Potpourri XX

Just to start things off, my buddy Doc gave me a link to a Wikipedia article on where Kindle users can find free content. He also pointed out that the Kindle and Kindle 2 use the "AZW" file format, though they can also use other formats, including PDFs and Word docs, as well as electronic book files for older machines. Good to know. Gotta love free stuff.

This link comes from Nick Skytland: Four Ways to Increase the Urgency for Change. It's a Harvard Business Publishing article and is meant to focus on preventing organizations from growing complacent. Some food for thought there.

Business aviation companies are using Twitter to reach out to customers. I like this option. Of course 140 characters might just be enough advertising to stay off the Obama Administration's radar, so to speak. After all, if they become too public, they or their customers might get slapped with a 90% tax on something.

Speaking of the Obama administration, the work of creating dependence and ruining the economy continues.

Stephen Colbert did NOT get his wish to name the new International Space Station note after him. Instead, he got a treadmill and acronym named after him: Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT). Serves him right. I'm not a fan of Colbert, and don't feel terribly bad about him not getting his way. The Machiavellian in me thinks NASA could've used the marketing boost. Someone said NASA is saying no to democracy. I liked my buddy Martin's take on the issue: "When the kids can name a pig prom queen, it's time to close down the pageant."

Taylor Dinerman has a good editorial on The Space Review on Ares I-X. A couple of nits, which I wasn't able to post on that site for unknown reasons, are that he calls the flight "Ares 1-X" and he overlooked the importance of recovering the first stage from the flight. But all in all, Mr. Dinerman got things right, and that's a good thing.

Some satisfaction for folks here at Marshall Space Flight Center: the drug user who police pursued on a high-speed chase through MSFC and who killed a NASA employee last year has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

And finally, The Futures Channel has a great video promoting a new educational series focusing on the Ares Projects. It includes a lot of folks I work with at MSFC, including Jason, one of my fellow writers. Huzzah!