Incoming

NASA's been busy spending taxpayer dollars to determine that frogs can reproduce in orbit. That's the latest news regarding a study conducted on a 1992 flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. The successful breeding of frogs, according to a report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, means embryos can go through the vertebrate stage of development in space -- which apparently means it's possible, though not proven, for humanoids.

Cray Research has finally joined the rest of the computer industry, replacing some 36 miles of wires in its C90 supercomputers with a totally wireless supercomputer. Code named Triton, the supercomputer is the first high-end supercomputer to get rid of tangles of wires and replace them with wireless connectors -- long since a staple in less-powerful machines. Elimination of wires should greatly ease manufacturing and maintenance. Still, these suckers aren't cheap. A machine capable of 60 billion calculations per second carries a price tag of $35 million.

Speaking of technology commercialization, for a good read on creator of the concept, pick up a copy of Neil Baldwin's Edison: Inventing the Century. The impressive biography details Edison's genius, not only for inventing technology, but also for whipping up enthusiasm, demand and markets for product ideas barely in seminal stage -- and sometimes borrowed from competitors and associates. Only Bill Gates seems to have combined a similar genius.

Two self-proclaimed do-good organizations have teamed to help provide Internet access to not-for-profit organizations. The for-profit firms are Telecommunications Cooperative Network in Arlington, Va., and the San Francisco-based Institute for Global Communications, which operates PeaceNet and EcoNet computer networks. Their emergence probably couldn't come at a better time as Newt-charged lawmakers are pressing efforts to eliminate all monies for getting not-for-profits on the infobahn.