Free Republic

The most compelling show of contemporary basketball skill at last year's NBA All-Star Game didn't necessarily come from one of the players dribbling a ball ... it came from a ball itself. That ball was Wilson's Airless basketball prototype, a futuristic piece of see-through design work that traded good, old reliable pneumatics for a 3D-printed lattice structure offering the supple bounce without the air. At the time, it wasn't clear what – if any – future the ball had, but now Wilson has launched it as a limited edition. A very expensive limited edition. Called the Airless Gen1, the new...

Prison Could Mean Famous Digs for Jackson By KIM CURTIS, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago A Michael Jackson fan who gave her name as Muna, from Switzerland, right, faces off with a Jackson critic known as Billy Bible in front of the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Maria, Calif., Friday, June 10, 2005. The jury in the Jackson child molestation case entered their sixth day of deliberation. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) SAN FRANCISCO - If the child molestation case against Michael Jackson ends with a prison sentence, the pop star's likely new home would be almost as exclusive as...

Probe to 'look inside' asteroids By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff in Paris, France Studies of asteroids would aid Earth-protection strategies A new space mission concept unveiled at a Paris conference aims to look inside asteroids to reveal how they are made. Deep Interior would use radar to probe the origin and evolution of two near-Earth objects less than 1km across. The mission, which could launch some time later this decade, would also give clues to how the planets evolved. The perceived threat of asteroids colliding with our planet has renewed interest in space missions to understand these...