Space Elevator talk tonight at 7:30.

Quoted: Irish pub & restaurant 1 block from Seattle Center; 21 draught beers, pot pies, corned beef, burgers, steak, salmon, and other Irish and local favorites.

Some corporate shakeup with the Zero-G corporation - they've been purchased by Space Adventures and now become a wholly owned subsidiary.

Alan Boyle narrated video explains some of the details of Yuri Gagarin's flight. I hadn't realized he ejected from the capsule at 23,000 feet - and parachuted to the ground.

Charles told me about this book last night.

Quoted: In each of the six Apollo landings, the astronaut in command seized control from the computer and landed with his hand on the stick. Mindell recounts the story of astronauts' desire to control their spacecraft in parallel with the history of the Apollo Guidance Computer. From the early days of aviation through the birth of spaceflight, test pilots and astronauts sought to be more than "spam in a can" despite the automatic controls, digital computers, and software developed by engineers. Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA's extensive archives.

Website designer for Charles in Space

Quoted: The independent creative agency bringing brands to life online with interactive media, viral campaigns, community, social networking, advertising, and innovative marketing.

On Jan 31st the Navy test fired a Mach-7, 7 lbs projectile from their rail gun (10.9 megajoules).

Technical info on the design from a 2003 report:

http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2003gun/ellis.pdf

The final weapon will accelerate the projectile at a maximum of 45,000 G's!

Air and Space Museum web site.

Another co-working / office suite business - this one in Tacoma.

Great interview with Jeff Bezos. He talks mainly about Kindle (named after Kindling; as in "to start a fire" - though Scoble would say "to throw away on a fire").

It seems most of the innovations of Kindle lie in getting all the major publishers to agree to electronic distribution, getting 90,000 books available today, getting 101 of the 112 books on the NYT best seller list, etc.).

The seamless experience of seeking a book, and getting it delivered electronically, all without a computer, is pretty compelling.

Jeff also discusses the state-of-Amazon, the philosophy of their business (success), his quarterly "thinking retreats" (much as Bill does), and finally, he reveals a little bit about Blue Origin - his reusable space vehicle project.