Tuesday 8am Silicon Valley news report:

APNEWSBREAK: US military tweets -AP

Many military commands and individual troops have long used social networking sites. The Air Force and Army have Facebook pages, as does Gen. Ray Odierno, the top commander in Iraq. But the new effort in Afghanistan is the first in an active war zone to attempt to harness the power of social networking sites as a primary tool to release information.

The Manhattan Project -TechCruchIT

Google Wave may be a big deal for Google, but it’s an even bigger deal for Microsoft.

Forrester on Future of Mission-Critical Cloud Computing -SOAWorld

The heritage of what cloud computing represents dates back to the dawn of information technology (IT), to the very beginnings of how government agencies and large commercial enterprises first accessed powerful computers to solve complex problems.

7 Technologies Shaping the Future of Social Media -Mashable

Social media in the future will be effortless and everywhere. Here’s a look at some of the new technologies in store for us over the next 10 years that will make our social (media) lives easier.

Cisco's addition to Dow boosts tech's clout -MercuryNews

Cisco's addition to the Dow Jones Industrial Average reflects the increasing importance of information technology in the U.S. economy. IBM was added to the list in 1979. It was followed by Hewlett-Packard in 1997, then Intel and Microsoft in 1999.

Facebook Gets a Break in New Study on Grades -WSJ

“In none of the samples do we find a robust negative relationship between Facebook use and grades,” the researchers wrote in First Monday, a peer-reviewed online journal.

Microsoft unveils new Xbox technology, enlists Facebook -Reuters

On Monday, Microsoft also said it planned to boost its Xbox 360 gaming console by integrating music-streaming service last.fm, Web social network Facebook and microblogging site Twitter into its Xbox Live online community.

NASA plans launch invitations to Twittering media -Reuters

NASA figures it can handle between 100 and 150 Twitterers and bloggers in a makeshift media site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Assessing Napster - 10 years later -SFGate

Napster helped change the mind-set of a generation that now sees digital forms of all media, from music to newspapers, as more convenient, said Mike McGuire, research director for Gartner Industries' Media Team.

Despite hype, Twitter largely ignored by young adults -SFGate

These are the findings of a survey published today by Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University. The results, based on responses from 200 people from 18 to 24, show that Twitter, despite its ample hype, has a long way to go to attract younger users.

Few Rules for Recycling Electronics -NYTimes

Over the past several years, numerous documentary films and news reports have described the toxic ecosystems that develop as a result, where acrid plumes of smoke rise from circuit-board smelting pits, and children bustle amid a soup of dioxins and mercury leaking from mountains of smoldering electronic trash.

Can the Internet Make a More Open Government? -NYTimes

I’m not sure that most people who send a letter to the president expect he will read it personally. But I do know that the campaign promise for open and interactive government is a difficult one to keep. And the promises keep coming. It invites citizens to find and report abuse in the stimulus program using its recovery.gov Web site.

E3-2009: Microsoft wows with full motion camera, games -SFGate

Project Natal captures full motion, recognizes faces and also comes equipped with speech recognition. You can play fighting games with full kicks and swings or a racing game using just your hands mimicking a steering wheel and stick shift.

Preparing to Sell E-Books, Google Takes on Amazon -NYTimes

Google’s e-book retail program would be separate from the company’s settlement with authors and publishers over its book-scanning project, under which Google has scanned more than seven million volumes from several university libraries.