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The Tunguska event in which an asteroid air detonated over Siberia is approaching its 100th anniversary, which will be on June 30th. A lower re-estimation of the blast force (the devastation being more from the shock wave of the air blast than the explosion itself) suggests that asteroid events capable of this level of destruction may be more common than thought, possibly occurring every few centuries. Reflecting on these 'little guys' as the anniversary approaches, also causes one to consider their rarer, but more destructive, larger cousins. Should it not be a priority to establish a self-sustaining breeding population of humans on Mars as insurance against something really nasty happening here on earth?

Collision Course Earth

Within the world of One Laptop per Child, both the Negropontistas and the Benderites envision a future for Sugar where it runs on multiple platforms, but the latter don't want Windows (or closed source anything) as part of that future.

Negroponte vs. the Open-Source Fundamentalists

OLPC's emphasis has always seemed to me to be on Sugar, with Linux simply being a smart technical choice for the underlying os. Yet what is becoming more explicit with the resignation of Walter Bender is that for many involved in the project there was a strong element of Linux advocacy, such that Negroponte's flirtation with Microsoft is felt to be pure sacrilege.