy to paint Bunning as an extremist and someone that 'wants to take the food out from the mouths of the unemployed'. This issue simply proves to me that we need smart, tough, intellectually based conservatives/libertarians in power coming up to bring this government back to fiscal sanity.

Jim Rose, Libertarian Popinjay

It's rare that you see a politician willing to take political and media abuse like what Senator Jim Bunning is taking right now...but he's doing it...and G-d bless him for it. Granted, Bunning has a reputation of being a bit of a hot-head, but damn it, that's what we need right now. He's asking the government to not spend money it doesn't have. What the hell is wrong with that?

Jack Liberty blog

government shouldn’t be involved in stealing money from some and giving it to others. If workers want benefits when they are unemployed, they should pay for some kind of market-based unemployment insurance.

Wes Messamore, Humble Libertarian

Jim Bunning's reason for blocking the extension of unemployment benefits is absolutely well-founded. He is asking the question we should ask of every appropriation: where is the money coming from to pay for it?

He doesn't oppose the unemployment extension, he is simply insisting that we pay for it with unspent money from 2008's appalling financial bailout package- money that would go to financial corporations if we don't give it to struggling Americans like Bunning suggests.

I'm tired of hearing welfare statists and warfare statists pretend to be fiscally responsible by complaining about the other's spending. I for one would like to see some fiscal sanity across the board.

How Will Apple and HTC’s Little Spat Affect the Cellphone Market? [Legal]

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Apple's suing HTC for infringing on 20 iPhone patents, but what will this mean to the cellphone market?

According to Eric Von Hippel, a professor of technological innovation at MIT, it'll be bad news for consumers in the end:

It's a bad scene right now. The social value of patents was supposed to be to encourage innovation - that's what society gets out of it. The net effect is that they decrease innovation, and in the end, the public loses out.

It's doubtful that we'll find out how right Von Hippel is anytime soon though, because cases like this one "can last many years, sometimes five or 10," assuming they're not settled out of court. But I don't exactly see Apple or HTC being in a rush to settle here. [NY Times]


The Month’s Best iPhone Apps [IPhone Apps]

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Each month, the best new iPhone apps-and some older ones-are considered for Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps Directory. Who will join? Who will live? Who will die? Here's the best of the best from February.

For the full directory of Gizmodo's Essential iPhone Apps for 2009, click here. Here are the best of the month, and what we've added to the directory:

February's Best Apps

For a single-page view, click here.

Essential App Directory Inductees

Camera Pro Plus: It isn't enough for a camera app to add options to still shooting. No, nowadays you need video.

Meebo: An ultra-slick messaging app that makes every other free entrant look either quaint or crappy.

Angry Birds: I could have gone outside last Saturday, but I didn't. I played Angry Birds instead. I have no regrets.

Siri: Rolls speech recognition, search, and intelligent text parsing into one semi-magical package.

Logitech Touch Mouse: Does 75% percent of what more expensive iPhone-as-a-touchpad apps do, for 0% of the price.

The Fallen

Fring: Because Meebo is that good.

Snapture: Replaced by Camera Pro Plus.

And that's it! What counts as an essential iPhone app changes all the time, and so should our guide: If we've missed anything huge, or you've got a much better suggestion for a particular type of app, let us know, or say so in the comments. We'll be updating this thing pretty frequently, and a million Gizmodo readers can do a better job at sorting through the app mess than a single Gizmodo editor. Enjoy!


Backpack Power Plant: You ARE the Grid [Energy]

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Bourne Energy's BPP-2 puts a 30-pound, 500-watt generating hydroelectric plant on your back. That's like being able to walk around with 60 solar panels. And when civilization finally collapses, I'll be dragging mine to an as yet undisclosed location.

You can use the Backpack Power Plant in any stream deeper than four feet. It also operates silently, with no heat or exhaust emissions, and can be "bottom-mounted" for total invisibility: all good things for hiding from the roving hordes of the post-apocalyptic dystopia. The set-up is pretty straightforward as well:

To install the civilian BPP, you would dig two trenches on opposite sides of a river and insert a lightweight anchor into each. Then, you'd run a synthetic rope between the anchors and the BPP. [The] company designed the system to work like the high-tension mooring systems that hold up floating oil rigs.

There's a military version already in use that can operate in a variety of flow rates, but the $3,000 civilian edition is designed for streams moving 7.5 feet per second. The main target audience is developing countries, where a portable generator of this magnitude could make a huge difference for remote villages and towns.

It's a prototype for now, but you and I both know they've got a hard deadline of 2012 if they really want this thing put to good use. [Wired]


Looking for Cadet Drafting position

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Does anyone know of any Cadet Drafting positions in the melbourne East area as I am desparate to secure a position.I have recently gained my Diploma Of Engineering Technology and have experience in Autocad2009,Solidworks 2009,UG NX5 CAD/CAM and Autodeck Inventor.

traction change?

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The TRACTION is the same. The place in the US is not relevant, and so is not the gear you start in. Traction is to understand as the friction between the loaded tire(s) and the surface it has to move on. That is a vast given thing. While cars have power to overcome this friction in normal weathe

Viacom Pulling "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" From Hulu [Hulu]

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Tragedy! The New York Times is reporting that Viacom is going to pull "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report," and other Comedy Central properties off of Hulu next week. The reason, as always: money. The bigger question: who's next?

Apparently Viacom realized the importance of "The Daily Show" to Hulu—it's consistently one of the site's most popular programs and is clearly in sync with the Hulu demographc—and wanted outsized compensation, possibly including upfront payment.

You'll still be able to watch rebroadcasts of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert on TheDailyShow.com and ColbertNation.com. But the larger point seems to be that if you're not one of Hulu's major network stakeholders, sharing your content on the site may not be financially viable. That doesn't immediately impact many popular shows outside of Viacom's cadre, but if Hulu wants to be a big tent for online video, they're going to need the participation of third-party content providers. Of which there are plenty, including BBC America, WB, and a whole lot of niche content providers with passionate fan bases.

Maybe Hulu's inevitable pay model will be a solution that helps spread the wealth a little better. But if they lose many more shows by then, it may not even matter. [NY Times]


NCBI ROFL: Polka music and semantic dementia. | Discoblog

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3334172632_072775358a“A man exhibited typical features of semantic dementia with onset at age 52. At age 55, he became infatuated with polka music. He would sit in his car in the garage and listen to polka on the radio or on cassettes, often for as long as 12 to 18 hours. Whereas some may argue that enjoying polka music is in itself pathologic, we view this patient’s new appreciation of polka similar to that recently described with pop music in two patients with frontotemporal dementia. Thus, heterogeneity in musical taste is yet one more dimension bridging semantic dementia and frontotemporal dementia.”
polka

Thanks to Ace for today’s ROFL!
Photo: flickr/grenade

Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Pink Floyd hallucinations: not just for druggies.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: I still think listening to country music is degrading.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Opera makes me want to kill myself.


TiVo Premiere Details and First Hands On: Like IMDB On TV [TiVo]

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TiVo may have invented time-shifting, but the past few years haven't been kind to this company unsure how to cut a profit. Then, someone inside TiVo HQ must have realized, oh right, INNOVATION! That's the ticket!

What You Need to Know

• The TiVo Premiere (320GB, $300) and Premiere XL (1TB, THX certified, $500) are the new Series 4 TiVos
• They have completely new widescreen HD software built on Flash
• This software will not come to Series 3 models (or earlier)
• The Premiere is less a DVR than a completely integrated video machine
• Available in early April

Why I'm Excited

The TiVo Premiere is the smallest TiVo yet, a thin and diminutive box that holds only one CableCard and still lacks Wi-Fi (a $90 802.11n adapter will be available this May, plus you can pick up a $30 TiVo powerline adapter). It hides a multicore processor inside that drives a new, HD UI that previews your program at all times. That's right—no more going into Now Playing only to lose the stream of your show.

Despite the redesign, you'll find the experience is remarkably familiar. The basic fonts and menus are unchanged, with a few key differences. Most importantly, instead of seeing one page at a time (like being in Now Playing, then clicking to a new screen with a particular show), you see two pages at a time—a logical design update to the widescreen format that speeds up navigation enormously.

Plus there are little touches that anyone can appreciate: A disk space meter. Show titles change colors once watched. The 30-second commercial skip? That's been programmed into a dedicated "scan" button that flashes half a minute by in just a handful of frames (to keep advertisers happy). Plus, I have it in good faith that TiVo won't be eliminating the classic 30-second skip, either.

Of course, you've already noticed the top bar filled with show icons. That's basically a list of suggestions that shift dynamically depending on what you're watching at the time. I have a feeling TiVo is finding a way to make money off that thing, but you know what? That's OK if they're offering content to me based upon what I like.

Which brings us to the big, key difference about the Series 4.

It's the Internet

Even though the Series 4 still makes you pay for a Wi-Fi dongle (ridiculous, right?), it's truly an internet machine.

Imagine if TiVo and IMDB made a baby. That's exactly what you get.

Swivel Search, which allowed you to search for programs by criteria like actor and keyword, has been built in to the very core of Series 4, and it's got internet access.

So say you're watching 30 Rock and you decide, that Jack Donaghy is an interesting guy. I want to see more of his work! A few clicks takes you to Alec Baldwin. A few more? You can access pretty much anything Alec Baldwin's been in—but not just within your cable subscription.

You'll see Netflix streaming options. Amazon Video on Demand. Blockbuster on Demand. YouTube clips, even. Or you can find an Alec Baldwin movie that will be in the theaters in several months. Then? You can program your TiVo, right then, to record that movie whenever it's finally on cable.

And I should add, none of this advanced search is forced upon you. Much like IMDB, the information is just there if you choose to dig deeper.

For Flash, There's Not Much Flash

If we have one criticism regarding the Series 4 (other than the lack of integrated Wi-Fi, yes, I'm gonna hammer that point home), it's that there's nothing all that flashy about it.

Yes, this point is a quibble, but an important quibble all the same. Those accustomed to flipping through their Netflix queue on a modern, powerful machine like the Xbox 360, those accustomed to the seemingly endless media oomph of the PS3's animated XMB previews and photo collages, may be disappointed in the Premiere's general lack of flare.

I'd love to see a few more UI treats—tiny, tactile animations that smartphone programmers are so wickedly good at designing—built in to the core UI.

There's no doubt, the Series 4 is a smart machine. I just want to make sure that TiVo doesn't become an old maid, but rather a naughty librarian with a sense of adventure. I'm not sure whether or not, just by glancing at it, the Premiere will be enough to woo the average consumer again. And that's something that TiVo very much needs to do.

Oh, and TiVo, Wi-Fi dongles shouldn't cost $90 anymore. Who are you taking lessons from, Microsoft? (OK, OK, I'm done with the Wi-Fi complaints...for now.)

While my impressions were from a meeting long ago, John Herrman just got a second hands on. Here is the sum of his experience:

TiVo's Series 4 box is superficially, well, just another TiVo box, but that's not the point—all set-top boxes are boxes, and if they were anything else, they wouldn't be set-top boxes. It's what's inside that counts, and that's where the Premiere's newness is.

The new TiVo interface is recognizably TiVo-y (and almost exactly like what was previewed back in 2008), and just as recognizably fresher—there are fewer tacky shine effects, and more soft gradients. It's kind of a natural progression for the original interface, which was designed with SDTVs in mind, to a more HD-ready take on the same concept. It's based on Flash, and while you can't really tell now, Tivo's said that the platform is extensible with some kind of app store-type platform, from which you can download Flash Lite-based apps, very little of which TiVo has made specific commitments about, but which is coming, in one way or another. This could be what makes the Premiere a gamechanger, whenever it happens.

In terms of content, TiVo's taken a hard turn online: as Mark put it, it's as if "TiVo and IMDB made a baby," which is to say any TV show or movie you're browsing is augmented with context and metadata, pulled from online. A minor feature which is actually kind of huge is that if you look up a film or show, the Premiere plants icons for the integrated streaming services—Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, etc—to help see if a download or play option is available. The integration is smooth, and the concept natural. But groundbreaking? Not so much.

The optional QWERTY remote will be very familiar to anyone who's used TiVo for more than five minutes, excepting the giant freakin' keyboard that slides out of the side. Integrating the keyboard into a peanut shape was risky, and it didn't really pay off: The keyboard itself isn't overly large, but the fact that it's flanked by two large endpieces makes reaching the center buttons tough, even for the large-handed. Anyway, it's more merciful than generous, since asking users to navigating any amount of text-oriented web content with the regular ol' peanut is mildy hellish. I suspect a lot of folks will spring for this one, even if the necessary Bluetooth dongle (not to mention the remote itself) costs.

What's most striking about TiVo's Next Big Thing is that it doesn't do a whole lot that other DVRs and set-top boxes couldn't, probably for a lower price. (The Premiere is $300, and the XL, with a 1TB drive, is $500.) Granted, a lot of people are going to end up with a Series 4 DVR subsidized by their TV provider, and then, yeah, it's going to be a nice step up from whatever terrible TI genero-box they would have had otherwise. But TiVo's breathless invite to this launch (Inventing the DVR was just a warmup!) doesn't ring true. Is there's something else on the way? Is everyone missing something? mean, I'm glad TiVo discovered the internet and all, but this kind of stuff is baseline nowadays.

TiVo Premiere Box Specifications:

* TiVo Series4™ architecture
* Supports digital cable, high-definition digital cable, antenna (ATSC) and Verizon FiOS
* Outputs: HDMI, Component video, Composite video, Optical audio, Analog audio
* Video output modes include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
* Inputs: CableCARD™ support, Cable coax, Antenna coax, Ethernet
* Ethernet connection, USB 2.0 ports (2), E-SATA support for external storage
* TiVo Wireless N and G Network Adapter support
* ENERGY STAR® certified
* 320 Gigabytes
* Records up to 45 hours of HD programming or up to 400 hours of standard-definition

TiVo Premiere XL Box Specifications (all specs not listed are the same as above unless noted)

* One Terabyte storage
* Records up to 150 hours of HD programming or up to 1350 hours of standard-definition
* Backlit, programmable, and learning remote
* THX®certified, ensuring optimal audio and video reproduction and enables seamless integration with other THX components
* TiVo Premiere XL box is the first HD product to feature THX® Optimizer™, a video calibration tool that lets users fine tune color, black levels and other settings to improve picture quality. Hailed by critics for its ease-of-use, the exclusive THX Optimizer for TiVo Premiere XL box is found in the My Shows menu of the TiVo service. A pair of THX Optimizer Blue Glasses, designed for adjusting Color and Tint settings, is included with the owner's manual.

TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL boxes will be available in retail nationwide in early April. They are also available for pre-order today at tivo.com for $299.99 and $499.99 respectively.


TiVo Premiere QWERTY Remote Requires ANOTHER Dongle [TiVo]

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When we saw Vizio's gargantuan QWERTY remote at CES, we knew a new era was upon us. Now TiVo debuts their premium QWERTY remote slider and, yes, the day in which you change the channel with a Sidekick has come.

Joking aside, TiVo's upcoming QWERTY remote is an interesting evolution of their classic peanut. Popping out like a slider, the backlit keyboard allows easy text entry for new TiVo Premieres.

It's a bit large in your hand, which means it feels a tad less perfect than the classic TiVo remote. But the Bluetooth connectivity means you don't need line of site, which is always nice.

However, when it's available later this year for an undisclosed price, there's a big catch: It will come with a USB dongle. The Premiere doesn't have Bluetooth for reasons we don't really understand (it's not expensive at all to stick a Bluetooth chip into even small devices like cellphones now). So, somewhat anticlimactically, TiVo's flagship remote will require a Bluetooth dongle (on top of the Wi-Fi dongle you'll probably need). I wouldn't call this a dealbreaker, but for a company that designs a very small ecosystem of hardware, it's not the best thought-out plan, is it?


HTC HD2, Motorola CLIQ XT, and Dell Mini 10 Launch Dates for T-Mobile Surface [Rumor]

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TMo_DellM10_HD2_LaunchOne of our ninjas just dropped some tantalizing and blurry details for us to feast on.

We've been informed that T-Mobile will be releasing the Motorola CLIQ XT on March 10th, the HTC HD2 (listed as "Dark Handset" on the screen capture) is confirmed on March 24th, and a Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, complete with T-Mobile broadband access, on the 24th as well.

Our connect also mentions the launch of Even More 1.5, but no details were given. Looks like it is going to be a pretty busy month for the number four carrier in the U.S. Hit the break for one more shot!

TMo_CliqXT_Launch

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