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Tuesday, 31 January 2006
Editorial Note
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm leaving tomorrow for my annual pilgrimage to Houston, and will return Sunday. Blogging in the meantime will depend on internet access and actually having something to say.
Bittertown
I have several of the free iTunes tracks on my iPod, quite a few I've really rather enjoyed, and a couple have become real favorites (Of particular note is "Sweaters" by Beth Waters). While I've enjoyed being introduced to new music, it's also always kind of a nice bonus when the free song is from someone I'm actually already familar with, as is the case this week.
I'm far from the world's biggest country music fan, to put it lightly, which has to be taken into consideration when I saw that I really like the Lori McKenna. (I'm not the only one -- Faith Hill lifted three songs from McKenna's most recent album for inclusion on Fireflies, but don't hold that against Lori.)
All I have of McKenna's is her CD, "Paper Wings and Halo," so I've not heard the new free song yet, but I really like PW&H. McKenna has a very distinctive voice, is an excellent writer, and uses those two qualities in combination beautifully.
Today In History
Still Safe
eWeek has an article about the malware implications of Apple's switch to Intel chips:So what changes when the Mac moves to x86? If Apple's market-share shoots up and attackers suddenly have a better shot of finding Macs to attack, then more malware will be written to the Mac. But it won't be any easier to exploit for being on x86.
Apple SLVR
After ditching iTunes from its second generation of ROKR phones, Motorola has come back to the iTunes fold with its new SLVR phone.The link has more details, but doesn't tell why Motorola's using iTunes again or if the new phone is any good.
Monday, 30 January 2006
The Return Of Apollo
Following up on recent discussion aboud rumored possible names for NASA's next generation of spacecraft and launch vehicles, Cosmic Log suggests that the new Apollo-esque CEV capsule should be named, well, Apollo.Thoughts?
I like it (2 votes)
I don't like it (0 votes)
I'm not opposed to it, but surely they could do better (9 votes)
Voices From Space
Since I don't know what my blogging status will be while I'm out of town the latter part of this week, I'll go ahead and mention this bit about Friday's spacewalk.Among the tasks scheduled for the EVA is throwing an old space suit overboard, making it an independent satellite. (And, yeah, that link is one of my stories.) The suit will have a ham radio transmitter, allowing folks on the ground to hear prerecorded updates and state reports as it eventually deorbits.
Used tags: eva, international_space_station, nasa, roskosmos, space
Join The Army
WIRED does some pretty great covers, and there have been several I've liked better, but this most recent one, I think, is the one I would most like to have a poster of.
Arlo Update
I posted recently that Universal Press Syndicate has started offering newspapers manga strips for their comics page. I hadn't heard anything much about it since the announcement, but it turns out The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has made room for a manga strip by dropping Arlo & Janis, which makes me now firmly against the whole thing.Also, recently on his Web site, I've found another thing Jimmy Johnson and I have in common: We've named pets for Soviet spacecraft.
Saturday, 28 January 2006
20 Years
All week long, I've felt the burden to write something really meaningful for the 20th anniversary, to come up with a fitting tribute to whose who gave their lives.
But, I just can't do it. Part of that is, since, for the past three years I've been much more serious about writing an anniversary piece, I feel like I've said a lot of what needs to be said. Granted, those things need to keep being said. (The events of three years ago show the high cost of believing the past can be left in the past.) You're welcome to go back through the archive and read those pieces.
Part of it is that I've put such an onus on myself to write something worthy that I've set an unreachable standard. Even without the additional burden of a major anniversary, there's no way I could write something worthy.
Part of it is that I've always taken these pieces as an opportunity to put past, present and future in the context of each other, and right now, the emotions I feel about the future of spaceflight are too complex to be boiled down to be dealt with that manner. Never have I been both so excited or so nervous about the future of exploration.
And, to be honest, as much as I hate to admit it, part of it is that I can't stop thinking about the anniversary in the context of my life. Twenty years. I was 10 years old; a student at Huntsville Middle School. I'm now three times older. So much time has passed. I still carry the indelible memory, though I have little in common with the person into whose brain the memory was burned.
But the lesson there is this -- we go forward. Their loss is a moment frozen in time. In his day of remembrance letter to the NASA family, administrator Mike Griffin borrowed words from Abraham Lincoln; words that are worthy for the occasion.
At Gettysburg, Lincoln said, "It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ..."
Godspeed the crews of Apollo I, Challenger 51-L and Columbia STS-107.
Godspeed the crew of Discovery STS-121.
Godspeed those who will return us to the moon, and represent humanity on worlds beyond.
To honor the past, we must never stop looking toward the future.
Thursday, 26 January 2006
The Sound Of You And Me
According to, uh, this cached Web site:singer/songwriter garrison starr is planning a march 13[Should be 3/14--wdh] release for her fifth full-length disc, "the sound of you and me." her second album for vanguard records was recorded in nashville with collaborator/guitarist neilson hubbard co-producing the album with brad jones.
"i am not making an album that will be thrown against the wall to see if it sticks for radio," starr says. "it was made because it's beautiful and intense and sad and lonely and that's how i feel a lot of the time. i wanted to make a record that is true to my life."
earlier this month, starr completed a set of tour dates but expects to return to the road in 2006 to promote "the sound of you and me."
Tour dates for the next couple of months have been announced. There are a couple of shows in Birmingham, and even one or two I might be able to make this time around. None in Mississippi, though.
Hatbag Now!
Yep, it's that new Hatbag time of the week.
Remember
Ah, Russia
Ah, those Russian space organizations. With China quickly becoming a major competitive spaceflight player in terms of hype per accomplishment, the Russians are really having to ramp up their efforts. From today's Space Daily.Starting with the more mundane, there's exciting stuff coming for the international space station, which is "evolving into an international space port." OK, sure, I can believe the sentiment, if the phrasing is a bit over-the-top. More impressively, Russia is going to double the number of Soyuz launched beginning next year in order to increase ISS crew size to six. Uh, OK, if they say so. It could happen, but only with an increase in outside investment. Which could happen -- with the current situation, Russia has the ability to tell other nations, we can carry you up to spend time on the space station you've helped build, but you gotta buy your ride.
Further down the road, the Kliper spacecraft will begin crewed test spaceflights in 2013. Again, that's great, but where is the money coming from? Russia has practically gone around hat in hand seeking international funding for Klipper (if you prefer that transliteration), but so far has no commitments. Again, it could happen.
Oh, and one more thing -- Russia is going to build a permanent base on the moon by 2015, and be mining He-3 there by 2020. Uh, well, good for them. With what, exactly, are they going to do this? See, that one's just silly. But, it does top China's silly lunar ambitions by a couple of years. This is going to turn into a wacky international space version of Name That Tune. "OK, I can land on that moon by 2017.' "Well, I can land on that moon by 2015." "Well, I can land on that moon by 2012!" Until finally we get to, "Well, I can land on that moon next year!" "OK, land on that moon!" "What, did we say moon? We meant ... uh ... not the moon..."
Small New Worlds
Maybe I'm just cynical, but I'll be glad when we manage to start imaging some more of these extrasolar worlds that have been found. Announcements like yesterday's about the discovery of a small extrasolar world with a five-Earth mass are exciting, but, probably largely due to my utter lack of scientific understanding, I have to wonder whether there are other phenomena we're not aware of that could be responsible for some of the minor eccentricities that are attributed to planets.Still, assuming they are right about this one, it sounds like it's exciting news about the presence of other rocky worlds in the galaxy.