Persian businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, co-founder and Chairman of Prodea Systems and the first female space tourist, has been blogging and even vlogging about her experiences in space.

Her posts range from the trivial to the profound. Some of the most interesting insights she’s provided have been descriptions of how space explorers do tasks we take for granted.

“I must admit keeping good hygiene in space is not easy! There is no shower or faucet with running water. Water does not ‚Äúflow‚Äù here, it ‚Äúfloats‚Äù ‚Äî which makes it a challenging act to clean yourself. So what do people do up here, specially the ones staying for six months at a time‚Ķ? They improvise!” she notes.

“The most interesting experience ‚Äî or I should call it experiment ‚Äî is washing your hair. Now I know why people keep their hair short in space. You basically take a water bag and slowly make a huge water bubble over your head and then Very Very Gently, using a dry shampoo, you wash your hair. At the slightest sudden movement, little water bubbles start floating everywhere.”

RadioTail, a podcasting ad network, has announced plans to provide a free metrics and dynamic ad insertion system to all podcasters.

RadioTail has opened its platform up to all podcast producers for free through its new RadioTail Ripple service.

RadioTail Ripple lets audio and video podcasters track the usage of their media files and build a profile that advertisers can use to better target their message. Podcasters can parse their podcast’s statistics over time, by geography, by episode, by the software their audience uses and by how audiences find them.

By changing privacy settings, podcasters can give potential advertisers access to those statistics to enhance their decision-making ability.

A 56-year-old Japanese national allegedly attacked a 20-year-old jockey from Louisville on Tuesday while traveling on American Airlines Flight 918. The attack resulted in both men being detained by the FBI.

According to FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela, the older man had a strange disposition throughout the flight. He lay down in the aisle and also poured a glass of water on his head.
Matters got out of hand when, two hours into the flight, the older man made a comment about the younger man’s personal hygiene and sprayed him with perfume. When the younger man took out an iPod, presumably to help tune out his neighbor, the older man began elbowing him violently.

”The older gentleman thought the iPod wasn’t good for the plane,” Orihuela said. “He probably thought it was a cellphone.”

via MiamiHerald.com

Microsoft announced that the Zune digital media player and online service will be available to consumers in the U.S. on Nov. 14, 2006. The “Zune device” will retail for $249.99 U.S.

Here’s what Microsoft is offering for the price:

• 30GB digital media player will come equipped with wireless functionality for Zune-to-Zune sharing of music, pictures and home recordings; a bright, three-inch LCD video screen that works in portrait or landscape mode to view pictures and videos; and a built-in FM tuner. The device will be available in three colors: black, brown and white.
• A selection of preloaded content including at least 9 songs, music videos and film shorts are installed on the device‚Äôs hard drive to help consumers discover new artists and entertainment.

A Zune Pass subscription gives consumers access to millions of songs for $14.99 per month. Users can also purchase songs individually using Microsoft Points for 79 points per track. Similar to a pre-paid phone card, Microsoft Points is a stored value system that can be redeemed at a growing number of online stores, including the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Microsoft did not disclose any plans for podcast support in its announcement.

Kansas State University announced today plans to create the largest eduational podcast library in the world.

K-State, located in Manhattan, KS, plans to have all 6,000 class podcasts available to its students this year, making it by far the education realm’s largest podcasting implementation worldwide. The university is using Tegrity Campus 2.0, a content-management system for colleges and universities, to implement its system.

K-State has used Tegrity Campus to record an average of 152 classes across campus every year. After upgrading its Tegrity Campus service to include the podcasting automation module, K-State began to convert class recordings from previous semesters to podcast format, indexed and enhanced visually with slides and annotations from class.

“Our students and faculty alike have really taken to the technology, and with so many students at K-State already possessing iPods, this is a familiar and highly convenient way for them to receive and review their course content,” said Bryan Vandiviere, Web Presentation Technology Coordinator for K-State.

Wizzard Software announced today the acquisition of a second podcasting company, Blast Podcast, an podcast advertising and hosting service provider. Previously, Wizzard announced an agreement to purchase Switchpod.com, a podcast hosting service.

Wizzard plans to combine its experience in the area of speech recognition technology into Blast Podcast’s business plans. Wizzard will incorporate its server-based speech recognition technologies into the BlastNetwork, which will create a transcript for each audio and video podcast. This feature should help advertisers and listeners find relevant podcasts based on the content of each podcast episode, simplifying the search process and providing a more targeted audience for the sponsor.

Blast Podcast provides their clients with branding and advertising opportunities, in addition to real time statistics, and simple feed and file management, all without bandwidth fees and hosting costs. Blast Podcast and their publishers can earn revenue from sponsorships of their podcasts.

“We are building a podcasting environment in which our podcast creators can thrive,” says Chris Spencer, Wizzard Software CEO. “We believe that Blast Podcast’s approach to the marriage of podcast creators with advertisers is unique and will allow podcasters to monetize their content without offending their listeners, a critical component to the future of podcasting.”

iTunes 7 appears to have extensive support for phones built into it, beyond what is used by current compatible phones, which are some are interpreting as more signs of an upcoming Apple-branded iTunes phone.

A large variety of messages for mobile phone users are found in iTunes’ Localizable.strings (below).

Akamai, the leading Web content delivery network, today announced that Kiptronic, an ad marketplace for the podcasting industry, will use the Akamai global EdgePlatform to accelerate its customer’s distribution of audio and video podcasts over the Internet.

Kiptronic’s multimedia ad insertion technology lets audio and video podcast publishers select targeted advertisements and sponsorships to run with their podcasts, while providing sponsors and advertisers with a marketplace to reach targeted, niche audiences through podcasts.

“Podcasting for fun and profit is only in the beginning phases,” said Dana Gardner, principal analyst of Interarbor Solutions and producer of BriefingsDirect podcasts. “Entrepreneurs and enterprises alike should view podcasting as a simple and efficient way to gather and distribute tacit knowledge, one which can also provide a platform for highly targeted advertising. I expect podcasting — and the services that support it — to grow at three times the annual pace of Internet advertising in general through 2008.”

Does the world still need podcasters?

That’s the question raised by the latest announcement from MagneticTime, a text-to-speech software developer. The company announced today that MT-Podcast, an application that can automatically convert scripts to podcasts, is now available for free to hobbyist bloggers.

‚ÄúThe blogging community is growing and vibrant ‚Äì and one which can benefit from auto-podcasting while spreading the word about it,‚Äù says MagneticTime’s Business Development Manager Shane McAllister. ‚ÄúWe‚Äôre very excited about working with bloggers and helping them use auto-podcasting ‚Äì which is itself a new way of communicating.‚Äù

MT-Podcast converts written scripts to MP3 podcasts without needing a recorded voice. MT-Podcast is a web-based service, letting users to manage individual podcasts, add/edit/remove podcast episodes and manage their own accounts.

According to the company, automating the podcasting process like this can cut the cost of podcasting by 90%.
Bloggers interested in using MT-Podcast can contact the company via press (at) magnetictime.com. Instructions will then be emailed to eligible bloggers.

At the recent Apple Expo in Paris, twin designers Lauren and Paulina Bibi introduced a new line of cute monster iPod covers.

The Bibi’s don’t have a site yet, but there are lots of photos at the Gearlog site.