You’re essentially looking over my shoulder as I write, think, create, invent, and — in general — ponder the world around us.  Feel free to peruse my writings and chime in as you’re so inspired.  I encourage spirited debate.

Everything I type feeds parallel simultaneous streams to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.  It’s a global tightrope without a net.

No topic is off limits. If you’re looking for a site that is “politically correct,” you’ve come to the wrong place.  Hit the back button on your browser now.

Lots and lots of new features are coming online.  They’re all in various stages of development.  You’ll soon see innovative things I’m working on — such as a live, streaming, two-way “TV channel” of sorts where you’ll be able to interact with me (audio, video, text) in real time as I type here in front of my computer.

This is my platform to push the boundaries of technology in every dimension.

Hang on tight.  We may achieve orbit.  Or we may sail off a cliff.  But the ride will be exhilarating.

– Eric

You saw it on the news. You read about it in the press. But now you can learn the inside story of the team that launched the world’s first civilian rocket into space.

As many of you know, I was one of the team leaders of this historic mission.  On May 17, 2004, after years of agonizing rocket crashes and catastrophes — some quite spectacular — we accomplished our remarkable goal.

I stuffed the book with 90 full-color photos to bring the adventure to life in vivid detail.  It’s 244 pages long in a wonderfully oversized 6×9 format.  (Paperback size wouldn’t do justice to the glorious color images.)  Check out the covers here.

You can order the book from Amazon by clicking here.

I encourage you to check out my book’s companion Web site at www.TheNewRaceToSpace.com.  You’ll see lots of interesting videos and other neat stories. And, as a bonus, you can save $2.00 if you use the Web site’s special ordering link and enter Discount Code NDE55XNW.

Over the last week, I have been testing the very latest PHILIPS 60-Watt-Equivalent LED bulb.  It’s fantastic.   It looks great.  The light is excellent.  It uses just 11 watts.  And it delivers 830 lumens — 30 more lumens than my previously reviewed PHILIPS LED bulb and EcoSmart LED bulb.  And, unlike the prior PHILIPS bulb, this one is dimmable!  The light is a very pleasing white, 2700 Kelvin (“K”).  Life expectancy, based on three hours per day, is an amazing 22.8 years.   According to recent reports, the bulb is 17% more efficient than its previous generation and uses 12% less power.  The icing on the cake:  Home Depot recently dropped the price ten bucks — from $24.95 to $14.95.  At this new price point, this is a superb bulb.   In fact, it may have just become my favorite LED bulb in the 60-watt-equivalent LED category.

Below is a picture of the new bulb in its well-designed packaging…

As part of my ongoing LED light bulb reviews, the following is my real-world testing of the PHILIPS 10.5-watt (60-watt-equivalent) LED bulb.   As my regular readers know, I have really liked the EcoSmart 60-watt LED.  (Click here for my review of the EcoSmart LED.)   I’ve recently been trying out the PHILIPS 60-watt-equivalent LED bulb.  The PHILIPS bulb delivers the same number of lumens — 800 lumens — with 10.5 watts.  The EcoSmart consumes 13 watts.  So the PHILIPS saves an extra 2.5 watts.  The light “appearance” are both 3000 Kelvin (“K”), which is a pleasant bright white. Cosmetically, the PHILIPS bulb is even closer in design to an old-style Edison bulb — rounded top with no side heat-sink flanges.   And the price per bulb is about the same.  Home Depot carries both bulbs, and they regularly run special-pricing between $9.95 and $14 per bulb.   HOWEVER, the PHILIPS does not work with dimmers.   Also, the PHILIPS bulb is not recommended for use in recessed down-lights.   Bottom line:  The light (color and brightness) from both LED bulbs is about the same.  The PHILIPS bulb saves a little more power — but is a little less versatile.   Both are high-quality bulbs that should serve you well.

As part of my ongoing LED light bulb reviews, the following is my real-world testing of the EcoSmart 13-watt (60-watt-equivalent) LED bulb.  In case you haven’t noticed, traditional 100w & 75w incandescent bulbs have been phased out (all manufacturing in the U.S. has ceased). Why? Because although America has just 5% of the world’s population, we use 26% of the world’s energy. And lighting is a major culprit. I have been testing all sorts of replacement bulbs — so you don’t have to. Skip the compact fluorescents and head straight to the new generation of LEDs. They’re “instant on,” dimmable (most of them), and light a room just as good — or even better — than traditional bulbs.  The best bulb I’ve found so far is the “EcoSmart” 60-watt-equivalent “bright white” LED. Although packaged as a 60-watt replacement, it has nearly the same number of “lumens” (amount of visible light) as a 75-watt incandescent. It will last 25x longer than an incandescent bulb — up to 23 years! And only uses 13 watts of power. The color of the light is pleasing, too — a very natural, bright white. Bottom line: It will save you up to $161 vs. a regular 75-watt bulb. And it will keep working for a quarter century. It’s $9.95 at Home Depot — a great deal. I’ve included a photo so you can spot it quickly in the aisle. Suggestion: Buy one and try it. I bet you’ll like it! Let me know…

(Bloomberg)  Samsung Electronics Co. fired the first of three smartphone salvos this year aimed at hurting Apple Inc in its home market, releasing a bigger and faster Galaxy S4 that reviewers said may only glance its target.  The device announced yesterday at New York’s Radio City Music Hall is lighter than predecessor S3 and has software to track movement of the eyes and waves of the hands. The Galaxy S4 will be able to take photos in two directions, monitor sleeping habits and translate commands into different languages as the South Korean company tries to lure customers in a slowing global smartphone market.  The handset, with a 5-inch screen and 13-megapixel camera, goes on sale in the U.S. on April 26 with carriers including AT&T Inc (T)., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. The Galaxy S4 is among three high-end smartphones Samsung is releasing this year after being overtaken in the U.S. by the iPhone 5 in the fourth quarter.  For the complete article, click here.   Image courtesy of Bloomberg

(LA Times)  “Drilling into the Martian surface in search of signs of ancient life, the Mars Curiosity rover hit the jackpot, NASA said Tuesday.  The intrepid geologist on wheels analyzed a powdered sample pulled out of the Red Planet last month and  discovered some of the basic building blocks of life — and signs of a past environment capable of hosting primitive microbes.  ‘We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and is so supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it,’ mission lead scientist John Grotzinger, a Caltech geologist, said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.”   For the complete article, click here.   Image courtesy of NASA

(CNN)  “MakerBot [has] unveiled a desktop device that can scan small three-dimensional objects. Called a MakerBot Digitizer, it’s meant to complement the company’s Replicator printer by letting customers scan objects, then feed the resulting digital files to the Replicator to be printed. The Digitizer uses two lasers and a webcam to scan objects up to about 8 inches in diameter…. The process takes less than three minutes.  Once the digital scan is completed, an object can be printed right away. It’s easier and faster than using software to design a digital printing model from scratch.”  For the complete report, visit this link.  Image courtesy MakerBot

[DVICE]  NASA reports the Curiosity rover has successfully drilled a hole, 0.63 inches wide and 2.5 inches deep into a sample of sedimentary bedrock. Ground control will now use the rover’s robotic arm to collect samples for processing in its self contained laboratory, looking for evidence Mars may have once harbored water.  The agency released a photo of the hole captured by Curiosity, and in a press release NASA’s associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate, John Grunsfeld said, “The most advanced planetary robot ever designed is now a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars.”

According to DigitalTrends.com:  “The Google Glass Explorer Edition has successfully passed through the FCC, revealing more details about the device and increasing the possibility that it will soon be in the hands of the limited number of folks who dropped $1,500 for it. The fancy, futuristic eyewear was announced and demonstrated during the Google I/O even in 2012, and attendees were given the chance to reserve a unit for themselves. “  For the complete article, click here.

If you’re coming from Android, you’re going to lose device choice. True, the Z10 and Q10 offer a small selection, but Android wins hands-down when it comes to the variety of form factors. Android devices are big and small, cheap and expensive, rugged and high class. You’re going to lose access to apps.

You’re also going to lose access to Google’s services. Yes, BB10 supports Gmail and Google Contacts and Calendar, but that’s it. No Google+, no Google Maps, no Google Drive, no Google Docs, no Google Voice, no Google Search / Google Now. Some Google services, such as Talk and YouTube, have been ported thanks to BlackBerry, but the vast majority aren’t there. If your business has “gone Google,” switching to BB10 simply doesn’t make sense.

If you’re coming from iOS, you’re losing access to 800,000 apps. BlackBerry World has about 70,000, many of which are ported Android apps. The selection just isn’t there, yet. You’re also losing access to many of the same Google services that are available to Android. You’re losing access to an incredible array of accessories. Devices such as the iPhone have more accessories available than any other device on the market. Being so new, BB10 does not yet have such accessories, and there’s no telling if, or when, it will catch up.

If you’re coming from Windows Phone, you’ll lose some device choice and access to apps, too. Windows Phone 8, which launched during the fourth quarter of 2012, is available from many U.S. carriers in a wide variety of devices, colors and price points. You’ll lose tight integration with other Windows equipment and services, including XBox gaming. The app story isn’t as severe as it is with Apple and Google, but there are plenty of marquee apps missing from BlackBerry World that are available in the Windows Phone Store (Amazon, CNN and eBay, to name a few).

For the full article, click here.

Steve Case, founder of AOL, venture capitalist, and current chairman of Startup America Partnership, says entrepreneurs are the true American heroes.

“Entrepreneurship is how America became great,” Case said.  “The good news is that we’re still the most entrepreneurial nation in the world. The bad news is that all the other countries are trying to catch us.”

Case was speaking in Detroit at Techonomy on Entrepreneurship and American Relevance.There are two types of founders, Case said:  those who create an interesting product or service but have modest ambitions…and those who are trying to change the world, who are swinging for the fences.

Those who are swinging for the fences are continuing the grand American tradition of entrepreneurship, he suggested, continuing the legacy of legendary Detroit founders and leaders such as Henry Ford.

Case sees what’s happening now as the next revolution in technology. After the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and the initial stages of the digital revolution, we’re now seeing perhaps the most important part of the digital revolution: the impact of digital technology on all aspects of the economy.

Even heroes, of course, need loyal sidekicks. That’s why Case accepted the role of chairman of the Startup America Partnership, which is focused on building up all the regions of the U.S.

Not just social media companies — not just Facebooks and Instagrams — but also companies that use technology intelligently in transportation, in manufacturing, in all aspects of the economy.

“In some ways, every company is now a technology company,” Case said. The most important thing for entrepreneurial heroes, according to Case?“They really have to have passion.”

Image credits: Blastr, John Koetsier

via Steve Case: Entrepreneurs are American heroes | VentureBeat.

PASADENA, Calif. AP — Thirty-five years after leaving Earth, Voyager 1 is reaching for the stars. Sooner or later, the workhorse spacecraft will bid adieu to the solar system and enter a new realm of space — the first time a manmade object will have escaped to the other side.

When NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 first rocketed out of Earth’s grip in 1977, no one knew how long they would live. Now, they are the longest-operating spacecraft in history and the most distant, at billions of miles from Earth but in different directions.

They’re still ticking despite being relics of the early Space Age. Each only has 68 kilobytes of computer memory. To put that in perspective, the smallest iPod — an 8-gigabyte iPod Nano — is 100,000 times more powerful. Each also has an eight-track tape recorder. Today’s spacecraft use digital memory.

Wednesday marks the 35th anniversary of Voyager 1′s launch to Jupiter and Saturn. It is now flitting around the fringes of the solar system, which is enveloped in a giant plasma bubble. This hot and turbulent area is created by a stream of charged particles from the sun.Outside the bubble is a new frontier in the Milky Way — the space between stars. Once it plows through, scientists expect a calmer environment by comparison.

When that would happen is anyone’s guess. Voyager 1 is in uncharted celestial territory. One thing is clear: The boundary that separates the solar system and interstellar space is near, but it could take days, months or years to cross that milestone.Voyager 1 is currently more than 11 billion miles from the sun. Twin Voyager 2, which celebrated its launch anniversary two weeks ago, trails behind at 9 billion miles from the sun.

via 35 years later, Voyager 1 is heading for the stars – Businessweek.

Dropbox is rolling out stronger security to protect data stored in the cloud. Following in Google’s footsteps, Dropbox is enhancing account security with optional two-factor authentication.

Dropbox is a popular cloud storage service used by millions of users. Dropbox has had some issues regarding data security, though, and passwords alone have also proven to be an Achilles heel when it comes to protecting online data.

Phishing attacks and many malware variants are designed to trick users into sharing sensitive information like passwords, or surreptitiously capturing them without the user’s knowledge. You should have a cross-device security platform in place to detect and block such attacks, but two-factor authentication provides even stronger security that can be so easily compromised.

via Protect Your Dropbox Data with Two-Factor Authentication | PCWorld.

While Earthdwellers cast their eyes to Mars this week and waited for news from NASA’s Curiosity, lots of action took place closer to home, where the commercial space market has seen progress from every direction. We’ve rounded up a short summary of what happened back on the home planet.

Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft team held its Program Implementation Plan Review in Colorado this week, the first milestone in its CCiCap list.

SpaceX completed its COTS (Commercial Orbital Transport Services) agreement this week with a certification from NASA, clearing the way for SPX-1, its first standard cargo flight to the International Space Station.

Orbital Sciences was also slated to fly its Antares rocket for the first time in early October, but there’s no word yet on whether the traffic jam that’s holding up SpaceX will bump them again. Antares is Orbital’s COTS vehicle and a competitor of SpaceX’s Falcon. It has been delayed several times due to launchpad construction at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) on Wallops Island, Virginia.

XCOR Aerospace announced this week that they’ll build a new spacecraft factory in Brevard County, Florida, to build its Lynx 2-person suborbital spacecraft. Lynx takes off and lands horizontally and requires a runway, which in Florida means the Shuttle’s landing strip at Kennedy Space Center.

via As commercial space race intensifies SpaceX, Virgin find they have company | Ars Technica.

This movie from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows most of the high-resolution frames acquired by the Mars Descent Imager between the jettison of the heat shield and touchdown. The video, obtained on Aug. 5 PDT Aug. 6 EDT, covers the last two-and-a-half minutes before touchdown in Gale Crater. Audio recorded from mission control can be heard, counting down the critical events.

The next step in NASA’s exploration of Mars is the test drive of its rover, Curiosity, on Wednesday. Curiosity’s mission on Mars is to search for signs of life. The rover’s broken wind sensor may make its exploration more challenging.

via NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity gears up for test drive – CSMonitor.com.

After driving all around Mars with four rovers, NASA wants to look deep into the guts of the red planet.The space agency decided Monday to launch a relatively low-cost robotic lander in 2016 to check out what makes the Martian core so different from Earth’s.

via NASA to launch another Mars exploration flight | Fox News.

Satellites, like the people who make them, come in all shapes and sizes. Their parts do as well. And while some thrusters are large and impressive, some satellites need smaller ones. So Paulo Lozano at MIT decided to build a rocket thruster the size of a penny.

The thruster, which looks like anything but, is similar in shape and size to a computer chip. It’s “covered with 500 microscopic tips that, when stimulated with voltage, emit tiny beams of ions. Together, the array of spiky tips creates a small puff of charged particles that can help propel a shoebox-sized satellite forward,” according to Lozano.

The size allows for several thrusters to be put on a single satellite, which could allow it to change orbit and even roll. Though it may not sound it, this is exciting in the world of satellites. Nanosatellites have had trouble with traditional propulsion systems, which allow little space on the them for electronics and communications equipment.

But the microthruster barely adds any weight, allowing for fully-loaded nanosatellites to not only be launched into orbit but to be able to navigate once there.

On Earth, these thrusters are essentially useless. But zero-gravity space presents a very different story. And with the size and flexibility of these thrusters, this could open a new range of possibilities for satellite technology.

via A penny-sized rocket thruster invented at MIT | DVICE.

In a world where exclusive cars often aren’t exclusive enough, McLaren is offering customers a chance to put their own custom-designed body on a MP4-12C supercar carbon-fiber chassis.

via McLaren lets you design your own supercar.

BBC Nature – Sharks tracked by surfing robot and free app.

In the most complex rocket-landing ever attempted, NASA will literally drop its latest Mar rover onto the Mars surface by a crane from a hovering mother ship. Really!

A year ago (July 12, 2011), I gave you a heads up on NASA’s marvel of planetary-exploration technology in my blog post:  “Take a peek at NASA’s next Mars rover. It’s the size of a Mini Cooper!”

Well, the rover’s 354-million-mile, eight-and-half-month journey is just about over.   “Curiosity” — the nickname for this out-of-this-world vehicle — is poised to land on the Red Planet.

Check out a superb article by UK’s DailyMail — with photos, illustrations, and spine-tingling landing animation — here:  http://bit.ly/NVBY32

Get ready for a wild ride on August 5th.  Buckle up!

Illustration courtesy of NASA

Medical professionals seldom use the world “miracle” with any treatment.  But those are precisely the words being used by the scientific community in regards to T-DM1, a new drug for women with Stage 3 or Stage 4 (metastatic) breast cancer. 

As reported in today’s MSN HEALTH: 

“This week there was big news for HER2-positive women: a dramatic announcement about T-DM1, an experimental drug that’s been in clinical trials since January. Known colloquially as ‘super Herceptin’ by the women taking it, T-DM1 is an unusual joint project between two companies, Genentech, which makes the targeted antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin), and ImmunoGen which contributed its cancer-killing agent DM1.

“Oncologists don’t like the term ‘miracle drug,’ and try not to use it — but the word miracle was in fact used when researchers presented results of a Phase II trial of T-DM1 at the Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Texas, last Tuesday.”

For the full article, visit this link:  http://on-msn.com/o1ifjV

Here’s another excellent article from ABC NEWS HEALTH:  http://abcn.ws/K51YWL

Let’s all hope T-DM1 lives up to the promise seen in the clinical trials, to give women a powerful new weapon in the fight against this terrible disease.

Image courtesy ABC NEWS and Getty Images

The icky stuff you see floating on the top of stagnant water may become the latest weapon in spotting cancer cells circulating in a bloodstream.  That’s the bottom line from renowned scientist, Yoshinobu Baba, Ph.D. , and his research with the pond-scum microbe called Euglena.

According to an article from the American Chemical Society, “Baba’s team turned to Euglena in an effort to solve the medical problem of detecting the minute number of cancer cells that break off from the original, or primary, tumor site and travel through the bloodstream. Those cells, termed circulating tumor cells (CTCs), enable cancer to spread, or metastasize, and start growing at distant sites in the body. Metastasis is the main reason why cancer can be such a difficult disease to treat. Detecting those cells would raise a red flag so that doctors could treat or more intensively monitor patients.”

Baba’s novel technique uses Euglena to help detect those minute cancer cells.  It’s an ingenious combination of scientific brilliance and Mother Nature.

For the complete article, with the scientific premise behind the technique, visit the American Chemical Society’s Web site at this link:  http://bit.ly/GRiV8R

Image courtesy of Yoshinobu Baba

Want to own the most outrageous ride on the planet?  How about your very own, officially licensed,1966 Batmobiile, complete with functional flamethrower exhaust and double-bubble windshields.

And it’s more than just show:   A 280 horsepower, 325 ft-lbs of torque, GM350 crate engine will zoom you out of your bat cave, 0 – 60 MPH, in five seconds.

What’s the price for the ultimate cool car?  $161,000.   For more information on this Gotham City masterpiece, check out http://bit.ly/A0zVH9

Image courtesy of Firebox