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First Heinlein Prize awarded for space commercialization

1st Heinlein Prize Awarded: Press Release May 26, 2006

HOUSTON, TX (May 25, 2006) - Trustees of the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust announced today that the first-ever Heinlein Prize will go to Dr. Peter H. Diamandis. The Heinlein Prize was founded to reward individuals for making practical contributions to the commercialization of space. Dr. Diamandis will be honored at a dinner and award ceremony on July 7, 2006 at the St. Regis Hotel in Houston, Texas and receive $500,000, a gold Heinlein Medallion, the Lady Vivamus Sword (as described in Heinlein’s book Glory Road) and a Laureate’s Diploma.

“Dr. Diamandis’ accomplishments have started space settlement and commerce,” explains Art Dula, Trustee and literary executor of the Heinlein Estate. “He has catalyzed space activities by hundreds of people and organizations all over the Earth who are creating a proud and prosperous future for humanity.”

(from slashdot)

And in other Heinlein-related news...

New World Notes: -- AND HE REZZED A CROOKED HOUSE

In Robert A. Heinlein's classic short story, “—And He Built a Crooked House”, a cheerfully deranged architect builds a Los Angeles home shaped like a tesseract, a four dimensional hypercube. His idea is to invent a revolutionary new building that'll save space (after all, if a home exists in four dimensions, you get a lot more square footage to work with), but an earthquake shifts the house into still another dimension. And then things start to get strange from there.

Things get odd in the crooked house of Seifert Surface, located hundreds of meters up above an island called, appropriately enough, The Future. But it doesn't require an earthquake. To enter the hyper-dimensionality of Seifert’s home, all that’s necessary is to push the big button on the marble table in the foyer.

... it does, however, require a virtual reality. The article goes on to explain how a Stanford math student programmed the house in the online roleplaying game Second Life. Apparently it's done by moving rooms around, and only works right for only one user at a time. It would be interesting to speculate on just what kind of game software would be required to allow this sort of thing to be done right. R'lyeh, anyone? But that way madness lies.

(from Boing Boing)

The prey stalking the predator?

WAWS FOX30 Online - Jacksonville - Man Robbed by Teen Girls, Thought He was Meeting MySpace Friend

A Jacksonville man says he was duped and robbed by two girls after attempting to meet with a woman he met on the internet.

The victim says he chatted online with a woman, known on her MySpace.com profile as “Natalia”, for two weeks before deciding to meet with her. He says her prfile showed sexy photos, and a blurb which said “just lookin’ for something fun”. That brief, friendly description was all he knew about her before they planned to meet.

That is when two girls who were 14 and 15-years-old, approached him saying they knew Natalia, the girl he thought he'd be meeting. They also said they knew where he worked at what car he drove.

[...]

"[One of the girls] took [a] gun out and put it to my head and told me to empty my pockets."

The girls didn't get much because the victim had forgotten his wallet. They let him go, unharmed, and he called police.

(from BoingBoing)

New York Times accused of treason

NY Times accused of treason | The Register

US Representative Peter King (Republican, New York), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has called the New York Times "treasonous" for informing the public about another secret Bush Administration counter-terrorist program, the Associated Press reports.

The article (in The Register) is worth reading, since it goes on to point out that the Bush administration's trolling through banking records is already under investigation in Belgium. Unlike the US, some European countries actually have effective data privacy laws.)

Meanwhile, here in the US, we are rapidly approaching the time when any attempt at all to publicly hold the Administration to account for its crimes will be considered "treasonous". Oops!