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Tuesday, 30 November 2004
Bold New Blog
When I made the switch earlier this year from You Must Fight The Bear to All These Worlds, the idea was that ATW would be a more serious and more focused blog, though, to be sure, not devoid of personality.Anyone logging onto the blog today, though, is going to find comics, political rambling, a CD swap, movie contest, battling robots, Mississippi football, and, oh yeah, maybe a little actual space news tucked in between all that.
This has been increasingly the case for a while, but the point was really driven home today when I posted a link to my blog on collectSPACE only to realize how much scrolling someone following that link would have to do to actually find space stuff.
So, for those people who come here because they actually want to learn something and don't care about my wackiness and rambling, I've created ATW Space, a stripped-down version of ATW featuring only the space content.
For the average reader, I would preferentially encourage you to read regular ATW, but I just wanted to make another option available to those who prefer it.
In an unrelated editorial note, I just today discovered that due to a
CD Swap
Duane's CD Swap is open to anybody, so I thought I'd post it here, but then I thought it might be worth doing as an ATW project instead or also.
If you want to participate in Duane's, go for it (I am), but would anybody here want to do a CD swap?
If you would want to take part, let me know, and we'll see if enough people are interested. Also, if you would want to do a theme like Duane's doing, suggest that also.
The more people that are involved, the better this will work, so even if you're not a regular ATW commenter, you're welcome, nay, encouraged, to participate. If you don't want to break a perfect record of not posting feedback, you can contact me directly via e-mail and let me know you're interested.
Thanks To All Involved
Not my usual blogging, for which I apologize, but this just ticked me off.There was a story in The Washington Post Sunday titled Alabama Vote Opens Old Racial Wounds.
I was sure this was coming, and, to be honest, I had hoped that with the confusion and excitement surrounding the presidential election it would just kind of get overlooked. In fact, even in Huntsville, it hasn't gotten much press. But here's somebody in Washington who has held onto it for almost four weeks to get it in. (more)
Apropos Of Nothing...
...but after this past weekend, Nicole and I are like 80-something percent done with our Christmas shopping. I did a bunch of buying over the weekend (some of it using the Amazon link at left, 'cause I support ATW), including a little something for ATW com... ah, but that would be telling. Nevermind.
Daily Hatbag
With the general Thanksgiving period over, 10th Anniversary Hatbag is back.
Whoops
Turns out I was wrong about that LEGO Lunar Lander being a new set, according to collectSPACE. Turns out the line has been discontinued, unfortunately. Still, you gotta check out the set linked to from the link above.
Picture Of The Day
Saturn, its rings, and Mimas. Courtesy NASA, natch.
G5 No. 1
The G5 iMac was named the "Computer Of The Year" by The Washington Times, which recommended it as the best computer, bar none, to buy at Christmas this year.
Fantasy Film League
OK, after I ended up being the only person in the YMFTB Fantasy Film League for the October season, how's this for advance notice: You have a whole month to get your film registered for the January 2005 season (which lasts all of calendar 2005).Here's a little further incentive: When your film is included in the league, I'll give you 25 Blogpoints.
Plus, at the end of each month next year, the person whose film is in first place will get 10 Blogpoints.
The process is simple:
- Go to the site, using the link above.
- Register with a user ID and password.
- Pick six actors and one director. (Your movie makes money based on how much money real movies with your actors and directors make during the contest period.)
- Name your movie.
- Enter it in the YMFTB league by clicking on "Join a little league" and entering the league ID 1197.
- That's it.
Cool Movie News
From AICN:Brett Leonard, the Australian-based director who allegedly made MAN-THING (how can any of us verify that if the film is never released?) will next be turning his considerable and debatable talent to HIGHLANDER 5, in which it turns out that the entire population of the world is a Highlander except for one man. The tagline? "There Can't Be Only One".
Also, Entertainment Weekly reports that Aaron Eckhart will star in the movie adaptation of Christopher Buckley's Thank You For Smoking, which is a movie I'm looking forward to.
EW also reports that plans are afoot to develop Heat Vision and Jack for the big screen.
Monday, 29 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
Don't even bother to read today's Daily Hatbag. It's just somethign random I linked to for the sake of linking to something.
Go/No Go
Looking for the finest in space-related DVDs? Be sure to check out the "Go/No Go" series of reviews at collectSPACE.
Lunar LEGO Lander
Today In History
On this date in 1961, Enos became the first chimp to orbit the Earth during the MA-5 Mercury flight.
Used tags: history, monkeys, nasa, space
The Da Vinci Craft
The Edmonton Journal has an update on erstwhile X Prize contender The Da Vinci Project, now the Golden Palace Space Program:But the rocket won't be launched from Kindersley, Sask., until early next year. And when it is, it won't be carrying pilot and project founder Brian Feeney.
The Toronto-based team, which at one time was a contender for the $10-million US X-Prize for the first private spacecraft to reach suborbital space, now plans to do at least one unmanned test flight first.
Feeney ... hopes to do a test launch by the end of January, then rocket into space himself sometime in the spring.
And here's just another level of classiness that the project's online casino funding brings:
GoldenPalace.com recently bought a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich said to have an image of the Virgin Mary on it, raising speculation that too will fly into space.
Soyuz Countdown
From The Washington Times:NASA and the nations involved in the International Space Station project will run out of emergency rescue craft within 18 months and have not decided what to do after April 2006, when the final Russian Soyuz spacecraft leaves the station and returns to Earth.
Soyuz, the three-person lifeboat for the crews if a fire, serious illness or other disaster occurs, soon ends its production run under the current international agreement, and a cash-strapped Russia wants compensation for building more of the spacecraft after 2006.
(That's the full text of the article, btw, so follow the link only if you want.)
Going For A Soyuz Spin
Expedition 10 this morning went for a quick flight in their Soyuz, moving it to a different docking port in preparation for an upcoming space walk.
Watching SNG
Marshall got some attention from NASA Watch this weekend, in two pieces, one criticizing Science@NASA for not linking to the Vision. (Cowing is insistent for some reason that every NASA page should link to the Vision--the version of the article that is online today has been changed from yesterday's, in which he wrote that Marshall was "thumbing its nose at the Vision" because SNG didn't link to it.)In a separate article (orginally part of the same article, but later spun out), he goes after Station tracking Web sites.
Get MUGged
CompUSA stores across the nation are hosting a special Apple user event Thursday morning from 7 to 9 a.m., with free coffee and donuts and an iTMS give-away.Also, for those into this sort of thing, CompUSA this week has a WiFi locater keychain, normally $30, on sale for $20, or $10 after mail-in rebate.
Sunday, 28 November 2004
Scrambled Egg
Here's hoping for a better 2005.
A Wolfe In White Clothing
A man wearing an all-white suit comes to Huntsville. The suit is one of the man's trademarks. He wears it all over Madison County.
He wears it to the Triana Town Hall. He wears it during his interviews with PRSM Sports and Fitness owner Mark Noble. He wears it when he drives past the home of Marvin Stone, then a basketball star at Grissom High School.
The man in the all-white suit, Tom Wolfe, is one of the most famous writers in America. ...
For the next seven years, he stays in touch with Noble and Martinson, a Huntsville school board member, as he researches his next novel. He visits Huntsville at least three more times, looking for settings that he plans to describe in his book "I Am Charlotte Simmons."
Daily Hatbag
Spice up your Sunday with a little 8th anniversary Hatbag.
Saturday, 27 November 2004
Spectre Of The Past
For the comics folks out there, I've been reading the Green Lantern: Rebirth series, and without going into any spoilers, let me just say after having read part two, that if they do some sort of revisionist thing with Emerald Twilight, I'm going to be really disappointed.
Daily Hatbag
For those who prefer their Hatbag a little more old-school than yesterday's, here some good old-fashioned 7th anniversary Hatbag.
Robot War: Round 1, Fight 10
The final fight of Round One is here! With this battle, all of the robots will have been introduced and will have fought once; so the elimation begins with the next battle. But first, Data's evil twin Lore, from Star Trek: The Next Generation, will take on Justice Society of America member Red Tornado from DC Comics.Lore (4 votes)
RedTornado (2 votes)
By the way, today marks the end of voting for the first four fights of round one, and the next four will end Monday.
Friday, 26 November 2004
To The Moon And Back
Take this story from India, via SpaceDaily for what it's worth, but if true, it's kinda cool.The United States could launch a mission in 2010 that would land two stationary robots on the moon to collect rock samples before returning to earth, a US scientist said here Thursday.
I'm hoping we can get rovers on the Moon before too terribly long (i.e. before we send people back), but a sample return mission is pretty cool too.
Astros Online
Since I haven't posted about collectSPACE in a couple of days, I thought I'd share this link to collectSPACE's guide to astronaut Web sites. Cool stuff.
Space Genesis
The space hotel is another step closer to reality now that the FAA has given Bigelow Aerospace approval to launch its inflatable technology demonstrator Genesis modules into space. A first launch is planned for about a year from now.
Need A Gift For Dave?
For anyone who's interested, the Apple Store is having a one-day sale today.
That's How Klingons Got Their Bumps
So, according to a spoiler on AICN, a future episode of Enterprise may explain why some Klingons got bumps and some don't.
Daily Hatbag
Hope you had a
Thursday, 25 November 2004
Meteorite Photo
Lain sent me this story that's kinda interesting:
NORTHERN Territory scientists were last night studying what could be the first photograph of a meteorite hitting Earth.
The chances of an impact being captured on film are millions to one.
"If this is true, it's one of the most remarkable pictures ever taken," astronomy tutor Geoff Carr said yesterday.
Happy Thanksgiving!
From all of us here at ATW (well, me), here's wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!
And thank you all for making this blog such a rewarding endeavor for me. Your comments and participation are, without question, what give ATW its character, and make a far more interesting, enlightening and entertaining place than one geek's ramblings ever could. Thank you all so much!
Daily Hatbag
Need more to be thankful for today? Here's a little bonus Hatbag.
Wednesday, 24 November 2004
Editorial Note
Due to the holiday, blogging will be light (but not non-existent, hopefully) tomorrow. In the meantime, vote in the Robot War and the new poll and catch up on the latest additions to The Leonardo Code (and, please, add your own).
Blogpoint Opportunity
Since I've been lax lately about updating the poll, 3 Blogpoints each for suggestions of poll ideas that I decide to use.Preference will be given to space-related polls, followed by Apple-related polls.
Monkey Bard
As of this writing, my virtual monkeys have typed a high of 19 letters of Skakespeare.(For some reason, getting 18 letters is pretty easy for them).
Do your good deed for the day, and contribute some processor cycles to The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator.
Going Back To Alpha
Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev will become the first person to serve two increments on the International Space Station next year when he returns to ISS as a member of the Expedition 11 crew, along with NASA astronaut John Phillips, a veteran of the STS-100 mission.Krikalev, possibly the most historic modern cosmonaut, lived on ISS for 4 1/2 months as part of the first crew to occupy it. Krikalev was the first cosmonaut to fly on the Shuttle in 1994 on the STS-60 (along with Huntsville High School alumna Jan Davis, now of MSFC). His previous ISS experience also includes serving as a crew member of STS-88, the first Station assembly mission, which mated the first two modules.
Before his international mission experience, Krikalev served two increments on Mir (meaning that Expedition 11 will be his fourth long-duration mission). The second was notable for the fact that Krikalev was launched from the Soviet Union and returned to Earth in Kazakhstan, the USSR having collapsed in his absence, earning Krikalev notariety as "The Last Soviet Citizen." In fact, his mission was extended when a rotation flight was cancelled during the coup.
Krikalev currently is around number four on the total duration record chart, with 625 days in space under his belt so far. His 6-month stay should bring him to the top of the chart, exceeding Sergei Avdeyev's current 748-day record.
Krikalev will also enter the relatively exclusive six-flight club, becoming the first non-NASA spacefarer to do so. (The current record for total number of flights is seven, held by Franklin Chang-Diaz and Jerry Ross.)
I will admit, though, that I found this news rather surprising, having assumed that the next ISS crew would include Bill McArthur, who had been scheduled for Expedition 9 before suffering an undisclosed temporary health problem, and who served as the back-up commander for Expedition 10.
Secrets Of His Success
In The New York Times, David Pogue reveals the secrets that let him be so prolific. Thought I'd share this one:6. I know that this will rankle all the Apple bashers, but I do most of my work in Mac OS X. I therefore spend zero time on viruses, spyware, maintenance and all those other typical computer time drains. I also use Microsoft Entourage, an e-mail program for the Mac that I consider head and shoulders above Outlook.
Tuesday, 23 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
Since there's no anniversary Hatbag today, here's in honor of The Leonardo Code
Your Wired Will Go On
For those who haven't seen it, this month's issue of WIRED magazine is guest-edited by James Cameron, and is centered around the theme of exploration, and includes articles by or about Buzz Aldrin, Sean O'Keefe, Don Pettit, Burt Rutan, Kim Stanley Robinson, among many others.For more details, check out collectSPACE.
After The Prize
Cosmic Log has a brief piece on the post-X-Prize private space race.
That's No Moon!
The picture above is of Skif, a Soviet orbital laser battle station, mounted to an Energia booster. More pictures, and a little more information, can be found at MilitaryPhotos.net.
Blogpoint Opportunity
I ended up awarding Blogpoints to each of the caption contest participants yesterday, so here's today's opportunity.Today's opportunity is a shout-out to Richie, to add a little culture to ATW.
5 Blogpoints each to the authors of the most amusing Thanksgiving poems.
Cooking With Shatner
When TrekToday linked to The View's segment with William Shatner, they included such things in the summary as bits about Trek, Denny Crane, Has Been, the Razzie, and the fact that his iPod troubles him.But they paid short shrift to the best bits--Turkey cooking a la Shatner!
Here are some highlights:
Shatner: Well, deep-frying a turkey...
Shatner: ...is a skill...
Shatner: ...that is passed down from father to son.
Shatner: Because the hotter you get it, the better the turkey.
Star: What do you inject yours with? Because that's the real tip.
Shatner: Enthusiasm. I inject my --
Star: No, Bill, come on. You have to have a little spice.
Shatner: Yeah, well, you've got to have the garlic.
Meredith: Mmm-hmm.
Shatner: And you've got to have... the potatoes.
Star: Mmmm.
Elisabeth: You inject?
Shatner: I inject them with potatoes.
Shatner: You add... fluid... moistness.
Shatner: And you got to keep that... that meat moist.
Halo For Mac
Per Cult of Mac:Apple's stock is way up again today on news that Wall Street's Piper Jaffray doubled its price target on Apple stock ($100!) because the iPod is creating "wildfire word-of-mouth marketing" for the Mac, according to reports by Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and a bunch of others.
In a survey of iPod users, Piper Jaffray found 13 percent have swiched to the Mac from the PC, or are about to.
Monday, 22 November 2004
Lucky Cow
Oh, gosh.
Rebels Without A Clue
Well, I have to say that as lousy as Ole Miss' season has been, I do take consolation in the fact that we may have helped keep Auburn from winning the national championship. (State fans can take similar consolation.)
Leonardo Code Update
If a man can be judged by the quality of his friends, then I'm a rich man indeed. Tying in with the ATW novel-writing project The Leonardo Code, Lain this weekend sent me the awesome book cover you see at right, while Joe composed an original theme for the soundtrack of the movie adaption of The Leonardo Code.Also, this weekend we crossed the 7,000-word mark, which puts us about 1/7 of the way to the word goal, which means that if everyone will write as much as they already have a mere six more times, we'll be there. So, go to it!
And, if you haven't written yet, now's a great time to start!
Blogpoint Opportunity
4 Blogpoints each for the authors of the most amusing captions for this new photo:
New ATW Record
ATW had another record day Thursday, recording a new high for unique IP visitors in a single day at 619. Thanks for your support!
Oh, Superman
Per New Scientist:Superman is too good a role model. Fans of the man from Krypton unwittingly compare themselves to the superhero, and realise they do not measure up. And as a result, they are less likely to help other people.
Apollo 1 Fire
One of the cooler aspects of collectSPACE (a cool Web site I may have mentioned before) is the incredible wealth of information its members bring. Check out, for example, this discussion of the Apollo 1 fire, including first-hand accounts.
Money For The Moon!
The Moon got a giant leap closer Saturday, when Congress voted to fully fund NASA's FY'05 budget request of $16.2 billion.Also, on a related note, the House passed H.R. 5382, which paves the way for regulation of suborbital space tourism. The bill now moves on to the Senate.
Various And Sundry
Bits and pieces of space news not worth their own full posts:
- China has been invited to participate in an international conference on the Vision for Space Exploration.
- India is again debating whether to undertake a human space program.
- Boeing is testing an experimental next-generation rocket engine in Mississippi.
- In other Boeing news, the company has said it will be pursuing further research using Hyper-X data, ensuring that the goals of the program will continue despite the cancellation of follow-on aircraft.
- Anyone wanting more info on the Swift gamma-ray observatory I've blogged about launching recently can go to the official Swift homepage.
Two New Crew
Astronauts Lisa Nowak and Stephanie Wilson have been added to the STS-121 mission currently scheduled for a NET July 10 launch date, the second mission after RTF.This is of particular interest since it means that the flight will not be used for ISS crew exchange, as had earlier been mentioned as a possibility.
Before the loss of Columbia, STS-114, which will be the Return To Flight mission, had originally been manifested as a crew rotation mission, bringing home Expedition 6 and carrying a three-person Expedition 7 crew to the Station. When it was re-manifested as the RTF mission, the three seats that would have been needed for crew rotation were filled by additional Shuttle crew members with the explanation that they were needed for the additional duties that would be carried out relating to RTF.
Another mission, STS-121, was added to the schedule between 114 and STS-115, with a four-person primary crew, meaning that it could take on the crew rotation duties STS-114 was dropping. Now, obviously, that's not going to happen.
It could simply be a matter of scheduling. Under the current schedule, STS-121 will visit the Station roughly 3 months after Expedition 11 begins its tenure there; so swapping the crew then would make for a rather short increment for that crew. (Also, the fact that 121 now has a six-person crew rather than seven means that it could still have one ISS crewmember added to its roster, restoring the ISS to its pre-107 three-person complement.)
However, since there have been unconfirmed rumors that NASA will completely demanifest crew rotation from Shuttle, it's a situation worth watching.
Bummer
Cult of Mac has an update on the "lost" Apple Switch ads, which are lost again after being taken offline not long after I linked to them last week.
Daily Hatbag
It's beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving.
Sunday, 21 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
Enjoy some 8th anniversary Daily Hatbag.
Saturday, 20 November 2004
Today In History
On this date 6 years ago, assembly of the International Space Station began with the launch of the first component, the Russian Zarya module.
Swiftly Into Space
Barring any additional scrubs, the Swift observatory will launch today at 11:10 a.m. CST. Once its science mission begins, Swift will detect gamma ray bursts.
Robots Needed!
I was going to try doing something a little different, and start an ATW Robot Battle Royale, in which various robots from fiction are pitted against each other, and ATW readers vote who would win in each battle, until finally there's only one robot standing.
To get things started, I need suggestions for robots to include in the battle. Submit robots from TV, movies, books, comics, etc. that you would like to see included.
Preference will be given based on how well-known a particular robot is, and how well it could hold its own in robot battle. I would say, as a minimum qualification, a robot should be one that reasonably could be expected to defeat a Star Wars battledroid, either through brains or brawn.
Daily Hatbag
HATBG: Helping you get into the Thanksgiving spirit early.
Friday, 19 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
Enjoy some Daily Hatbag.
Man On The Moon
For those ATW readers in the Memphis area, you can get a chance to see a real live Moonwalker when Apollo 14 LMP Edgar Mitchell speaks in Germantown on Jan. 23. Details at (yep) collectSPACE.
Tunes For Titan
Per SpaceDaily:
When the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft completes its journey to Saturn's moon Titan in January, its probe will carry out many missions -- among them, to boldly blast rock 'n' roll music where none has been heard before.
The US-European vessel, run by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian space agency, is carrying a 14-minute CD loaded with music from two little-known French artists who will have the honour of having their tracks broadcast to any alien ears that may be listening.
Earthlings on the other hand will be able to bop along to the tunes on the Internet site www.music2titan.com from December 21 as they follow the mission online.
Woz Not Was
Per CRN:Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak gives his old friend Apple cofounder and current Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs high marks for technology leadership. ...
Wozniak, who developed the Apple II, said he still stays in touch with Jobs, but doesn't advise Apple on new products or initiatives. "I may someday," said Wozniak. "I love Apple. I love what [Jobs] is doing."
Thursday, 18 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
We now return you to your regular Daily Hatbag.
A Year In Space
ATW not enough to meet your hankering for a daily dose of space? That's just sad.But, there's help for people like you: Countdown Creations is sponsoring "The Year In Space" desk calendar, with weekly space photos and daily entries on space history and events.
Details are at--suprise!--collectSPACE.
Budget Battle Nears Conclusion
Per Space Politics:Space News [subscription required] reported late Wednesday that House and Senate budget negotiators have agreed to give NASA $15.9 billion in FY2005. That amount is less than the $16.2 billion that President Bush originally requested, as well as the $16.4 billion the Senate Appropriations Committee proposed (a figure that includes $800 million in emergency funding), but more than the $15.1 billion in the House version of the budget. ...
The Houston Chronicle reported Thursday that the Office of Management and Budget has issued another veto threat, claiming that the President could veto the entire omnibus budget bill if it has "anything close" to the House's $15.1 billion NASA proposal.
Second Chance Leonids
There will be another peak of the Leonids meteor shower at 3 a.m. CST in the morning, though, again, it's unlikely there will be more than a dozen meteors per hour (though those that there are should leave long-lasting streaks).
This Week At NE
This week at NASAexplores, I've got an article about how the Space Station team has learned to optimize the function of the current 11A configuration of the Station while the Shuttle fleet has been grounded, and Maggie's got one about what's involved in getting a commercial jet ready for flight.
Wednesday, 17 November 2004
Regular Richie Feature
A few interesting search strings that have brought people to Hatbag.net recently:- New Lance Bass Pictures With Kids
- from here on out everything changes
- Googles(PICTURES OF THE INCREDIBLES (Buck Rogers)
- Lain Hughes jesse holland
- spare their time
- whomp there it is
- Falco - Der commissar lyrics
- worlds biggest booty
Daily Hatbag
Since there's no 10th anniversary Hatbag for today for whatever weird reason, I wanted to do something a little different and get some input on something. Here's the current Hatbag.net front page, and here's a slighly more dynamic Javascript-based version I put together a while back.
I abandoned it because of some problems I ran into, which I think I now have learned enough to fix, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Weather Report
I really should try to make a little money as a freelance metereologist, 'cause by now I can predict with uncanny accuracy that any night that I wake up in the middle of the night to go outside to try and see some celestial event like a meteor shower, it will be completely overcast.
The Source
So I needed to know today for an article I'm working on whether a line in the movie version of The Right Stuff was in the book or not.So where do I turn? collectSPACE, of course.
Another helpful (and more informed) forum member had an answer for me as soon as I checked back.
Hyper Active
Yesterday's final flight of the X-43A was successful, and initial data indicate that the Hyper-X reached a speed of around Mach 10.
More Scrubs
The launch of NASA's Swift Observatory has been delayed due to problems with the Delta 2 launch vehicle's abort system. The flight could be rescheduled for tomorrow.
Guess Who's Back!
There are some creations that are so good that you just don't believe they could possibly be followed up. And, when they are, the results are usually pale shadows or near-parodies of the original, like Frank Miller's Dark Knight Strikes Back of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.And so, it was with both great joy and trepidation I read a Cult of Mac article on a stash of "lost" Apple Switch ads, which includes--could it really be?--a second ad featuring Ellen Feiss, whose infamous "Bummer" ad was without question the highlight of the whole Switch campaign.
While not nearly as good as the Bummer ad, Homework does capture the inimitable Feiss-y goodness of the original, I'm pleased to report.
Beep beep beep beep.
The iPod War
Per Reuters:
"'The MP3 war has started and I am the one who has declared war,' Creative chief executive Sim Wong Hoo told a media briefing, adding the US would get the biggest share of the $100 million budget, followed by Europe and Asia...in the future..."
"Dad, I'm working on a history project. Who started the iPod war?"
"That right, son, he did."
"Who did?"
"Yes, he did. He even bragged about it. Said he was going to kill the iPod."
"Oh, forget it. Who endorsed the iPod?"
"No, son, he was against it."
"Aargh! Wait, what about pro-iPod people? Weren't there any of them?"
"Certainly, son. Like P. Diddy and U2!"
"What? I wasn't even around then! Anyway, what's generally considered the cause of the big iPod Economic Rally that came after iPod won the war?"
"Jobs."
"No, Dad. That was the result...full employment. But the cause...?"
"The cause was Jobs, son."
"So jobs caused employment. Brilliant, Dad. I'll get an A for sure. This is worse than when you tried to explain the Apple II to me."
"Hey, son, I was there. I'm just telling it the way it Woz."
Tuesday, 16 November 2004
Fact Or Fiction
Take the "Science Fiction or Science Fact?" quiz, and see if you can score a whopping 10 out of 10, like me!
Daily Hatbag
I miss the Thanksgiving trips to Gatlinburg my family used to take every year. Growing up has its downsides.
Big Brother Bill
Employing the same tactics that have made Wintel PCs a haven for virus writers and hackers, Microsoft has engineered a way to spy on Xbox users. Following the release of Halo 2, Microsoft has admitted it has increased its use of the internet to see whether Xbox users have modified their hardware. Not only does Microsoft's disinclination to recognize the concept of personal property let Bill Gates into your living room, it is exactly this compulsion to build backdoors into their products that is giving characters possibly even more unsavory than the Redmond crowd (if such is possible) some degree of control over millions of computers around the world.And to think, PC users will actually tell you that vulnerability is a sign their machines are better than Macs.
Hey, whatever helps you sleep at night.
Lunar IMAX
From collectSPACE:The Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center will once again be teaming with Tom Hanks to bring space history to the big screen. Currently titled Magnificent Desolation 3D: Walking on the Moon, the film is being produced by IMAX Corporation and Tom Hanks and Gary Goeztman of Playtone, and is scheduled for release in Fall 2005.
Today In History
One this date, Wernher von Braun gave President Kennedy a tour of the Saturn launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center, though I'm pretty sure the picture was taken in 1963, and not in 1964, as this site claims.
Also on this date 31 years ago, the final Skylab crew began their record-setting 84-day mission on the space station.
Also on Nov. 16, my mom and my co-worker JoCasta were born (though not the same year). Happy birthday to them both.
Space Station Day
From a Huntsville Times article about the conference I attended this weekend:It's a safe bet that in the future space explorers may not celebrate Columbus Day, but they will have a holiday to commemorate humanity's presence in space, said Dr. Bill Carswell of Marshall Space Flight Center.
"It'll be 'Space Station Day' they celebrate in future years," ...
He said NASA and others in the international space community hope the date for celebration will be Nov. 2, to commemorate the day in 2000 the first crew occupied the International Space Station. Carswell said the NASA goal is to keep the station with a permanent, rotating crew for at least 15 to 20 years, "but that may extend out ... and there will be other crews on" other stations or bases.
"The ultimate goal, which is very lofty, is to never go without a human presence in space again," he said.
X-43A Update
The X-43A didn't fly yesterday. Maybe today.There was an instrumentation problem yesterday that wasn't worked out until too late to meet the lift-off time. Today's launch window begins at 4 p.m. CST.
And One More Thing...
Less than two months until the next Steve Jobs keynote address. The G5 iMac is new, the G5 is relatively new, there are new iPods, so what will Steve have to amaze us with on January 11?He could talk about Tiger, of course, and there are rumors of a new flash-based iPod. Is it time for a new form factor for the laptops? Let the rumor-mongering begin!
Monday, 15 November 2004
collectSPACE
I'm sure many ATW readers are out there wondering, "What is this wonderful collectSPACE that David keeps prattling on about?" Well, why don't you go to the About collectSPACE page and find out?
The Leonardo Code Update
Due to weird problems with posts not opening correctly, and scrolling so far down as to be forgotten, I've moved The Leonardo Code to the Free Blog box, where it'll always be visible.
So write, people!
Daily Hatbag
Ah, glory days.
Macrovision
TechNewsWorld has an interesting bit of commentary on what what Boeing joining the Northrup Grumman bid means for the future of the Crew Exploration Vehicle.
Today In History
On this date in 1988, the Soviet Space Shuttle program began (and ended) with the first and only launch of Buran.
Huntsville Rebuts
I posted an article last week from the Wall Street Journal about the German rocket team that came to Huntsville. Now, a local TV station has posted a response to that story.
Foale For The Future
In an awesome bit of news for the future of exploration, astronaut Mike Foale has been named Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Operations. Duties will include focusing operations activities to align with the Vision.Having talked with Foale a couple of times, I have a really high opinion of his understanding of the issues that will be involved in long-duration exploration missions, and believe he'll really bring a lot to the job.
Getting There Is Half The Fun
Europe's first lunar orbiter, SMART-1, will reach the Moon today, after having taken over 13 months to make the 4 day trip.Among its mission goals upon arrival is to scan for signs of frozen water.
Modest Leonids
For those willing to get up early enough to see it, there will be a relatively lackluster meteor shower this week.
Hyper-Time
The final flight of NASA's X-43A Hyper-X scramjet will take place today starting at about 4 p.m. CST. The plane will attempt to reach about Mach 10, blowing away the speed record it set in March.
O-Town
What A Wonderful World
The teaser trailer for Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is online at Yahoo.Check it out.
Sunday, 14 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
So, yeah, here's another 8th anniversary Hatbag to liven up your Sunday.
Another Football Post
Saturday, 13 November 2004
The King In Huntsville
One of the world's greatest living musicians will be visiting Huntsville next month. B.B. King will be here December 19. The tickets will be a few times more than for his annual Homecoming concert in Indianola, but he'll spend much more time actually playing music and much less time on "B.B.'s Dirty Kiddie Dancing." ("I need a little white boy!")If anybody's interested in coming, let me know.
Used tags: b.b._king, huntsville, music
Today In History
On this date in 1971: Mariner 9 becomes the first spacecraft to enter orbit around another planet, Mars.
This bit of space history (like many others on this site) stolen from collectSPACE, one of the best danged space sites on the internet. Go there now!
Rocket Plant
So as I mentioned the other day, I've been attending the NSS HAL5's Exploring and Privateering Space conference, with varying degrees of enjoyment.I won't bore you with the details, except to mention that so far the far-and-away highlight has been touring Boeing's rocket plant in Decature where Delta IV and II rockets are manufactured. I've driven past the plant a few times, always really wishing I could go inside, so it was a huge privelege to actually get to yesterday.
As one might guess, rocket assembly (particularly when there's so little demand) is pretty gradual work, so it's not like we saw an assembly line stamping out parts. To be honest, we saw little to no actual construction work.
That said, it was still extremely cool to walk through the plant and see these huge rockets in various phases of construction. As I've mentioned every chance I get, there's a Saturn rocket outside the window of the building where I work, so it was kinda funny how much touring the facility gave me a sense of scale of these things. The Delta IV CBC is huge, and that point was driven home time and time again, from walking the length of a nigh-finished one lying on its side, to seeing many of its also-large parts in construction, to seeing analogous parts of the also-large-but-dwarfed-by-comparison Delta II.
That said, I got unduly excited at one point when I thought I'd seen something even cooler than the stuff that was actually there. I'd never noticed previously how much the Boeing capsule design for the CEV (visible in the upper left hand corner of this page) resembles the piece of a Delta IV rocket between the bottom of the rocket body and the engine nozzle (visible on this page). When I saw that piece upside down in the factory, complete with holes that looked like a hatch and a window, I thought I was seeing a boilerplate for the next generation of spacecraft. Maybe some other time.
Daily Hatbag
I look forward to the day when this strip is obsolete. For a while it seemed like the era of DVD would make pan-and-scan a thing of the past, but not it appears not. Oh well.
Friday, 12 November 2004
This Week At NE
This week at NASAexplores, I've got an article about the ISS EarthKAM program, which allows school students to take pictures of the Earth from the Space Station, and Maggie's got one about robot ants.
Daily Hatbag
Here ya go.
Thursday, 11 November 2004
Blogpoint Opportunity
4 Blogpoints each for the authors of the most amusing captions for this picture:
In A Flash
So the flash-based iPod rumors persist, though not necessarily the part about being ready for Christmas.
Happy Veterans Day
Honoring All Who Serve
Daily Hatbag
Obviously this strip is not new.
Wednesday, 10 November 2004
Yesterday In Future History
9 November 2346, Stardate 23859.7:
The Khitomer Massacre: Romulan ships ravage the Klingon agricultural colony on Khitomer, killing 4,000 Klingons. Worf and Kahlest are the only survivors. The U.S.S. "Intrepid" (NCC-38907), commanded by Captain Drew Deighan, offers assistance. This is the first major battle between the Romulans and Klingons after the end of their alliance. Sergey Rozhenko, a non-commissioned warp field specialist aboard the "Intrepid," adopts Worf after finding the boy buried under wreckage on the planet's surface. He will be raised on the farming world Gault.
In other "history," Paul McCartney died in a car crash 38 years ago yesterday.
Editorial Note
Due to the Veteran's Day holiday tomorrow and my attendance of a conference Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, blogging for the next four days will be intermittent at best.
Hey, Wernher!
Huntsville made the front page of the Wall Street Journal today.HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- When the moon was full over Adolf Hitler's Germany, his rocket scientists would look up and dream about sending a man there. Today, some of those same scientists stand in this northern Alabama town, look skyward and think, "We did it."
Daily Hatbag
Here's ya a Hatbag for today.
To The Moon!
Looking for an unique gift for that space or history buff on your list? You can get a signed copy of Moonwalker Dave Scott's new book Two Sides Of The Moon (co-written with cosmonaut Alexei Leonov) from, yep, collectSPACE. It's a great opportunity to give (or get for yourself) a piece of history.(And this isn't a subtle plea for a gift--I've got my copy already.)
Birthday Sale
To celebrate Carl Sagan's birthday, The Planetary Society announced a launch date of 1 March for the Cosmos 1 solar sail technology demonstrator spacecraft.
Rings Soundtrack
So it turns out Saturn's rings make music.
DART Update
Space.ref has an article today about the latest delays in the DART launch, which appear to be the most significant delays to date: The article alleges that Orbital which built and was to launch the spacecraft withheld concerns about the launch vehicle.
Mining The Moon
Space.com has an article on preparations to use the Moon as a stepping stone to Mars.
Giant Killer Robots!
Soon, you'll be able to own the magnificence that is Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow on DVD. An extras-filled disc hits shelves on 1 Feb. It's even going to be available in fullscreen, if you're the sort of moron that's into that sort of thing.
Tuesday, 9 November 2004
Visit collectSPACE Now!
This blog has had a link to collectSPACE since not long after its inception, and is happy to promote collectSPACE whenever possible.So, I'd be glad to participate in collectSPACE's new Challenge: Campaign! contest to promote the site even if there weren't prizes available.
But, since there are, don't be surprised if you see the word collectSPACE on my site alot between now and December 9.
Of course, you should all go immediately and visit collectSPACE, not just to help me win a prize, but for all the exciting things you can learn at collectSPACE.
The Leonardo Code Update
Since Joe and Chris are back in the fold, and everyone else has forgotten about it, I thought I'd post a little reminder about the half-hearted ATW NaNoWriMo effort, The Leonardo Code.
Write, people!
Daily Hatbag
Here's ya a Hatbag for today.And, when I posted yesterday's GWTW strip, I'd forgotten that it was a nice little tie in for the very nice DVD special edition of Gone With The Wind that comes out today.
Today In History
On this date in 1967, the race to reach the Moon by the end of the decade took a huge step forward with the launch of the unmanned Apollo 4 mission, the first flight of the Saturn V.Rather than an incremental step-by-step flight test program favored by rocket designer Wernher von Braun, Manned Spaceflight head George Mueller ordered an all-up test; with the entire Saturn V stack to be tested at once.
If it worked, it would cut the lengthy testing process for the immensely powerful launch vehicle down to a single launch. If it failed, however, it would have been disastrous. The entire Apollo timeline, NASA's ability to meet Kennedy's mandate, would depend on the success of a single launch.
And, of course, the Saturn did its job.
Sail Away
In yet another story about futuristic space propulsion likely to freak out Tutor (er... Mr. Tutor), ABC News talks about various versions of sail-based spacecraft, including Cosmos 1, expected to launch in January.
Can You Hear Me Now?
OK, yet another reason why the agency I work for is cooler than where you work:Plenty of companies are involved in setting up cell phone service. And putting together a cell phone coverage map is hardly an "as only NASA can" task.
But there probably aren't many other organizations that have requesitioned a cell phone service coverage map of Mars.
Why? 'Cause it's NASA, fool!
Um... also because it could help provide a better communications network for rovers on the surface.
Mad Cat
Florida Today has an article about the Vomit Comet cat video that has recently been getting play on the internet now that the KC-135 has been retired. The article tells the story behind the 19-year-old clip, but also features links to the video.
Science!
Per SpaceRef:The first medical research paper submitted from the International Space Station (ISS) was published online Monday by the journal Radiology.
Not Your Father's Soyuz
The updated-for-a-new-millenium Soyuz 2 rocket did launch successfully yesterday.NASA DART demonstrator, which was scheduled for launch today, on the other hand, has been delayed again.
Monday, 8 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
Speaking of this, whatever happened to that planned Pat Conroy GWTW sequel?
DART Update
DART may launch tomorrow.
Worlds Apart
The picture at right is of a piece of metal from the World Trade Center that is now on Mars, mounted to the rovers as a tribute to those who lost their lives.
With The Times
From The Huntsville Times:With President Bush reclaiming the White House, expect a renewed push by NASA to complete a scaled-down International Space Station, retire the space shuttle and develop plans for a return to the moon, NASA experts say. ...
"Whatever form these programs take, making them last throughout multiple budget cycles and across several elections is the way to survive. ... NASA has a better chance of getting a plan (moving) that will get this country out of low Earth orbit now," McCurdy said.
The Next Leap
Bigelow Aerospace has announced the rules for the $50 million America's Space Prize, and--wow. They make the X Prize competition look downright unambitious by comparison.The first long pole in the tent: The prize has to be won by 10 Jan. 2010, which is not as far into the future as it used to be. Developing an orbital spacecraft in about 5 years is a pretty substantial challenge. I'm not going to say it can't be done, but it's definitely going to be a reach.
The second long pole: While, as with the X Prize, passenger-equivalents are allowed for the five seats on the first flight, the second flight (within 60 days of the first) must carry actual people. Couple this with the fact (another long pole) that contestants must be based in the U.S., and you encounter a situation in which it could actually be illegal to win the prize; currently, there are no regulations allowing commercial spacecrafts to carry passengers--one of the major reasons SpaceShipOne's X2 flight was pilot-only. Unless the laws are changed, it'd be tough to actually meet the Space Prize requirements.
Now, all that said, if it works--again, wow. If the $50 million is successful in inspiring someone to win it, it'll speed up the development of the private space tourism industry by a huge amount.
But I'm not getting my hopes up.
Next Generation
Russia was supposed to have launched the next-generation Soyuz-2 rocket today, but I can't confirm yet whether it happened.
Bloom Off Low-Carb Rose
A low-carb post for those few of my readers that care, on the fall of the low-carb diet industry.
(more)
Incredible Movie-Going Experience
A few notes from watching The Incredibles this weekend:- That was a good movie. I liked it.
- I liked Mr. Incredible's Ion-esque original costume much better than the red one he wears for most of the movie.
- Does anybody know where this movie falls in the great Disney/Pixar rift? It's one of the better superhero movies ever, and as such, raises the question of whether it should become a franchise. If Pixar retains the sequel rights, I could see them producing a decent sequel, though I would also completely respect the decision to keep it as a stand-alone story.
On the other hand, if Disney and Pixar split, and Disney retains the sequel rights, then I fear this recent "crappy-sequels-for-everything!" mentality Disney's developed could lead to The Incredibles being franchised in the worst possible way.
- As I mentioned Saturday, when we saw the movie, we didn't get to see the SW:ROTS trailer. I sat through all the previews, hoping each one was going to be the one I was there to see, even holding out hope once the Pixar short started that maybe they would show the trailer between the short and the feature.
Only after the movie was I informed that the trailer was only showing before half of the Incredibles prints at the theater. So we got a manager to let us into the next showing of The Incredibles, only to sit there for several minutes before he came back in and told us that the room we were in then was the other one that didn't have the trailer, and it was going to be much later before the two that did have the trailer showed again.
So, no big-screen Star-Wars-trailer watching for Dave. Alas.
Learning To Share
I thought about posting the new Wired CD in the Listening sidebar box, but a) I didn't really have a good way of linking to it there, and b) I haven't actually listened to it yet.But, to help promote it, and to get into the spirit of things, I thought I'd give my readers a sample of the CD by posting the Beastie Boy's track "Now Get Busy" from the disc.
The point of the CD is its unique licensing arrangement, under which music sharing is not only allowed, it's encouraged.
If you want the track, download it. But do so quickly--if it turns out to be too much of a bandwidth hog, I'll take it back down.
I did, though, by the way, update all three of the Watching-Reading-Listening boxes today at the same time for the first time in quite a while.
Welcome Back
ATW would like to welcome Chris and Christina Tutor back to the States. Hope y'all had a good trip!
Sunday, 7 November 2004
Happy Birthday, Nicole!
Sorry for the lack of blogging today. I had some stuff I'd planned to post, but instead have spent the whole day trying to make today a great birthday for my wonderful, wonderful, wonderful wife, Nicole!
Tell Nicole happy birthday, everybody!
wdh
Saturday, 6 November 2004
Revenge Of The Trailer
So I watched the trailer for Episode III last night (though not on the big screen, but don't get me started on that), and that movie has absolutely zero right not to be good, and, yet, I'm also confident that Lucas definitely has it in him to make it crap.
Personally, I'd be about as happy if Lucas would just start making new Star Wars trailers a couple of times a year, without any actual movies to take away from them. That way, we could enjoy a few minutes of awesome new Star Wars, and imagine the incredible Star Wars movies they would be for, without the disappointment that comes from actually watching a new Star Wars film.
Friday, 5 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
Hatbag was probably rare in being a pro-Mac strip in which the characters all use Windows.BTW, I accidentally overwrote yesterday's strip over the one from the day before, so it didn't look like I'd posted a Daily Hatbag yesterday. Sorry. I know everyone was really concerned about it ;)
New Opportunity
Per Space.com:As NASA's Mars rovers keep rolling past all expectations of their useful lives, scientists have a happy mystery: For some reason one of the vehicles has actually gained power recently.
Also, on a slightly related note, NASA Watch's Keith Cowing thinks he's found a Martian fossil. Putting him firmly in Enterprise Mission territory. Not that either is necessarily wrong, of course.
Golden Apple
The latest issue of Consumer Reports (you'll know it by the G5 iMac on the front cover) has an article about the "59,940 reasons to reconsider Macs."Meanwhile, Linux Insider has a piece pointing out that "ot only are Macs cheaper than PCs once you upgrade the PCs to rough comparability, but the PC line is narrower than Apple's."
Collected Grounds
If you didn't buy the miniseries when it came out, pick up the Common Grounds trade paperback when it comes out Wednesday.You know I liked it if I'm still pimping Troy Hickman even though he never sent me the comic he promised me.
Revenge Of The Soong
So today should be a good day for geeks: cool new Star Wars and Star Trek!
Music Tidbit
Nicole and I went last night to see again Theresa Andersson, whom I wrote about seeing about a month ago in Oxford. Once again, good stuff. (Though, for those that were at the Oxford show with me, this time, unfortunately, Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" was not all she covered. Oh well.)Theresa was opening for a guy I hadn't heard of (shockingly enough), the unusually named Angie Aparo, who has a couple of sample tunes on his Web site. Because Nicole had to be at work early this morning, we didn't get to stay as long as I would have liked, but the stuff we did get to hear was pretty enjoyable. So check him out.
Thursday, 4 November 2004
Another Dave Space Rant
I posted this on the forums at the excellent, excellent collectSPACE site, but thought I'd share it here as well, about what the election means for space exploration and for the space community. (more)
One Giant Leap?
Per Florida Today:
President Bush's re-election will jump-start his plan to send astronauts back to the moon, transforming a new vision for space exploration into serious marching orders, analysts said Wednesday.
"It's certainly in place," said Howard McCurdy, ... the author of several books on the history and evolution of NASA.
"And anything in this city that is in place for four years generally sinks a deep enough foundation that nobody can pull it out."
Picture Of The Day
A rare image shows the shadows of the Jovian moons on the surface of Jupiter. Io can be seen as a white dot near the center of the planet, and its shadow a little to its left. Up and right from Io is Ganymede, visible as a larger blue dot, and its shadow can be seen on the very left edge of Jupiter. The shadow in the upper right is that of Callisto, though the moon can't be seen in the image. Courtesy Space.com
Lost Dog
Only days after yet another report confirmed that the biggest problem with the failed European Beagle-2 Mars lander was its entire fundamental "Mars on the cheap" concept, Colin Pillinger has announced that he wants to try it again, this time sending two more Beagle-type landers to Mars in 2009. He plans to make a presentation to try and convince ESA to give him a ride to drop more litter on Mars, though he has also mentioned that NASA, which he has criticized over the years for its wasteful "do the job right" philosophy of Mars landers, might also be a potential chauffer for his landers.
Who'll Watch The Watchmen?
OK, here's about some of the most chilling words you could read about a comic book movie adaptation:Paramount just couldn’t wait, though. They want to have WATCHMEN in a theater by the summer of ’06, no matter what.
Watchmen is simply not a project that you can do a "good enough" job on. It's way too complicated a project, and if you don't do it completely right, it's going to be awful. For that matter, it's the sort of project that you could pour tons of time, and money, and effort, and love into, and still have it turn out crap. It's not the sort of thing you say you're going to have on screens for Summer 2006 "no matter what."
Hrm.
This Week At NE
This week at NASAexplores, I've got an article explaining NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and Maggie has one about the Space Operations Mission Directorate.
Wednesday, 3 November 2004
At Last
It's over.
Regular Richie Feature
Search strings that have brought people to Hatbag.net so far in November:- Atkins Logo
- FIGHT THE BEAR
- PEGGY WHITSON cosmonaut secret
- PEGGY WHITSON dirt
- PEGGY WHITSON secret rumor (I have no idea what this is about, but someone was persistent)
- Spoilsport pics gravity marvel
- Stricly Ballroom Study Guide
- adobe fonts paramount studios
- bill cosby commercial with jello
- kroger food store weekly aid in Clarksdale Mississippi
- lawsuit and club kryptonite and myrtle
- space picthers
- webb younce
- worlds record brown bear hoax
Daily Hatbag
And what could possibly be better than today's daily dose of 10th anniversary Hatbag?Another bonus helping of 10th anniversary Pumpkin Shirt, of course!
Unfortunately, we don't have one. So you'll have to make do with just the Hatbag. Sorry.
Yo, Joe!
Apparently, it's just that time of year. One year ago today, I had a post about the fact that Joe had dropped off the face of the Earth, and now, a year later, he's disappeared again.
Where are you, Joe?
Today In History
Forty-seven years ago today, the first living creature in space, space-dog Laika, was launched to a horrible, horrible space death by the Soviet Union aboard Sputnik 2.
Space Races
Space Politics has updates on election outcomes that could affect space policy.
Launch Dates Update
I've updated the Aerospace Events box in the left sidebar with information from the latest ISS Flight Program schedule. All dates are planning dates only, though, so don't book any travel plans around them.
Beam Me Up!
So on the cool side, the Air Force is studying the possibility of teleportation, but on the down side, the study finds that the best potential route for accomplishing teleportation is "psychic: the conveyance of persons or inanimate objects by psychic means."The study evaluated quantum entanglement, which I personally would say is the most promising, but found it to have less potential than psychic teleportation. Sure.
People's Space Agency
Per SpaceDaily:China can expect to see the first commercial space flights in 20 years, the head of the country's space program was quoted as saying by state media Wednesday.
Chinese people "are expected to realize their dream of space travel in 20 years," Yuan Jiajun, chief commander of the the program and president of the China Academy of Space Technology, said Tuesday at a symposium.
Ep. VI, Rev. 3
DVDAnswers.com continues its series on the changes in the Star Wars DVDs with this list of the alterations in Return Of The Jedi.
Mea Culpa
So it appears I may have been wrong. Yesterday I kind of mocked blogs like Spatula Forum and BeaucoupKevin with their giant VOTE posts yesterday, and, to a lesser extent, those like Occupation: Girl with the more lengthy diatribes urging people to go vote, (I should note, all of these are blogs that, politics aside, are daily reading for me--great stuff, all) arguing that there shouldn't be anyone who was deciding to go vote based on reading a blog on Election Day.That said, if things turn out the way they're looking now, people like these may have made all the difference in the world. The dedicated late turnout in southern Ohio, which may well have been people convinced during the day of the importance of showing up at the polls, may well have turned the whole thing.
So to the above bloggers, and those like them, I say thanks--You may really have played an important role in the election.
Tuesday, 2 November 2004
Venus, By Jove!
If you're the sort of person willing to get up early for this sort of stuff, Venus and Jupiter will appear extremely close together before sunrise Thursday.
Daily Hatbag
Today's anniversary Hatbag is kinda appropriate considering the discussion yesterday about today's election paving the way for our robot masters.
Important Announcement
Doing my reading today, I've come across several blogs urging their readers to go vote today, including a couple where the entire entry for today is basically just the word "VOTE" in huge freakin' letters.
Tell you what--Do yourself, and your nation, a favor. If you weren't planning today to go vote until you read a blog that said you should, then, please, just stay home. 'K? Thanks!
But, if you do, I encourage you to consider this.
Urgh
Electoral Vote Predictor is showing Kerry 262, Bush 261 right now; with 15 exactly tied. Gonna be a long day.
Today In History
Today marks four years of continuous human presence aboard the International Space Station, after the Expedition One crew arrived at ISS.
The Newt York Times
The Newton merited a story in the Sunday New York Times this past weekend, with an entire brief overview of the Newton community.One of the members of the Newtontalk mailing list I subscribe to was actually contacted by The NYT and asked to ship his Newton to them for photos to go with the story (though there was speculation that, since such photos are readily available, there may have been some interested in a little first-hand Newt action as well). The photos, unfortunately, do not appear with this online version.
Monday, 1 November 2004
The Leonardo Code
Well, November is here, and we never did work out the ultracool idea we had under development for the National Novel Writing Month thing, which, let me mention, would have been ultracool.
Still, it seemed a shame to do nothing.
So, I thought we'd go back to Plan B. I'll start off the story, and then anyone who wants can add the next section, and we'll just keep going that way.
I don't know if we'll be able to meet the length requirement without any sort of formal plan, but we can try. I'm also not expecting it to be what you might call good, I just hope it can be fun.
By way of incentive, each section you write over 300 words is worth 3 Blogpoints. If you were the last one to post you can't follow up your own section unless 24 hours have passed. Keep it PG-13 at most. Rather than interupting the story, if you have any questions or comments, post them in free blog.
I'll moderate any conflicts in story. Any and all readers are encouraged to join in, even if you've never even been to my blog before.
ADDENDUM: To avoid a situation where two or more people are writing the next section simultaneously and then post conflicting sections, when you are about to write a section, post a comment saying that you're beginning to write, so everyone will know not to write until you're done. I'll delete those posts out as we go along. (more)
Daily Hatbag
Here's your first 10th Anniversary Hatbag for November.
Thanks!
The Hatbag.net traffic figures for October exceeded the phenomenal numbers posted in September (even factoring out the longer month), which I didn't even begin to expect could happen.
Thanks, all.
Daily traffic hit a new high of 7,396 hits in one day (though daily unique IPs peaked at 380, lower than last month).
Another Political Post--Sigh
Well, tomorrow will mark the end of an era, though which era, it's too early to say.On the one hand, The Weekly Reader poll for grades 4-12 has accurately predicted the result of every presidential election since it began.
And, of course, there's the Redskins' game, which as accurately predicted every election since 1933.
The Weekly Reader kids say Bush.
The Redskins say Kerry.
One of 'ems going down.
Though not as accurate, the Scholastic News poll has gotten every election right since 1940 except the ultra-tight 1948 ("Dewey Defeats Truman") and 1960 races. This year, Bush won the Scholastic Kids' poll.
In Kerry's favor, my brother Jonathan just pointed out to me that no president has been relected after winning the election without the popular vote. (Interestingly, the precedent was set by two other political scions--presidential son John Quincy Adams and presidential grandson Benjamin Harrison; making his heritage a second strike against Bush. [Plus, he notes, their elders also only served one term, like GHWB.])
Just Thinking About...
Have I mentioned lately how glad I will be when this whole election thing is over?
The Future Of Shuttle
Space.com has a good article bringing together the bits and pieces of rumor and speculation floating around about the future of Shuttle.Of course, we all know that the Shuttle is supposed to stop flying in 2010, after completing the Space Station.
Unless, of course, it doesn't:
Few expect NASA to be ready to retire the shuttle any earlier than 2012 given the vagaries of space flight and the shuttle fleet’s historical flight record. ...
“I haven’t spoken with anybody who believes the space shuttle program will wind down in 2010,” Dan Murphy, president and chief executive officer of (ATK Thiokol), told analysts. “NASA is adhering to the program as it is. All outside experts ... believe the existing program has to fly through 2014.”
Of course, in addition to the possibility that the Shuttle could be flying long after 2010, there's also been talk recently that it could make fewer flights. There's been finger-pointing from both sides of the election that the other side would retire the Shuttle much sooner, and a study has been conducted about the feasability of doing so. (It's important here to note that NASA conducts studies about everything, whether they have any intention of doing it or not.)
The Planetary Society published a report in July that advocates limiting the space shuttle to launching the remaining U.S. elements -- a configuration known as U.S. Core Complete -- and relying on other launchers to get NASA’s European and Japanese partners’ modules into place. Such an approach, the report says, could permit NASA to retire the shuttle after flying as few as six to eight missions.
Actually, that's the one shortcoming of this article, is it doesn't cover the talk of a shorter mission list thoroughly enough--though I personally believe it would be easy to take that discussion too seriously. Right now, it's hard to imagine cutting the schedule from almost 30 missions to about 10. But, there's still a long time left to go, and things could change drastically tomorrow, much less 6 years down the road.
Weightless No More
NASA's "Weightless Wonder" KC-135 made its final flight Friday. The plane, affectionately known by many as the Vomit Comet, will be replaced next year by a C-9 aircraft.Yaniac proudly told those who attended a post-flight briefing that over the years, the plane's crew had cleaned up at least 285 gallons of vomit.
Picture Of The Day
The above image of Spirit's sundial is the 50,000th image sent back from Mars by the two MER rovers. Courtesy NASA.
Congratulations!
Since the Blogpoint race ended up so close for the month of October ended up being so close, I've decided to award the prize to the two top scorers, Lain and Chris. In addition to the official NASA Expedition 8 cards I promised, I'm also throwing in an Exp. 8 mission sticker. Next month's prize will likely be a similar Expedition 9 set, and I'll probably award it to the top two scorers again for November.Your prizes will be in the mail just as soon as I get off my lazy butt and put them in envelopes.
To start things off for November, 5 Blogpoints each to the people who give me the most amusing caption for this photo.
RTF Update
This blog reported this news back when it was still in planning, but an NET May 12 launch date has been officially set for STS-114, with the launch window extending until June 3. While, of course, the Shuttle won't fly then if it's not ready, it's sounding like everything could well be go for that window.
Tuesday, 30 November 2004
Bold New Blog
(Read Entry)
CD Swap
(Read Entry)
Thanks To All Involved
(Read Entry)
Apropos Of Nothing...
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Whoops
(Read Entry)
Picture Of The Day
(Read Entry)
G5 No. 1
(Read Entry)
Fantasy Film League
(Read Entry)
Cool Movie News
(Read Entry)Monday, 29 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Go/No Go
(Read Entry)
Lunar LEGO Lander
(Read Entry)
Today In History
Enos becomes first chimp in orbit. (Read Entry)
The Da Vinci Craft
(Read Entry)
Soyuz Countdown
(Read Entry)
Going For A Soyuz Spin
(Read Entry)
Watching SNG
(Read Entry)
Get MUGged
(Read Entry)Sunday, 28 November 2004
Scrambled Egg
(Read Entry)
A Wolfe In White Clothing
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Saturday, 27 November 2004
Spectre Of The Past
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Robot War: Round 1, Fight 10
(Read Entry)Friday, 26 November 2004
To The Moon And Back
(Read Entry)
Astros Online
(Read Entry)
Space Genesis
(Read Entry)
Need A Gift For Dave?
(Read Entry)
That's How Klingons Got Their Bumps
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Thursday, 25 November 2004
Meteorite Photo
(Read Entry)
Happy Thanksgiving!
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 24 November 2004
Editorial Note
(Read Entry)
Blogpoint Opportunity
(Read Entry)
Monkey Bard
Donate cycles to the Monkey Shakespeare Simulator. (Read Entry)
Going Back To Alpha
(Read Entry)
Secrets Of His Success
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 23 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Your Wired Will Go On
(Read Entry)
After The Prize
(Read Entry)
That's No Moon!
(Read Entry)
Blogpoint Opportunity
(Read Entry)
Cooking With Shatner
(Read Entry)
Halo For Mac
(Read Entry)Monday, 22 November 2004
Lucky Cow
(Read Entry)
Rebels Without A Clue
(Read Entry)
Leonardo Code Update
(Read Entry)
Blogpoint Opportunity
(Read Entry)
New ATW Record
(Read Entry)
Oh, Superman
(Read Entry)
Apollo 1 Fire
(Read Entry)
Money For The Moon!
(Read Entry)
Various And Sundry
(Read Entry)
Two New Crew
(Read Entry)
Bummer
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Sunday, 21 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Saturday, 20 November 2004
Today In History
(Read Entry)
Swiftly Into Space
(Read Entry)
Robots Needed!
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Friday, 19 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Man On The Moon
(Read Entry)
Tunes For Titan
(Read Entry)
Woz Not Was
(Read Entry)Thursday, 18 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
A Year In Space
(Read Entry)
Budget Battle Nears Conclusion
(Read Entry)
Second Chance Leonids
(Read Entry)
This Week At NE
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 17 November 2004
Regular Richie Feature
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Weather Report
(Read Entry)
The Source
(Read Entry)
Hyper Active
(Read Entry)
More Scrubs
(Read Entry)
Guess Who's Back!
(Read Entry)
The iPod War
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 16 November 2004
Fact Or Fiction
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Big Brother Bill
(Read Entry)
Lunar IMAX
(Read Entry)
Today In History
(Read Entry)
Space Station Day
(Read Entry)
X-43A Update
(Read Entry)
And One More Thing...
(Read Entry)Monday, 15 November 2004
collectSPACE
(Read Entry)
The Leonardo Code Update
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Macrovision
(Read Entry)
Today In History
(Read Entry)
Huntsville Rebuts
(Read Entry)
Foale For The Future
(Read Entry)
Getting There Is Half The Fun
(Read Entry)
Modest Leonids
(Read Entry)
Hyper-Time
(Read Entry)
O-Town
(Read Entry)
What A Wonderful World
(Read Entry)Sunday, 14 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Another Football Post
(Read Entry)Saturday, 13 November 2004
The King In Huntsville
B.B. King will be coming here. (Read Entry)
Today In History
(Read Entry)
Rocket Plant
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Friday, 12 November 2004
This Week At NE
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Thursday, 11 November 2004
Blogpoint Opportunity
(Read Entry)
In A Flash
(Read Entry)
Happy Veterans Day
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 10 November 2004
Yesterday In Future History
(Read Entry)
Editorial Note
(Read Entry)
Hey, Wernher!
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
To The Moon!
(Read Entry)
Birthday Sale
(Read Entry)
Rings Soundtrack
(Read Entry)
DART Update
(Read Entry)
Mining The Moon
(Read Entry)
Giant Killer Robots!
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 9 November 2004
Visit collectSPACE Now!
(Read Entry)
The Leonardo Code Update
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Today In History
(Read Entry)
Sail Away
(Read Entry)
Can You Hear Me Now?
(Read Entry)
Mad Cat
(Read Entry)
Science!
(Read Entry)
Not Your Father's Soyuz
(Read Entry)Monday, 8 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
DART Update
(Read Entry)
Worlds Apart
(Read Entry)
With The Times
(Read Entry)
The Next Leap
(Read Entry)
Next Generation
(Read Entry)
Bloom Off Low-Carb Rose
(Read Entry)
Incredible Movie-Going Experience
(Read Entry)
Learning To Share
(Read Entry)
Welcome Back
(Read Entry)Sunday, 7 November 2004
Happy Birthday, Nicole!
(Read Entry)Saturday, 6 November 2004
Revenge Of The Trailer
(Read Entry)Friday, 5 November 2004
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
New Opportunity
(Read Entry)
Golden Apple
(Read Entry)
Collected Grounds
(Read Entry)
Revenge Of The Soong
(Read Entry)
Music Tidbit
(Read Entry)Thursday, 4 November 2004
Another Dave Space Rant
(Read Entry)
One Giant Leap?
(Read Entry)
Picture Of The Day
(Read Entry)
Lost Dog
(Read Entry)
Who'll Watch The Watchmen?
(Read Entry)
This Week At NE
(Read Entry)Wednesday, 3 November 2004
At Last
(Read Entry)
Regular Richie Feature
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Yo, Joe!
(Read Entry)
Today In History
(Read Entry)
Space Races
(Read Entry)
Launch Dates Update
(Read Entry)
Beam Me Up!
(Read Entry)
People's Space Agency
(Read Entry)
Ep. VI, Rev. 3
(Read Entry)
Mea Culpa
(Read Entry)Tuesday, 2 November 2004
Venus, By Jove!
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Important Announcement
(Read Entry)
Urgh
(Read Entry)
Today In History
(Read Entry)
The Newt York Times
(Read Entry)Monday, 1 November 2004
The Leonardo Code
(Read Entry)
Daily Hatbag
(Read Entry)
Thanks!
(Read Entry)
Another Political Post--Sigh
(Read Entry)
Just Thinking About...
(Read Entry)
The Future Of Shuttle
(Read Entry)
Weightless No More
(Read Entry)
Picture Of The Day
(Read Entry)
Congratulations!
(Read Entry)