 |
Friday, 30 September 2005
Soviet Storm
Man, where's Chekov when you need him? It turns out Hurricane Katrina was a Russian inwention, in a story that becomes even cooler when you factor in the Japanese Yakuza gangsters.
Penny Ellison
If there are two things this blog loves, it's ... well, if there were only two, I guess it would be this blog's wife, and God.Oh, and books.
Let's try this again...
There are many things this blog loves, and two of them of comic strips and Harlan Ellison bashing. So it amused this blog to read about a verbal tussle between the Penny Arcade creators and Harlan Ellison:
So then [Ellison] asks me if I even attended college and I say “No, I did not.” Then, he says “did you at least finish high school?”
I said that I had, but you couldn’t really hear me because the audience is laughing at me along with Harlen. So once they stop, I turn to him and I say, “While I’ve got you here I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Star Wars stuff you wrote.”
STS-121 Update
Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale has reiterated the possibility of a May launch for STS-121, followed by STS-115 in July. According to Hale, plans to fix the foam problems encountered during STS-114 would support that timetable, even accounting for hurricane-related delays.The May launch window stretches from May 3-22, and the next window is from June 30-July 19.
Expedition 12 Launch
The International Space Station Expedition 12 crew, along with space tourist Greg Olsen, will launch to ISS tonight at 10:42:44 p.m. CDT aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Oh, Superman!
Per DVDFile:And there are rumors in the Superman department that in preparation for Bryan Singer's much-anticipated Superman movie next summer, Warner Bros. may have finally decided to release Richard Donner's frequently-bootlegged Superman II: Director's Cut. Of course, this is unconfirmed at this point; but as soon as we know anything, we'll let you know in time for you to change into your cape and fly, fly away..
Blogpoint Opportunity
Thursday, 29 September 2005
Today In History
On this date in 1988, the space shuttle Discovery took on Return to Flight duties for the first time on the STS-26 mission, the first since the loss of Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986.
No Ticket Home
It's now the day before he is scheduled to launch to the International Space Station as commander of the Expedition 12 crew, and Bill McArthur still doesn't have a seat lined up for a trip back to Earth.The agreement with Russia to allow U.S. use of Soyuz taxi service is set to expire at the end of the year, while McArthur is still aboard ISS. Since there's still no firm date for the space shuttle's Return to Return to Flight, no one's entirely sure when or how McArthur will be returning home.
A leading contender for his return is that Congress would be willing to grant an exception to the Iran Nonproliferation Act allowing NASA to buy Russian space hardware and services, which would let the agency purchase at the market rate a return seat on the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft on which McArthur will launch tomorrow. There had been hopes that this would be done by now, but, while there has been progress toward granting the exception, it hasn't happened yet.
Electric Endeavour
After being shut down for the better part of two years, Endeavour was powered up on Tuesday, signifying its return to flight status.Since Dec. 2003, Endeavour has been undergoing modifications, some of which were regularly scheduled upgrades, while others were changes mandated in the wake of the loss of Columbia. Those modifications are now complete, and OV-105 is now ready for normal launch processing. (Though it will still be 10 to 11 months before the orbiter is actually ready to fly again.)
Among the changes are a new GPS system that would allow Endeavour to land on any runway in the world in the event of an emergency.
Hatbag On Film
So, yeah, we missed last week. And the week before, we posted a new strip, but I think I failed to blog it here.But, anyway, there's some new Hatbag up on the Hatbag site. Enjoy.
Lost World
This post is here for any discussion of last night's Lost anybody wants to share.
Hitchhiker's Guide To Galactica
Good and bad news for anyone who missed the last season of Battlestar Galactica.The good news is that, unlike season one, which wasn't released on DVD until season two was basically over, too late to get caught up, a season two set will be released on Dec. 20.
The bad news, though, is that the three-disc "Battlestar Galactica: Season 2.0" set will only include the first half of the season, and yet will still have an MSRP of around $50. Word on special features is still pending.
Wednesday, 28 September 2005
Spamusement
OK, I hereby officially declare that this cartoon has the coolest sound effect in all of comic strip history.
Not-Quite-Post-Mortem
Per USA Today:The space shuttle and International Space Station — nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades — were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.
In a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board, Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth.
"It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path," Griffin said. "We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can."
Deleted Sith
Ain't It Cool has images from deleted scenes that will be included on the Revenge of the Sith DVD when it comes out on Nov. 1; if you're into that sort of thing.
Tuesday, 27 September 2005
GO To Orbit
Space.com has an article about Greg Olsen, who will become the third paying space tourist to visit ISS, when he launches late on Friday aboard the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft with the Expedition 12 crew.Olsen will be conducting some research for his sensor company while in orbit, and will also be assisting with some ESA experiments.