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Wednesday, 31 January 2007
Extended O
In recognition of his, uh, unmatched 7-16 record as head coach, Pete Boone has decided to extend Orgeron's contract two years, for the 2009 and 2010 season.You know, I really have nothing to say to that.
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Making It Up
So, yeah.Since, like, July, I've been rehearsing with the Face2Face improv troupe.
Before you can play on stage, you have to practice until the boss decides you're ready.
It generally takes months, and some people, for whatever reason, quit before making it on stage.
Which is why I've said absolutely nothing to anyone, so that when I dropped out, a complete failure, no one would know.
(For those who've encountered my mysterious Monday and/or Tuesday night meeting, that's it.)
Anyway, instead of dropping out secretly, I'm instead offering you, my friends, to come see me be a complete failure instead!
How often to you get to watch as someone you know utterly humiliates himself? It'll be fun for the entire family!
I'm making my stage debut on Saturday, Feb. 10 at Kenny Mango's in Huntsville.
If you're interested, you can check out the Face2Face homepage.
And for more about the troupe, here's a newspaper article that ran this weekend (no mention of me, though, as that a) I'm nobody and b) I have no Decatur connection, and this was in the Decatur paper.)
So there you go.
FBOFW
I've always been a big fan of the retiring of comic strips at some point. Once you're dead, that's it. You're off the comic page. Make room for the living. There's a lot of talent out there -- living talent -- that's kept off of comic pages by dead people. And this applies a thousandfold for Peanuts, which is now in re-runs. Get off the comics page, Snoopy!But, you know what, I might have made a rare exception for one strip, and, ironically, not a strip that's necessarily one of my favorites, and that's For Better or For Worse. That, and Doonesbury. I just really like the idea of their real-time storylines continuing indefinitely, so that in 50 years people will be reading about the birth of Elly's great-great-grandchild. Likewise Doonesbury, though it has farther to go to start setting up a transitionable third generation (or fourth, depending on how you count).
So I'm disappointed with the news that Lynn Johnston's going to stop aging her characters, and is going to start doing some new-strip/old-strip hybrid.
Well, at least we still have Funky Winkerbean.
Five-Color Apple
Oooooh, pretty.
Hubble Update
Per Space.com:The Hubble Space Telescope’s primary camera is offline, with some science capabilities likely lost for good, NASA officials said Monday.
An electrical short in the backup system for Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) pushed the space telescope into a protective “safe mode” over the weekend and prompted the formation of an Anomaly Investigation Board on Monday, NASA officials said.
Monday, 29 January 2007
Lunar Sooner
Per Space.com:NASA is studying a variant of its planned Ares 5 heavy-lift rocket that would enable an Apollo 8-like trip around the Moon in the 2015 time frame, a top U.S. space agency official told reporters Jan. 25.
Scott Horowitz, NASA’s associate administrator for exploration systems, said he asked engineers at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., to study a rocket design that would combine the Ares 5 main stage with the Ares 1 upper stage to permit an around-the-Moon-and-back shakeout flight of the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle [image] several years ahead of the first lunar landings.
The article never uses the name Ares IV, but it sounds like that concept is what they're talking about here. OK, the idea of a circumlunar flight in less than a decade is cool. I have to admit, I do like that.
That said, that's pretty soon, especially when they're talking about not having Ares I, which is pretty far along its development cycle already, ready for manned flight before 2014. Is it really to get a rocket which is now basically a napkin sketch flying and human-rated the following year? And what would all of that mean for the development of Ares V?
To be sure, I'm not saying no, just curious. Interesting times.
Friday, 26 January 2007
It's Personal
Rather than wait until Sunday:
I met astronaut Clay Anderson only very briefly. On a trip to Johnson Space Center to meet with education officials, his wife, Susan Anderson, who works in JSC education, gave me a tour of some of the center facilities. As we were leaving the cafeteria after lunch, she spotted Clay and introduced me to her husband. As we walked off, I asked, “So what does he do?”
I’ve met Barbara Morgan a couple of times. The first, I believe, was at an education conference in Houston, where I spoke to her for a second -- not too long, of course, because at an education conference in Houston, Morgan, the first Educator Astronaut is pretty close to rock-star status. Despite the fact that our conversation was cursory and one of hundreds she had that night alone, when I next saw her, in Huntsville, she recognized immediately that we had met.
Pam Melroy came to Marshall for Safety Day one year. At the time, STS-121 had just been assigned, meaning that the crews had already been chosen for the next eight shuttle flights, putting her pretty far down the queue for her next flight. She was already a two-time pilot at that point, and I told her that I looked forward to seeing her again when she came to Marshall after she commanded her next flight. I’m thrilled for her that’s happening much sooner than either of us imagined.
Scott Parazynski was my new co-worker’s first astronaut. Last month, we traveled out to Johnson to conduct some interviews for a series of feature stories we’re going to be publishing this year. Parazynski was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to talk to us. Despite his great stories of his past and future missions, my co-worker was at least as fascinated by his experiences as an Olympic bobsled coach and almost-Olympian.
Alan Poindexter was another brief encounter; he had a signing table at another Marshall Safety Day event -- he autographed a NASA safety poster featuring Snoopy in a space suit for my niece. We talked about his upcoming flight. Unlike Melroy, we thought then he would be flying much sooner than it has worked out, but the delays in 114 and 121 pushed thing back. Poindexter has never flown before, and I’m glad things seem to be on track for his mission now.
I interviewed Rex Walheim several years ago, pretty early on in my NASA career. To be honest, I don’t remember much of our phone conversation now, except that, considering we were a pretty low-profile site, and I knew then about spaceflight only a fraction of what I do now, he was very gracious.
While interviewing someone at Johnson Space Center last month, I noticed his “I Think Safe Because…” badge. The safety organizations at the NASA centers let employees make these by laminating a picture onto the badge -- a spouse, a child, perhaps a pet. Someone who is important to you, someone who wants you to come home that day, someone you want to be there for. A reason to be careful, to take safety seriously.
This person, though, didn’t have his wife or child on his badge. His Think Safe badge featured the crew of STS-107. He was involved in crew training, and, like many of the people we talked to during those interviews, had worked with the astronauts on Columbia’s last mission. His team had made up the badges as a reminder of why they must be ever vigilant. Why that must never happen again as a result of someone being lax, of not doing enough.
I didn’t know any of the crewmembers of STS-107. I had never met any of them. They were just names and faces in the news. The tragedy affected me, to be sure, but just as it did people around the country. I mourned the loss of the crew -- and, to be honest, Columbia herself -- but it wasn’t personal.
I wouldn’t say I really know any of the people I’ve listed above, but I have met them. And since Feb. 1, 2003, I have gotten to really know people who have pursued the same profession, accepted the risk involved in leaving the Earth for a while. I count a couple as friends.
Those six people I started out talking about are members of crews of shuttle missions scheduled to fly during 2007.
They are the individuals, the real people, who will be carrying out those missions this year. Who will be accepting those risks. Who will venture into space, remembering well their friends who, so recently, did so and did not come back.
Barbara Morgan understands this well. She was Christa McAullife’s back-up. If history unfolded differently by a few germs, she would have been aboard Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. In 2003, she was scheduled to fly on the next launch of Columbia. She understands the risks. And accepts them.
Flying with her is Charles Hobaugh. He was the Capcom for entry on Feb. 1, 2003. The voice repeating “Columbia, Houston, comm check” that morning? That was Hobaugh. Like Morgan, he understands.
I’ve tried to record my feelings many times over the years since Jan. 28, 1986. I’ve reflected on memories about that tragedy, and, more recently, another. I’ve tried to pay respect to the crews of those missions and the astronauts conducting a pad test on Jan. 27, 1967, forty years ago. I’ve looked ahead to the future -- the best way to honor the fallen is to further the cause for which they gave their lives.
This year, though, looking at the flight rosters, seeing those names, I wanted to do something different. I’m sure reading about the people I’ve mentioned makes them no more real to you than the news stories I read about the 107 crew did for me.
But the idea of the national endeavor of exploration aside, there is a human story here. Real people, flesh and blood, with families, loved ones, friends, accepting a risk they understand all too well, driven home by memories all too fresh.
The idea of the national endeavor of exploration aside, it is personal.
Long Live The King
Shatner in Huntsville Update
Space Camp ran a full-page ad in The Huntsville Times yesterday that featured a little more information about the special guests and schedule for their anniversary year.On May 17, DS9's Chase Masterson (whom the ad mentions first as being known worldwide for her starring role in Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, which is kind of a sad commentary on the state of Trek [technically, the ad mentions her "staring" role, which makes one think that perhaps Spielberg was involved {go to around the 8 minute mark in the clip}])...
OK, that aside got too long, let's try again: On May 17, Chase Masterson and "award-winning director" James Kerwin will host a panel discussion of Wernher von Braun's lost-and-recently-found-and-published novel, Project Mars.
On June 13, Shatner will emcee the first-ever Space Camp Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Other special guests during the year will include astronauts Story Musgrave and Bob Springer.
Another Shameful Confession
OK, regular readers of ATW already know of my disdain for poetry, so here's another shameful literary confession:I dislike Romeo & Juliet.
One of the local community theatre groups is doing the play, and Nicole and I have been looking at going. Finally, last night, I put words to the shameful secret I had closeted in my heart, and now I'm admitting it publicly.
To be sure, I like Shakespeare, generally speaking. Just not this one play.
And part of that may be contextual; I'm sick of hearing about it as this great love story. I also find the characters utterly unsympathetic. If they were a bit older, and the story played out over a period of time maybe a hundredfold longer, then perhaps I would feel differently.
As it is, though, thanks, but no thanks.
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Statue Of Limitations
The Hatbag shark-jumping continues!And, since apparently a bunch of ATW readers don't follow the weekly Hatbag link, I thought a brief explanation might be in order -- Hatbag is a weekly webcomic Lain and I create; following two old college buddies as they adjust to sort-of grown-up life. If you read ATW, take a few extra seconds to go read Hatbag. Please? Please?
Wii News
Per The AP:SEATTLE - Rabid video gamers could get some help keeping in touch with the outside world this weekend as Nintendo Co. launches an online news service through its popular Wii console.
The Wii News Channel, scheduled to debut Saturday, will primarily feature top news stories and photographs from The Associated Press.
Consoles with a broadband Internet connection and the Opera Web browser will be able to access the free news channel, which will offer AP news in multiple languages.
Shocking Discovery
The local library has been holding a series of showings of science fiction movies from the 1950s, so last night I got to see, for the first time all the way through, The Day The Earth Stood Still.It was, indeed, a good movie.
But the thing that surprised me most, especially since the time differential means that this must have involved time travel, was that the professor who was Earth's smartest man in the movie was apparently played by NASA administrator Mike Griffin.
STS-117 Update
And STS-117 has moved a day to the left, with the flight now scheduled for the morning of March 15.The SRB and ET stack is assembled in the VAB, waiting for Atlantis to roll over on February 7 (I think, and am too lazy to look it up.)
Monday, 22 January 2007
Falcon I Update
And the much-delayed Falcon I maiden (successful) launch has been delayed again.I understand that you want to make sure and get it right -- particularly so that there's not a repeat of the first launch -- but they've got a ways to go before being able to offer customers timely access to space.
The revolution waits.
Friday, 19 January 2007
Round Two: Fight!
Per Cult of Mac:Steve Jobs' trademark spat with Cisco over "iPhone" isn't the first time Jobs has brought a product to market with another company's trademark -- he did it with the Mac.
According to the biography of former Apple CEO John Sculley, Odyssey: Pepsi to Apple, Jobs launched the Mac in 1984 even though the "Mac" trademark belonged to another company.
Ah, Steve.
Download Your Own Adventure
If you've been in the kids' section of a bookstore lately, you may have noticed that the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books are making a comeback, with new editions of the original books. Not content to just relive the past, though, the CYOA folks are embracing the future, with iPod versions of the book for sale, also. And, generous folks that they are, you can download The Abonominable Snowman for free.