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. :-)

Potpourri XXXVIII

No word from Dar yet on how my little friend is doing with her leukemia treatments. Out of respect for her family's privacy, I wasn't using her name, but Dar just posted it, so if you'd like to focus your caring, attention, and prayers, her name is Morgan, and her web site can be found here. In my ongoing efforts to "keep things in perspective," I'll try to keep the snark to a minimum this evening.

New from Hu:

• One of my previous customers over at Marshall, Dan Dumbacher, is heading to Washington to be NASA Associate Administrator. Dan has been the manager (director?) of the Engineering Directorate at the center. Smart guy, and a great advocate for space.
• NBC News is reporting that Marine Corps General (Ret.) and astronaut Charles Bolden is going to be meeting with President Obama tomorrow in a prelude to being selected as Obama's choice as the next NASA Administrator.

A link from Scott: Oprah says "It's great to have a private jet." Great. Does that mean it's socially acceptable for CEOs and companies to use them again?

From the Office of Strategic Analysis and Communication's "Communicators' Corner," a link to an article on why marketing strategies fail.

The Futures Channel has a new movie posted on the Ares Projects, based here at Marshall.

A guy I've never heard of got a chance to give a talk on his book at Lucasfilm Ltd. Guess I'll have to write a book myself...that's one way to get to the Skywalker Ranch!

Mary Lynn Dittmar is reporting on how Web 2.0 is opening up public dialogues within NASA.

Tim Bailey, one of my fellow space advocates (though a bit younger) posted this link in Facebook about how law firm partners don't understand what motivates or how to motivate Generation Y. Basically, the up-and-coming generation expects concessions to "balance" in their personal lives and that they aren't as interested in base concerns like money or regular business hours. Well, good luck, if they manage it. I belong to, and was raised by parents who went to, the School of Hard Knocks. This is this school that believes in putting in long hours, occasionally missing your kids, but doing whatever it took to get the job done right and well. That was just the expectation, for the Silent Generation, the Greatest Generation, and I'm willing to bet a lot of American generations before that. It's only with the Baby Boomers and their offspring that ideas like personal fulfillment became vogue in the workplace. This is of a piece with that quarter-life crisis thing I was ranting about the other day. If you expect to do it all and have it all (great career, great personal life, loving family, etc.), you'll either lose focus or get burned out trying to fulfill unrealistic expectations). As it happens, I'm a workaholic, but I also have passions in life--space advocacy, science and technical writing, blogging, helping friends with their resumes and career plans--that fill a great deal of my time, and quite happily so. I also manage to stay in touch with my out-of-state family and my church. Something had to give, so I'm not married. So what? Anyhow, if Gen Y wants to go easier on their work lives to spend more time at home, that's great. I'll be in my office when they get back...the boss's office, that is.

The Hubble repair mission is proceeding nicely. Good!

And just on a personal note, I got some nice comments about the proposal I wrote (with help from my HAL5 partners in crime) to bid on the 2011 ISDC. The reward for work is more hard work. Now I get to give a formal presentation at the 2009 ISDC in Orlando in two weeks. No sweat. Need one dog, one pony, and a couple of Vannas.

An Example of Participatory Exploration

Got this from one of my morning news feeds and had to share....

Public Chooses Target For Hubble Space Telescope
In the "Flame Trench" blog for Florida Today (3/2) Todd Halvorson wrote, "The polls are closed, all the ballots are in and we have a winner: the public is pointing NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to a pair of cuddling galaxies that are coming together in deep space." Halvorson wrote that "139,944 votes were cast online for six candidates during NASA's month-long 'Hubble, You Decide' contest." Close to half of the votes went for the object known as Arp 274. "Drawn together by their gravity, the galactic pair might be spawning offspring. The spiral shapes of the galaxies largely are intact, but as they merge together, the gas clouds inside them might be forming new stars."