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Thursday, 30 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

Hippie New Year everybody!

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The Next Little Thing

Remember when the under-$1,000 Mac was the stuff of dreams and legends, back before the bubble iMac and the eMac?
Well, those days may be long past, according to a story on Think Secret with a cool headline: EXCLUSIVE: Apple to drop sub-$500 Mac bomb at Expo
With iPod-savvy Windows users clearly in its sights, Apple is expected to announce a bare bones, G4-based iMac without a display at Macworld Expo on January 11 that will retail for $499, highly reliable sources have confirmed to Think Secret.
The new Mac, code-named Q88, will be part of the iMac family and is expected to sport a PowerPC G4 processor at a speed around 1.25GHz. The new Mac is said to be incredibly small and will be housed in a flat enclosure with a height similar to the 1.73 inches of Apple's Xserve. Its size benefits will include the ability to stand the Mac on its side or put it below a display or monitor.
In other words, PC-users can by a Mac for just a little more than they paid for their iPod.

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Speeding The Future

The Huntsville Times today has an article interviewing Skylab and Shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott about the retirement of Shuttle and creation of CEV.
In essence, Garriott argues that the schedule of remaining Shuttle flights should be stripped to 10 to 15, and the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle accelerated to reduce or eliminate a gap between the two vehicles.

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Irregular Richie Feature

Just noticed in the referral information for the past day or so in the left sidebar that on Yahoo search, ATW is currently:

• The Number 13 result for transformer from a loser to a winner
  
• The Number 3 result for "Chris Tutor"
  
• The Number 4 result for sexy shargin photo

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Return Of The Jedi, Again

IESB has more on the rumors that Kevin Smith and Mark Hamill will be involved in the Star Wars television show.

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Improbable Drive

The glove's been thrown down for former DM'er Trek geekdom, with Amy Vincent becoming a published Trek author with a story in the latest Strange New Worlds compilations--to her further credit, a Deep Space Nine Story; and to her further further credit, a Deep Space Nine story titled "Gumbo."

Now, I know what you're thinking--"That's great, but I wish I didn't have to wait until that book is published to read some Amy Vincent Trek-writing. I wish I could read some now! For free!"
Well, gentle ATW reader, your wish is granted!

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

All right, only today and tomorrow remain to sign up for the Fantasy Film League January 2005 season and receive 25 Blogpoints! Sign up today! So far, Lain, Jonathan and I have each submitted films in the "You Must Fight The Bear" little league!
It's free, it's easy, it's fun! Sign up now!

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Wednesday, 29 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

Here's ya a little New Year's themed Hatbag.

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ROCKVISS Update

A European collectSPACE forum member was kind enough to direct me to an article about the ROCKVISS robot I posted about a couple of days ago. If I'm reading the article correctly, ROCKVISS won't actually be doing maintenance work, but is instead a roughly 20-inch-long robot arm technology demonstrator which will be tested outside the ISS to verify its ability to function in space.

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Virgin Territory

Wired's cover story this month is about Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic. I just got my copy in the last couple of days and haven't read the article yet (I'm waiting to read it in the magazine), so I don't have any comments.

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RTF Update

An external tank that is "the safest, most dependable tank NASA has ever produced" will leave the Michoud Assembly Facility Friday to travel via barge to Kennedy Space Center for stacking in preparation for Return To Flight.

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Best And Worst

So if, as this blog reported recently, The Birmingham News is Alabama's leading source for Trek news, then The Decatur Daily is the anti-News, at least based on this best and worst of 2004 column written by someone who is apparently not only a nerd, but a nerd with very limited scope. I could name, I'm sure, better and worse nerdier stuff than this guy.
In fact, I will: (more)

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Tuesday, 28 December 2004

Sorry

There's just not a whole lot going on today in the world of blog fodder. My news sites are kinda slow, and a lot of my other reading material sites are relaxed for the holiday season (As opposed to ATW, which actually blogged on Christmas Day for you folks, not that anybody read it).

So, um... I got nothing. I'll gladly take questions or suggestions from the audience, though.

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ATW Year-In-Review: May

Highlights from ATW in 2004:

• May 6: Introducing Group 19--NASA introduced the newest class of astronauts, including three educator astronauts.
  
  
• May 10: Get Your Free ... Shrimp!--America was treated to free giant shrimp, thanks to Long John Silver's and the Mars rovers.
  
  
• May 12: La Verdad Esta Hacia Fuera Alli--ATW takes a turn for the musical with its hit, "Mexican UFO."
  
  
• May 13: Questions And Answers--ATW totally schools Mississippi astronaut Don Peterson, and then, later in the day, makes an audio post.
  
  
• May 14: Today In History--ATW makes the first in a series of really long posts marking major Skylab history anniversaries.
  
  
• May 17: Whoops
  

All this and more in the ATW May 2004 archive.

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No Impact

Well, it turns out that Earth won't be celebrating the 59th anniversary of the "Houston, we've had a problem here" Apollo 13 oxygen tank explosion by getting blown up real good. Astronomers have determined that asteroid 2004 MN4 won't hit Earth on April 13, 2029.

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Monday, 27 December 2004

ATW Year-In-Review: April

Highlights from ATW in 2004:

• April 1: On A Sadder Note...--ATW marked the 10th anniversary of the end of Preview in The Daily Mississippian. Also, Apple turned 28.
  
  
• April 8: X Prize Update--On its second powered flight, SpaceShipOne reached Mach 2.
  
  
• April 9: Today In History--Astronaut Day!
  
  
• April 16: Editor's Note--No blogging, other than to say there was no blogging.
  
  
• April 19: iBook 'Em--I ordered my iBook, which I like very much.
  
  
• April 21: Hoopy Froods Assemble!--ATW learned that filming had begun on the Hitchhiker's Guide movie.
  
  
• April 28: Happy Birthday, iTMS --Apple began offering free songs on iTMS.

All this and more in the ATW April 2004 archive.

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Christmas Nap

So where do you go for your recipe-related blogging? Not ATW, that's for sure, since this blog can't prepare meals that don't include "peel lid back from frozen entree" in the instructions.
A holiday snack tips are just some of what you'll find, though, in the latest updates to Joe's blog.

I really need some sort of Joe-related artwork to include in posts about him.

Also, Jordan took advantage of my holiday absence to do some space blogging of his own. Will asteroids destroy the Earth? I'm not going to tell you, you'll just have to go to Right Space to find out.

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Blogpoint Opportunity

5 Blogpoints each to the authors of the most amusing captions for this picture.

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

Only a small handful of days are left to join the Fantasy Film League January 2005 season and receive 25 Blogpoints! Sign up today! So far, Lain, Jonathan and I have each submitted films in the "You Must Fight The Bear" little league!
It's free, it's easy, it's fun! Sign up now!

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Rockviss?

So, in reading about the Progress that docked with ISS Saturday, I came across a story that made passing reference to the fact that it contained the German "Rockviss" robot. Further research revealed that this is a robot that will be mounted to the Station's exterior and will be able to perform maintenance tasks of the sort that would normally be done by astronauts on EVA. From what I've read, it's apparently similar in intent to the Canadian "Dextre" manipulator that will be added to the Station's Canadarm2 robot arm, or NASA's less technologically mature Robonaut. Odd that this is the first time I've heard of it. Also odd that, to the best of my recollection, it hasn't been brought up during the Hubble robotic servicing discussions, since it's actually flight-ready hardware. Fascinating.

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Christmas In Space

The international spaceflight community was able to breathe a collective sigh of relief Christmas Day with the successful docking of the Progress M-51 spacecraft to the International Space Station, delivering much-needed food and defusing the chance of a shortage causing the Station to be decrewed. The spacecraft carried twice as much food as well be needed to last until the next Progress arrives in March.

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Chat With Troy

Comic Book Resources set up an area for Q&A with "Common Grounds" creator Troy Hickman that ended up being a pretty decent "big picture" discussion about superpowers, heroes and human nature. For those interested in comics, it's good reading, even if, for whatever reason, you've decided to miss out on one of the best books of the new millenium and not read Common Grounds.

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Five Planets

All five of the visible-eye planets can be seen at the same time this week during the morning; Saturn's in the west, the rest of in the east.

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ATW Tem-Plate

I mentioned it earlier in Lain's Christmas poll, but this is the plate that Lain gave me for Christmas. Pretty cool, huh?

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New Element

One of the goals of this blog is to provide its readers with practical information they can really use. For example, I know Lain has been wondering when they would release an Ultimate Edition of The Fifth Element on DVD. The answer is January 11, after which any problems Lain has going to sleep at night can be easily solved.

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Saturday, 25 December 2004

Season's Greetings!

Merry Christmas

to you and yours.
Hope you all have a very happy holiday!

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Thanks!

I just wanted to extend a huge thanks to the ATW community (and drop-in visitors), who helped my ATW entry win second place in the collectSPACE challenge.
(I love the screenshot Robert's posted there of this site.)

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Updates

In case you haven't had time to keep up with the latest space goings-on, the Russian Progress supply vehicle launched successfully Thursday and is expected to rendezvous with ISS today; and the Huygens probe successfully separated from Cassini, and is on its way to a Jan. 14 encounter with Titan.

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Friday, 24 December 2004

Today In History

Photo courtesy NASA.

On this date, 36 years ago, the Apollo 8 crew became the first human beings to orbit another world.
While there, they sent back Christmas greetings from space, which this blog would like to echo.

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ATW Year-In-Review: March

Highlights from ATW in 2004:

• March 5: Updating--YMFTB is no more. ATW begins.
  
  
• March 11: Space Dave--I got to talk to the International Space Station.
  
  
• March 22: Come On, Eileen--Eileen Collins was the dinner date of choice of the ATW community, at least of the choices available in that particular poll.
  
  
• March 25: Editor's Note--Light blogging while I attended the Atlanta meeting of the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond.

Sedna and water on Mars were also recurring topics in the ATW March archive.

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Editorial Notes

A few changes:

• In order to make it easier to see when one of the new ATWABs has posted something, or when I've updated one of the more hard-to-see areas like Cool Links or Listening, I've added a guide to New Additions to the sidebar near the top of the left-hand sidebar. Hopefully, this convenient box will make it easier to keep up with stuff going on further down the page.
  
  
• I've changed the entry pages so that below the text of the post on the comment page, it has a link to previous posts in that category. This will make it much easier, for example, to go from Lain's current post to his previous one (um, when there's more than one, natch), or to browse back through old playlists to try to win unclaimed Blogpoints. At the moment, the links only appear on new posts, but I'll add them to older ones as soon as possible.
  
  
• Links now open in new windows. I'm not deadset on this, but I thought it might make it easier to follow ATW links without having to backtrack, or to leave a story open to come back to later.

Feedback on any of these changes is welcome.

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The Sleeper Has Awakened!

After nearly two months, there's new Joe-blogging at Taking A Nap! Go check it out! Now!

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Thursday, 23 December 2004

ATW Year-In-Review: February

Highlights from ATW in 2004:

• February 1: Hail Columbia--YMFTB marked the anniversary of the loss of Columbia.
  
  
• February 2: WWGD?--For the first time in three months, there was new posting on What Would Gilligan Do, including the coolest line in blogging history: "THERE WERE MONKEYS IN THE CASES!!! Woohoo!!!"
  
  
• February 5: Davebloggers, Assemble!--During my absence, Lain used YMFTB to announce the launch of his new blog.
  
  
• February 10: Thanks, Jar Jar!--Lucasfilm announces the original Star Wars trilogy will be released on DVD in September.
  
  
• February 19: One Year Ago Today--YMTFB turned one.
  
  
• February 20: Sending E-Mail Stop--Joe received "three bonus Dixie points!" whatever that means.
  
  
• February 27: New Poll --Given a choice of which Star Trek captain they would want to serve under at a NASA Moon base, 38 percent of YMFTB readers chose Picard. (Kirk and Sisko tied for second.)

All this and more in the February archives.

Used tags: blog, history, monkeys, poll, star_wars

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Daily Hatbag

Since I don't know how much I'll be posting tomorrow, here's an old Christmas Hatbag for your enjoyment.

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GL: Redux

Since neither Nik nor Kevin has posted about this, it falls to me. Apologies to the non-comics folks in the audience. (And mild spoiler notice to the comics folks.)
GL: Rebirth is an excellent companion piece to Identity Crisis, working together to make years worth of DC flagship comics retroactively less cool. As I feared would happen after reading issue two, Issue 3 of the series succeeds in completely ripping the heart out of the great Emerald Twilight storyline.
Ah, crap.

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Administrator Update

According to NASA Watch, Rep. Bob Walker is not under consideration for the NASA administrator job. The names known to still be in consideration are Steidle, Kadish and Worden.

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Picture Of The Day

There's just something I find awe-inspiring and incredible about encountering another man-made object on an alien world, about coming across something constructed in the magnificent desolation around it. It happened on Apollo 12 with the Surveyor 3 lander, and now Opportunity has come close enough to take this pretty cool picture of its heatshield; the two reunited after nearly a year apart. Photo by NASA, via Spaceref.com

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Heading For Titan

Since I don't know how much blogging I'll be doing over the holiday weekend, I though I'd go ahead and post this article about Huygens separation from Cassini this weekend and what the probe may encounter when it reaches Titan.

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Yet Another Shenzhou VI Update

China, which thus far has proved far more adept at talking alot about sending people into space than at actually sending people into space has announced that the Shenzhou VI launch is scheduled for September 2005. The mission will feature two astronauts in orbit for five days.

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New Blog

Lain has become the first ATW Associate Blogger, or whatever it ends up being called. He now has his own corner of ATW (well, not really a corner, really) in the right-hand sidebar where he'll be posting his own blogging, so check it out.
There's another ATWAB waiting in the wings, and I'll add him as soon as I work out the rather numerous bugs that have been associated with getting Lain going.

I'll have to figure out how to make the ATWAB boxes more prominent, but there's just way too much going on in the sidebars at the moment. For that matter, what areas in the sidebars do you use most? I try to put those nearest the top, but there's still a lot that gets kind of buried. If I can reorganize the sidebars to make commonly-used features more accessible, let me know. (I should probably just ditch the middle column in favor of more sidebars.)

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Bang! Zoom!

NASA has selected six instruments for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is scheduled to launch to the Moon in fall 2008 (assuming adequate funding). The spacecraft will perform unprecedented studies of the Moon which will be used in choosing landing sites for human exploration.

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Important Progress

The next few days could be some of the most important to spaceflight thus far this decade. The Progress M51 spacecraft is scheduled to launch this afternoon at 4:19 p.m. CST for a rendezvous with the International Space Station at 5:31 p.m. Christmas Day. The spacecraft carries a much-needed 112-day supply of food. Without that supply, the Expedition 10 crew would run out of food the first week of January, and would have to return to Earth before then, leaving the Space Station unmanned and breaking the string of continuous human presence that began in November 2000.

To be fair, while much is being made of the importance of this launch and the impending disaster, it's important to note that there is no reason to expect a problem, and that every Soyuz launch since February of last year has been equally important--a failure of one crew to reach the Station would have meant that the preceeding crew would have had to leave it unoccupied.

This launch is a slightly bigger deal because, to the best of my knowledge, there have been more problems with Progress dockings than with Soyuz. I don't think there have been any during the ISS program, but there were a few during Mir--in addition to the infamous crash into the Spektre module, there was at least one around the same time which had to be waved off and deorbited without docking.

The ISS will have visible passes over much of the US over the next few days, and on Christmas Day passes, it may be possible to see the Progress approaching Station, which can be cool looking. You can find out when ISS will be visible where you live at SkyWatch.

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ATW Live!

I had the chance this past weekend to visit with a total of five members of the ATW community, including the great privilege of finally meeting Jordan in person. During the Jackson leg of the tour, I took a couple of pictures of the assembled blog crowd. (more)

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G6 PC?

Here's a bit of news that sounds pretty cool, but I have no idea what it actually means: IBM has announced that it's next generation of PowerPC processors will run multiple operating systems simultaneously. It sounds almost like it would be able to run OS X and Windows simultaneously, neither in emulation, but it seems like if that were the case, then they would say it explicitly--that would be a pretty big deal.

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Wednesday, 22 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

OK, here's a little kinda Christmas bonus.

This strip

is completely non-canon, and isn't really that funny, but is just... different. I'd really appreciate any feedback on it, other than the lame joke.

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Marscano!

So, the cool news first:
Some scientists believe there may be volcanic activity on Mars. There are signs that there has been relatively "recent" (read: in the last 4 million years) volcanic activity, which means the planet is less dormant than conventional wisdom would have once believed. In addition, there's reason to believe that there is still some activity today, including, possibly, hydrothermal systems which could support life.
The down side, though, is that much has been made in the past year about the discovery of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Two possibilities were given as sources for the methane: life, and volcanic activity. Since there was no evidence of volcanic activity, that gave more credence to the theory that there is currently life on Mars. The article above doesn't address this issue, so thus doesn't answer the question of whether the hypothetical volcanoes could be an adequate source for the methane.

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ATW Year-In-Review: January

Highlights from ATW in 2004:

• January 4: 'We're Back!'--Spirit has landed successfully on Mars.
  
  
• January 7: What's In A Name?--Submissions are sought for a new, spacier name for You Must Fight The Bear. Among the entries: "All These Worlds Are Yours."
  
  
• January 8: Good Of The Mini--In one of this blog's prouder moments, YMFTB posts again about how the iPod mini is just too darned expensive to be successful. Whoops.
  
  
• January 12: High Resolution--No doubt preparing to announce the Vision for Space Exploration, George Bush was on Mars:
  
  
  
• January 14: And So It Begins--The president announced that humans would return to the Moon and explore our solar system.
  
  
• January 15: Low-Carb News--Low-carb dieting was still hot enough that this blog could post items with six different bits of low-carb news. Also, YMFTB announced that casting had begun for the Hitchhiker's Guide movie.
  
  
• January 22: People Are Morons--The blog engaged in curmudgeonly ranting about reactions to the cost of the Vision.
  
  
• January 26: Daily Hatbag--YMFTB belately marked the 10th anniversary of the beginning of Hatbag, leading to a year-long 10th anniversary Hatbag feature.
  
  
• January 28: Fallen Heroes--My annual musings on the anniversary of the Challenger disaster.

All this and Superman, Star Wars and Cathy, plus much more, are in the January 2004 archive.

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Big Asteroid

So, apparently, Apple's big new supersecret project they're suing about leaks over is "an audio breakout box codenamed "Asteroid," which has a bunch of audio inputs for hooking up instruments and microphones." Which, I guess, is great for musical types like Joe, but I was hoping for something with more Dave applicability.

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Blogpoint Opportunity

Slow news day, so here's another Blogpoint Opportunity. 5 Blogpoints to the people who best answer this question from Douglas Coupland's excellent Microserfs:

"Q: If there were two of you, which one would win?"

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D4H Away

Despite an unknown glitch that caused its two strap-on CBCs to shut down about 8 seconds early, yesterday's demonstration launch of Boeing's Delta 4 Heavy rocket is being considered a success. The new launch vehicle completed all phases of the flight, but the premature engine shutdown left it shy of its intended orbit.

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

Just a reminderthat there are now a mere nine days left to join the Fantasy Film League January 2005 season and receive 25 Blogpoints! Sign up today!

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Tuesday, 21 December 2004

Blogpoint Opportunity

I'm probably going to regret this, but 5 Blogpoints each to the authors of the most amusing captions for this photo.

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Today In History

On this date in 1987, the Soviet Soyuz TM-4 capsule launched to the Mir space station, and on this date in 1988, the crew returned to Earth, having become the first humans to spend a year in space.

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Captive Audience

Per The Huntsville Times:
Homer Hickam of Huntsville, best-selling author of the book "Rocket Boys" and other stories about Coalwood, W.Va., got an unexpected card in the mail last week.
It was from Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia:
"Dear Mr. Hickam: Thank you so much for the books and DVD. I will definitely have time to read them. I very much appreciate your thoughtfulness and kind words.
"Cordially, Martha Stewart (dictated by Stewart and signed in her absence)."

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Picture Of The Year

The Nexus-like photo above is one of several candidates you can vote for in Space.com's Best Images Of 2004 contest.

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Unusual Opportunity

The Mars rover Opportunity is drawing near its discarded heat shield, which was jettisoned during the landing process. The MER team is looking forward to being able to study both the crater the shield made at impact, and how well the shield itself weathered Martian atmospheric entry.

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RTF Update

To be honest, I haven't even read it myself, but if anyone's interested, Spaceflight Now has a 10-part, 11,600-word report about the STS-114 Return to Flight mission.

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Heavy News Update

After many delays, Boeing's new Delta IV Heavy rocket is scheduled for launch today at 1:36 p.m. CST.

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Monday, 20 December 2004

RTF Update

Here's a report from Florida Today about the Return To Flight Task Group meeting I attended Thursday:
NASA faces no showstoppers in its bid to return the shuttles to space in May or June as planned, an independent oversight panel said Thursday. ...
"Right now, we don't see anything that stands in front of the agency that can't be accomplished in order to make the May-June launch window," said Richard Covey, a retired astronaut who co-chairs the task force assigned to review whether the space agency meets the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.

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Oh, Voyager

I can't find a link, but apparently The Economist has reported that after the VSS Enterprise, the second Virgin Galactic spacecraft will be the VSS Voyager.

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The Next Admin

According to NASA Watch, the four former astronauts on early lists are no longer in consideration for the NASA administrator job, nor is JPL director Elachi.
Kadish and Worden are apparently still on the list, but now with two names above theirs: Exploration Systems head Bob Walker, who served this year on the president's "Moon, Mars and Beyond" commission.
Addendum: Space Politics on Worden.

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Final Answers

Spaceref.com has a transcript of Sean O'Keefe's press conference about his resignation, in which he answers numerous questions about the past and future of NASA (and, in particular, the Vision and Hubble).

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Picture Of The Day

Saturn and Dione. Courtesy NASA.

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iPropose

The fact that the iPod didn't exist when I got engaged makes me feel only slightly better about the fact I didn't do this, 'cause it's darned cool:
Forget diamonds, popping the question by iPod is the way to go when proposing marriage. Take a Norwegian chap called Yoak, who bought his girlfriend a 20Gbyte iPod with this laser-etched into its back:
Ana My Love
Will you marry me?
(Per Cult of Mac)

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Secret Lawsuit

Apple is suing over leaks about products rumored to be unveiled at MacWorld S.F., but they don't know who they're suing. The complaint alleges that "an unidentified individual, acting alone or in concert with others, has recently misappropriated and disseminated through Web sites confidential information about an unreleased Apple product."
The lawsuit would seem to support the rumors of a flash-based iPod announcement, though CoM has other possibilities.

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Keep On Searching For A Heart Of Gold

OK, my excitement about the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Movie has just done a 180 with a bit of news from AICN. Thus far, the stuff I'd read made it sound like the movie was being respectful, if not 100 percent faithful, to DNA's work, but this particular change kind of bothers me. (I'm posting it behind a "more" cut for anyone who doesn't want to read a mild spoiler.) (more)

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Sunday, 19 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

Here's a little something, just so I can say I didn't miss a day of posting.

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Saturday, 18 December 2004

Possible New Feature?

Several members of the ATW community have their own blogs, several others don't, and a few others have their own blogs that they don't actually blog on much. This post is intended primarily for the last two categories.
It would be possible via Pivot for me to set aside real estate on ATW in a way kind of like the "Cool Links" box in the right sidebar for "mini-blogs" for members of the ATW community. You could have your own area for posting stuff, which could be read by the ATW audience: most of the benefits of blogging, without some of the challenges. Would anyone be interested?

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Daily Hatbag

My brother Jonathan wrote an excellent paper in college about this strip, but I can't find it at the moment while I'm on the road.

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Friday, 17 December 2004

Ole Miss Coach Update

Since Ole Miss had a contest to see if anybody could design a new mascot, I've already started preparing in case they have a contest to redesign the coach.

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Congrats, Sean

Looks like O'Keefe got the job.

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iPhone

Per Forbes:
Apple Computer and Motorola could soon show us the mobile phone they are developing to play music purchased from Apple's iTunes online music store.
"We've said we have something coming on this in the first half of 2005 and we're definitely on schedule for that. Hopefully you'll be able to see more about it soon," says Eddy Cue, vice president in charge of applications at Apple.

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In A Flash

So, according to AICN, they're gonna make a Flash movie. That could be cool.

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Tin Roof... Crispy

Lain just informed me that the Love Shack burned down.
There's cinders on the mattress, cinders on the highway, cinders on the front porch, cinders in the hallway. There were flames, flames, flames, on the door, baby!
Now there's next to nothin'
'Cause it was hot as an oven!
The whole shack's crispy!
Yeah, the whole shack's crispy!

I'm sorry. Really, that's kinda sad.

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Thursday, 16 December 2004

Um

Eh, OK

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Congrats, Rovers!

Per AP:
The conclusive discovery by a pair of wheeled robots that Mars once had vast pools of water and possibly could have harbored life was chosen by the editors of the journal Science as the most important scientific achievement of 2004.

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This Week At NE

It's all Maggie this week at NASAexplores, with one story about Soyuz training and another about how eyes are affected by spaceflight.

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Oh, Goody!

If you'd been thinking about attending MacWorld San Francisco, but Steve Jobs' keynote just wasn't compelling enough for you to make your decision, you'll be glad to know the Spin Doctors will be there!

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Personal Note

I'll be attending a most-of-the-day briefing by the Stafford-Covey Return to Flight board today, following which I'll be traveling to the Birmingham area for about 24 hours and will then spend the weekend in Jackson.
Blogging from now until Monday morning will be on an as-opportunity-presents-itself basis.

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Wednesday, 15 December 2004

Identity Crisis

Anyone looking to discuss Identity Crisis, I refer to Nik's blog, Spatula Forum. Anyone who hasn't read Identity Crisis, I refer to your local comic book store, though hopefully for better fare.

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Ole Miss Coach Update

After being turned down by at least six head coaches, Ole Miss has hired USC asst. coach Ed Orgeron.
While I'll, of course, support him, and hope this will be great for the Rebels, I just have to point out that the week that Cutcliffe was fired, while Pete Boone and Robert Khayat were talking about how Ole Miss was going to hire somebody with previous head coaching background, I, who know nothing about sports, was already predicting that we would be unable to do so, and would help up doing what we had done the last two times; hiring a promising assistant who was looking to move up.
Despite the promises that we'd be "moving up to the next level" with this hire, it's almost exactly the same as in 1998, when Cutcliffe was the assistant coach for the team that won the national championship.
It's just kinda sad when a space blog understands sports better than a college athletic director. Thanks, Pete.

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Blogpoint Opportunity

5 Blogpoints to the authors of the captions to this picture that most amuse me.

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Merry Christmas

As a little thank you to the most frequent feedbackers in the ATW community, a small All These Worlds Christmas gift went out in the mail this week, and I understand has started arriving. Just a small token of gratitude to those you make ATW as much fun as it is.

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Today In History

On this date in 1965, the first rendezvous of manned spacecraft was conducted by the Gemini 6A and 7 crews.

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The Search

NASA Watch has an update on the NASA Administrator search, and is predicting that, not only will a new administrator be named tomorrow, as was said during the weekend, but that a decision won't be made until after the holidays.

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Ultimate Holiday

I wasn't able to post it until bidding closed, so unfortunately, you've missed out on the ultimate holiday experience.

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Tuesday, 14 December 2004

Editorial Note

Light blogging the past couple of days as I've been sulking over the utter lack of Leonardo Code writing, but:
a) Lain gave the good advice, "let that ship sail, Pepe."
b) Nobody really noticed I wasn't blogging anyway.
And on those ego-boosting notes, here's all the blogging I haven't published since Sunday.

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Um... OK

So, after the embarrasment of my poor performance on the 100 Most Overlooked Movies of the 90s, now I learn that I've only seen one of the Top 10 Movies of 2004 (though I may see another one that's not out yet). That said, I might have to take exception with their list.

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Today In History

On this date 32 years ago, humans walked on the surface of the Moon for the last time, before Apollo 17's Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt departed the lunar surface to return to Earth.

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Clouds Over Mars

As they continue to find more evidence that liquid water once existed on Mars, the two MER rovers are also making more sitings of forms of water on Mars today, including pictures of Earth-like clouds in the sky, and of frost that has formed on the rovers.

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IE!

Per Information Week:
A public university with an enrollment of over 80,000 put the kibosh this week on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, and urged its students to switch to alternative browsers such as Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, or Safari.
Penn State University on Wednesday issued an alert to students and staff recommending that they dump IE and use a different browser.

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Bigger And Smaller

Been eyeing a new iPod photo, but not quite ready to buy it yet? You may want to hold off for the 80GB iPods which will apparently be coming before too long, possibly with a thinner form factor.

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Iron Man's Game

I'm sure Richie already knows this, but, if not, Orson Scott Card's gonna write some Iron Man next year (well, more accurately, Ultimate Iron Man).

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Happy Birthday!

To the ATW-reading Mysterio-man who jealously guards the secret that today is his birthday, happy birthday!

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Monday, 13 December 2004

Light That Candle!

Here's something else I wouldn't mind having: A replica of the Chinese Long March rocket that is also a lighter. Celebrate the first manned Shenzhou flight while smokin' up a cigar!

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Picture Of The Day

Spaceweather.com has several cool pictures of last week's Jovian eclipse.

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Excellent

So, you want to do your part for the future of American cinema? Just go to www.billandted3.com, and join the online push for a third Bill & Ted movie: "They're back, they're 40 and they're still in trouble..."

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Editorial Note

For whatever reason, Sunday was another record day for ATW, with 709 unique IP visitors in a day. Thanks, all.

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The Phantom Rumor

Ah, yes, IESB has more on the rumor that Kevin Smith is working on the pilot for the Star Wars TV show, this time with the involvement of Mark Hamill.

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Portal Prose

Last week, my first story not written for NASAexplores was posted in the For Educators section of the NASA homepage, a piece about school students who got to talk to the International Space Station.

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Sunday, 12 December 2004

Congratulations!

My youngest brother, Matthew, was honored as an Eagle Scout today, joining the middle brother, Jonathan (who posts here) in the Eagle ranks.

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Editorial Note

OK, 35 Blogpoints for the next addition to The Leonardo Code.

Also, since I first announced the Blogpoints for joining the Fantasy Film League, half the time for signing up for the January season has now run out!

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Meatier Meteor Shower

There's one more meteor shower left this year, and it should be the best show of 2004. The Geminid meteor shower will peak Monday night around midnight.

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Daily Hatbag

Make sure it's piping hot!

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Bad News

No!

oh, man, that sucks

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Saturday, 11 December 2004

Heavy News Update

Another scrub today for the Delta IV Heavy. Next launch opportunity is tomorrow afternoon.

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RTF Update

Per NASA:
NASA reached another major Return to Flight milestone this week with installation of the three main engines that will help launch Space Shuttle Discovery on its Return to Flight mission. Installation was completed Dec. 8 at the Orbiter Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

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The iTablet

OK, this is cool; I want one of these. A Mac modder has done what Apple won't--created the iTablet.

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Daily Hatbag

Yeah, there's no more 10th Anniversary Hatbag for the year, but there is still some 7th Anniversary Hatbag.

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Friday, 10 December 2004

A Little Bit Of Mars At Home!

Looking for a cool stocking stuffer for a kid on your Christmas gift? (I mean, of course, it'd be for a kid, right, I mean, I know none of my readers would take advantage of the holiday to buy cool stuff for themselves like I do) Apparently, there's a new rage for Mars Space Sand, which is ordinary sand which has been rendered hydrophobic by 100 percent pure science! Put it in water and take it out, and it doesn't get wet! In addition be being fun to play with, it's actually used for simulating the Martian environment, which means you can buy several bags and pretend you're actually on Mars! (To complete the simulation, turn the air-conditioner way up and don't breathe.)

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웹 통나무 점 기회

그들을 요구하는 첫번째 사람을 위해 4개의 웹 통나무 점.

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A Few More Editorial Notes

Okay, 30 Blogpoints for the next addition to The LC, and 15 each for any subsequent additions this weekend.

Cafepress is having a huge sale on everything. Is there any ATW or Hatbag stuff anybody would want made? (Or anything else for that matter?)

For the record, NASAexplores is in the process of switching from GPO style to AP style, and I'm transitioning most of my writing to ease that, but it's tough stopping one style cold turkey and picking another one up, so if usage on ATW is a little sloppy for a little while, I apologize.

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Daily Hatbag

This one's

for Joe.

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Ole Miss Coach Update

In yet another shocking turn of events, it turns out hiring a new coach for Ole Miss is harder than Pete Boone thought it would be. Huh. Marshall Ramsey's got some cartoons on the subject here and here.

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Best Of The Rest

So it turns out I've seen 19 of the Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s.

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Old-School Future

BACK IN THE DAY, there were three techniques seen as ways to get to the Moon. One was called direct ascent, and was the simplest: A rocket takes off from Earth, and, after staging, the crew compartment lands on the Moon, from whence it takes off, flies back to Earth, and lands.

The next was called Earth-Orbit Rendezvous, and was the one pushed initially by von Braun; it's the one that was presented in his Disney specials and elsewhere. Multiple rockets carry parts of a lunar spacecraft into Earth orbit, where they are assembled, and the assembled spacecraft then flies to the Moon, landing and returning as in direct ascent. The advantage of this one is that it gives you greater lunar spacecraft mass for less launch vehicle capability.

The third, and the one that was actually used was called Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous, and it was the use of this technique that allowed the U.S. to complete the Moon landing by Kennedy's deadline. Rather than the entire spacecraft landing on and departing from the Moon, a separate lunar spacecraft is used for lunar descent and ascent, and then docks with the primary spacecraft, which was used for translunar and trans-Earth injection. That way, you don't have to worry about landing your TEI propulsion system and fuel on the Moon safely and getting it back into lunar orbit; you're allowed a smaller, more nimble lunar craft.

The interesting thing is that when the decision was made, it seems options two and three were seen as competing possibilities, you either did one or the other. I don't know enough about the exact history to know how real this perception was at the time and how much it's hindsight, nor how it came about.

But, regardless, Apollo used an LOR system without an EOR system; the entire spacecraft system was launched atop a single Saturn V for each mission.

Today, though, it appears NASA is rethinking that system: the latest CEV documents reveal a combination EOR/LOR system, featuring a CEV which would be launched with a crew and then dock with a propulsion unit which would carry it out of Earth orbit and a lunar descent/ascent spacecraft. While more complicated, this system appears to offer the greatest benefits in terms of how much you can transfer to and from the Moon (and may also reflect the lack of a Saturn-V-class heavy true launch vehicle and the disinclination to develop one).

Also, the documents reflect a crew size of no less than four for the CEV.

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They Also Serve

Cult of Mac has a story about a guy who is using his Newton as a Web server. Of course, I'm sure any decent Palm Pilot can do that, right?

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In A Flash

Rumors that Apple will begin selling a flash-based iPod next year just got a huge boost with Toshiba's announcement that it will begin selling flash memory to Apple early next year. The article speculates that the flash iPod will sell for around $149-$199.

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Sweet, Sweet Sarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan will play Birmingham on May 4. The bad news is that it's on a Wednesday night, and that tickets start at $45, but I still thought I'd ask if anyone wanted to go. Nicole and I saw her in Nashville this summer, but might be receptive to going again.

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Thursday, 9 December 2004

Blog List Update

Richie just pointed out that my link to BeaucoupKevin is outdated, so I've fixed it.

While I had that list open, I made a few other changes. I figured Willer Lite's posted here enough that he deserved a place on the bloglist, and I also added Occupation: Girl, which is one of those rare complete-stranger blogs I read. Like BeaucoupKevin, it dilutes some entertaining, um, entertainment stuff with some heavy-handed political stuff and fascinating-I'm-sure-if-you-know-the-person personal stuff. O:G used to have some funny, funny Movies In 15 Minutes stuff, but then she got a book deal and stopped posting any. (As opposed to some bloggers, who stay true to their readers, book deal or no. Who loves ya, baby?) I also spelled Deedee's name in proper style, which is more than her husband does on his blog.

But, all of this leads to a question, and that is this: Currently, I have the blogs of ATW readers listed by their names, rather than the blog names. For example, I figure ATW readers are more likely to visit a blog that I have listed as "Joe's Blog," 'cause they know who Joe is from reading his comments here, than they would if it were just listed as "Taking A Nap."

But, for those of you who have blogs listed in the sidebar, which way would you prefer for it to be listed? Your name of the blog's name?
Also, does Rebecca's blog even need to be there anymore? What's the story there?

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Daily Hatbag

So this is the last 10th Anniversary Hatbag for the year. We'll figure something else out for the rest of December. Or, more likely, do without.

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Important Comics Announcement

This blog would like to report for the record that Troy Hickman is the coolest comic book creator of all time.
If, for some reason, you have not yet read Common Grounds, go buy the trade paperback today.

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buySPACE

Of all the posts I've written extolling the wonders of collectSPACE, I don't think I've written anything specifically about the buySPACE section, where you can buy some very very cool space stuff.

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More Hubble Trouble

This blog has been largely ignoring the recent reports arguing for NASA to use the Shuttle for a final servicing mission instead of relying on a robotic mission, partically because I have mixed feelings on the issue, but largely because a lot of reports come out a lot saying a lot of stuff but not neccessarily actually meaning anything.

However, according to Space Politics, the recent Hubble reports are having an impact in the halls of Congress:

In a statement, House Science Committee chairman Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) promised to hold hearings early next year on the report, while the committee's ranking minority member, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), called on NASA to "heed the Academies' assessment and move forward to implement its recommendations". Florida Today reported Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL) supports a shuttle mission, saying that he "wasn't sure that our level of sophistication in robotics was sufficient" to support a robotic servicing mission. ...

The Houston Chronicle quoted Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), widely expected to succeed Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee's space subcommittee, as saying that a shuttle Hubble repair is "the right thing to do." Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) told Florida Today that he would also push for a shuttle repair mission, and also called for Congressional hearings on the subject.

This will be an interesting story to keep an eye on. O'Keefe has been pretty adamant against a Shuttle servicing mission, but, with Congress having just approved the full FY05 budget request and the agency needing continuing support for the Vision, one has to wonder whether maintaining good will will become a factor.

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Days Of The Comet

This is another of those things that I'll never be able to see personally, but there is currently a comet that is visible to the naked eye. Comet Machholz will be visible (to some, at least) in December and January, reaching perigee on Jan. 5-6.

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Legalizing The Future

Presumed by many to be dead in the water for the current session of Congress, a bill legalizing private space tourism was passed yesterday in the final minutes of the 108th Congress.

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Heavy News

A rocket which could play an important role in the future of exploration will get its debut tomorrow when the first Delta 4 Heavy booster launches from Cape Canaveral. One of the most powerful boosters (if not the most powerful EELV) currently in existence, the D4H is a candidate for carrying the Crew Exploration Vehicle. In addition, Boeing has said that a "super-Heavy" version of the Delta 4 could someday match the lift capabilities of the Saturn V. While that rocket would be greatly expanded from the D4H, it would require a multi-CBC configuration, which will be flown for the first time tomorrow.

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iPepsi

Tutor (Mr.) brought it to my attention that apparently Pepsi will be starting a new iTunes promotion next year (the third item in Tuesday's episode of AtAT).
Hopefully this time it will include Pepsi products I can drink besides Diet Pepsi, which is, to be blunt, not all that great.

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Newt photo

Wired has an article online about Newton photographer extraordinaire John Charlton, who has contributed over 30 photos to the "Newtons Around The World" gallery.

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This Week At NE

For the second week in a row, it's all Dave at NASAexplores, with one story about NASA's Deep Space Network, which is how controllers stay in touch with spacecraft around our solar system and beyond, and another story about the Cassini spacecraft currently kicking scientific butt in orbit around Saturn.

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Wednesday, 8 December 2004

Ole Miss Coach Update

In a shocking turn of events, that absolutely no one could have predicted:
That list has changed since Monday, when Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat and Boone crossed off Ron Zook (hired by Illinois), Bobby Petrino (staying put at Louisville) and Tyrone Willingham (not interested).
You mean great coaches aren't beating down the doors to come to Ole Miss? Who woulda thunk? (In fact, the school is now being pre-emptively rejected by coaches that haven't even been considered.)
Looks like the focus now is on promising coaches who haven't held a head coach job before. Again, who could have predicted that?
Let me point out that I know absolutely nothing about sports, and when this blog has a better grip on the situation than the Ole Miss athletic director, that's just kinda sad. Oh well.

Hotty toddy.

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Daily Hatbag

Here's ya some 10th Anniversary Hatbag.

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Blogpoint Trivia

For 10 Blogpoints: With the retirement of John Young, who becomes NASA's senior astronaut?

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Watching Their Weightlessness

NASA to Alpha:

Eat less.

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Yesterday In History

Star Trek: The Motion Picture marked the 25th annivesary of its theatrical premiere yesterday.

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Strange Bedfellows Update

According to this article, the Apple-IBM combination I blogged about yesterday is unlikely. (And I would tend to agree.)

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2005 And Beyond

collectSPACE.com has announced that artist Pat Rawlings, famous for his visions of the future of spaceflight, make autographed copies of a 2005 calendar or his work available through Countdown Creations.

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Age Of Aquarius

If you don't yet have a copy of Apollo 13 on DVD, you may want to wait until March 29, when the Apollo 13:Anniversary Edition will be released; but it sounds like that may be the only reason you'd want to shell out money for this two-disc set, which apparently disappointingly only combines the original one-disc special edition with a second disc containing the shorter IMAX cut of the film. Maybe more features will be announced later.

That said, if you don't yet have this movie on DVD, you're really missing out--The Jim and Marilyn Lovell commentary by itself is worth the price.

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The Last Peenemundians

USA Today has an interesting article today about some of the remaining members of the von Braun rocket team.

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Tuesday, 7 December 2004

тест

жуст ту си ыф сырылык кан прынт хир

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Strange Bedfellows

Proof that the world has truly changed, The Register is speculating that former Apple arch-rival IBM may join with Apple to sell Macs.

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Forever Young

NASA TV will air a special tribute to retiring Gemini, Apollo and Shuttle astronaut John Young tonight at 7 p.m. CST, according to collectSPACE.com.

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Don't Overestimate The Darkside

Per The NY Post:
'LOST"? Those castaways on the new hit drama series are hardly misplaced compared to the latest "shipwrecked" show.
Plans are under way at Fox — which wants to make a "Lost" of its own — for a new series about a group of of astronauts who go missing after tracing a distress signal to the dark side of the moon.
When they arrive on the other side of moon — which is cloaked in perpetual darkness and beyond radio contact with earth — they discover a mysterious compound.
Great idea, except that there is no "dark" side of the Moon--the far side gets just as much sunlight as the near (or a little more, I guess, since it's never in Earth's shadow).

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RTF Update

Per Space.com:
NASA is close to meeting all of the return-to-flight safety requirements set by Columbia accident investigators and should be able to launch a shuttle by May 2005, shuttle program officials said today.
"I am confident we can launch in the May to June timeframe," said Bill Parsons, space shuttle program manager, during a briefing with reporters. "We're really looking forward to that...I think everyone is ready for that launch."
However, while crew safety is considered paramount for the upcoming launch, the Orbiter itself will be considered expendable in the event in the event of STS-107-type TPS damage, since the TPS repair system will not be completed for STS-114. (Atually, in the event of damage at the level experienced during 107, there would probably be little that could be done for the Orbiter anyway)

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Clone Clone

The first series of Clone Wars cartoons will hit DVD on March 22, the day after the second series begins airing on the Cartoon Network. No word yet about whether the DVD release will include any special features.

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Daily Hatbag

Ah, I can still remember the heady days when you actually kept up with how much time you spent online. Or for that matter, when there was still time I wasn't online. Heh. Dial-up internet. Heh.

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Today In History

On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes and midget submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy commanded by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, carried out a surprise assault on the United States Navy base at Pearl Harbor, and against the Army Air Corps and Marine air fields nearby on Oahu, Territory of Hawai'i, now Hawaii. Source: Wikipedia

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Monday, 6 December 2004

Jovian Eclipse

If you're the sort of person who's into this sort of thing, the Moon will eclipse Jupiter in the morning from around 3 a.m. CST for around an hour or so, depending on where you are.

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

Just a reminder, if you haven't done so yet, to join the Fantasy Film League January 2005 season and receive 25 Blogpoints! Sign up today!

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Regular Richie Feature

Search strings that have brought people to Hatbag.net so far during the month of December:

• how to spare time
  
• internatioal superstition
  
• A-Team slash fan fiction
  
• Analysis of Song Of Myself by Walt Whitson
  
• alabama elephant jumbotron video
  
• animated clerks bear driving quote
  
• bathroom graphitti
  
• celebrate nasa
  
• coach billy brewer
  
• david killing the bear
  
• educatinal english games for g.e.e
  
• how can you meet jojo

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Daily Hatbag

So now this strip is almost like meta-humor. Or something.

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The Real Neil

The first authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, First Man, by James Hansen, will be released in October 2005, according to collectSPACE.

Used tags: apollo, books, collectspace, history, space

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Today In History

On this date in 1988, assembly of the International Space Station began as the crew of STS-88 mated the Unity node module launched in the Shuttle's cargo bay with the Russian Zarya module launched 16 days earlier.

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RTF Update

NASA has ended its post-9/11 policy of not announcing Space Shuttle launch times before the day of the launch. The launch of STS-114 is currently scheduled for 4:11 p.m. EDT on May 14, 2005.

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Cliffhanger Kirk?

Per TrekWeb:
If ENTERPRISE gets renewed for a fifth season, then Shatner's return is more plausible to happen next season."If they go another season, maybe I'm on" said Shatner.
On the other hand, a Paramount rep told IESB today that they believe that there is still a chance to have Shatner return this season as a season ending cliffhanger.

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iPods From Space!

Want to make your 4th-gen iPod more space-y? Just download one of MacForce's six space-themed iPod tattoos, and then order a sticky tattoo sheet from them.

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Robot War: Round 3, Fight 1

Elimination Battle!

Once again, Number 5's bubbly personality and Deux Ex Machina sentience proved utterly insufficient to keep him from being blown to pieces by an opponent with superior armaments, as the ED-209 claimed its first victory of the Robot War by shooting up Number 5. A lot.

Elsewhere, though, superior armaments were no match for a keen positronic intellect, as Data proved much a much more challenging opponent than R2D2 for the Dalek, sending the heavily-armed saltshaker to the losers' bracket.

Now, it's the battle of the death droids as the ED-209 and the Dalek face off. Who will win?

ED-209 (3 votes)
Dalek (1 votes)

And just a reminder, voting in the last four battles of Round 2 ends today.

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Sunday, 5 December 2004

Weekend Blogpoint Opportunity

As a little bonus for anyone that might be out there doing some weekend ATW reading, I'll give 5 Blogpoints each to the authors of the captions that amuse me most for this picture:

Source: Yahoo

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Daily Hatbag

As with yesterday, there's no anniversary Hatbag for this weekend, so instead, I thought I'd answer a little "What if..." question I know you've all been wondering: What If Hatbag had been created in Canada?

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Saturday, 4 December 2004

Leonardo Code Update

Okay, then, 20 Blogpoints for the next addition to The Leonardo Code.

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Daily Hatbag

For some reason, we skipped this weekend in both '96 and '97, so here's some Hatbag Fun Facts instead.

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Friday, 3 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

Have some Daily Hatbag.

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Space Gifts For Kids

An ATW reader wrote me recently about getting a nephew interested in space, so I started a thread on collectSPACE about good space gift ideas for kids.

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End Of An Era

As NASA begins the process of returning humans to the Moon, it's losing the last member of the astronaut corps to actually have been there.
Per Spaceport News:
NASA is saying goodbye to a living legend and a giant within the Agency this month with the retirement of John Young. ...
His career truly defines the history of NASA success: He was the first person to fly into space
six times. He first flew with Gus Grissom in the Gemini program in 1965.
He walked on the Moon with Charlie Duke as [commander] of Apollo 16 in 1972. He commanded STS-1, the first Space Shuttle launchin 1981, and flew his final mission on STS-9 in 1983, the first Spacelab mission.
In reality, this only begins to scratch the surface. John Young will be missed, but his legacy of success, triumph and accomplishment will live on at NASA.
I found the news rather shocking, I assumed that Young would spend the rest of his life in the astronaut corps. Young was a member of the second group of astronauts selected, and the first American other than the Mercury Seven to fly into space. He was the first man to solo around the Moon. His wealth of experience has been a great asset for the agency, and will be missed.

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DART Update

The DART spacecraft, which came within 24 hours of launch in October, is now at least three months away from launch, due to the lack of availability of facilities needed for launch.

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One More Year

NASA officials have reached a tentative agreement with Russia for the use of Soyuz vehicles during 2006, after the current ISS Soyuz deal expires at the end of 2005. The deal, however, apears to only delay an inevitable crisis for another year, since there appears to be zero chance the U.S. will have its own crew-return capability by the end of 2006, and is calling in the last of its favors in this deal.

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SSME RIP?

In an interesting bit of news, Boeing has announced it plans to shut down its Rocketdyne engine-manufacturing plant by 2010, in connection with the end of the Space Shuttle program. (The Space Shuttle Main Engine is one of the facility's major product lines.) The news is interesting to me in that, though the Shuttle itself will be retired around the end of the decade, there is talk about the need for a heavy launch vehicle for the Vision, and one of the proposed ways to meet that need is via a Shuttle-derived heavy booster, a la the Shuttle-C proposed in the '80s. Apparently, Boeing either does not believe such a booster is likely or isn't interested in pursuing the idea. (It's worth noting that Boeing also produced the Delta IV rocket, which I reported recently the company believes could be upscaled to a Saturn V-level capability.)

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Thursday, 2 December 2004

Cut From Team

So the more I read about Cutcliffe getting fired, the more and more stupid the move seems. It's hard to imagine any benefits from having him gone (which, in my opinion, are few, but I realize there are those who see things differently) outweighing the negatives from having him gone.
I mean, ignore for a moment the fact that we just lost one of the best coaches the school has had. And anyone who says that his record was entirely based on the strengths of Eli is ignoring the fact that he had two good seasons pre-Manning.
First, because of the way it was done, the school will likely lose a good chunk, if not all, of the talent in the coaching staff. Again, for some this may not mean much, but continuity is a factor to consider.
Second, and more importantly, there is very little way this could be good for recruitment. Barring Ole Miss next week hiring the best coach ever in the entire world, this is raising questions and doubts about Ole Miss during a time that potential recruits are in the process of making their decisions. If someone was right on the line about coming to Ole Miss, this could easily be what pushes them away. I can't imagine that Cutcliffe would have been a factor keeping anyone away from Ole Miss, so getting rid of him will almost certainly be a negative for recruiting.
Third, who exactly is going to want this job? We'll never be able to pay as well as a lot of larger schools. Also, recent seasons aside, Ole Miss has long been considered a second-rate team, not necessarily the place a coach goes to win championships. Basically, Ole Miss has its choice of second-rate coaches, like Brewer, or coaches with potential early in their career before they move on to bigger and better, like Tuberville. We're really pushing our luck to hope for another Cutcliffe-caliber coach who is actually willing to stay at Ole Miss for any amount of time.
So, deciding the situation wasn't bad enough, to make matters worse, they chose to fire Cutcliffe in a way that will make it even more difficult to find a new coach. How appealing is it going to be to go to potential coaches and say we have this opening 'cause we fired our last coach 'cause he thought he should be able to run the team the way he wanted to? Somehow, the "Help Wanted: Great coach seeking low pay who doesn't mind being micromanaged" ad is going to have a lot of appeal to it.

So, now we wait and see who they hire. I'd better be impressed.

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Daily Hatbag

I think BG's just wearing a funky patterned shirt in this strip, but if not, he's lost a lot of weight.

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World's Greatest Hero

From www.whowantstobeasuperhero.tv:
Do you think you have what it takes to be the next great Comic Book Hero? How far would you go to get your Comic Book Hero character published in a real comic book? Would you dress, live, act, and compete as your character against villains and other heroes?
MTV wants to help you develop your alter-ego in an exciting new TV show!
Now is your chance to be on a new "reality" show in which you will compete for the Ultimate Prize! The winner will have their character published in a REAL COMIC BOOK as determined by a Legendary Comic Book creator!

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Visions Of The Moon

Author Frederick Ordway has an interesting piece on collectSPACE about collecting early works about theoretical lunar missions.

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Personal Note

They're taking my Mac away at work.
To be fair, it wasn't really my Mac, and some changes mean that the person it belongs to is no longer in my group. (Fortunately, the changes are part of the Vision transformation--I'd hate it if going back to the Moon cost me my Mac.)
Anyway, there may be some changes in connectivity as a result.

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Today In History

On this date in 1993, the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched on the STS-61 mission, the first servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.
Photo courtesy NASA.

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Joint Spacecraft

The Moscow News has more information about the proposed Russian Klipper spacecraft.
Energia says that, with adequate funding, the vehicle could be ready to fly in five to seven years, which would make it operational between 2009 and 2011, or around the time the Shuttle is scheduled to stop flying. Of course, "with adequate funding" is Russian for "if other countries give us money." To be honest, I have no clue what the exact provisions of the INA are; I know it prevents the U.S. from buying space hardware from Russia directly, but I'm curious whether it would allow a Joint Strike Fighter-type development of the vehicle, in which we partner on its development and then have their own craft.

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Earth To The Moon

Per RIA Novosti:
The United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, has invited the Russian Space Agency to cooperate on a Moon exploration project, Anatoly Perminov, the agency's head, reported to RIA Novosti and a number of Indian media ahead of his trip to India on the Russian President's official delegation. ...
"I replied that the Russian Space Agency was willing to contribute, but that it should be specified in what capacity," he reported, adding that there was a rich Soviet-era space exploration heritage to be used.
I've seen similar stories recently from other nations, so to what extent this was a specific invitation for Rosaviakosmos to join the Vision, or just a general "We want this to be an interational effort," I don't know.

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This Week At NE

It's all Dave this week at NASAexplores, one of those rare times I've got both stories. One is about the recent nigh-Mach-10 flight of the X-43A, while the other is an explanation of orbital debris.

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Wednesday, 1 December 2004

December Blogpoint Awards

More Blogpoints were awarded last month than in the history of ATW, a total of 206! Way to go, folks!

Due to my questionable decision early on (not having any idea how impressive the competition would be this month) to award Blogpoints for international female feedbackin', I've decided to give first and second place Blogpoint prizes this month for the most total and the most domestic Blogpoints. That's right, ATW is proud to support Blogpoints made here in the USA!

The November Blogpoint prizes are already in the mail as you read this! The prizes go to Christina, who won the overall competition; Lain, who came in second overall and first domestic; and Joe, who came in second domestic. The November ATW Blogpoint package includes special NASA limited-edition Expedition 9 trading cards and an official Spaceflight Awareness Expedition 10 sticker, as well as other junk I found around the house (with, I just realized, an unintentional semi-southern theme).

For December, we'll be back to domestic-only competition, and the prize pack will include a very cool and very rare Return To Flight pin and other stuff to be determined later. Let the Blogpoint-earning begin!

For what it's worth, Blogpoint totals for December were as follows:
Christina--72 Blogpoints
Lain--62 Blogpoints
Joe--29 Blogpoints
Jonathan--25 Blogpoints
Chris--13 Blogpoints
Richie--5 Blogpoints

To kick things off, here's a new Blogpoint opportunity for December: I've started participating in the SimpleAd Exchange (you'll notice the box at the bottom of the left-hand sidebar), with lackluster results. The ads consist of the name of the blog and a short (one sentence or so) description. I'll award 5 Blogpoints each to the authors of ideas for ads that I decide to use, and an additional 5 Blogpoints for every hit your ad generates for ATW. (To give you an idea, I've only gotten two hits through the network thus far.)

In addition to those, the following Blogpoint opportunities are still outstanding for this month: 20 Blogpoints for joining the YMFTB Fantasy Film League, 3 Blogpoints per addition to The Leonardo Code, and several secret songs, including the current one, that have not been guessed.

On an unrelated editorial note, despite a lackluster Thanksgiving period, November still barely eked out October for the most unique IP visitors ever (though there were slighly fewer hits).

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Daily Hatbag

Sheesh, look at the typos in this one. How'd that happen? Wonder what was going on 10 years ago?

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Your Name From The Moon

A collectSPACE member has posted a special offer in which you can have your name written on a card using lead that was carried by astronaut Jim Irwin on the surface of the Moon. The cards sell for $59.

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The Drive To Explore

WIRED has posted James Cameron's piece on exploration online:
Something interesting is happening right now as you're reading this. NASA is scrambling, under presidential orders, to prepare for a renewed vision of human exploration beyond Earth. They've generated a plan, and it's a good one. I've sat on the NASA Advisory Council for the past 18 months, which is surely the most interesting period since the Apollo days. NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe has fundamentally reorganized the agency. NASA is figuring out post-shuttle solutions to get people into orbit, how to do the heavy lifting to get big payloads (like interplanetary vehicles) up there, and all the other critical tasks to create human exploration space-systems architecture.

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After The Soyuz

This photo album shows what is supposedly a full-scale mock-up of Russia's proposed Klipper spacecraft. Interesting stuff, but of particular interest to was the one I've posted at right which apparently (there are no captions), depicts the Klipper mounted on the front of Space Shuttle.

Addendum: More details are here. (Upon seeing those pictures, the apparent docking in the picture above is likely just a trick of perspective.)

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Arrowed!

Erstwhile X Prize contender Canadian Arrow is still hard at work at its suborbital spacecraft, now pursuing a larger prize--a share of the space tourism industry.

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Good Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

MacTreasures.com is seeking donations of older Macintosh computers to give to schools. (If anybody follows up with them, be sure and send more information back my way and I'll share it here.)

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Thursday, 30 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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The Next Little Thing

(Read Entry)

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Speeding The Future

(Read Entry)

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Irregular Richie Feature

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Return Of The Jedi, Again

(Read Entry)

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Improbable Drive

(Read Entry)

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

(Read Entry)

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Wednesday, 29 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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ROCKVISS Update

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Virgin Territory

(Read Entry)

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RTF Update

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Best And Worst

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Tuesday, 28 December 2004

Sorry

(Read Entry)

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ATW Year-In-Review: May

(Read Entry)

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No Impact

(Read Entry)

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Monday, 27 December 2004

ATW Year-In-Review: April

(Read Entry)

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Christmas Nap

(Read Entry)

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Blogpoint Opportunity

(Read Entry)

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

(Read Entry)

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Rockviss?

(Read Entry)

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Christmas In Space

(Read Entry)

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Chat With Troy

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Five Planets

(Read Entry)

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ATW Tem-Plate

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New Element

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Saturday, 25 December 2004

Season's Greetings!

(Read Entry)

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Thanks!

(Read Entry)

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Updates

(Read Entry)

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Friday, 24 December 2004

Today In History

(Read Entry)

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ATW Year-In-Review: March

(Read Entry)

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Editorial Notes

(Read Entry)

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The Sleeper Has Awakened!

(Read Entry)

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Thursday, 23 December 2004

ATW Year-In-Review: February

Notable posts for the month. (Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

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GL: Redux

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Administrator Update

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Picture Of The Day

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Heading For Titan

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Yet Another Shenzhou VI Update

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New Blog

(Read Entry)

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Bang! Zoom!

(Read Entry)

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Important Progress

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ATW Live!

(Read Entry)

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G6 PC?

(Read Entry)

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Wednesday, 22 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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Marscano!

(Read Entry)

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ATW Year-In-Review: January

(Read Entry)

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Big Asteroid

(Read Entry)

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Blogpoint Opportunity

(Read Entry)

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D4H Away

(Read Entry)

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

(Read Entry)

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Tuesday, 21 December 2004

Blogpoint Opportunity

(Read Entry)

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Today In History

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Captive Audience

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Picture Of The Year

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Unusual Opportunity

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RTF Update

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Heavy News Update

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Monday, 20 December 2004

RTF Update

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Oh, Voyager

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The Next Admin

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Final Answers

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Picture Of The Day

(Read Entry)

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iPropose

(Read Entry)

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Secret Lawsuit

(Read Entry)

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Keep On Searching For A Heart Of Gold

(Read Entry)

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Sunday, 19 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

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Saturday, 18 December 2004

Possible New Feature?

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

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Friday, 17 December 2004

Ole Miss Coach Update

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Congrats, Sean

(Read Entry)

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iPhone

(Read Entry)

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In A Flash

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Tin Roof... Crispy

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Thursday, 16 December 2004

Um

(Read Entry)

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Congrats, Rovers!

(Read Entry)

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This Week At NE

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Oh, Goody!

(Read Entry)

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Personal Note

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Wednesday, 15 December 2004

Identity Crisis

(Read Entry)

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Ole Miss Coach Update

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Blogpoint Opportunity

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Merry Christmas

(Read Entry)

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Today In History

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The Search

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Ultimate Holiday

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Tuesday, 14 December 2004

Editorial Note

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Um... OK

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Today In History

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Clouds Over Mars

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IE!

(Read Entry)

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Bigger And Smaller

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Iron Man's Game

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Happy Birthday!

(Read Entry)

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Monday, 13 December 2004

Light That Candle!

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Picture Of The Day

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Excellent

(Read Entry)

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Editorial Note

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The Phantom Rumor

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Portal Prose

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Sunday, 12 December 2004

Congratulations!

(Read Entry)

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Editorial Note

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Meatier Meteor Shower

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Daily Hatbag

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Bad News

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Saturday, 11 December 2004

Heavy News Update

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RTF Update

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The iTablet

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Daily Hatbag

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Friday, 10 December 2004

A Little Bit Of Mars At Home!

(Read Entry)

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웹 통나무 점 기회

(Read Entry)

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A Few More Editorial Notes

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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Ole Miss Coach Update

(Read Entry)

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Best Of The Rest

(Read Entry)

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Old-School Future

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They Also Serve

(Read Entry)

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In A Flash

(Read Entry)

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Sweet, Sweet Sarah McLachlan

(Read Entry)

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Thursday, 9 December 2004

Blog List Update

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Daily Hatbag

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Important Comics Announcement

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buySPACE

(Read Entry)

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More Hubble Trouble

(Read Entry)

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Days Of The Comet

(Read Entry)

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Legalizing The Future

(Read Entry)

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Heavy News

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iPepsi

(Read Entry)

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Newt photo

(Read Entry)

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This Week At NE

(Read Entry)

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Wednesday, 8 December 2004

Ole Miss Coach Update

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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Blogpoint Trivia

(Read Entry)

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Watching Their Weightlessness

(Read Entry)

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Yesterday In History

(Read Entry)

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Strange Bedfellows Update

(Read Entry)

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2005 And Beyond

(Read Entry)

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Age Of Aquarius

(Read Entry)

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The Last Peenemundians

(Read Entry)

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Tuesday, 7 December 2004

тест

(Read Entry)

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Strange Bedfellows

(Read Entry)

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Forever Young

(Read Entry)

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Don't Overestimate The Darkside

(Read Entry)

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RTF Update

(Read Entry)

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Clone Clone

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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Today In History

(Read Entry)

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Monday, 6 December 2004

Jovian Eclipse

(Read Entry)

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Fantasy Film League Reminder

(Read Entry)

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Regular Richie Feature

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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The Real Neil

Authorized Armstrong bio coming in 2005. (Read Entry)

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Today In History

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RTF Update

(Read Entry)

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Cliffhanger Kirk?

(Read Entry)

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iPods From Space!

(Read Entry)

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Robot War: Round 3, Fight 1

(Read Entry)

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Sunday, 5 December 2004

Weekend Blogpoint Opportunity

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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Saturday, 4 December 2004

Leonardo Code Update

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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Friday, 3 December 2004

Daily Hatbag

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Space Gifts For Kids

(Read Entry)

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End Of An Era

(Read Entry)

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DART Update

(Read Entry)

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One More Year

(Read Entry)

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SSME RIP?

(Read Entry)

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Thursday, 2 December 2004

Cut From Team

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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World's Greatest Hero

(Read Entry)

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Visions Of The Moon

(Read Entry)

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Personal Note

(Read Entry)

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Today In History

(Read Entry)

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Joint Spacecraft

(Read Entry)

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Earth To The Moon

(Read Entry)

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This Week At NE

(Read Entry)

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Wednesday, 1 December 2004

December Blogpoint Awards

(Read Entry)

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Daily Hatbag

(Read Entry)

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Your Name From The Moon

(Read Entry)

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The Drive To Explore

(Read Entry)

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After The Soyuz

(Read Entry)

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Arrowed!

(Read Entry)

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Good Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

(Read Entry)