discipline

Military Space

2006-01-25T07:03:00.000-08:00

Very interesting articule/editorial on space development:

...we find ourselves with no human military access to space at all. We can launch a nuke and obliterate an entire nation, but we can't lob a squad of special forces to grab a Bin Laden. We can stop a barrage of nukes coming our way, but if a BB hits one of our satellites we cannot send out someone to fix it. We can launch a school bus-sized do-it-all monster satellite to a fixed orbit, but we cannot pop up an extra set of eyes to aid a commander in the field. And yet, these more versatile, fast-response, lower-cost capabilities are exactly what this new war on terrorism calls for.

Ghandi in Space

2006-01-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) India will decide in a year's time on a manned space mission, according to Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair.

"We have sparked out a debate on the issue whether a manned space mission is necessary or not.. In a year, we will be able to reach a decision on the issue," Nair told reporters here today.

"We have to first decide how far such a manned mission is beneficial and whether we can afford to remain without it. Only a national debate can throw up answers for a consensus to go for a manned mission," he said.

A debate is on among the country's space scientists, academia and the government about the feasibility of a manned mission, which is expected to cost up to Rs 15,000 to 20,000 crore.

"We need to develop a lot of new technologies to build a life-supporting system, a space capsule with safety features to survive and a recovery operation to complete the mission. "If it is decided, we do not want to lag behind in our preparations," Nair said, adding it will take at least seven to eight years for the agency to prepare for the mission.

The un-manned mission would cost around Rs 3000 crore, "therefore, it has to be debted and decided whether it is worthwhile to go on with manned mission when the same can be achieved by the robotic instruments," he added. PTI

I was kind of wondering when they were going to get in on this. I suppose we'll start to see more Brits in orbit if they do it. Mmmmmm, curry.

1776

2006-01-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

I received 1776 as a gift for Jesus Day and have been reading it a bit at a time for a week or two. Sato san told me that he had read McCullough's Truman and found it to be too "florid". Now, when I read history books they're usually about space or science history so I'm not really that versed in more "conventional" historical books, but I didn't find 1776 to be too terribly florid. Maybe McCullough's writing style fits better with this subject than with Truman (frankly, the last adjective I'd think of to describe Harry Truman is "florid") or maybe his very, very extensive use of quotes didn't allow him the space to get too purply. Either way, I found it to be, in the words of that inimitable crab cake and multiple marriage expert, Larry King, a "good read".

I learned a few new things about the start of the Revolutionary War I had never known before. Like the name Nathanael Greene, which I may have heard before, but never known how important he was to the War. Or Henry Knox--equally important to the War.

In the US, we learn about the Revolutionary War in public school and it's usually just a long string of platitudes and pedagogical crap that everyone summarizes into a cloud of Redcoats, Hessians, wooden teeth, and guys in funny hats. You don't often come away with the overwhelming idea that winning the Revolution was a very tenuous thing, particularly at the beginning of the War. You also don't come away with the utter brutality and awful conditions. Yes, you hear about soldiers having no shoes at Valley Forge, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Many soldiers started out with no shoes and went on without them, many didn't have proper clothing, and diseases like "camp fever" and smallpox were rampant. Oftentimes they didn't have enough food or anywhere near enough powder for muskets (in one battle, newly arrived recruits were given makeshift spears made from long poles and the blades from scythes).

One very glaring thing that I learned is that the phrase "these colors never run" is total bullshit. Any politican who uses that phrase needs to go back and read about the Battle of Brooklyn and the taking of Fort Washington in 1776. You could call what the Americans did on "York Island" that year an "orderly retreat", but frankly, from the evidence McCullough provides, it was basically a rout for the British. We ran, and we ran hard down New Jersey and into Pennsylvania.

Things turned around after that, but frankly, if the British had had smarter leadership and understood the determination of people like George Washington better, they could have easily won in the first year of the war.

As I said before, McCullough uses quotes extensively and provides just enough interpretation and editorializing to make the book interesting. A Revolutionary War nut may find the book to be old hat, but if you are someone who doesn't know much about the War beyond what you learned in school, this book is a good primer.

Anti-Nuke Retards

2006-01-08T16:26:00.000-08:00

CAPE CANAVERAL -- About 30 demonstrators gathered outside the south gate of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday to protest the upcoming launch of a plutonium-powered NASA probe.

The peaceful gathering lasted two hours and took place under the watchful eyes of a security patrol. The protesters gave speeches, sang songs and picketed the entrance with signs such as "No Nukes In Space" and "I Want To Grow, Not Glow."

RTGs have been bashed, smashed, heated, frozen, and generally given a good shagging. The US has launched over 40 RTGs into space (including 5 on manned missions) and there hasn't been an accident yet. Apollo 13 had one on board when it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and the world didn't end. Yeah, it would be better if we didn't have to use RTGs, but the fact is the if we want to send anything out beyond Mars' orbit, solar panels just can't generate enough power for a spacecraft, so we have to use RTGs.

Michio Kaku, a "scientist" from CUNY lead the bitching and moaning about RTGs before Cassini launched. According to him, we were all going to die from cancer if Cassini was launched. We were in particular danger because Cassini was going to get a couple of gravity-assists from the Earth on its way to Saturn. But lo-and-behold, just like all of the other dozens of times the US has launched RTGs, there were no problems with Cassini and we've gotten some really important science from the mission. I have yet to hear him bitch about New Horizons. Maybe he actually learned his lesson. Either way, I refuse to buy any of his books or listen to him if he shows up on radio on teevee. And neither should you.

New Horizons is a very important mission we almost lost because of budget cuts. The inherent, but slim, dangers of RTGs is well worth the risk.

Jesus Christ, Aslan Super Star

2005-12-31T08:27:00.000-08:00

A fundamental mistake people make when reading the Chronicles of Narnia is to assume that it is a Christian allegory. This mistaken assumption has only been compounded by the release of the new movie version. The story itself is most definitely not an allegory and Lewis made that clear over and over after he published, yet too many people have not wanted to believe him. The story is a supposition of what would happen to a fantasy land that needed redemption--what Christ-like figure would emerge to redeem it?

If the story was an allegory, Aslan would be Christ and would do and say things and have experiences which could be related one-to-one to Christ's experience. Instead, Aslan's experiences and behavior are similar to Christ's, but not directly relatable. I thought about this in particular while watching the new movie and seeing the scene where the White Witch kills Aslan on the Stone Table.

In the story of Christ, he is basically killed by a bureaucracy which is corrupt and doesn't understand who he is. In, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, everyone is well-aware of who and what Aslan is and he is sacrificed to appease the "old magic". This is a pagan ritual. True, Aslan is Christ-like in the sense that he sacrifices himself for others, but he doesn't display the kind of doubt and trepidations Christ did because he knows full well that he will come back to life and continue living. And this is where we see the biggest departure from allegory.

If Aslan is an allegorical representation of Christ, why does he get to stick around for six more books after he's sacrificed? Shouldn't he have gone across the sea after lying dead for three days?

Aslan is indeed Christ-like, but he isn't supposed to be the man who was Jesus Christ. He's a lion and Lewis makes it quite clear that he is a lion. Not an allegorical lion, but a real lion--the biggest talking lion ever, but still a lion. You can make as much of a case that Aslan is an allegorical representation of a pagan Sun god as you can that he is an allegorical representation of Christ. But he is neither and both--a combination of the two in a fantasy land called Narnia.

So, Christians, you can indeed use the story to reinforce your faith by using it as a reference to Christianity, but please, get over yourselves and realize that it's not the story of Christ in allegorical form.

BOOM!

2005-12-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

December 23, 2005: NASA scientists have observed an explosion on the moon. The blast, equal in energy to about 70 kg of TNT, occurred near the edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains) on Nov. 7, 2005, when a 12-centimeter-wide meteoroid slammed into the ground traveling 27 km/s.

Hayabusa Will Be Late Getting Home...After Failing

2005-12-14T11:14:00.000-08:00

After examining data from the unmanned probe, however, JAXA said last week it had likely failed to collect samples.

JAXA said it had lost control of the direction of the probe due to a fuel leak after the landing, forcing it to delay a plan for Hayabusa to approach Earth and drop a capsule containing the samples into the Australian outback in June 2007.

The return has been put back until June 2010, JAXA said on its Web site.

This really, really sucks. But, with this mission, the Japanese did something new and innovative, and that in itself has some value.

Females have advanced sexual software superior to males basic version

2005-12-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

"Here's the bottom line. If you're an A grade tennis player, you'll be bored playing a C grader in one minute flat! Women are naturally born, A grade lovers, and the fact of the matter is they'd rather not play at all, than play with C graders!" Kevin Hartley said.

And saying this is helpful in what way? It's bad enough that men are continuously portrayed in the MSM as emotionally and socially inferior to women, but now not only are men sexually different, they're inherently inferior? Again, I ask, how is this helpful (not to mention actively hurtful)?

Europe to help finance new Russian spaceship

2005-12-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

MOSCOW - The head of the European Space Agency said on Friday he was confident he could win enough support from member states to help develop Russia's next-generation spaceship.

It's about time the Europeans started to help support that cabbage-smelling, drunken uncle of ours.

Best Fark Subject Line Evar

2005-12-11T15:43:00.000-08:00

"Pope denounces materialism from balcony of marble, gold-domed building in midst of jewel-encrusted religious icons while wearing giant gold cross"

Wino versus Dracula

2005-12-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

Richard prior is dead.

The first comedy album I ever owned was Pryor's, "That Nigger's Crazy". My sister bought it at Target and gave it to me for Christmas. I innocently put it on the family turn-table and started playing it. After he said "motherfucker" for the first time on the album, I quickly plugged the headphones in. Love him or hate him, he was a motherfucking comedy genius.

And now I imagine the endless tributes will start and we'll have to listen to Robin Williams talk in his "serious voice" about what a wonderful man Pryor was. Instead, I think all cable and broadcast channels (inlcuding the Family Channel and all Christian channels) should be required to show all of his television and movie appearances, uncensored, continuously for 24 hours while all radio stations should be required to play all of his comedy albums.

Lu-la-la!

2005-12-09T08:26:00.000-08:00

Is she wearing leather? Daddy like!

Incredibly Tragic

2005-12-06T12:43:00.000-08:00

The stepfather of an 11-year-old girl went to Massachusetts' highest court on Tuesday hoping to block the state from taking her off life support.
...
Haleigh Poutre was hospitalized in September after her stepfather and adoptive mother kicked her and beat her nearly to death with a baseball bat.
...
Haleigh was adopted by her aunt about five years ago after her biological mother moved to Virginia with a new boyfriend.

I don't know if I've ever read a sadder story or a story of such blatant abuse. It's bad enough that they abused her in life but they continue to abuse her in vegetative sort-of life. I won't offer any opinion on this one beyond saying that the step-father has obviously given up any say he may have in what happens to this girl.

Taipei 101: Earthquake Machine

2005-12-02T12:50:00.000-08:00

Taipei 101 is thought to have triggered two recent earthquakes because of the stress that it exerts on the ground beneath it.

Oops.

Keith Cowing Gives it to NASA Over NAC

2005-11-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

Far too often, advisory panels are stacked with people who talk to each other too much. Like a turbocharger in an automobile they breathe in their own exhaust instead of fresh air.

His most damning criticism, though, is the fact that Griffin appointed only one woman out of the 24 members of the council. In the realms of actually advising NASA, this may not mean anything, but it sure doesn't look good politically. While I don't think Griffin should have taken a quota approach to filling those seats, I have to agree with Cowing that he should have taken a second look (or third or fourth) at his list and maybe found a few more qualified women to put on it.

New NASA Advisory Council

2005-11-29T14:50:00.000-08:00

The NASA Advisory Council will be chaired by former Senator and Apollo astronaut Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt. Former Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong joins Schmitt as one of the distinguished experts on the council...

If Neil Armstrong is joining up, then you know it's serious. Not because he's a notorious recluse (he's not), but because he only puts his name behind things he believes in. I take his participation in the new advisory council as an endorsement of the manned Moon/Mars initiative. Jack Schmitt ain't anyone to sneeze at, but Armstrong is the Big Time.

Top 10 Martial Arts Movies

2005-11-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

We just can't get enough of lists around here. They're easy to read, don't involve much thinking, and are entirely opinion based. That is the heart and soul of the Internet machine.

List from About.com:

Guide Picks - Top 10 Chinese Martial Arts Movies

Here are the top 10 picks of Chinese martial arts movies, ordered by released date.

1) The Chinese Connection, 1972
Directed by Lo Wei and starring Bruce Lee. Original title: Fist of Fury.
This movie is Bruce Lee's classic. Want to see Bruce Lee's action, this is the one.

2) Enter the Dragon, 1973
Directed by Robert Clouse and starring Bruce Lee.
This is Bruce Lee's most popular movie.

3) Drunken Master, 1979
Directed by Yuen Woo-Ping and starring Jackie Chan.
This movie made Jackie Chan a star. It is an entertaining film, yet not too violent.

4) The Shaolin Temple, 1982
Directed by Chang Hsin-Yen and starring Jet Li.
This is Jet Li's first film. Jet Li was the all-round wushu champion (martial arts) at that time (about 1982). Thus want to see the real thing, see Jet Li in this movie.

5) Snake in the Monkey's Shadow, 1982
Directed by Sum Cheung and starring John Chang.
The best martial arts movie on the monkey style, snake style, and drunken style.

6) Shaolin Master Killer, 1983
Directed by Lau Kar-Leung and starring Gordon Liu.
"One of the most revered martial arts films of all time, this is the story of a young man who joins the Shaolin Temple when the Manchus kill his family." -- Movie Summary

7) Supercop, 1992
Directed by Stanley Tong and starring Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh.
"The film displays Chan's dual mastery of physical comedy and martial arts while also showcasing his notorious predilection for handling his own stunts." -- Movie Summary

8) Fist of Legend, 1994
Directed by Gordon Chan and starring Jet Li.
Fist of Legend is the best movie by Jet Li. This is a remake of Bruce Lee's The Chinese Connection.

9) The Legend of Drunken Master, 1994
Directed by Lau Kar-Leung and starring Jackie Chan.
This is probably the best martial arts movie by Jackie Chan. 'Chan employs the hilarious but effective style of kung fu known as the "drunken" style. The movie is a true action masterpiece featuring some of the most intense fighting sequences ever filmed.' -- Movie Summary

10) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 1999
Directed by Ang Lee and starring Michelle Khan, Chang Chen, Zhang Ziyi, Chow Yun-Fat.
The film is based on a novel by Wang Du Lu. It is one of the 73rd Annual Academy Award winners, honored as the best in Foreign Language, Music (Score), Art Direction and Cinematography.

I'm the Same Kind of Japanese as Sato san

2005-11-27T15:37:00.000-08:00

I don't suppose I should be at all surprised.

You Are a Henna Gaijin!

You're not Japanese, but you wish you were!
You can use chopsticks with your eyes closed, and you've memorized hundreds of Kanji.
You even answer your phone "moshi moshi."
While the number of anime videos you've seen is way higher than the number of dates you've been on, there's hope.
Play the sexy, mysterous gaijin, and you'll have plenty of Japanese meat.

What's Your Japanese Subculture?

NASA and White House Fighting Over Shuttle Budget

2005-11-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

WP reports on it here.

My favorite phrase from the articule is at the beginning, "President Bush's space exploration initiative". President Bush's space initiative? Isn't it NASA's space initiative too? Isn't it the nation's? When they talk about the shuttle program they don't say, "President Nixon's space shuttle program".

Not that it shouldn't be criticized if it's a dumb idea, but the president doesn't dream these things up on his own. But, the WP and others like them have been trying to get Bush on the program he proposed since he proposed it. They all started out with the "trillion" dollar budget figure they heard from some self-proclaimed space "expert" and they've been assuming that it's going to be a hugely expensive debacle ever since.

Maybe this new space initiative will fail, but I don't think the WP is qualified to determine that.

Cassini

2005-11-25T11:03:00.000-08:00

Cassini is going to have a close up look see at Rhea tomorrow. Remember kids, long after the MSM has forgotten that the space program is doing anything, the missions are still out there chugging along, gathering data, and putting our tax dollars to good use.

Mars/Venus Express

2005-11-25T10:57:00.000-08:00

I haven't checked in on the Mars Express imagery for a while. It keeps getting cooler, so take a few minutes and have a look for yourself.

Also, Venus Express has sent back some of its first remote sensing images. I'm very interested to see what new stuff it finds when it gets to Venus.

North Country

2005-11-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

It's sort of a Thanksgiving tradition around here to see a movie after shoving great gobs of food down our gullets. The choice of movie is usually made through polite negotiations until a concensus is formed. This year, it came down to a choice between North Country and Jarhead. It really didn't matter to me what we saw, but I did point out that RottenTomatoes gives Jarhead a 57% while North Country is beating it with a 71% score and that Sato san told me that most of the reviews he'd seen for Jarhead describe it as "boring". So we went to see North Country.

I'm really not that concerned about the politics or the feminism of a movie like North Country, but an underdog-beating-the-system movie can be enjoyable. It's an American tradition to cheer when the underdog sticks it to "the man" no matter your political stripe. Additionally, I have an affinity for northern Minnesota in the winter. It's bleak and stark. The winds come down from Canada, through Montana and North dakota, tear across the plains and hit northern Minnesota like a hammer. The people who live there are some of the toughest people--pyschologically and physically--you'll ever meet. When it's 40 degrees in the South, people are piling on sweaters, clearing the shelves of stores for "supplies", and shivering out of fear. When it's 40 degrees in northern Minnesota, people are putting on their shorts and wondering when they can take their boats out again.

Fargo made a pretty big splash about a decade ago and a lot of people remember it, so North Country has that to contend with. Fargo was distinctive from the dialect they used to deliver the dialogue, to the incredible cinematography and the general whackiness of the story and characters. As far as cinematography goes, in my opinion, Fargo did it better. The Coens held their shots of northern Minnesotan landscapes longer, emphasizing the starkness and the bleakness. And while North Country had some very nice shots in it, those shots weren't held for very long. Not long enough for the viewers to really take in the hugeness and harshness of the environment.

As for dialect, Fargo played with it. The "this is a true story" statement at the beginning of the movie hung over the whole thing. And while there are people in Minnesota who talk like the characters in Fargo, a majority of them don't. As with all of the other elements of Fargo, the dialect choice is accurate, but only so far. (Many Minnesotans complained that the dialect choice made them look stupid to the rest of the country, but what they didn't get was that the joke was on the rest of the country--getting them to believe that all Minnesotans talk that way.) In North Country , the use of "duh Range" dialect seemed forced. It was as if the actors were saying to themselves, "Now I'm talking 'Minnesotan'". So while it was purposely forced in Fargo, it seemed as though it was unconsciously forced in North Country.

Character whackiness doesn't apply in North Country, so any comparison on that basis isn't fair. Lead acting ability, though, is a fair comparison I think. Frances McDormand can act circles around Charlize Therond (though Therond wins the "Cooler Name" category), which she not only domenstrated in Fargo, but somewhat ironically in North Country also.

In this kind of movie, there's always the place where the underdog publicly gains the moral upper hand over "the man" and gets cheered by all of the other characters in the movie. You can go two way with this: through effective acting and scripting, you can get the audience on your side and have them cheering for the underdog too, or you fall back on convention and just be overweeningly sentimental and corny. In North Country, I'm afraid they took the latter road.

I think part of the problem lay in all of the harassment scenes leading up to the final courtroom drama. While what the men were portrayed as doing was abusive, I just didn't feel as though they were projecting it very well. It was as though the film was explicating, much as it did with the dialect, saying "see, this is harassment right here". The build-up just seemed a little confused.

The final determiner for me, though, is if I'm sitting in the the theater starting to wonder how long I've been there and when I can leave. I started to do that toward the end of North Country.

I'd recommend that if you want to see the starkness of Minnesota in winter, see Fargo. If you want to see a story about a single working mother beating the system, see Norma Rae.

ADD: Before the movie started, among the million commercials and previews, they showed a preview for Brokeback Mountain, a story about what two lonely cowboys *ehem* do with each other while out together in the mountains. There was a very uncomfortable silence in the theater after the preview was shown. I think maybe Hollyweird is over-estimating the mainstream American viewing audience's tolerance for a serious gay cowboy love story, even if it is directed by Ang Lee.

Hayabusa--Judo Throw!

2005-11-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

TOKYO (AP) -- A Japanese space probe will make another attempt at landing on an asteroid on Saturday after it successfully landed and then departed from its surface over the weekend, officials said Thursday.

JAXA, Rock, Rock On!

Hayabusa--Judo Chop!

2005-11-23T11:40:00.000-08:00

From planetary.org:

Remember how Hayabusa was virtually still for 30 minutes? JAXA is now saying that Hayabusa actually touched down -- and more than that, they may even have a sample.

If they can actually get a sample back, it'll do a whole hell of a lot to help us understand the formation of the solar system. Go JAXA!

MER-A Makes It One Martian year

2005-11-23T10:09:00.000-08:00

Seven times it's expected life span. Pretty cool.

Read about it here.

Funny, it reminds me that the MSM always makes a huge stinking deal out of NASA's spectacular failures, but where are they for the spectacular successes?

Aurora

2005-11-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

A really, really, really nice shot of aurora by Bjorn Jorgensen via spaceweather.com.

Airship Reaches Near-space Altitude During Flight

2005-11-20T16:53:00.000-08:00

A team led by Southwest Research Institute® (SwRI®) successfully demonstrated powered flight of the HiSentinel stratospheric airship at an altitude of 74,000 feet.

Before the advent of satellites, some science fiction writers thought high altitude airships or balloons would be used to bounce television and radio signals. Funny how, if you wait long enouhg, eventually you're ideas are proven.

Blogging Another Blogger Blogging Yet Another Blogger Blogging About Hayabusa

2005-11-19T20:25:00.000-08:00

Emily Lakdawalla (xoxoxo) is blogging the Japanese attempt to land and grab a sample from asteroid Itokawa. She's doing so by trying to make sense of a Google translation of a Japanese blog. It sounds as though they had comm problems and had to wave off for another attempt. I still haven't read through all of it.

UPDATE: Hayabusa is in safe mode about 100 km from Itokawa. Go to the blog linked above for detailia on how it got there.

I'm In Bizarro World

2005-11-18T21:22:00.000-08:00

This is weird. I swear up-and-down on the the Pope's funny hat that I saw Coyne on C-SPAN advocating that "Intelligent Design" should be talked about along side Evolution. Yet this AP bit is saying that:

The Vatican's chief astronomer said Friday that "intelligent design" isn't science and doesn't belong in science classrooms

and that

His comments were in line with his previous statements on intelligent design

I dunno. Maybe I didn't watch long enough or just stopped paying attention when the words "Intelligent Design" came out of his mouth, but I could swear he was suggesting that it should be taught as an alternative theory.

I hope I was mistaken.

Duhr? Mk 2

2005-11-18T20:28:00.000-08:00

Keith Cowing weighs in on this one.

I'd like to back pedal on my previous mean statement and say that the people they winnow out for this show will have to be so ignorant that they deserve our pity more than anything else.

"Western ghosts tend to be bigger than Chinese ghosts"

2005-11-17T12:49:00.000-08:00

Chinese superstition can be hilariously practical sometimes.

NOT FORGOTTEN: Fourteen RAF airmen who were killed 50 years ago when their plane crashed in Taiwan were commemorated this week after three years of hard work.

Duhr?

2005-11-17T09:44:00.000-08:00

A new reality TV show is aiming to pull off the biggest hoax in TV history - by persuading a group of Britons that they have been blasted into space.

Hello? Gravity?

If these people allow themselves to be fooled into thinking they've been placed into orbit while they're still on the face of the Earth then they are dumber than a box of rocks and deserve to be deceived.

Make Sure All of Your Circuits Are Hardened

2005-11-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

From SpaceWeather:

BIG SUNSPOT: Sunspot 822 is enormous. From end to end it stretches some 140,000 km, about the diameter of Jupiter. Yesterday, Mila Zinkova of San Francisco photographed the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. Among the sea gulls is sunspot 822; it's the one without the wings:

Sunspot 822 is crackling with M-class solar flares. So far the explosions have not affected Earth, but this could change in the days ahead. The sunspot is turning to face our planet, increasing the chances of an Earth-directed eruption. Stay tuned.

Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You

2005-11-15T07:58:00.000-08:00

AW&ST editorial via SpaceRef

To deemphasize the robotic Mars program now, in a tradeoff with the manned lunar vision, would be a terrible mistake.

Washington needs to be reawakened to the quantifiable payoff the robotic Mars program brings now, in terms of NASA political capital in Congress and scientific, educational and technological benefits to the U.S. as a whole. Accompanying these factors is exploration as a positive symbol of America's contributions to all mankind.

Indeed. If political will is trying to push the Mars robotics programs aside in favor of the manned programs, then they've clearly taken their eye off the ball. Each new robotic mission to Mars not only brings greater public sympathy for the space program, it also brings with it more data that will be invaluable to a manned mission.

Oh, Goody! Mk 2

2005-11-14T14:47:00.000-08:00

Vietnam lab reports H5N1 mutation

UNWELCOME CHANGE: Scientists at the country's bird-flu research center said that the virus now spreads more easily in mammals, as Indonesia investigated a woman's death.

"Beaver Moon" (Uhuh, huhuhuhuh...)

2005-11-14T08:35:00.000-08:00

Via SpaceWeather:

TONIGHT! The Frosty Moon and Mars are getting together for a beautiful close encounter. You can see them rising in the east, side-by-side, at sundown on Monday, Nov. 14th: sky map.

More Fumbling About Over Launch Dates

2005-11-14T08:30:00.000-08:00

Via NASAWatch:

The PRCB (Program Requirements Change Board) met last Thursday. As a result of this meeting, all future shuttle launch dates contained in the directive issued by the PRCB to update the FDRD (Flight Definition and Requirements Directive) are "TBD".

I'm at the point where I'm just taking a fatalistic view regarding the shuttle program--I'm not that concerned about the details, let's just let it die an honorable death.

Holy Crap

2005-11-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

Pro wrestler Eddie Guerrero found dead

MINNEAPOLIS - A World Wrestling Entertainment star was found dead in his hotel room Sunday in Minneapolis, where he was scheduled to appear that evening in a WWE show.

I'm not big on pro wrestling, but I check in once in a while and I know that Eddie Guerrero is one of the few really dynamic personalities they've had on recently. What a bummer.

Oh, Goody!

2005-11-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

Bird flu spreads to Hubei Province

EIGHTH OUTBREAK: The H5N1 virus has surfaced in two villages in Hubei Province, while reports in Japan raised concerns about possible side effects of the drug Tamiflu.

Don't forget, this is in the same country that's supposed to be the powerhouse of the 21st century!

EZ-Rocket

2005-11-12T13:56:00.000-08:00

Videos

EZ-Rocket will attempt to set a record for point-to-point distance travelled in a rocket plane (11 miles) next month. Videos include some really cool RocketCam stuff.

Hayabusa Successful, MINERVA Not So Much

2005-11-12T13:31:00.000-08:00

Japan's Hayabusa probe successfully performed a close approach to the surface of the asteroid Itokawa on Saturday, clearing the way for an attempt to land and retrieve soil samples next week.
...
However, Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted space officials as saying that an attempt to send a mini-robot called MINERVA to the asteroid's surface met with failure.

This is a bummer, but they'll at least be able to use the data they got from the failure to help make the sample retrieval more successful.

Kow-towing to the Russians Again

2005-11-12T09:52:00.000-08:00

MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - NASA is planning to order two Soyuz manned spacecraft and two Progress cargo ships from the Russian Federal Space Agency on a commercial basis for missions to the International Space Station, the head of a Russian aerospace corporation said Friday.

The Russians know that if they have a temper tantrum long enough over something that NASA will eventually give in. They did and NASA has.

Blurg Big Time

2005-11-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

Althouse put one of my comments on her index page. This is the point of the spear, my friends! Soon I will have BlogAds knocking at my door wanting to give me piles of cash for being a jerk, I will be asked on talk shows as a "blog expert" and people I don't know will come to this humble blog to tell me how much they personally hate me. I always knew that being an intemperate asshole would pay off some day!

[Patience, my pet, patience...]

Current Top 3 Most Viewed Photos at TaipeiTimes.com

2005-11-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

1.
2.
3.

Boobies, boobies, boobies.

Hutchison Wants NASA and DoD To Cooperate More

2005-11-11T06:29:00.000-08:00

"The significant contributions these two agencies make to our national security will advance at a faster pace with a joint focus while protecting taxpayers."

It all sounds very reasonable.

The phrase, "protecting the taxpayers", is the key phrase here, I think. Hutchison is a big NASA advocate (her state gets quite a bit of money from it) and she's trying to get some more of that nice, juicy DoD money pointed NASA's way.

I see some warning's from the past in this move, though. The shuttle is so dangerous, partially, because it's so damn big (increased drag, higher heating on re-entry, and so on). Why does the shuttle have to be so damn big? At first it wasn't going to be, but then Apollo was loosing its luster and NASA's budget was being cut pretty seriously, so the DoD was directed to cooperate with NASA on the shuttle program (i.e., give them some more DoD money) as a way to "save" money and demonstrate "efficiency" in the government.

Because DoD was a major "partner" in the shuttle program, they had a say in the initial specifications. Their major contribution to that was to say that the payload bay had to be a certain size to accomodate their very large satellites. The size difference between DoD and NASA satellites was pretty significant, so NASA had to significantly increase the size of the payload bay. When you significantly increase the size of the payload bay, you have to increase the size of the orbiter (most importantly, the size of the orbiter's wings) and all of these increases mean increases in weight, which means you have to increase the size of the LH and LOX tanks and the size of the boosters.

So, thanks to the DoD requirement, they ended up with a completely different design from the relatively modest design they started out with. All of the increases in size meant they had to design for much higher heat tolerances and stresses, which meant the shuttle got pushed farther into the realm of the "experimental". So thanks to the DoD (actually, thanks to political leadership of the time for forcing DoD and NASA together), the spacecraft that was intended to be an operational system after a fairly short test period has been permanently stuck in the R&D stage. It has cost more lives than it should have and been astronomically more expensive.

I don't know what Hutchison has in mind specifically for "cooperation", but maybe she and the rest of the Senate should keep the example of the shuttle program in mind and step carefully when pushing NASA and DoD into the same room and expecting them to dance together.

Venus Express Is On Its Way

2005-11-09T11:36:00.000-08:00

ESA PR 50-2005. The European spacecraft Venus Express has been successfully placed into a trajectory that will take it on its journey from Earth towards its destination of the planet Venus, which it will reach next April.

Photo Credit: ESA

Well, there they go again

2005-11-09T06:57:00.000-08:00

TOPEKA, Kan. - Risking the kind of nationwide ridicule it faced six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public-school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.

Not only that, but:

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

And this last bit is a dead giveaway. If they need to redefine science, then they're showing that they need to change the playing field in order to accomodate their "theory". This is not how scientific inquiry works. Scientific inquiry works within the framework of objectively analyzing the world around you through observation, experimentation, and empirical analysis. "Intelligent design" doesn't do this. "Intelligent design" assumes a higher power, an "architect" who designed everything when, in fact, there is no objective proof whatsoever that there is such a being.

"Intelligent design" is premised on belief, not on observation, experimentation, and empirical analysis. It is beyond the natural and, therefore, it is impossible for science to prove or disprove it's validity, so this is why they must change the playing field in order to call their "theory" science. But they know, and anyone with the slightest concept of what science is knows, that "intelligent design" is not science.

When you couch non-scientific concepts in scientific terms, but without the rigor of scientific inquiry, this is called pseudo-science and this is what the Kansas Board of Education is saying should be taught in their science classrooms. By that same token, I could demand that UFOlogy, astrology, and reflexology be taught in high school science classes as legitimate areas of inquiry. Any school board worth it's salt would laugh such a proposal out of the board room, but because the "intelligent design" advocates invoke God (however indirectly) they bring an air of legitimacy with them.

By all means, challenge Darwin--science is all about challenging established theories in order to expand human knowledge. But don't sit there and try to seriously say that "intelligent design" is science when you have to change the definition of science to do so.

Venus Express Set For Weds. Launch

2005-11-08T06:55:00.000-08:00

At 07:00 CET Monday, the Venus Express mission clock began ticking down to Wednesday's launch.

Mercury in August and now Venus--this is going to be pretty cool.

UFOs, Pseudoscientific crap

2005-11-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

The link to this story on MSNBC.com read "Meteor showers ... or UFOs?".

As Rush Limbowel would say, you people need to understand that "UFO" stands for "Unidentified Flying Object". That is to say, it hasn't been identified yet, not that it is a spacecraft piloted by sentient extra-terrestrial beings. Yet the mythos has grown that "UFO" does indeed stand for "spacecraft piloted by sentient extra-terrestrial beings". And yet the snarky (Gawd do I hate the word "snarky") implication in the MSNBC link is that there is the possibility that the bolides these people are seeing are indeed spacecraft piloted by sentient extra-terrestrial beings.

Let me set the record straight here: there has never been a single verifiable instance of anyone witnessing or encountering a spacecraft piloted by extra-terrestrial beings in the histroy of mankind. Ever. Period.

There have been scores of eye-witness reports and subjective stories, but never, ever anything that could be verified. Jimmy Carter saw a UFO--yeah, it was Venus fer crissakes. But eye witness report, even by expert witnesses like sheriffs, are unreliable.

And, no, even though the sheriff of East Buttfuck, IA, swears up and down to Gawd that he did indeed see Little Green Men, that doesn't make it so. He may believe it is so, but that doesn't make it that way. And, equally no, it isn't up to anyone else to prove that it isn't so. Otherwise, I could proclaim any crazy-assed thing I want and demand that someone else prove it wrong in order for it to be wrong.

So, people, please! If you are going to try to use scientific method to prove something (which every UFO nut does), really use it to do so, don't try to bend it to get the answer you want.

Deep in the heart of Texas!

2005-11-07T06:16:00.000-08:00

I've seen bolides before, but nothing like this one from Nov. 2 over El Paso.

Source: spaceweather.com

Hate America, Break Your Own Shit

2005-11-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

In Frenchieland:

Youths set ablaze nearly 1,300 vehicles and torched businesses, schools and symbols of French authority, including post offices and provincial police stations, on the 10th consecutive night of unrest.

And earlier in Tangoland:

More than 1,000 demonstrators angry about President Bush's policies clashed with police, shattered storefronts and torched businesses Friday, marring the inauguration of the Summit of the Americas as leaders began debating creation of one of the world's largest free trade zones.

I take these actions to be equivalent to, "I hate you so I'm going to burn my own house down!"

The Moons of Pluto

2005-11-06T07:45:00.000-08:00

NASA'S HUBBLE REVEALS POSSIBLE NEW MOONS AROUND PLUTO

Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to view the ninth planet in our solar system, astronomers discovered Pluto may have not one, but three moons.

Photo Credit: NASA

Ayatollah Class Ships Finally Go To Taiwan

2005-10-31T07:49:00.000-08:00

Monday, Oct 31, 2005,Page 3
Two decommissioned Kidd-class US destroyers purchased by the government have departed for Taiwan and will arrive in December, a television station reported yesterday.

More info

FYI Halloweenies

2005-10-31T07:42:00.000-08:00

If you're trick-or-treating at sundown, look to the south and you'll see Venus. You'll know it's Venus because it'll be the brightest thing in the sky. You can't miss it.

Politicians Should Not Wear Short Pants

2005-10-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

...though getting attractive young women frollicking in the water in a picture with you can't hurt.

"Caged Chicks"

2005-10-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, PETA, you are our moral superiors.

Hang on, what about this case (and others like it) where PETA members have taken animals from shelters, promised to find them good homes, and then euthanized them.

Just H

2005-10-29T07:41:00.000-07:00

I guess Sato san has picked up the recently released DVD, "Hall & Oates Live (1987)"--a reminder of our misspent youths. It reminds me that I have a copy (vinyl, mind you) of Daryl Hall's, "Sacred Songs," produced by Robert Fripp as part of a trilogy of "pop" albums (which also included, "Peter Gabriel 2," I think it was, and one of Bowie's albums which ended up being produced by someone else--to make up for that loss, Fripp produced and released "Exposure" instead). Currently, "Sacred Songs" is going for from $0.99 to $9.99 on e-Bay. Sad. It's a good album but never really saw the light of day in pop culture.

Trying to Save Aeronautics Funds at NASA

2005-10-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Whoever thought Dennis the Menace would try to come to NASA's rescue? Then again, Lewis (sorry, I mean "Glenn") Research Center is in Cleave Land.

Mars Close Approach

2005-10-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

From spaceweather.com:

On Oct. 31st, the planet Mars is making its closest approach to Earth for the next 13 years. (13 years? Cross your fingers.) Technically speaking, the moment of closest approach occurs on Oct. 30th, a day before Halloween, but the difference in distance between the 30th and the 31st is too slight to matter.

Also from spaceweather.com.

Sulu Goes Lavender

2005-10-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

MSNBC story.

I've been trying to think of some editorial comment, but I really can't come up with anything except, "Who cares?"

ADD: I do notice that georgetakei.com won't load. Hmmmm, could Sulu be using his gayness to generate "buzz" for his play?

Hmmmmm....

Satellite Khomeini

2005-10-27T07:51:00.000-07:00

here.

Monitor "agriculture and natural resources" indeed.

ClickStar

2005-10-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

Re-checking my links from the post below, I saw that the link to the "Rendevous with Rama" page at Revelations' (Revelations's?) web site supposedly pointed to ClickStar, but it didn't so I did a manual search and found the site. ClickStar is a Revelations partnership with Intel which is supposed to distribute first-run, pre-DVD release movies over the Intarweb. I'm betting that if they stick with this concept they're going to make a bajillion dollars from it. No one else seems to be seriously addressing the problem of broadband distribution of movies ("piracy"). The MPAA is, of course, handling it in their usual ham-fisted manner and are currently admonishing people who have paid tickets to watch movies in theaters about piracy with a new PSA. (They've also created a web site to go along with it, but I'm damned if I can find an online version of the PSA itself--maybe they're worried people will pirate it.)

Rorez and I saw this piece of garbage PSA when we went to see "A History of Violence" (good movie, btw) and my jaw dropped at the gall of the MPAA. I'm sitting in the theater, I paid my five and a quarter for the matinee, they're making me sit through their commercials, and then they have the gall to shake their finger at me about piracy.

Yes, they should be fairly compensated for their work, but just as the RIAA is going to fail to stop music piracy by arresting 80 year old ladies, the MPAA is going to fail with their equally punitive attitude. Instead of trying to squelch the technology, they need to embrace it and figure out how to use it to their advantage. ClickStar seems to be the first attempt at it and I hope they succeed.

Somewhat out of left field

2005-10-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many people realize this, but Arthur C. Clarke is still alive and kicking. And still writing despite being nearly 90. He did get some pop culture air time after the tsunami last year (his dive business on Sri Lanka was completely destroyed). And then there was that disagreeable incident in the late '90s when he was accused of being a child molester. Clarke was married once about 50 years ago, but that only lasted 6 months, and he has been a bachelor ever since. He's never dignified the questions about whether he is a homosexual or not with a response so there has been all kinds of unseemly speculation about his private life over the years. As though it's anyone's business.

I think my favorite story about Clarke involves my favorite author of all time, Robert Heinlein. The story goes that it was the early '80s and there were a number of science fiction writers sitting around debating SDI (a concept for which Jerry Pournelle takes credit, saying that he talked Reagan into going with it as a way to get the administration to put more money into space research, but many dispute Pournelle's claim).

Heinlein, being a fairly hard-headed military man and staunch patriot, was strongly in favor of the idea. I don't think it would be unfair to call Heinlen a "peace through strength" kind of guy. Clarke, on the other hand, was of the classic left-leaning science fiction school of thought about wars and weapons in that they are almost always bad and we should do what we can to refrain from developing more engines of destruction. Apparently, at this meeting, Henlein and Clarke were so fundamentally opposed and argued so fiercely about the subject that they never spoke again.

Clarke is pretty much the last one standing now. Asimov is dead (tragically of AIDS contracted during a heart operation), Heinlein is dead, E.E. Smith is long dead. Most of the Golden Age guys are gone--yes, Bradbury is still around too, but I don't consider much of what he's written "science fiction". So Clarke is pretty much it from that generation.

Morgan Freeman's production company has been working on getting, Rendezvous with Rama produced as a movie since 1997 and the last release date mentioned was 2006. There hasn't been any recent talk about it and I can't find out whether it ever went into production or not, but I hope they are able to follow through with it and get it released before Clarke dies. It would be nice to remind the general public how great an author he is before he goes.

Short of that, this year is the 60th anniversary of Clarke's paper describing ("inventing") the geosynchronous telecommunications satellite--the so-called "Clarke orbit"--and a number of organizations are celebrating it. Not many people ever think about it, but without Clarke's contribution to telecommunications, the world would be a very different place.

And I ra-a-an, I ran so far away....

2005-10-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Aurora borealis from last night.

Photo Credit: Frank S. Andreassen, Harstad, NO
Source: spaceweather.com

NASA Chief Under Fire

2005-10-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL—NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has yet to respond to recent allegations that he used NASA space shuttles on as many as one dozen unauthorized outings to such destinations as New York City, the French Riviera, and his vacation home near Ketchum, ID.

Hat tip to NASAWatch.

"Computer...Hellooo, Computer..."

2005-10-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

The documentary, "Star Trek IV" said this would happen and now it has. Transparent aluminum.

That's "Hedley"!

2005-10-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

City of Villains is the "stand-alone expansion" follow-up to City of Heroes. The game is in "open beta" now, meaning they're days away from releasing the game and have opened the beta up to pretty much any dumbass out there to see what last-minute bugs they have to fix. I got Rorez to let me try out the game on his account and created a Mastermind character. Below is a shot of him--Hedley Lamar with his henchman Taggert.

The game's pretty fun so far, but I'm not seeing any huge differences between it and CoH. I think the really interesting thing it will ahve to offer is PvP between Heroes and the Villains. We'll see.

Breastica Boobical

2005-10-19T15:07:00.000-07:00

City of Heroes is a MMORPG I've played in the past and have recently come back to. There've been a few changes and they've made it more fun, but I think the most important factor is that I'm following the maximized path for the type of character I've created. In the past, I've tried to be "different" playing these sorts of games and it's always ended up in frustration. The key is to find out the best power/upgrade sets and stick with them. Conformity wins in these things.

Anyway, another welcome addition to the game is that they improved their already incredible character generating application with, among other things, the option to give female characters comically large breasts. Why any self-respecting heterosexual male would not give their 'toon humongous breasts is beyond me. So here's the character I created.

Conceal.

Reveal.

Action shot. (I'm not sure how she runs so fast with those built-in personal flotation devices, but she does.)

Tubular Boobular Joy

And I might as well throw in Master Ninja Theme Song.

Both from MST3K.

Noodlies in Space

2005-10-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

here.

"We're grateful for the deep love and concern by all Chinese people, the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan compatriots," Nie said.

Aaah, the irony is rich and full-bodied.

Dukey Wookie

2005-07-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

"Cooter" speaks his mind about the "Dukes of Hazzard" movie. BTW, "Cooter", you might want to look into the definition of your own name before you go around chastising people about "blatant sexual situations" and "family values". Despite that, I'm guessing that the movie is going to be a turd anyway. The trailer portrays Bo and Luke Duke and a couple of stupid, violent ruffians, when it's clear from the lyrics that they're just "some good ol' boys never meanin' no harm". Duh? Just follow the song and you've got the movie.

Discovery Tiles Damaged on Pad

2005-07-13T07:30:00.000-07:00

Oops.

Past Life Anal-ysis

2005-07-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

Your past life diagnosis:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I don't know how you feel about it, but you were male in your last earthly incarnation.
You were born somewhere in the territory of modern South of Latin America around the year 1425.
Your profession was that of a chemist, alchemist or poison manufacturer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your brief psychological profile in your past life:
You always liked to travel and to investigate. You could have been a detective or a spy.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
You should develop your talent for love, happiness and enthusiasm and you should distribute these feelings to all people.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you remember now?

It appears that Sato san and I were almost the exact same person in a past life.

Sato san Wonders

2005-07-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

about the world of Groening.

I can't pinpoint a season where the Simpsons became unfunny, but I can say that at least the last 4 or 5 haven't been very funny at all. Futurama is quite funny--I highly recommend it. It didn't have the staying power of the Simpsons, but it was still pretty hilarious.

MAS*H'd

2005-07-11T07:58:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm going down in my plane home over the Sea of Japan.

Posse Comets-atus

2005-07-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

Watching NASA-TV last night, I saw that The Comets actually did perform, a number of times, at JPL. They were surprisingly good considering their ages, but it was still a little embarassing. The stand-up bass player really needs to think about giving up singing--I think the guy's gone completely tone deaf.

Hell or High Water

2005-07-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Friday, July 8, 2005
Source: Kennedy Space Center

STS-114 Crew Now Arriving at KSC at 6:30 pm Saturday July 9

Due to the expected arrival of Hurricane Dennis in the Gulf Coast, the crew of STS-114 will now arrive at KSC a day early. Their new target arrival time is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 9, at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility. Media need to be flexible because this time may be delayed due to the uncertainty of the weather.

Media will be able to see the crew arrive as this will be a photo opportunity. The event will also be carried live on NASA TV.

Foreign media may catch the bus at KARS PARK at 4 p.m. Saturday to be escorted on base for the arrival.

U.S. media may catch the same bus, or additional buses will leave the press site at 5 p.m. All media will go through a security inspection, so please travel as light as possible.

Allure of the Far East

2005-07-09T07:11:00.000-07:00

I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight!

No Bier Trumps

2005-07-09T06:44:00.000-07:00

Taiwanese beer? I think you're forgetting the Germans. I mean, c'mon, dude! Loyalty to your kith and kin is one thing, beer heresy is another.

God Punishes Pensacola...Again

2005-07-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Since Ivan last year, it seems as though almost every tropical storm and hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico has made landfall on the continental US either directly over, or very close to, Pensacola, FL. Ivan tore the hell out of the Pensacola area and they've been rebuilding ever since, with every tropical storm and hurricane that comes into the Gulf the process drags on longer and becomes more expensive. You would think that with the number of churches and the high quality of religiosity in the area, God might be a little nicer to them but I guess he just isn't listening.

NHC 5-Day Track of Dennis

Marsipan

2005-07-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

Haven't check the ESA Mars Express images lately. The newest image seems to display Martian butt pimples writ large--especially for Sato san.

Chinese Packages

2005-07-07T16:16:00.000-07:00

Sato san discusses Chinese panties. I've noticed an increase in this sort of show sponsored by the ChiComs, though I have to say I haven't seen any where they displayed men-with-units-retracted-by-steroids. BTW, it looks like you can just about see one of the female model's cooches--Western Decadence?

NOTE: check the body-builder in the upper left giving one of the men in the front of the audience a "Hello, sailor!" look.

Wet Socks Make for Bad Egg Foo Young

2005-07-07T13:55:00.000-07:00

Sato san relates an amusing anecdote from the Chiang dynasty.

If only they hadn't included the lady with the abortion pamphlet in the photo below, it would have been perfect.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

2005-07-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

Ha!

Just Put Your Head Between Your Knees...

2005-07-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

Sato-san should be pleased to see this.

Starting July 19, air raid drills will be staged in different areas around the country until Aug. 11 as part of the yearly Wan-An Military Exercise, the spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense announced yesterday.

Read more here.

Does this go far enough, though?

Live Eat Me Redux

2005-07-05T10:41:00.000-07:00

The people at A-Hole Ell have posted all (?) of the performances from Live Eat Me. Of parochial interest, I notice the RHVL Fripp is not on London roster.

Go and watch sanctimonious aging rockers (the members of Pink Floyd are looking prety damn old) lecture you about how we can all stop poverty in the world. For an encore, they'll be teaching us how to not have bad feelings.

Random Thought: At what point will The Who actually disband? Keith Moon is long dead, John Entwistle has gone to his great bass collection in the sky. When will Roger and Pete realize that they aren't The Who anymore?

Tim Robbins Is A Moron

2005-07-05T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that out there somewhere there's something living. I'm not sure it's worth the money to find out. Let it be magical.

Yes, Tim, the head-in-the-sand, not-in-my-backyard, let's just sit here and enjoy our jacuzzis attitude has always been helpful when trying to increase human knowledge.

The Russian Legal System--You Gotta Love It

2005-07-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

"In Soviet Russia, comet hit you!"

Awesome NASA PR

2005-07-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

here.

Not that there's anything inherently wrong with wheeling these guys (and their oxygen tanks) out to play a few licks from rock 'n roll's Cretaceous period, but to use it as a big PR thing? The entire premise is set up as a joke, which is too bad for NASA and too bad for the Comets. I can only imagine what the show was like--I suppose the Comets have never played louder (not for effect, but so they could hear their own monitors).

I dunno. As I said, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it, I just imagine Grandpa Simpson trying to rock out.

UPDATE: Looking at the web pages more carefully, it looks like my assumption that the Comets may play music at these events is probably wrong. Ro-rez san thinks that makes it even worse, but I haven't made up my mind yet.

Wordplay Randomosity

2005-07-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to comment on this post by Sato san. The phrase "ball to eye" reminded me of this definition from the Urban Dictionary.

Sato san Likes Gladiator Movies, but He's Never Been In A Turkish Prison

2005-07-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

here.

"Gladiator" has to be the number one movie among Home Theater nuts. Whenever they take photos of their theaters to demonstrate how dark it is and the clarity/awesomeness of their screens cum projectors, they always take a shot of "Gladiator". It's an all right movie, but c'mon, it's not like it's "Ben Hur" or "Spartacus" ("I love you, Spahtacus!").

Re: Lewis Black. I picked up the incredibly unfunny, Lews Black: Unleashed, after getting and listening to his incredibly funny Rules of Enragement CD. I was very surprised when "Unleashed" elicited only a few chuckles--whenever I've seen Black, he's been consistently hilarious, but this DVD looked like something a committee put together. The CD, on the other hand, is high-larious--you can picture him pointing and shaking his finger when he goes into one of his trademark rages.

Pow!

2005-07-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

DEEP IMPACT KICKS OFF FOURTH OF JULY WITH DEEP SPACE FIREWORKS

After 172 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles) of deep space stalking, Deep Impact successfully reached out and touched comet Tempel 1. The collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT...

I watched some of the coverage on NASA-TV last night, but this monkey couldn't stay up until actual impact.

War of the Worlds

2005-06-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

My first encounter with, The War of the Worlds, was in comic book form--I wonder if I still have it around, it might be worth something by now. I think my second encounter with this great story was hearing the Orson Welles radio play. Neither of those two compared to getting the original text in grade school. I didn't understand all of it, but H.G.'s writing is so compelling that I couldn't help but love it. I've since re-read it many times, getting new things out of it as I get older.

The new movie stays true to the original story, but I think in many ways it's more derivative of the 1950s George Pal film version than of the radio play or the book. The George Pal film moved the story up to the 1950s (Red Menace, nukular science is the future, men are men--with hats, women wear tight skirts--and hats) and he threw in a 1950s-style love story. Shpielburger has also updated the story to our present day and thrown in a love story of sorts. In the original story, the protagonist is an introspective observer just trying to survive as an imperialist tyranny tries to crush all that is England. In the Pal and Shpielburger movies, he becomes a bit of an action hero.

While it would have been really cool if Shpielburger and Tom "I'm not a crazy gay Scientologist, really!" Cruise had stuck more faithfully to the original, even to the extent of setting it in turn-of-the-century England, that would have been expecting too much. They did, however, stick to the spirit of the story, including all of the Big Scenes that Pal used in his version and not going too far to make the protagonist into an action hero.

Probably the biggest diversion from the original story was to give the protagonist children. In the book, the protganist is profoundly alone. He doesn't have anyone to cling to or fight for beyond himself and the entirity of the human race as he tries to survive the attack from the Martians. Wells predicts the horror and loneliness that must have been what trench warfare was like in World War I in his story, and by introducing children into the story, you lose that element of the story that Wells described so vividly.

Then again, this is the 21st century and filmmakers probably assume that audiences wouldn't be interested in such a story. They want action and adventure and this movie delivers. If you're a total H.G. Wells fanboy (are there any of those left in the world?), you may be disappointed, but over all, I think they hit the right balance of faithfulness to the story and 21st century CG action/adventure and did a pretty good job of retelling this great story.

Hawkish

2005-06-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

There's a hawk living in the neighborhood of Stately Starless Manor. The few times I've seen it haven't been long enough for me to clearly identify it, but I'm pretty sure it's a Sharp-shinned Hawk. The other possibility is Cooper's Hawk. Both hawks are what's called a "bird feeder" hawk--in other words, they hang around bird feeders looking for birdy victims. If it's a Sharp-shinned Hawk, then it's a big one, but not impossibly big. If it's a Cooper's Hawk, then it's a pretty small one. So I'm going with Sharp-shinned Hawk for now.

The Gigster Returns

2005-06-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Looks like Fripp is on tour again and is as happy about it as he ever is.

Clarifying Cornfusion

2005-06-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

of Sato san.

I've seen detachments at Home Despot, but they only carry a few and it's seasonal.

The one I've got has started no problem every time, even at the beginning. Prime x8, move choke to "A", turn on.off switch to "on", hold down the trigger, pull three times, switch choke to "B", pull a few times (often on the first pull) and she starts right up.

Yeah, you can change trim heads--you know, stuff like the "french tickler", sheaths that not only protect but enhance sexual congress. The one that comes standard is a "bump feed" with a whole shitload of string wound into it. When you hit a fencepost or some other obstruction, some of the string gets chopped off. In theory, with "bump feed", you just tap the head against the ground and it feeds more string out. It's never that simple though, and you often end up continually bashing the head against the ground. On Lo-Rez's advice (he of the summer high school city parks crew job experience) recommended getting a head that takes a fixed piece of string. Sort of like this:

Mine is simpler, taking only one continuous piece of string.

Or you can get something like this:

Which is supposed to work for heavy vegetation, but not small trees (you need a brushcutter for heavy brush and small trees).

To change the head on the trimmer you have, you unscrew the bump head (which I think might be screwed on counter-clockwise) and then you can take the rest of the trimmer head off. I picked my replacement head up at Home Despot along with a big roll of fairly thick trimmer string. A pair of pruning shears will easily cut through thick trimmer string.

Now every time I go to trim, I just pull the old piece out, run a length of string through the head to the length of the rear guard (on both sides) and cut it off. Takes about 10 seconds. If the string is too long, there's a little cutting edge inside the rear guard that will cut the string to the right length once you start the head spinning.

Sato san in Domestic Briss

2005-06-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

about lawn care. I don't know what model you've got ("Bushmaster 8786XL-C3PO" doesn't come up in their official product list for gas trimmers), but I've got the 17" curved shaft (I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to giggled or look uncomfortable after using the phrase "curved shaft") Toro and it starts up with no problem every time. Have you got your gas/oil mix right?

And don't stick with the bump feed trimmer head--get one that let's you put a fixed length of string in it. You have to replace the string every time you trim (and sometimes while you are trimming), but it's much less of a pain than the bump feed ones--they never really work right, anyway.

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

2005-06-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

Have we learned nothing from working with the Russians over the past nearly two decades?

MosNews:

Russian Federal Space Agency Considering NASA Invitation to Fly to the Moon
Created: 21.06.2005 15:33 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:39 MSK

MosNews

Russian Federal Space Agency is considering U.S. invitation to participate in the Moon flights program, Russian Federal Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov told a Tuesday news conference at the Interfax main office.

“We have received an official offer from NASA to take part in ”the Moon program“ which we are considering at the moment,” Perminov was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Perminov also said NASA was “the only space agency that had flights to the Moon and other planets planned”, whereas such serious programs require international cooperation.

“The flights’ security and reliability require international cooperation,” he said.

NASA will officially announce the new date for resuming Space Shuttle flights on July 1, and the tentative date of the first launch to the International Space Station is July 14, Perminov also told journalists at the news conference at the Interfax main office.

“I had a meeting with the NASA leadership and I liked that they gave clear and definite answers. On July 1, NASA will officially set the date of the shuttle launch to the ISS. Tentatively it is July 14,” he said.

Take the Brits or the Japs or the Germans or almost anyone, but please, please, I'm begging you, David! Not the Russians!

Solar Sail Go Bye-Bye

2005-06-22T06:57:00.000-07:00

From MosNews:

Russia Blames Faulty Engine for Solar Sail Failure
Created: 22.06.2005 15:09 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:09 MSK, 2 hours 46 minutes ago

MosNews

The Russian space agency on Wednesday said the attempt to launch a solar sail space vehicle was not successful because the booster rocket’s engine failed soon after it blasted into space, The Associated Press reported.

The booster failed 83 seconds after its launch from a Russian nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, the space agency said. Its spokesman, Vyacheslav Davidenko, said that “the booster’s failure means that the solar sail vehicle was lost.”

The launch late Tuesday was part of a joint Russian-U.S project attempting the first controlled flight of a solar sail. Solar sails are envisioned as a potential means for achieving interstellar flight in the future, allowing such spacecraft to gradually build up great velocity and cover large distances.

The Russian Defense Ministry has launched a search for debris from the booster and the vehicle.

U.S. scientists had said they may have detected signals from the spacecraft, but cautioned that it could take hours or days to figure out exactly where the $4 million Cosmos 1 is.

The signals were picked up late Tuesday after an all-day search for the spacecraft, which had suddenly stopped communicating after its launch from a Russian submarine, they said.

SpaceRef says more-or-less the same thing.

I don't know why the Planetary Society decided to go this crazy Russian SLBM route, but I'm assuming cost (cheapness) had a lot to do with it.

Sailing the Wide Accountancy

2005-06-21T06:37:00.000-07:00

The Planetary Society is launching a solar sail today. They're calling it the first solar sail, but it's really the second. The Japanese launched the first.

Note the use of an SLBM as the launch vehicle.

Boid blurg

2005-06-20T07:47:00.000-07:00

Birds spotted at the country estate this weekend:

American Goldfinch. There were as many as 4 males and 3 females on the tube feeders at any one time.

American Robin. After we cut the incredibly tall grass in the yard, these guys were all over the place getting at the worms and grubs they couldn't find when the grass was long.

Eastern Blurbird. Only one and he was acting pretty strangely--hopping around inside the fire pit, occasionally stopping to groom himself.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird. There's usually one hanging around all of the time, but this weekend he only showed up a couple of times to feed and then zoom off. They're probably nesting about this time, so don't have much time to just hang out.

Baltimore Oriole. A male showed up eying the hummingbird feeder, but took off when it figgered out it couldn't get any nector out of it.

Red-tailed Hawk. I found the nest and discovered that I had looked at it several times in the past but thoguht it was just a clump of branches. The female is so well camouflaged that I could only tell she was there when she moved her head. I could see the chicks popping their heads up once in a while. Once the female had spotted me, though, she stopped moving and just stared.

Heard but not seen: Rose-breasted Grosbeak. He sounded like he wasn't far away, but I never saw him come to the feeders.