A legal dispute involving model railroad hobbyists has resulted in a major courtroom victory for the free software movement also known as open-source software.

In a ruling Wednesday, the federal appeals court in Washington said that just because a software programmer gave his work away did not mean it could not be protected.

Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software - NYTimes.com

So for non-lawgeeks, this won't seem important. But trust me, this is huge.

I am very proud to report today that the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (THE "IP" court in the US) has upheld a free (ok, they call them "open source") copyright license, explicitly pointing to the work of Creative Commons and others. (The specific license at issue was the Artistic License.) This is a very important victory, and I am very very happy that the Stanford Center for Internet and Society played a key role in securing it. Congratulations especially to Chris Ridder and Anthony Falzone at the Center.

huge and important news: free licenses upheld (Lessig Blog)

Biologists have constructed a genetic map of Europe showing the degree of relatedness between its various populations.

Science Visuals - The Genetic Map of Europe - NYTimes.com

On August 2nd, Falcon 1 executed a picture perfect first stage flight, ultimately reaching an altitude of 217 km, but encountered a problem just after stage separation that prevented the second stage from reaching orbit. At this point, we are certain as to the origin of the problem. Four methods of analysis – vehicle inertial measurement, chamber pressure, onboard video and a simple physics free body calculation – all give the same answer.

Message from Elon Musk: Falcon 1, Flight 3 Mission Summary

The second article in Science describes building a fuel cell without a platinum catalyst. Fuel cells are declining in price, but the price of the platinum alone exceeds the price of an internal combustion engine of the same power, according to a paper by a group from the Australian Center for Electromaterials Science at Monash University.

2 Reports Raise Hopes on Energy - NYTimes.com

Editor's note: During a campaign appearance in Titusville, FL on Saturday, Democratic candidate Sen. Obama commented on NASA. As part of a response to a question on oceanic research, he brought up the topic of NASA. He said "I know it's still being reported that we were talking about delaying some aspects of the Constellation program to pay for our early education program. I told my staff we're going to find an entirely different offset, because we've got to make sure that the money that's going into NASA for basic research and development continues to go there. That has been a top priority for us."

Obama Reverses Campaign Stance on Constellation Cuts | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

The Falcon 1 rocket, a sleek black-and-white booster built to usher in an era of low-cost space travel, was bitten by failure for the third time in three tries during a dramatic Saturday night launch from the central Pacific.

:(

Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Falcon 1 suffers another setback

We had our first (semi) formal screening of the film! The team (me, Cory, Loch), and a few special guests including Cory’s mother and Loch’s 5-year old son (you never know who might be in your target audience), took a look at the most recent cut in Loch’s luxurious home theatre.

This is the guys that recently broke the "cannonball run" record, driving from NYC to Santa Monica in just over 32 hours, written up a few months back in wired.

32 Hours 7 Minutes

The General Motors Corporation reported a stunning second-quarter loss of $15.5 billion on Friday because of a dramatic decline in United States sales and charges for job cuts, plant closings and the falling value of trucks and sport utility vehicles.
...
And in a move that symbolized the end of the S.U.V. era, Mr. Wagoner said that G.M. had begun a “strategic review” toward a likely sale of its Hummer brand.

G.M. Loses $15.5 Billion in Quarter - NYTimes.com

A Qantas Airways Ltd. Boeing Co. 747 carrying 365 passengers and crew made an emergency landing in Manila after a fuselage section came off, leaving what a U.S. safety board said was a 5-foot hole.

No one was injured on the aircraft, which was on the Hong Kong-to-Melbourne leg of a flight that originated in London, Qantas said in a statement on its Web site. The crew, flying at 29,000 feet, made an emergency descent to 10,000 feet before diverting to Manila, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a statement.

Bloomberg.com: Australia & New Zealand