Potpourri CIII

The usual mixed bag, so let's get to it. Five days to vacation and counting.

From the Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE):

• A suggested reading list for young 'uns. I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't read a lot of these, but some of them I wish I hadn't and some I'm probably still glad I haven't, so it might be a wash.
• Also, an overseas source for buying electronic gear.

Some additional second-guessing about Administrator Bolden might or might not have said about Ares I-X. After Mr. Cowing admitted to posting flat-out rumors, I'm beginning to take him less and less seriously.

This struck me as surprising and more than a little disturbing: Boeing is looking to move more of its operations overseas...to China. Not a bright idea--that would make U.S. proprietary technology that much more accessible to a nation that does not have our best interests at heart. And isn't Boeing supposed to be exporting products to China, not itself? I'll be interested to see what the Department of Commerce and the State Department have to say about this.

Here's something interesting from my friends at Science at NASA: could investigating the process of fusion on the Sun allow us to build a better fusion reactor here on Earth? That would certainly be a useful spinoff from astronomy, wouldn't it?

From Father Dan:

• A Fox News story (via YouTube) about Obama's new flyover policy regarding an event that honors America's military service members.
• Father also recommended I check Clark Howard's web site to seek out deals on calling overseas. I'll have to do some more reading here. Clark either assumes that my phone can be easily switched over to use in Europe (something Verizon told me was not doable) or he's offering advice on switching services, which I'm not looking to do. I might just buy a disposable phone or a phone card. I think I've reached the saturation point on helpful advice. I just want to get there, ya know?

A good editorial by one of my fellow NSS Policy dudes, Ryan, on what should be done with NASA. One can only hope we get this lucky.

From another NSSer, Ken, a list of 25 reasons we should go to the Moon. The space advocacy community is getting its message out there, but who's listening?

From Hu: a link to a blogger suggesting "concourse cruising," that is, walking up and down an airport concourse and saying "thank you" to any and all uniformed military personnel you encounter. I'm a fan. If I see any in the airport bar, I try to buy 'em a round. Whatever. They're the ones running around with 80 pounds of gear in 120-degree weather, getting shot at.

From Gwen, a spectacular way for space geeks to humiliate their dog.

Could Kindle and related electronic books spell the end of hardcover books? Maybe, says I.

A school is trying a "no touching" policy to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus. That's going to make joining hands to sing Kum-ba-ya difficult...jeez. Keep your hands washed, don't come into school if you're sick. It's not rocket science.

How much real estate would it require if we wanted enough ground-based solar power to power all of the Earth's needs? This site offers one answer, though it ignores things like night and day, bad weather, etc.

The British have developed a spacecraft to help deflect asteroids. Cool! Now all we need is a launch vehicle capable of lifting it into orbit.

European Vacation Preparations, Continued

I packed most of my stuff yesterday. A couple of last-minute items will get packed last (prescriptions, toothbrush, shaver), but my primary concentration this week will be getting used to walking around with 40 lbs. of gear on my back/front (backpack plus reverse-slung backpack, which makes me look pregnant--joy). A couple friends have suggested I get a letter of permission from my doctor authorizing me to carry my Synthroid and Simvastatin. Don't want to get caught like Rush Limbaugh, right?

And of course there are all sorts of little, stupid things I need to take care of, like emptying the fridge, dumping the trash, bringing in the grill, double-checking the locks on everything, and setting an out-of-office message for Hotmail, most of which will wait until the day before I go. Beyond that, what can I do? Not a whole lot. I'm still in over-thinking mode, so I'm occasionally losing sleep as I contemplate things I might be forgetting. I'll be fine once I get on vacation, but it'll take me awhile to get into a vacation frame of mind--or not. Put me in a business-class seat in a grownup-sized airplane, and even I can shed the workaholic attitude. Can't believe it, but after nearly two years of planning, I'm less than a week from making my big trek.

And from there, let the magic commence!

Latest from the United States of the Offended

So apparently someone has gotten it into their heads to try to remove "In God We Trust" from the U.S. dollar. Enough already! God has already been removed from our schools, public squares, and public events. Here's the full story from MSNBC. It's worth quoting in full because of the sheer brazenness of it all:

Atheist challenges ‘In God We Trust’

SAN FRANCISCO - An atheist who has spent four years trying to ban the Pledge of Allegiance from being recited in public schools is now challenging the motto printed on U.S. currency because it refers to God.

Michael Newdow seeks to remove “In God We Trust” from U.S. coins and dollar bills, claiming in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that the motto is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
Newdow, a Sacramento doctor and lawyer, used a similar argument when he challenged the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools because it contains the words “under God.”

He took his pledge fight to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2004 said he lacked standing to bring the case because he did not have custody of the daughter he sued on behalf of.

An identical lawsuit later brought by Newdow on behalf of parents with children in three Sacramento-area school districts is pending with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, after a Sacramento federal judge sided with Newdow in September. The judge stayed enforcement of the decision pending appeal, which is expected to reach the Supreme Court.

Congress first authorized a reference to God on a two-cent piece in 1864. The action followed a request by the director of the U.S. Mint, who wrote there should be a “distinct and unequivocal national recognition of the divine sovereignty” on the nation’s coins.

In 1955, the year after Congress inserted the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, Congress required all currency to carry the motto “In God We Trust.”

It is interesting that the guy making the complaint has made similar complaints before, and been rejected summarily by the Supreme Court.

Let's start with something basic here, like the actual Constitution, not the court-ruling-based interpretations of it:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Now, does adding "In God we trust" to our currency establish a state church? No. Despite the 5-10% of the population that is actually atheist or the larger percentage of people who just act that way, this is still a nation that believes in God. In God We Trust is more or less a statement of fact. For example, the statement was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1955, at the height of the Cold War, to distinguish this nation from the freedom-suppressing, communist Soviet Union, which did have a state religion, with that religion being worship of the state. Worship of God and public expressions thereof were suppressed, often violently.

This bears thinking about: if you don't believe in God, who or what is the strongest "power" left on Earth? It's ungoverned human beings with guns, knives, and fists. A nation that acknowledges no higher power eventually is ruled by those with the greatest will to power. A nation acknowledging a higher power than Man understands that it, too, must eventually answer for whatever crimes it commits in the hereafter, and limits its ambitions accordingly.

Now I've occasionally gotten into arguments with people who tell me that fundamentalist Christians want to turn this country into a theocracy, and therefore all Christians are suspect. First of all, this is not the actual state of things, though a few preachers here and there might think of it. They mostly protest, as I do, the diminishment of God and faith in the public square and desire a stronger role of faith among elected officials.

Second, the use of Church-imposed discipline on the state is part of a Calvinist inheritance in the Baptist movement that was not embraced by all forms of Protestant religion. John Calvin, the French Protestant reformer, set up a humorless and harsh theocracy in the city of Geneva in the 1500s. A similar arrangement existed among the New England Puritans. Both systems eventually died out, but the notion of using human (secular) law to impose Christian discipline (sectarian law) is not a doctrine supported by other mainstream Protestant denominations today, such as Lutheranism, Methodism, or Anglicanism (or, I believe, Catholicism).

What Lutherans believe is that saving souls is a job for the Church, not the state, and that faith should be achieved through persuasion and free, independent choice, not the sword. That would be a sin. Salvation should be the goal of the individual, not the enforced conversion of the masses to one denomination or the other through state power. So if anyone preaches a separation between church and state, it's the Christian Church, not the Constitution. It is a painful lesson Christians had to learn over the course of 500 years of European history, but most of us did learn it. But this does not mean we seek to end the role of religion or God in the workings of the United States of America. It does mean changing how we as individuals think about our relationship to God and the state...and not a moment too soon.

Potpourri CII

Working on clearing my inbox while I do laundry and pack for Europe. One week to go. HOO-wah!

This is important and disturbing, so it's moving to the top of the pile: aides to Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) are drafting legislation that would give the president power to disconnect private-sector computers from the internet during a "cybersecurity emergency," whatever the heck that is. An amazing amount of commerce is performed via internet. If this bill passed, a large segment of the population and the private sector might find itself unable to conduct busines or communicate electronically. How's that hope and change working out for ya?

The first image of a complete molecule has been captured. Amazing!

Don't try this at home or on safari!

More from the animal kingdom...painting elephants. I can't help wondering if these elephant artists have started smoking and complaining about how the bourgeois tourists don't understand how they suffer...

Mahmoud Ahmadenijad wants to prosecute his political opponents in the recent Iranian election for stirring up trouble (e.g. daring to question him)...you know: kinda like prosecuting Bush administration officials after the last election.

From @skytland, a panel summary from "South by Southwest" (a.k.a. SXSW), one of the largest new media events in the country. The panel topic? "Moon 2.0," which is to say, participatory space exploration of the moon. My buddy Doc might be going to this event. I'll get my media fixes vicariously through him.

Someone else is looking to build a space hotel. I've got to confess: the more I think about the effects of weightlessness, the more I think staying the heck here sounds like a great idea. Is it heresy for a space advocate to say that? Probably, but there ya go. Happy to have the opportunity to go, but really, I've got laundry to do. Or something.

CNN is reporting that some sectors of the economy are reviving themselves without government assistance. You know: that whole "invisible hand" thing that some of my liberal friends don't trust or don't believe exists. My question is: if that's the case, can we stop with the bailouts already and not spend the rest of that trillion-dollar "stimulus?" As Father Dan puts it to me when I ask silly rhetorical questions, "Get a grip!" The stimulus isn't about stimulating the economy. We already had proof when Bush did it that government stimulus spending does not work, and that was $700 billion worth. Then Obama doubled down with over a trillion. So the answer to my question is, yes, we can stop with the bailouts, but we won't because President Obama has a different agenda in mind. So here's the game plan:

1. Jack up government spending to show that he's "doing something."
2. Admit after the fact that the deficit is too high.
3. Raise taxes to pay down the deficit, which is what Obama wanted to do in the first place because he's a strict redistributionist.

As usual with government-centered attempts to redistribute wealth in an economy, this plan will fail because rich people will either move out of the country, stop working, or eventually run out of money. Once that happens, he goes after the middle class and raises their taxes so that their money can be used to "make things more fair." And when there are no more rich people or middle class (except, of course, the government officials dispensing this "social justice"), well then we'll all be equal...in our misery. How's that hope and change working out for ya?

Michael Vick played his first game in Philadelphia and got a standing ovation from the fans. Which more or less proves what I was grousing about when he first got his gig with the Eagles: social stigma and bad publicity don't have any force anymore. Shame on them and shame on us when all that matters is victory without considering the character of those achieving it. If the fans in Philly don't have any shame about hiring this thug, will the fans of the teams playing against the Eagles reject Vick and not show up for the games? To repeat Father Dan's comment, "Get a grip!"

Laundry is still in progress, but I'm done clearing out the inbox. Never mind my grumpiness, have a great day!

Potpourri CI

The Ares Projects were supposed to have the first static (ground) test of the five-segment solid rocket motor. Unfortunately, the computer shut down the countdown 20 seconds before firing due to a problem with the auxiliary power unit in the thrust vector control system. If that sounded like Greek to you, it doesn't really matter. The test was stopped because of a problem, which can happen when it's a test, but of course NASAWatch's Keith Cowing will probably be working overtime tonight, wallowing in the "joy" (for him) of a perceived problem with Ares.

Oh, yes: and the Ares Projects Manager, Steve Cook, is resigning from the agency. Interesting times indeed. One wonders what tomorrow will bring.

Some articles/podcasts from the National Academies Press on communicating about science:

• Science for All Seasons: Communicating Science to Diverse Audiences
• Information and Misinformation at the Speed of Light
• Science and Hollywood: Education Through Entertainment

Florida Today has a good summary of the most likely options the Augustine Panel is going to offer to President Obama regarding human spaceflight. It's focused on its impact on Florida's "Space Coast" (Kennedy Space Center), but is still a useful read.

From my NASA PAO feed, an academic scholarship opportunity:

NASA ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR AERONAUTICS SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate will begin accepting scholarship applications on Sept. 1, 2009, for the 2010 academic year. The application deadline is Jan. 11, 2010.

"These scholarships are a fantastic way to support our brightest students and encourage them to finish their education, expose them to NASA's research programs and inspire them to pursue a career in aeronautics," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA expects to award 20 undergraduate and five graduate scholarships to students in aeronautics or related fields. Undergraduate students entering their second year of study will receive up to $15,000 per year for two years and the opportunity to receive a $10,000 stipend by interning at a NASA research center during the summer. Graduate students will receive up to $35,000 per annually for up to three years, with an opportunity to receive a $10,000 stipend interning at a NASA research center up to two consecutive summers.

Students who have not committed to a specific academic institution or program still may apply. However, if accepted, they must be admitted by fall 2010 into a suitable aeronautical engineering program or related field of study at an accredited U.S. university. All applicants must be U.S. citizens. Scholarship money may be used for tuition and other school-related expenses.

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts cutting-edge, fundamental research in traditional and emerging disciplines. The intent is to help transform the nation's air transportation system and to support development of future air and space vehicles. Goals include improving airspace capacity and flexibility; aviation safety and aircraft performance; reducing overall noise, engine emissions and fuel usage.

For details about this scholarship program, including how to apply, visit: http://asee.org/nasaasp

From Lin:

• Newt Gingrich on why government can't and shouldn't run health care.
• The Democrats are going to use the death of Senator Ted Kennedy to push through nationalized health care.

Dominick Dunne, an astute and clever writer with a unique niche--crime and punishment among America's upper class--has passed away. A shame. His abiding sense of justice, fueled by his daughter's murder, gave his fiction a fierce quality quite at odds with his restrained, upper-crusty characters. A great writer.

Popular Mechanics has an article about SpaceX.

Want to know the average internet connection speed in your neighborhood? Check this out.

A story from my old home town of Lombard, Illinois: a little "incident" at the fire department. Whups!

From Gwen: a story by CNN that beer prices are likely to go up due to "commodity" prices. Reading between the lines, beer prices are going up because energy (petroleum) prices are going up, and you need petroleum/hydrocarbons to make fuel for tractors and chemicals for fertilizer. This is why we need to pump more oil.

Did you know Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) had her own web site? Well, jeez, who doesn't?

Oh yeah--and score one more for the Science Cheerleader! Darlene was profiled on her local (Philadelphia) CBS affiliate. Gooooo Dar!

Last-Minute Vacation Items

Now that I'm done shopping, I can take a step back and think about what I want to do on this trip. Or not do, as the case may be. For instance, I have decided not to take a laptop or my Kindle. I'll just have to go on a forced fast from book reading, the Wall Street Journal, and Facebook. I could probably do without FB for awhile.

A few friends have offered interesting and contradictory advice to me as a writer, ranging from "Don't write anything, just experience things" to "Write down everything" to "You should write a novel" to "Don't do any writing for pay" (got that last one covered). Now I will be bringing my iPod for my music fix, as well as two or three small journals. We'll see how long it takes me to fill up. And yes, I'll have a camera with me. Stories might come to me, and I'll capture whatever images amuse me, but I'm supposed to be on vacation. No space stuff, no worrying about NASA or the Augustine Panel, and no hard thinking, unless it's the result of things, ideas, or people I encounter during the trip. I will definitely need the three weeks to clear my head, and by golly I plan to.

Here are the questions I've posed to myself at the front end of one of my journals:

• What did you see?
• What did you hear?
• What did you smell?
• What did you taste?
• What did you touch?
• What did you feel?
• What did you think?
• Who did you meet?
• What did you do?

If I can't think of what to write about a trip to Europe after all those questions, I don't deserve to wear the title of writer.

Potpourri C

One hundred of these mixed-bag entries already. Wow. Guess it's becoming a habit. So let's see what's up next, shall we?

The ever-classy Bill Maher on what Obama needs to do to pass healthcare. Did you know we all are stupid? That Obama should force nationalized healthcare through, even if the majority of Americans don't want it? That a Republican congressman "should wake up with an intern's head in his bed"? This is scary stuff, if only because I'm afraid he believes it.

The Daily Mail has a fun article on a recycling shower. This would be really useful if we ever built a spacecraft/space habitat with artificial gravity.

More sweetness and light on the Constellation Program, this time from the New York Times. Did I mention I go on vacation soon? Not a moment too soon, apparently...

And here's another from Aviation Week. Reading the news is becoming bad for me.

Someone has decided to make a movie out of quite possibly the worst book I've ever read: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell. Some friends gave it to me, thinking I'd find it amusing. Actually, no I didn't. I've gotten stuffy in my creaky old age. Lewd, rude, sexist, offensive, degrading...and those were the tame parts, from what I've been told. I read two or three chapters and recycled the thing. As Gertrude Stein once wrote of Atlas Shrugged, "This book should not be thrown away lightly. It should be thrown with great force!"

Oh, hey! Just saw this: it's the 400th anniversary of Galileo inventing the telescope. Cool!

From Melissa: "Don't Inject Me (The Swine Flu Vaccine Song)." Hm. Medical rap. Gotta admit, that's a new one.

From Anthony: a video explaining healthcare "on the back of a napkin." Actually a pretty decent explanation.

Potpourri XCIX

Okay kids, let's dig into Bart's bag o' tricks and see what surprises are lurking out there in Cyberspace...

My former Disney IT manager Dalton now has a blog. Dalton has since left Disney and now makes his living as a humorist, lecturer, and voice-over artist. Good for him!

From Yohon, more bad news about the state of television. It seems the CW network (formerly WB) has decided there's an unfulfilled need to revive the Melrose Place franchise. Sigh. Kinda makes me long for Dynasty. At least most of the folks on that show were grown-ups.

A follow-up on the alleged comment by NASA Administrator Bolden on Ares I-X: it seems Keith Cowing might've posted erroneous information (I'm shocked, shocked). Rand Simberg wonders about the comments as well. Much as Ares detractors might hope otherwise, work continues on the flight test and the project.

From Lin, an editorial that claims that Obama has played the "God card," as people who believe in God should believe in his policies.

I started out this morning in a bit of a snit, probably because the Ares-related news was so bad over the weekend. Here's what came to me as I was ruminating over the state of America's human spaceflight program:

This is a story that Robert Zubrin included in The Case for Mars, and it bears repeating. In the late 1300s and early 1400s, the Ming Dynasty in China had the largest and most powerful merchant fleet in the world, calling on ports ranging from Japan to Indonesia to the east coast of Africa. The book 1421 even speculates that part of this fleet sailed around the world. Yet by the 1430s, after the death of the eunuch admiral Zheng He, the voyages of this massive fleet were ended, the ships beached or burned, and China’s international presence diminished. The Mings turned inward, consumed by political machinations and usurpers in the capital. By the 1450s, the first trading ships of the Portuguese had arrived around the Horn of Africa, and by the 1500s were trading on the shores of China itself. Between 1500 and 1900, China became weaker and weaker as it ceased exploring and advancing its
technologies, bringing it eventually under the domination of the European empires.

The lessons for the U.S. should be obvious: if we cease to explore space, others will arise to fill the void. Nations that explore have advantages in technology, trade, and influence that non-exploring nations do not. Nations that turn inward decline and self-destruct, with political horizons focused on tightening control of local politics (tyranny) instead of responding to the needs of international exploration and commerce (openness). Social structures harden, planning and philosophical horizons shrink, government ossifies, and military doctrine turns to defensive measures rather than expansion or attack. “Great nations explore,” NASA is fond of saying; what they neglect to mention is that “Great nations that cease exploring die.”

To which Dan the PAO Man replied, "And good morning to you, too." Still. Just sayin'...

Bob Ess, the Ares I-X Mission Manager, is not taking this negativity lying down. He made it quite clear that the work is continuing.

On a completely different note, the Wall Street Journal has a good article offering a suggested set of conservative reforms which, as I suggested a couple days ago, would reduce the amount of government interference in the healthcare market.

*

On the reading front, I finished The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization, by Diana West, which I highly recommend but haven't found the leisure to review in full.

I also read The Culture We Deserve: A Critique of Disenlightenment, by the late teacher and scholar Jacques Barzun. This book is a critique of various scholarly maladies afflicting our culture, from literature to history to the visual arts, most of them coming out of the university, but he doesn't do nearly as good a job as Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind in offering remedies for these problems. Far be it for me to slight Mr. Barzun's work, however. I highly recommend Teacher in America, a reflection on his early encounters with American education (he came here as a teacher from France in the mid-1940s) and From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present, which is a masterful overview of some of the great works that all of us should read or should have read to fully appreciate the culture into which Westerners were born.

My most recent reading was Escape from Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Escape from Hell is a sequel to Niven and Pournelle's earlier sequel to Dante's Inferno, both of which I reviewed last October and found enjoyable--or at least as enjoyable as trips through Hell can be. Escape was not nearly as enjoyable, for some reason. I can see why Niven and Pournelle returned to that literary territory. They left a number of loose ends for their protagonist to work out, the most important of which was finding a functional and just reason for hell to exist. Perhaps I need to go back and reread the ending--I finished the book in nearly one sitting, it's that engaging--because the answers Allen Carpenter receives don't seem nearly enough to satisfy.

I'm trying to finish Science Matters: Achieving Science Literacy before I head off to Europe. It's not that I consider myself entirely science-illiterate, but I know there are gaps in my education. And as a fun side note, my pal Dar the Science Cheerleader managed to get the Philadelphia '76ers' cheerleaders to do a cheer for each of the points in this book as a way to encourage people to get a "brain makeover." I don't have nearly that kind of pull.

And so I bid you good night. Salud, y'all. Looking forward to tuning out in 12 days.

Potpourri XCVIII

Must post this stuff, some of it evil, just to get it out of my inbox.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that NASA might have to outsource its crew access to the International Space Station. Well, duhhhh...

NASAWatch's Keith Cowing is reporting that Charlie Bolden (the new NASA Administrator) suggested that it made sense not to launch Ares I-X if Ares I were cancelled. Here's hoping he got the rumor wrong.

Several from Lin:

• "A Justice Department investigation is now apparently investigating whether photos of covert CIA officials surreptitiously taken by the American Civil Liberties Union's "John Adams Project" were unlawfully shown to terrorist detainees charged with organizing the attacks of 9/11."
• "Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, hospitals can't even ask for a patient's immigration status or ability to pay prior to delivering treatment. They also can't keep such uninsured patients waiting, even if their problem isn't an emergency. Nor can they discharge them until they're fully stabilized and have safe transportation."
• A variety of editorials (the primary link, plus the four-part series cited in the article) by Thomas Sowell on Obama's approach to getting his healthcare program sold.
• Last week President Obama closed down the email address flag@whitehouse.gov, which he asked people to email if they found individuals "spreading lies" about the president's healthcare program. This might sound reasonable, but what it amounts to is a "turn in your neighbor" hotline that allows the White House to know whom to target if they face increasing resistance to their program. Think I'm kidding? Then why did individuals sent to the "flag" email find themselves the recipients of emails from members of the Administration? Well, Obama has thrown the PR firm responsible for sending out the emails under the bus (political speak for "allowed them to take the blame"). If any of you reading this have referred this site to the "flag" email, rest assured that I did not receive an email from the Administration...yet.
• Congressional Democrats are prepared to "go it alone" to get healthcare passed. They could've done this in the first place, but by trying to push for "bipartisanship," the Democrats can get the GOP to share some of the blame when (not if) the plan is passed and screws up the country. If there was ever a time to be the "party of no," this is it. Of course the GOP should have a shopping list of reforms that can be done that don't require massive government interference--and, in fact, reduce government interference in the healthcare biz.
• Sears' web site was the victim of some nasty hacking.
• A web site is stating that Obama's science advisor favors global efforts to enforce population control. I'd heard this on a news report, but the book is here, if you're curious. Paul Ehrlich, his cowriter, was author of "The Population Bomb," a 1970 book stating that we would all be starving by now (2000) thanks to overpopulation. It didn't happen thanks to improvements in technology and agriculture, as well as the expansion of freedom in the former Communist Bloc, but of course no one pays attention to such things now. One wonders what the fate of Al Gore will be in 40 years.

I got this one from Darlene the Science Cheerleader. It's just weird. How does the Internet see you? Based on what sort of content you put out and how you are cited on various sites.

Got this little bit of good news on the swine flu in my inbox yesterday:

Marshall Space Flight Center has experienced its first case of what is thought to be H1N1 flu. All employees are reminded that if you experience flu symptoms such as fever, body aches and coughing, you should remain home until 24 hours after you are fever free and not using any fever reducing medications in order to prevent the spread of the flu. Also, you should call the MSFC Medical Center at 544-2390 for illness tracking purposes but should not go to the Medical Center for evaluation or treatment. To fight against becoming infected with the H1N1 flu, employees should frequently wash their hands with soap and water or use an alcohol based hand sanitizer, especially after participating in group activities or spending time in common areas such as bathrooms, conference rooms and cafeterias. According to medical personnel, H1N1 flu has been no more severe than the normal annual seasonal influenza.

Let's be careful out there. And for gosh sakes, wash your hands!

Boeing has successfully tested the Airborne Laser program. The ABL, which will likely get cut under the Obama Administration, is mounted in the nose of a 747. That's a cool and useful toy to have, given the number of hostile countries trying to acquire nuclear weapons.

Here's the web site for the people who plan to cover Huntsville's full-size Saturn V mockup in a quilt made of kids' refrigerator art. The only other argument I can find against this project is just that it's sinfully ugly. Mosaics tend to depict actual pictures or include geometric patterns of some kind. A vague attempt is made to simulate the markings of the Saturn V, but it is, naturally, a patchwork. And did I mention it's ugly? Seriously. It brightened my day not at all to hear that NASA Administrator Bolden favored the project. The best way for NASA (or anyone else) to inspire kids to go into space is to go into space and do something inspiring! Anything else is trying too hard.

And on a completely different note, No wonder I have a complicated job! I was ruminating this morning, and I started listed all of the different items that we need to account for when we’re trying to sell space exploration to the public:

• Technology
  o How it works
  o What level of readiness it has (TRL)
  o Complexity
  o Number of manufacturers
  o Science being performed
  o Materials used
  o Amount of automation
• Politics
  o Federal budget priorities
  o Election cycle
  o Location of NASA centers/contractors
  o Seniority of senators/congressmen in space-related districts
  o State of the world (wars, rivalries, etc.)
  o State of the nation (boom/recession, civil peace/unrest, etc.)
  o National defense/security needs
  o Job programs
  o Public interest
  o Media coverage
  o Advocacy/lobbying activities/effectiveness
  o Other space activities (e.g. commercial)
• People
  o Workforce aging
  o Workforce size/availability
  o Workforce skills
  o Job location (see Politics)
  o Management behavior/practices/personalities
  o Organizational culture(s)
• Programmatic issues
  o Funding/competition for resources
  o Schedule
  o Technical readiness
  o Quality
  o Management structure
  o Public affairs responsiveness

This might explain some of my end-of-day headaches, but it still beat checking in tourists or answering guest letters at Disney World. I still maintain that engineers and physicists have it easy because the laws and factors they deal with don’t change.

Potpourri XCVII

More going on in the blathersphere, so let's get started.

Mahmoud Ahmedenijad is now going to allow the IAEA inspect "key" nuclear sites in Iran. Bart's cynical translation: they're hiding the weapons, these sites are political theater to show whoever believes him that he can "play ball" with the West.

From Lin, an article about how the Healthcare Bill (H.R. 3200, Title II, Section 246) has "no federal payment for undocument aliens." Here's the actual language from the bill, which is an exceptionally small section:

SEC. 246 NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.
Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

I guess I'm stupid here, but the way I read this is that the federal government will not pay for undocumented aliens. CNS is saying the opposite. This is why it pays for private citizens to read the bill rather than trust any news source. They continue:

"neither bill has a provision for verifying citizenship status, according to these experts."

Okay, that sounds plausible; perhaps because the bill assumes that said status verification is covered by the other laws it references. But, again, reading the bill is worthwhile. I still like the idea of vouchers for a minimum amount of money for the uninsured to spend on private insurance. That's got to be cheaper and less complicated than having government gobble up the healthcare industry.

Did you know NASA has a site for tracking the most recent passes of near-Earth objects (NEOs)? These are big rocks passing by very quickly--like kilometers a second. Yowie! There have been some close ones.

Dar the Science Cheerleader did a radio interview on WXRX in Toronto. Fun, and cute. Kinda like Dar.

And that, as they say, is that.

Potpourri XCVI

Get behind a couple of days, and the content piles up. So off we go: zoom, zoom, zoom...

More on the state of the human spaceflight program:

• From the Houston Chronicle.
• From BangTanjung (who the heck is that?).
• From SpaceRef.
• From LiveLeak.com.
• From SpaceBoosters.co.uk.
• From Space.com.
• From TGDaily.
• From the BBC.

Got a bunch of stuff from Lin:

• A Washington Times editorial on how Bush derangement syndrome has spread, and why.
• A Canadian health official is concerned that their nationalized healthcare program is in danger of collapse. I'm shocked, shocked...
• A mixed-bag Snopes.com review of Obama's position on veterans' healthcare.
• Michelle Malkin on the appropriate way to protest.

Space.com has a good article on the need to update Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

This truly astounds me: the Swiss government has told the UBS bank to hand over financial records on over 4,000 people to the U.S. Government. This is astonishing because the Swiss have the strongest bank privacy laws in the world--or did, anyway. I wonder what the fallout will be from this. My guess is that banks in the Cayman Islands will get more business. The truly terrifying line in the article is this one:

"This announcement today should send a signal, no matter what institution you're with, the IRS is willing to pursue both the institution and the individual," Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman told reporters on Wednesday.

I'd take the cars...a lady winning 25 million frequent flyer miles (think for a moment how many gropings by the TSA she had to endure to rack those up) has a choice of the following prize packages:

• a trip to space with Virgin Galactic and two return flights to Los Angeles with V Australia or
• two Alfa Romeo Spider sports cars plus $5000 petrol vouchers and $10,000 cash or
• the ultimate shopping spree valued at $170,000 or
• a luxury holidaypackage in Blue Holiday vouchers valued at $100,000 plus $50,000 cash

From Martin: a wing-nut editorial on the secret history of our space program.

From Yohon: Facebook breakups.

More from the Singularity front...a video of a super-fast robot.

New from Hu:

• A dual-Orion mission to an asteroid? Sure, why not?
• Could ESA or another space agency send humans to space when they haven't before? If so, let them be friendly. We've got enough problems.
• A reality check on the space elevator.
• Earth might get smacked by an asteroid due to "obtuse, tightfisted bozos." Nothing like a little uplifting rhetoric to raise the tone and seriousness of the issue.

Microscopic traces of the amino acid glycine are reported to have been found by the Stardust probe. However, "We couldn't be sure it wasn't from the manufacturing or the handling of the spacecraft." So while we might find the fundamental building blocks of life beyond the Earth at some point...odds are, it might not necessarily be now.

A chart showing the history of NASA's percentage of the federal budget. It would've been more instructive if they'd included going all the way back to 1958.

A NASA video on the Hubble deep field.

The United States debt clock. Terrifying.

Female swimmers in the UK are encouraged to wear "burkinis" to avoid offending Muslim sensibilities. Wow.

And that should do for now. Thanks for reading--all 17.5 of you, based on my latest metrics. :-)

Good News, But...

Okay, the good news is that Obama looks like he might be backing off from nationalizing the healthcare industry in our country. And seriously, that is good news. One might talk about a public option "keeping the private sector honest," but once the government gets in there, the private sector would be unable to compete, and then you'd have exactly ONE option for health insurance--the government--and if you don't like that option, you're in deep yogurt, pal.

So here's the opening line from the Associated Press:

Bowing to Republican pressure, President Barack Obama's administration signaled on Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession probably would enrage Obama's liberal supporters but could deliver a much-needed victory on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers.

Officials from both political parties reached across the aisle in an effort to find compromises on proposals they left behind when they returned to their districts for an August recess. Obama had sought the government to run a health insurance organization to help cover the nation's almost 50 million uninsured, but he never made it a deal breaker in a broad set of ideas that has Republicans unified in opposition. (Italics mine)

Dear Readers (all 20 of you), I shouldn't need to point this out, but because AP seems unable to tell a straight story anymore, I'll just repeat the obvious: the Democrats control the Presidency and both Houses of Congress. The Republicans do not have the votes to stop anything the Democrats propose. There is no need for Obama to compromise with the Republicans on anything. The only pressure Obama is bowing to would be "Blue Dog" (conservative) Democrats and the number of private citizens showing up at town hall meetings and arguing with their congressmen/women/children about the attempt at nationalization. Describing this report as "disingenuous" is being polite. Very polite.

Movie Review: G. I. Joe

There was a time when I was a connoisseur of big, dumb action films. I saw pretty much every Stallone, Willis, or Schwarzenegger film during the 1990s. Then--I don't know. My tastes changed. Ahhhnuhld became The Governator. Stallone retired. Bruce Willis started getting fewer gigs. The Batman movies turned silly and homoerotic. And I just couldn't gin up much enthusiasm for the latter-day James Bond franchise. So aside from a couple Star Trek films or the newest Batman movies, I don't get out to the big, dumb action films as much as I used to. I needn't have fretted. G.I. Joe is just as big and dumb as the movies I watched in the '90s, with the added benefit of being based on a childhood cartoon I watched, as well as being incoherent, visually stunning, and super-fast, as only late '00 CGI movies can be.

That is not to say the movie is utterly without merit--though I will mention some additional demerits in a few sentences. Two of the big MacGuffins in this movie are nanotechnology and "accelerator suits," both of which are in development.

In this film, nanotech does a couple of different things, such as dissolving/consuming anything in sight, reconstructing faces/bodies, and changing body chemistry (up to and including suppressing "ethics"). I'm not a huge fan of nanotech, but even I knew some of the things the filmmakers had the stuff doing were a bit of a stretch.

The accelerator suits are armored and armed exoskeletons that allow soldiers to move faster, carry more equipment, and remain protected from a wide variety of threats. The movie shows a couple of soldiers tearing up cars, buildings, and streets in Paris with these getups, and the sequences are impressive. And what bears thinking about is that the Department of Defense is developing this equipment today.

On the other hand there are several physics- and technology-defying moments that even an English major had to chuckle at (random thoughts during the movie: "I didn't know ice could sink" "How do you weaponize a warhead?"). It can overload someone's common-sense filter, even if you have the sense to turn it off before you walk into the theater--which is a good idea, by the way.

The problem, of course, is that these technologies are being showcased in what amounts to a live-action updating of a comic book...and a gruesome updating, in some case. One of the laughable things about the cartoon I watched was that, Mirable Dieu, every time a tank or airplane was blown up, the crew always managed to bail out and not get killed. A cartoon about G.I.s without blood. Which was probably just as well for a kid's show. The point was to get you or your parents to buy the toys and play soldier, not freak you out. This movie can freak you out a bit, if you're under 13 or so. Lots of cussin', lots of explosions, some quick shots of bodies being maimed, shot, or burned. In all, some creepy stuff.

But this is a kid's movie, in nearly every sense of the word--or an adolescent's, to be closer to the point. The dialogue and characterization are laughable. The attempts at flashback or "back story" are not nearly as deft as the recent Batman movies. There's some hint at sexuality, but it's subsumed in quick montages or clumsy repartee. I guess I really didn't have high hopes for this film, but some of these efforts are better than others. Great effects do not overcome serious gaps in logic, and there are gaps a-plenty in G. I. Joe. Like you expected something better from a big, dumb action movie?

Additional Thoughts

I gave a glowing review to the Batman movies in the last couple years, so I had to ask myself why I was so hard on G. I. Joe, which is hardly more realistic. Part of it was that I didn't have quite the attachment to that old cartoon series that I did to Batman. Batman is one of the more known commodities in the comic world and has had some better stories told in his world. It's one brooding, smart, tough guy against the underworld. It's as illogical as a gang of super-competent soldiers fighting armies of bad guys, and yet Batman ends up in a better movie. Perhaps it's just because the Bruce Wayne/Batman character is much better developed, however fantastically.

No, I'm not giving up on comic book heroes or big, dumb action movies. I'm just getting more selective about the kinds of stories that are getting told. It is possible to tell a not-dumb story or have a not-dumb message, even in the big, dumb action movie genre. Batman has them, G. I. Joe does not--that's about as simple as I can make it.

Potpourri XCV

First, something to brighten my rather rough week: the Ares I-X rocket has been stacked fully in the Vehicle Assembly Building, all 327 feet of her. Saaaaaa-lute!

Here's the official press release:

NASA COMPLETES ASSEMBLY OF ARES I-X TEST ROCKET

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- For the first time in more than a quarter-century a new space vehicle stands ready in NASA's Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. The Ares I-X rocket, its simulated crew module and launch abort system are assembled on a mobile launch platform at Kennedy in preparation for launch this fall.

The final segments of the Ares I-X were stacked on Aug. 13, completing the 327-foot launch vehicle and providing the first look at the finished rocket's distinctive shape. The Ares I-X flight test is targeted for Oct. 31.

"More than three years of hard work with the NASA and contractor team has brought us to this historic moment," said Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager. "This flight test is a critical step in continuing our design process for the Ares vehicle and the first flight for the Constellation Program."

The Ares I-X is wired with more than 700 sensors to gather data during the two-and-a-half minute flight test. The launch will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I crew launch vehicle. The data collected during the launch will allow NASA to gather critical data during ascent of the integrated Orion spacecraft and the Ares I rocket.

Now that the Ares I-X is assembled, numerous evaluations will be run on all the rocket systems, including complex instruments that will constantly measure the vehicle's movements as it launches and the first stage separates. The evaluations include a process called "modal testing," which will shake the stack slightly to test stiffness of the rocket, including the pinned and bolted joints.

CEOs should stay quiet on politics? Right. Like Michael Eisner kept quiet about sending money to Hillary…

The Miami Herald has a story on the Augustine Panel…

A dog cloning business has started in South Korea. This is not a good sign. Once again, our technology advances are outstripping the ability of our culture to absorb, slow, or stop them.

Michael Vick has found a new gig in Philadelphia after spending time in jail for running a dog fighting ring from his home. You know, I think the man was punished enough legally. One would have thought that the social stigma and bad publicity about his bad actions would be enough to keep him out of professional football. This not a good sign for the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles, or the culture at large. Shame on them and shame on us. Eagles fans still have a chance to stop this by not showing up for games when Michael Vick shows up to play.

And while I do have concerns about the advances our technologies make, it is nice to see that some tech is being used for constructive (or at least neutral) purposes. This site has some very intriguing work.

From the office, a story on Mars not being an immediate plan, but a goal.

Got this from Doc, and just had to share because it is oh so true about my line of work:

1. Ask engineer how the damn thing works.
2. Deafening silence.
3. Crickets.
4. Tumbleweeds.
5. Just start writing something. Anything.
6. Give this something to the engineer.
7. Watch engineer become quite upset at how badly you’ve missed thepoint of everything.
8. As the engineer berates you, in between insults he will also throwoff nuggets of technical information.
9. Collect these nuggets, as they are the only reliable technicalinformation you will receive.
10. Try like hell to weave together this information into somethingenlightening and technically accurate.
11. Go to step 6.

Sigh...yet another story on the dismal prospects for what might come out of the Augustine Panel. I must confess that even if I understand what options the panel will offer to Obama, I have no clue what option he will take, what its full impact will be, or how long it will take for said course to be taken. I'm just along for the ride, albeit I'm one of the folks at the front of the roller coaster, so I'll see the next curve before some folks, but that doesn't make the ride any more fun.

In other space news, India has started an astronaut training center, while Bulgaria's scientists want that nation to join the European Space Agency. So while we're debating in this country if we should even have a space program, dirt-poor former Eastern Bloc countries are trying to do what we seem willing to throw away. Why don't our leaders pay attention to these things? Perhaps it would be worth asking those nations, "What do you know about space that we don't?"

Congressman Mike Rogers (R-MI) has a good take on government healthcare on his site.

And that'll do for now.

Your Science Education for the Day

Okay, this is just cool. Dar, my fearless Science Cheerleader buddy, posted this on her Facebook status: a pictorial Periodic Table of the Elements. Good educational tool for nearly any interested age group.

Potpourri XCIV

Sigh. Lots of stories on the last Augustine Panel meeting (which ran into overtime) yesterday. The news is not great, but it is news, so here ya go:

• From ABC News: White House Panel Says Reverse Bush Plan To Retire Shuttles By 2010
• From the Arizona Daily Star: Panel: Deficits Threaten Manned Space Missions
• From Bloomberg News: U.S. Should Prepare For Mars With Asteroid Flight, Panel Says
• From Florida Today: Spaceflight Panel: Moon, Mars Shots Too Long
• From Hobby Space: Human Spaceflight Review Committee
• From the New Scientist: NASA Should Avoid a Straight Shot to Mars, Panel Says
• From the New York Times: NASA Panel Grapples With Cost Of Space Plans
• From the Orlando Sentinel: Moon Or Space Station? Budget Means NASA Must Pick, Panel Says
• From the Wall Street Journal: NASA Budget Threatens Manned Missions, Group Says
• And then the headline that greeted me from my local newspaper this morning: Ares May Be in Jeopardy

Did I mention I go to Europe in 23 days?

Potpourri XCIII

Let's get to it. I've got French lessons to catch up on!

Thomas Sowell has a hard-hitting piece on Obama's inexperience.

A variety of stories from my AIAA news feed:

• A Boeing plant in South Carolina is voting on whether to keep the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union in their shop. That will not make Obama happy.
• NORAD is conducting an exercise to prepare for the Vancouver Olympics. I didn't realize al-Qaeda had an air force.
• NASA has selected the crew for what could be the last scheduled Space Shuttle flight. It's real, folks, regardless of what the Augustine Panel decides.
• French wine growers are benefitting from satellite imagery.
• NPR has a story today on NASA's Student Airborne Research Program.

Paul Spudis has a good editorial on sustainability in space exploration. The problem is that there are two kinds of sustainability in the space business: technical and political. And the technical, if "boring" to the electorate or their elected officials, will not be politically sustainable. However, a politically exciting and sustainable program might leave behind little that is reusable.

Liberal Camille Paglia, a still-strong Obama supporter, has torn into the Democrats' handling of the healthcare bill. This is not a good sign.

The United Nations Secretary-General says we have four months to act or global warming will doom us. By "act," he means sign a climate treaty in Copenhagen that will cut greenhouse gas emissions. Right. After one of the coldest summers in the history of modern record keeping.

I am in the process of reading the House healthcare bill, but it is a long, painful slog, and I have other things to read as well. In the meantime, I commend this analysis by a classics professor to your attention.

More on the Blue Brain project. Gotta wonder about the Singularity.

I've Found Myself! See? I'm Right Here

Back in da day at Disney, my friend Kate complained to me because a guy was going to Europe to "find himself." "What the hell does that mean, anyway?" she asked. I didn't really know, either, but my delayed response was to buy her a button that featured the title above. She found that amusing.

The thing is, I've always thought that way. This trip is not about finding myself or indulging some sort of mid-life crisis. It took two years of planning and has been as methodical an effort as I've made. Hardly the efforts of a middle-aged geek suddenly deciding to drop everything and scoot off to the Continent on the spur of the moment. Mind you I did explain to a couple of people that, having hit 40, I need to do some planning on what to do with the other two-thirds of my life. At least I'll have some leisure time to contemplate, right?

The trip is a reward to myself for three years of hard work in the space business--as a NASA contractor and citizen space advocate. I also wanted to broaden my horizons a bit and take a trip that didn't involve family (sorry) or Disney World. Now mind you, I'll probably come back missing my family and Disney World more than ever, but I owe it to myself to at least go and see and learn and experience for myself.

My friend Jane went to Europe back in the '90s to figure out what she wanted to do with her career, and she came back with a fiance. That's one way of "finding yourself," I suppose. Personally I'm hoping for a statuesque Italian contessa who's her own chef, and owns a villa in Tuscany with an internet hookup, but that's me daydreaming. :-)

Potpourri XCII

More vacation progress! Rick Steves.com has finally sent me a detailed itinerary/list of hotels for my stay, along with a list of the people on my tour. This was accompanied by a letter offering packing reminders (map, hotel list, rain coat, flashlight) and a one-page summary/reminder of the itinerary. My tour consists of 24 people: 6 couples, 10 singles (9 women + Bart. My, my). Twenty-five days and counting.

From Martin, a video recommendation.

New from Hu: Another story on orbital fuel depots.

This is just wrong: some idjit is going on trial for groping the cast member playing Minnie Mouse.

Congress appears to be backing down on their attempt to buy more corporate jets for themselves. Good. Maybe if they spend enough time flying commercial aviation, they might learn to fix the Air Traffic Control system.

Jihadists have attacked Pakistan's nuclear facilities at least three times. Times they are a-changin'. The facilities were originally placed to keep them away from the Indians. Unfortunately for Pakistan (and us), the threat now is terrorists from the Northwest, where the facilities are located.

From Melissa: an article from a group boycotting companies like Amazon or Apple/iTunes, which can take away the digital material people purchase. The Amazon issue I understand because the content that was purchased was, in fact, posted illegally. But this is why throwbacks like me prefer CDs, tapes, and similar physical media because then you have something, not just a purchased right to electrons. But then I'm one of those crusty Gen Xers, so what the heck do I know?

Potpourri XCI

Your first bit of thought provovking content for the evening: a Foreign Policy Research Institute review of Gulf War I that is worth reading.

Norman Augustine was interviewed on NPR recently. His responses are still vague, so we'll just have to wait and see...maybe we'll know something by Wednesday.

What did you get out of the space program? Here are some examples.

What is the actual unemployment rate? Depends on how you count who qualifies as "unemployed." While we've hit a new low in expectations when we see it as a positive sign that the unemployment increase has dropped, the President might not be out of the woods quite yet.

A Missouri car dealership is giving away a free AK-47 with each truck purchase. It must be true: I saw it on CNN (via YouTube). This is a little different from Cash for Clunkers.

Morgan Updates

Morgan continues to progress. Summer is just about over, so I'm not sure when she'll be back in school, but she's over the worst of her GVHD and is applying her improving energies to artwork. I should be so smart. Her hair is starting to grow back, and she continues to have "play days" with friends and family members.

I recall hearing from R2D2 that she had to be very careful about going out in public for fear of compromising her immune system...this included a variety of precautions that had to be taken with food and the vessels it was presented thereon. Cancer is not a normal condition, and it causes one to appreciate "normal" for the gift that it is. It also is truly a miracle of this age that we now have cancer survivors, something that was all but unheard of only decades ago.

Potpourri XC

I'm back on duty after visiting with my family over the weekend. I was glad that they came. We just hung out together to celebrate my b-day, and I was able to disconnect a little bit from the usual wackiness that fills my day. Huzzah! Now that I'm back online, I've got a bunch of links and notes to share, so off we go...

Need a sign to hold if you choose to show up at a Tea Party rally or a congressional town hall? Lin recommends this. Some protesting needs to be done, because the healthcare bill the President and Congress want to push is bad for the country. Protest loudly, however, and you're a mob. Protest politely, and you're shouted down or intimidated by union guys or your character and motivations are impugned. Frustrating.

Also from Lin:

• An editorial on some of these town hall meetings, and a video of one of the town halls that turned nasty.
• The Onion has a creepy satire on an alternative means of dealing with the federal debt.
• The Obama Administration hopes to reform the nationwide efforts used to deal with illegal immigrants. Any bets on a presidential pardon?
• A Huffington Post (left-wing) look at the Beer Summit.

New from Hu: another article about the Augustine Human Space Flight Panel. This Wednesday will be the last public meeting of the Panel. We might learn what options the HSF Panel will offer, and maybe not. Their final report will be due August 31. Of course as my buddy Doc pointed out, even if Augustine, et al., issue their report at the end of this month, it'll be a few months before Obama makes any decision, and then longer than that for the effects to be felt within NASA. I'm not so sure about that last point, but we'll see.

From Father Dan:

• Some color therapy.
• Another article on Congress's budget for new private jets.
• A Peggy Noonan editorial on the ugly tone of the healthcare debate.
• YouTube video from NewsBusted. Sounds like it's got a bad laugh track.

From Gwen, a story on a Texas prisoner who was caught hiding a weapon in the rolls of his fat. Yuck.

Former Bush Administration Science Advisor John Marburger testified before the Augustine Panel on the shape of the Constellation Program. His remarks are worth reading, though I must take issue with one of his statements:

NASA decision-making grew increasingly constrained by real budget shortfalls created in part by larger than estimated return to flight costs for the Shuttle.

Marburger overlooks the fact that those "real budget shortfalls" were, in fact, the result of both the Congress and the Bush Administration not requesting the money Constellation needed to do the job it was assigned to do. Oh yeah, and Marburger was part of the Bush Administration making the NASA budget decisions! Mike Griffin paid politically for daring to speak this unpleasant truth aloud, and he no longer holds the NASA Administrator's position.

'Tis the season for the Perseid meteor shower, which is caused by the Earth passing through the tail of the Swift-Tuttle comet. Look to the skies!

The Kepler telescope has proven that it can find Earth-size planets around other stars. Now it just needs to start finding them around stars we haven't investigated before.

The last of the Futures Channel videos on Ares has been posted. It covers the outreach team that puts together videos, conference papers, collateral pieces, posters, etc., for the Ares Projects. In short, the team Your Humble Narrator works on. While I was not put on camera for this video, my buddies Jason, Camille, and Wayne do a great job of explaining what we do for a living. Huzzah!

That should do for now. 27 days until Europe.

40

So here it is: 40. Guess I'd better check the warranties on some things.

Today is the 64th anniversary of the first use of nuclear weapons in combat. (Get bombed!) I could've been born when man landed on the Moon, but nooooo! I was too busy listening to the TV. Anyhow, the combination of my birth date plus the year of my birth probably helped spur my interest in both the past and the future.

I'm also 30 days out from Europe. Let the good times roll.

Potpourri LXXXIX

Mixed bag this evening, so let's just reach into the inbox and see what colored marbles I dig out.

From the Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE):

• Global warming is amok! Weather is out of control! Uh...unless you're a tornado hunter.


• Um...or a hurricane tracker. Remember when Al Gore, the Smartest Man With a PowerPoint, predicted that all of our weather was going to get worse every year?
• Remember the moral outrage over the Big Three automakers' CEOs taking corporate jets to Washington for their powwow with the president? Well, apparently, it's still okay for members of Congress to use private jets. I'm shocked, shocked...

Rod Coppinger at Flightglobal takes a few shots at the orbital fuel depot idea.

Responses to Darlene the Science Cheerleader have not been particularly polite or pleasant in the land of academia. I find a lot of the comments akin to something you'd read in high school: "brains" getting snippy because "a cheerleader is trying to do what we're supposed to do." These critics have little sense of humor or appreciation for what Dar is trying to do. The fact that she's a Republican probably just makes things worse, at least in the academics' eyes. Too bad. Dar has an audience, and probably a larger one than many of the folks currently sniping at her. It's not just a matter of cute. Positive attitude matters, too, and Dar has it in spades.

From Doc, a cool site on ways to get involved with the space biz.

One sign that I'm a Gen Xer is that I got cubicle toys for my birthday (I am currently 39.99999). Dr. OZMG sent me a sensitivity consultant from The Cubes. The awesomeness is so great it hurts.

After I finish with Europe, my next big vacation might be New Zealand, partially because I can hang out with the DUDE and Mrs. DUDE, partially because that's where they filmed Lord of the Rings, and partially because it's just a beautiful country.

Some idjit who didn't do well with women went nuts and killed three people and then himself in Pittsburgh. Dude, what the heck were you thinking? What were you doing/saying with these women that caused them to reject you? Could it have been that "tense, creepy, might-go-off-and-shoot-people" vibe you were giving off? Losers of the world, get thyselves to church!

The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship is ready to deploy.

New from Hu: Someone has taken the time to unleash a critical preemptive strike on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra before it comes out. Why waste the energy? It'll be on DVD within three months anyway.

The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) detected free oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere, indicating signs of life. Might've made a more intriguing story if it hadn't found life...or intelligent life, anyway.

Lego is cosponsoring a Lunar X Prize contest. Cool!

Oh yeah, and rather than take the word of the media, talk radio, or the blogosphere, check out this link and read for yourself the current healthcare bill before Congress...all 1,000+ pages of it. I read the Clinton healthcare plan, so I guess I'll subject myself to this one as well. Expect a very long blog entry, come the day...

And on that note, I guess I'll sign off. Tomorrow I'll be 40. How the heck did that happen? Never mind...