Another freighter docks with ISS
Another freighter, this time from Russia, docks with ISS.
Year: 2011
Jack Benny vs Groucho
An evening pause: All funny, but the best moment is the look on Groucho’s face when he asks Benny the “Big Question”.
TSA shuts door on private airport screening program
It’s all about power and control: The TSA has announced that it will no longer approve private airport screeners.
Renegade Star Rips Through Space
Challenger accident, 25 years ago
An evening pause: Twenty-five years ago today.
The final words in Reagan’s speech come from a poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ing there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle flew;
The high, untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
Using skateboards to test prototype lunar lander
Using skateboards to test a prototype lunar lander.
Student sues University of Idaho over firearms ban
Another 2nd amendment battle: A student is suing the University of Idaho for banning firearms from his university-owned apartment.
NASA’s Overbudget Mars Rover in Need of Another Cash Infusion
Here we go again: NASA’s already overbudget Mars Science Laboratory rover is in need of even more cash.
Electric cars and their cold-weather shortcomings
Reality meets feel-good politics: Electric cars and their cold-weather shortcomings. Key quote:
“If you live in an area where the winters get extremely cold an all-electric vehicle will have to be garaged and equipped with some kind of plug-in battery warmer for it to be effective in the coldest months of the year. Keep these thoughts in mind if you’re planning an electric car purchase; we don’t want you finding out the range of your car has been halved when it’s five below zero and you’re fifteen miles from home.”
Egyptians brace for Friday protests as internet, messaging disrupted
The triumph of freedom: Protests spread to Egypt and Jordan.
We should recognize that though the overthrow of these Middle East dictatorships is certainly not a bad thing, the regimes that replace them are very likely not going to be much better, and could very well be worse. However, the free flow of information in the Arab world can only be a good thing, and in the long run can only lead to freedom and peace between nations.
Dilbert today
Today’s Dilbert strip says it all about the stupidity of the TSA.
Challenger, 25 years later
Today is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger accident. There are innumerable links from many sources talking about the event, too many for me to list here. You can find most at this link on Jeff Foust’s website, spacetoday.net.
Though I think it is very important for us to remember and honor these events, I have become somewhat disenchanted with the modern American obsession with memorials and anniversaries. Rather than build a memorial, I’d much rather we focused entirely on building new spaceships, new space stations, and new lunar bases, while flying multi-year missions on ISS, all in preparation for exploring and colonizing the solar system.
If we actually made the solar system a place for humans to live in and explore, we would build a far better memorial to those who have sacrificed their lives for the sake of exploration. And I think these heroes would be far more pleased by that memorial than by a stone statue or emotional op-ed that describes their courage.