Xbox Live is not working, as mentioned 36 hours ago in an Xbox team blog. Even if you can get logged in, multiplayer matchmaking doesn't find enough players for games. For a while Zune Marketplace was also affected. At present Zune status claims "Up and running" while Xbox Live status continues to say "Users may experience intermittent issues logging onto Xbox Live. Our engineers are continuing to investigate and are working to resolve this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience." This has been been going on for days. Do other game servers fail in more friendly ways, such as by allowing anonymous unrated gameplay?

A joke tumbleweed farm created to practice HTML tumbled upon an unexpected demand. People keep buying the things, she keeps shipping them.

The Schlock Mercenary blog points out that there's a Spaceward Games space elevator competition near Salt Lake City this weekend, at the Davis County Fairgrounds. Climbers try to go 100m up a ribbon using beamed power.

Apparently the Google Air Force is practicing in Google Earth v4.2. Marco's blog pointed it out. Just in case the instructions for some reason get too much traffic: Ctrl+Alt+A (or Apple+Option+A) in the main window.

ConsumerAffairs.com points out Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users without defining what is the bandwidth limit in their AUP. Frank Carreiro of West Jordan, Utah, got cut off by the mystery limit and started his "Comcast Broadband dispute" blog.

Berkeley Breathed notes: "Note to Opus readers: The Opus strips for August 26 and September 2 have been withheld from publication by a large number of client newspapers across the country, including Opus' host paper The Washington Post. The strips may be viewed in a large format on their respective dates at Salon.com."

NASA's GISS climate group fixed their calculations and now 1934 was the warmest year in the USA. This graph shows the new data, from this page. Steve McIntyre found and explained GISS' error, despite GISS refusing to make available their software.

Two air conditioners in Minnesota were moved near a temperature sensor. But something didn't look right about the data. (When the NOAA's NCDC learned of examination of its network, it briefly removed information from the Internet.) McIntyre, a statistician, found that NASA does not make available the computer code and corrections used to "correct" its data. He had to reverse-engineer their calculations and found a year 2000 bug. GISS fixed their data and thanked McIntyre. It has been separately noted that 1934 was also warm in northern Europe too.

How significant are such "corrections"? To the 0.1C measured temperature increase, the NOAA adds 0.5C of adjustments.

Widescreen TVs for £20 might seem like a good idea. But not when the cost is high. President Mugabe has destroyed the economy of Zimbabwe. Actually, it's the legal economy which has been destroyed.

Sixteen teams placed 50 robots in competition in the Robo-one Soccer Cup in Japan on Sunday. RoboCup 2007 Atlanta is under way and the finals are Sunday July 8. The goal is by 2050 create robots which can win against the human world champion team in soccer.

While participating in amateur rocket launches in Black Rock Desert (Burning Man site), Ian Kluft KO6YQ noticed rocks with some oddities. Through the Internet he learned the characteristics of impact craters, then found some clues in photographs and Google Maps. Examining the area he got samples of rock with impact patterns in them and other evidence. Previous geological puzzles in the region are well explained as impact structures. Volunteers are finding peculiarities in satellite imagery of the area. He presents his evidence on a web page "Submitted for Study: Discovery of Possible Impact Crater at Nevada's Black Rock Desert". This is a preliminary six week effort which tries to bring the site to the attention of geologists. Confirmation will take some time and more elaborate tools than his group has.

Germany to go to the Moon with an unmanned mission. The latest member in the race to the Moon in the unmanned category will compete with China, India, Japan, Russia, and USA. All intend to later do manned missions, with ESA also planning a manned mission.

Governor Pawlenty of Minnesota has signed a bill which requires a significant amount of energy from renewable sources. "The bill signed by the Governor requires energy companies to provide 25 percent of power from renewable sources by 2025. Xcel Energy, which supplies approximately half of the electricity in the state, is required to provide 30 percent from renewable sources by 2020."

The Pioneer Press points out that the "Preservation of State Documents Act" which would require open formats for Minnesota state government documents has been introduced in both the state House and Senate. Both bills are in committee. The legislation has attracted virtually no public interest.

Update: Related story posted: California Joins Open Document Bandwagon

There is a prototype Skycar on eBay. It is not licensed for flight nor for street usage, so you're likely to always know where your flying car is. Bids are approaching $2 million.

Artist Mikael Genberg wants to put a little red cottage on the Moon. Swedish Space Corporation says it's possible, and a competition for construction has been arranged. The cottage could be ready for visitors as early as 2011. LunaResort.com has info in Swedish, but it is Flash-hindered.