Hasta La Gadget!

NASA better come up with some good reasons to keep Ares and Orion alive, because Barack Obama is no JFK: The office of the President Elect has send them a questionnaire asking some tough questions about our favorite space program, Space News reports. You know, the one which is supposed to take Humanity back to the Moon and go to Mars. In fact, the questionare goes as far as asking if NASA could redesign the Orion spacecraft so it could be launched by the European Ariane 5 or the Japanese H2A:

Estimate the feasibility of designing a resized Orion capsule that could be launched by international launch vehicles such as the [European] Ariane 5 or the [Japanese] H2A.

I don’t know about the feasibility of that, I—even while I am not American—doubt about its convenience. After all, even if the economy is broken, wouldn’t government investment in the aerospace industry help it come back and help the US as a whole, just like the Apollo program did, generating thousands of jobs and creating new technologies that put the US ahead of every other country in the planet?

Fortunately, it seems that some people think this is not really a setback, even while the questionare doesn’t ask about the cancellation or scaling of any other programs currently under progress or in the drawing table. John Logsdon, a space expert at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, has hope:

After all, these are the questions that everyone is asking, and the transition team certainly must get NASA’s best answers to them. I would not overinterpret and come to any conclusion regarding what direction the team may be headed — after all, there is still almost two months left in the transition.

Maybe he is right, maybe he is not. After all, during the campaign, Obama pledged to inject two billion dollars into NASA. However, he may not be interested in taking us to Mars but improving our understanding of Earth climate, beaming solar energy from space, and defend Earth against asteroids and comets. I hope his space advisors are aware about the fact that it only takes a bunch of guys from an oil perforation rig to do that. I mean, even Dick and Condi know that the oil industry are the only ones who can save us against global scale wars and doomsday meteors. [Space News via Slashdot]

The general consensus, among experts, analysts and other blowhards has long been that when Blu-ray players legitimately hit $199, the format would finally go mainstream. Well, $200 Blu-ray players are all over the place for Christmas, even Sony’s BDP-S350, with its unshakeable $299 MSRP. But according to ABI Research, only 8 percent of holiday buyers were even considering upgrading to Blu-ray even though about half of American homes have gone HD and it’s totally uncontested by HD DVD this year. What about you guys? [PC World]

We love pretty much everything about mimobots—designer USB flash drives that come in flavors from Star Wars sex to pirates—except their designer price. But through Monday, they’ve knocked 36 percent off everything they sell (because that’s how much of its value the Dow has lost through year), officially bring them into reasonably priced geek gift territory. [mimoco]

We’re pretty sharp on the fairy dust market, and while it no doubt goes for a premium in certain parts of the world, there’s still a serious surcharge being added in here for transparency. Japan’s own Hario is catering yet again to the affluent among us with its Harion speaker set, which boasts a subwoofer, two mid-range drivers and a pair of acrylic tweeters — all encased in heat-resistant glass. Of course, the company is no stranger to pumping out exclusive glass-based kit and charging a wad for it, as this particular package will run customers a staggering 16 million yen, or just north of $168,000. Oh, but if you and ten others dial in right now, they can be produced and sold for just 10 million yen each ($105,030). Economies of scale, now that’s good stuff.

[Via Gearlog]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

$168,000 Harion speaker set crafted from heat-resistant glass, fairy dust originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, I went to Circuit City yesterday because I couldn’t keep myself away from the Black Friday madness (it’s fun), and because I wanted to pick up that $199 Xbox 360 Arcade + 20GB refurb hard drive, since it was a good deal without BS add-ons. Apparently, they only had one of those per store, so I missed it. But that’s okay, there’s a better no BS Xbox deal worth highlighting: Amazon is selling the Arcade Holiday Bundle + a 60GB Xbox Live Starter Pack for $250, which basically amounts to $50 off of the Pro.

And you get 3 months of Live free. I think it’s better than the more prevalent software bundles, personally, since not everybody wants Kung Fu Panda or even Rock Band. Just $50 off the Pro, straight up. (You’ve gotta get your own HDMI cables, but just get ’em from Monoprice for a few bucks.) The discount takes shows up when they’re both in the cart. They’ve got 500 total, so hit it quick. As always, if you’ve seen better, let us know. [Amazon]