Potpourri CXXXI

I have a bit of a backlog on my "stuff," but I've been trying to put stuff out on Twitter as I get it. In any case, it's time for another dose of Potpourri. As the memos at Disney World used to say, "Read, react, toss."

I subscribe to Foreign Affairs magazine, and they occasionally have some pretty good articles. This one is about universities in Asia, and the efforts by China and India especially to develop "world class" universities to compete with those in Europe and the States. You need a subscription to read the whole thing, but if you have an interest in what foreign policy experts are saying about what our country should be doing, it might be worth the subscription.

This one is a little sad, but a young lady in Vancouver decided to do a blog while she was dying from cystic fibrosis. This isn't too unusual. My pal D2 blogged while undergoing treatment for breast cancer, and Dar referred me to the blog of a friend of hers whose daughter has been fighting leukemia. I'm definitely a believer in writing as catharsis. However, I keep my medical issues off of this blog and out of the general topics of conversation at work or even with the family, if need be, because that's nobody's damn business unless it becomes terminal, and then I'd have to think very hard about what to share and when. (I recall having an argument with a manager about this issue--he asked me what he should say to the troops if I died. I said, "Tell 'em there's a technical writing job open!" I get this from my mother, who's got serious attitudes about privacy.)

The lawyer of a passenger who was behaving erratically on an airplane blamed the man's behavior on Ambien.

Need help starting or funding a new creative project? Consider the Kickstarter site! (This is not to be confused with the MyKickStart site run by my buddy Hu.)

My buddy Dar and her cohorts--who have been trying to increase citizen participation in science and technology decision-making and reviving the Office of Technology Assessment with a citizen component to it--have released a paper, presentation, and new web site to advance their cause. Dar has an excellent blog discussing some of the ins and outs of this effort. The official citation of the paper is:

Richard Sclove, Reinventing Technology Assessment: A 21st Century Model (Washington, DC: Science and Technology Innovation Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, April 2010).

I think I got this link from Joanne Manaster: a list of "brain science blogs." You know: because everyone should have some.

From D2: A Leia-in-slave-girl-outfit car wash. I think Hooters has met its match.

Speaking of D2, NASA has big plans for its R2 humanoid robot. At the rate our nation's space policy is going, robots are about all we'll have in space in a few years.

Water has been found on an asteroid. Why should you care? Well, if we want a civilization beyond this planet, it'd be nice if we didn't have to take all our water with us. Just sayin'.


This sounded kind of fun: using solar sails to pick up space junk.

William Shatner as Governor-General of Canada? I don't think he'd want to take the pay cut.

Can you force yourself to dream? Maybe.

From the Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE): What's Deutsch for AIIIGHHHHH!!!!!?

Might there be a ban on burqas in Europe? That would prove an interesting clash of civilizations and priorities: which virtue wins out? Cultural integrity or women's rights? Guess it depends on what's being done to the women wearing said burqas.

From Kate Down Under: A forum on the Battle of Midway. Midway might not be taught in American schools anymore, but it's still a major deal in Australia. During this battle, Japan lost four of its front-line aircraft carriers and afterward lost the initiative in the Pacific, which included plans for invading Australia.

Along these same lines, Father Dan forwarded a YouTube video of a newsreel covering the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945. Huzzah!

Speaking of NASA's space policy, my buddy George Whitesides has left the agency. No word on the why, but it'll be interesting to see how things change, if at all, at NASA HQ. And along those same lines, here's an article on public reaction to the change in NASA's direction.

Feel like helping to pick a jingle for a science and engineering festival? Try this site.

From Doc: "A little late for LCROSS, but still..." (Warning: language)

Random link from LinkedIn.com: a site on eliciting the future you want...or something like that.

For those of you concerned about the Zombie Apocalypse, May is Zombie Awarness Month.

The Huffington Post caught the Washington Post confusing our President with Malcolm X. Whups.

From Yenie: A new vineyard to try if/when I ever get out to Oregon.

How fast is Google's new Chrome search engine? Check this out.

Plan to be near Big Ben or the Houses of Parliament in London tomorrow? You could watch the election returns live, projected on the side of the bell tower. Cool!

Need a boost? A walk outside might improve not just your mood, but your self-esteem.

Ever want to be in a Star Wars movie? A JibJab video? Now you can do both.

And as a last note on this post, I have decided to deactivate my Facebook account completely, much to the consternation of a couple of friends. I appreciate the concern, all, but really: I need to walk away from the forum for a bit. There's a lot going on in my life, and FB is a serious distraction right now. I'm getting old, and my bandwidth/ability to handle multiple things at once is just going to heck in a handcart. I'll return when the propitious moment arrives; but that moment is not in an hour, in a day, in a week, or maybe even in a month. Furreal.

Potpourri CXXVI

I'm in the process of remodeling and adding a lot more content to Rhetoric & Rockets (a.k.a. Bartacus), so if you see more than the usual number of book or product reviews, that is on purpose. I'm trying to see how much money, if any, I can make through my Amazon Affiliate activities. Here's the general premise: if I write a good enough review and you are tempted to buy a book/video/product based on said review, click on the product "badge" on the page, and buy it through Amazon. The writer/creator/producer gets the joy of a customer, and I get a tiny piece of the action as a reviewer.

Another week's worth of stuff to plow through, so my apologies if there isn't a lot of commentary attached. In response to a comment from one reader, I do not read EVERYTHING included in these links, but it would probably terrify you to know how much I do read. Shall we begin?

From Hu: The People's Republic of China is studying a Saturn V-class launch vehicle. There is only one practical purpose for such a rocket, and that is to send human beings to the Moon. What do they know that the Obama administration does not, hmmmm?

From Greg A.: In the spirit of the late Senator William Proxmire and his "Golden Fleece" award, here are the most 10 most absurd scientific papers published in recent memory.

From Tracy: A good article on how space was promoted back when our country believed that exploring space was a Good Thing.

From D2:

• A Big Think video explaining the possible psychological bases of political ideologies. This one gets a "maybe" in my truthiness scale, but it's an intriguing notion.
• Another article that will probably be of interest to Dr. OZMG re: the profit motive and keeping animals in captivity

From Science @ NASA: Some interesting things are happening on the Sun.

From Dar, who is visiting the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference this weekend:

• An article on the future of video games.
• Science has become a serious political issue in the UK (about time it was taken seriously somewhere!).

From Hank Campbell: The Open Source Science Project, a page that encourages private citizens to participate in, and comment upon, research in progress.

How did they get that bug in the museum anyway? A 100-year-old mystery solved. I expect to see a CSI episode about this soon, but it wouldn't be the same without Grissom on the show.


President Obama has called for a space summit in Florida April 15. He'd better have really good briefings/message control, because there are a lot of angry people at Kennedy Space Center. Anyhow, there are several articles about this summit, which NASAWatch has conveniently put all in one place:

• http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/03/florida-space-s.html
• http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/03/space-policy-an.html
• http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/03/daniel-in-the-l.html

Jeff Foust also has a discussion about the summit on his Space Politics blog.

Is the Orion crew exploration vehicle being transferred to the commercial sector? This article says yes.

Some interesting stuff from OpenNASA…
http://www.opennasa.com/2010/03/09/heavenly-answers-for-earthly-problems/
http://www.opennasa.com/2010/03/11/open-participation-not-just-open-information/

Also from Jeff Foust's Space Politics/The Space Review blogs...

• Some progress might be made on making export control rules more rational (i.e. not so tight that American aerospace companies cannot compete overseas).
• An excellent analysis of how the unveiling of the Obama administration's NASA budget was rolled out and why they face challenges getting their way in fiscal year 2011.
• What hope does the U.S. or NASA have for getting international partners for future space missions? Taylor Dinerman says the odds aren't great unless some serious structural changes are made. This is easily fixed, by the way. The Department of Defense is able to obtain "five-year" funds to build things like aircraft carriers without having to debate the whole thing every year.

Florida members of Congress are trying to keep the Shuttle flying longer.

Machines capable of reading thoughts? Maybe.


Here's an article on the fact that Twitter knows where you are tweeting from. But really, anyone familiar with the technology already knew this…

Like most large, bureaucratic organizations, the Department of Defense has a love-hate relationship with social media web sites.

This is kind of cool: a Flash feature showing the process/progress of assembling the International Space Station (ISS). Just a gentle reminder, all: there are only four more Space Shuttle missions planned, and once they're done and, if the President gets his way, the Constellation Program, NASA will NOT have a rocket that can fly up to ISS until 2016 at the earliest, leaving us dependent on the Russians to get our astronauts there. If you want to know why, I suggest calling your elected officials and demanding an answer. I already KNOW the answer, but I'm not going to share that. It's more fun for you to call and ask. Trust me.

From Martin: A Russian-language travelogue through a "boomer" (nuclear missile submarine) base. I'd be interested to know if this sub is considered "active," or if it's been retired. If it's been retired, has all the hot stuff--the ship's nuclear reactor and its missiles--been removed? Russian speakers are welcome to enlighten me.

The Echoes of Apollo group is interested in building or enhancing the Deep Space Network, which is a worldwide set of dish antennas used to collect data from satellites and vehicles farther in space. Gosh knows the U.S. system could use an upgrade or two.

From Regina: The European Space Agency (ESA) has upgraded its "Eduspace" web page for space education.

From Father Dan: A very cool map of weather conditions at every airport in the U.S.

From Lin: A new bicycle from New Zealand, the "Yike Bike."

And that will do for now. Your readership and patronage are appreciated!

Potpourri LXXXVII

Let's see, what's out there today? Oh yeah, a weird world. Let's surf together, shall we?

Dar the Science Cheerleader talks about a citizen science workshop at Chicago's Adler Planetarium. Huzzah!

Our British cousins are calling for a debate on the use of autonomous robots capable of killing without a human order. About bloody time. Friendly fire never is, but who do you blame if the machine does it? Whom do you hold liable?

Speaking of robots, here's their warmer, fuzzier side: companion robots.

The Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE) has another weekend sojourn recommendation (so far he's about 8 for 10): this time, a fly-in for Beechcraft airplanes in Tullahoma.

Taylor Dinerman reviews the potholes in space law and policy. Also on The Space Review, my buddy and fellow space geek Pete Garretson analyzes the requirements of space policy.

Another good take on the Augustine Panel. Keep an eye on the public meetings August 5 and 12. That's where we might learn where the Panel will take us. At least we'll know a little more before their report comes out at the end of the month.

New from Hu:

• Lockheed's Aegis ballistic missile defense system has destroyed additional targets. Good timing, because...
• Iran might be a year away from building a nuclear weapon.

Another plane had a bad day on the way from Brazil to somewhere else. Wonder how long before someone blames it on global warming producing stronger thunderstorms.

A good article from The New York Times on how and why we visit museums and what we continue to get out of them. Food for thought as my countdown to museum overload continues.

No doubt there's more excitement out there, but that's it for now.

Citizen Engineers

As regular readers of this blog probably know (and I appreciate all 20 of you), I send a lot of links and occasional articles to Darlene Cavalier, the Science Cheerleader. Darlene has made it her personal mission to get more of our fellow citizens (she's based out of Philadelphia, that most American of places) interested and participating in science and science issues.

The problem with science is that it's not engineering. After doing some science writing at NASA, I discovered that I preferred engineering as a subject matter. I can do either, but engineering makes more sense to me because, while science is about understanding the unknown, engineering is about taking the known and using it for human purposes. Science often involves analogies and guesses and mistaken theories (phlogiston and human-induced global warming are my two favorites at the moment). You're never really certain you've got it right. Engineering, however, is a little more empirical and forgiving: "If I build X widget to Y tolerances/requirements, will it perform B function for C operating cycles?"

Another advantage engineering has over science is that it's been around a lot longer. Human beings have been doing engineering since the times of the of ancient Pyramids, but have really only performed science as a systematic practice for the last 200 years or so. A lot of engineering knowledge continues to pass from person to person, despite the existence of engineering and trade journals. I don't know if this is an advantage, but it seems to be a fact of life, as individual craftsmen pass on lessons learned the hard way ("You don't want to put too much shimming here, or the rocket will topple over"). Science appears to be much more formal and written down, with everything documented to ensure consistent results.

But the reason I like engineering writing better is simply because it's writing about human beings making changes in the real world. If a human being designed a machine, odds are halfway decent that another person will be able to understand what that machine is supposed to do. Not always, of course. We still don't know how the Egyptians built the Pyramids, nor do we fully understand how ancient humans learned how to make bronze or steel. These are puzzles for the engineering historian, perhaps.

In any case, while science has undoubtedly changed humanity's perceptions of the universe, engineering is the discipline that has allowed us to shape parts of our universe to allow us to survive and improve our standard of living. My interest lies there. So even if I don't have an engineering degree, I suppose as a technical writer I can lay claim to being a "citizen engineer," as Darlene colors herself a "citizen scientist." My "engineering," however, consists of sharing information about technical subjects--I'm still enough of a klutz to know that I probably shouldn't be turning wrenches...

Getting Involved in Space Education and Research

Hat tip to Darlene the Science Cheerleader for developing yet another cool way to help private citizens get involved in and practicing science. I thought I'd post the suggestions I sent here as well. There are many ways to get involved in science or engineering projects. Below is just a partial list from the space exploration perspective.

Some of these probably count as engineering projects, but I thought I'd include them anyway. I know, you're shocked, but these are all space-related.

SETI@Home (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/)
SETI@home is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). You can participate by running a free program that downloads and analyzes radio telescope data.

Planetary Society projects related to advocacy and education, extrasolar planets, innovative technologies, international missions, Mars exploration, near-Earth objects, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) (http://www.planetary.org/programs/list/)

Mars Society University Rover Challenge (http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/urc)
For the third year, teams of university students will design and build the next generation of Mars rovers. May 28-30, 2009 the teams and their rovers will face off at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.

Mars Society Pressurized Rover Challenge (http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/pressurizedRover)
A contest was started by the Mars Society in 2000 to design analog pressurized rover concepts that could be tested at the Society's analog stations. The contest is officially over, but in typical Mars Society fashion, teams have been continuing to work on rover designs since.

Mars Society Mars Analog Research Stations(http://www.marssociety.org/portal/groups/AnalogsTF/index_html)
This Task Force is responsible for the design and development of our Mars Analog Bases. This task force will work on all phases of project development and provide The Mars Society with periodic detailed reports of progress.

The Mars Foundation's Mars Homestead Project (http://marshome.org/)
The Mars Homestead™ Project, the main project of the Mars Foundation™, is developing a unified plan for building the first habitat on Mars by exploiting local materials. The ultimate goal of the project is to build a growing, permanent settlement beyond the Earth, thus allowing civilization to spread beyond the limits of our small planet.

Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program (http://www.marsgravity.org/main/)
The Mars Gravity Biosatellite Program is a ground-breaking undertaking to study the effects of Martian gravity on mammals. We are taking the first step towards human missions to Mars - and beyond. Data from this mission will make a significant contribution to our understanding of fundamental space biology and greatly advance human space exploration. To find out how students are advancing human space exploration, please check out the rest of our website!

Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5) Project HALO (http://www.nsschapters.org/al/HAL5/HALO_Index.shtml)
Working in our spare time, we are currently working on our next hybrid rocket. It is a derivative of the old ARCAS sounding rocket that we dubbed Tube Launch 1 (TL-1). Working part time one night a week. For additional information about Project HALO, meeting location, and tax-deductible donations, please Just drop us an email . We currently have needs for avionics / data instrumentation and tube launcher volunteers.

NASA Student Launch Initiative (http://education.nasa.gov/edprograms/descriptions/Student_Launch_Initiative.html) and NASA University Student Launch Initiative (http://education.nasa.gov/edprograms/descriptions/University_Student_Launch_Initiative.html)
The NASA Student Launch Initiative, or SLI, involves middle and high school students in designing, building and testing reusable rockets with associated scientific payloads. This unique hands-on experience allows students to demonstrate proof-of-concept for their designs and gives previously abstract concepts tangibility.
The NASA University Student Launch Initiative, or USLI, is a competition that challenges university-level students to design, build and fly a reusable rocket with scientific payload to one mile in altitude. The project engages students in scientific research and real-world engineering processes with NASA engineers. Students propose to participate in USLI during the fall. Once selected, teams design their rocket and payload throughout the school year. USLI requires a NASA review of the teams’ preliminary and critical designs. The project also requires flight readiness and safety reviews before the rockets and payloads are approved for launch. After launch, teams complete a final report to include conclusions from their science experiment and the overall flight performance. The Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, and Flight Readiness Review are conducted by panels of scientists and engineers from NASA and from NASA contactors and external partners.

NASA Faculty Research Programs (http://education.nasa.gov/edprograms/frprograms/index.html)

NASA Educator Programs (http://education.nasa.gov/edprograms/eduprograms/index.html)