The Apollo XV lunar module landed on the Moon. This was the third to last manned lunar mission. I recall the mission because it was the one in which Dave Scott dropped a hammer and a feather to the surface, and they both hit at the same time.

We also thought of it as a Michigan flight, because Al Worden and Jim Irwin were both Ann Arbor grads. Worden was from Jackson.

I remember when I was in engineering school at Michigan that Worden came in and gave a talk to our systems design class. At the time, Apollo already seemed like ancient history, though his flight had only been seven years earlier.

Now it’s been almost a third of a century. How long until we do it again?

It’s a natural and evolutionarily inevitable phenomenon, that appear in a wide range of cirumstances. We are in a small-scale arms race in Iraq.

It will only end when we cut off the resources to those engaged with us, with the help of the Iraqi people. At some point, it will have simmered down to mere background crime. I suspect that, despite the fervent wishes of the Democrats, that day isn’t far off.

Dan Weintraub has the latest twist in the recall saga. The words “if appropriate” are rearing their ugly head again. The author of the 1974 amendment that added them (presumably a Democrat, though Weintraub doesn’t say), claims that he added them for the purpose of ensuring succession of the Lt. Governor in the event of a recall, rather than allowing an election. He’s going to court, and if he wins, it will be a choice between Grayout and Bustemante, with the second half of the ballot nonexistent.

Weintraub is skeptical. So am I.

Go sign this petition to get Daniel Pipes on the board of the United States Institute of Peace. Let’s get some balance on it, despite the terrorist apologists at CAIR and in the Senate.

Go sign this petition to get Daniel Pipes on the board of the United States Institute of Peace. Let’s get some balance on it, despite the terrorist apologists at CAIR and in the Senate.

Go sign this petition to get Daniel Pipes on the board of the United States Institute of Peace. Let’s get some balance on it, despite the terrorist apologists at CAIR and in the Senate.

Focus groups for the (horrible, by all accounts so far) movie “Gigli,” starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, are demanding a different ending.

Although the various test audiences differed on the preferred methods of death, they seemed unanimous on one point.

“We were very surprised at how many viewers thought that, no matter what, Affleck and Lopez should not be entwined in a romantic embrace at the time of their deaths,” Zitterman said. “Everyone was perfectly clear on that.”

Dean Esmay has a great interview with the cartoonists Cox & Forkum.

I’d be a cartoonist myself, if it wasn’t for the funny hats. And the fact that I can’t draw. (Go read the interview to get the joke.)

Kistler Aerospace has filed Chapter 11. They’re half a billion dollars in debt.

I’ve never thought much of them. It’s another example of people who know what to do not having the money, and people with money not knowing what to do. The original Kistler concept (which Walt Kistler himself came up with) was a little loony–a flying bedpost for a first stage, and recoverable rockets that landed in nets. But things really went downhill, in my opinion, when they brought in a bunch of Apollo retreads, in an effort to get credibility to raise the money they thought they needed.

They spent many hundreds of millions of dollars–enough to fund a half dozen other, more sensible startups, and I’m not sure at this point what they have to show for it. They’ve demonstrated, sadly, that private ventures can blow large amounts of money seeking low-cost access, just as NASA does.

I think they had a failed business model (like Beal, they didn’t understand the market or the forces that would be arrayed against them), that resulted in a failed development approach as well. XCOR has learned the lesson–you don’t get low costs by spending lots of money.

Fortunately, I think we’re past the days that we need to hire ex-NASA managers to raise funding.

Here’s a bit of rare good news on both the Homeland Security and Drug War front. Insanity doesn’t always reign. The feds are actually going to divert some funds from local narcotics task forces to looking for terrorists.

?Certainly the president?s focus in the aftermath of Sept. 11 is to make sure our nation is preventing attacks and protecting our citizens from terrorists,? Stanzel said. ?So the resources have been redirected to counter terrorism efforts.?

U.S. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Missouri, believes it?s important to keep funding at its current level. He is among two dozen congressmen who sent a letter to members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee urging that the Byrne funding remain intact.

?The grants make up a huge percentage? of agency budgets, he said. ?Some of these departments are quite dependent on the monies.

Dependency’s a tough thing, Kenny. Maybe it’s time the drug warriors got that federal monkey off their back…

?The only way we can make the case is to talk about the successes. To me it?s important to tout those successes to the appropriators. … Otherwise, a lot of these agencies are having to contemplate turning out the lights.?

Don’t contemplate it–do it. Just say no.