Flew in from Amsterdam late last night. Posting may resume once I figure out what time zone I’m in. I will note, though, that NASA has to be a prime suspect in Anna Nicole Smith’s death–it seems to have knocked Nowak out of the news.
Just joking, of course. NASA hardly ever does things like that any more…
Homer Hickam has similar thoughts to mine on why Nowak cracked, with some recommendations, which are opposite to mine. His are to reduce the astronaut office, while mine are to open up flight opportunities. Either way, the situation has to be brought into balance.
I’m in the Netherlands now. We had a whirlind tour of Belgium including a high-speed train ride from Calais to Brussells. It was quite a thrill–I don’t know how fast it was going, but I’m sure that it was the fastest I’ve ever been in a ground vehicle. Planes seem much safer, when you see all the landscape whizzing by (particularly when you pass another train a couple feet away at a relative velocity of whatever it is).
Drove down and had lunch in Ghent, then spent a couple hours in Bruges, and back east and up to the Amsterdam area. Taking care of business here, then back to Florida late tomorrow night.
On the previous post, I was going on the initial reports that Shipman was an astronaut, and hadn’t gotten the latest (it was a frazzled week). And yes, regardless of her actual accomplishments, I should have know to refer to her as a Naval aviator, not a pilot.
[Update a few minutes later]
Sorry, that was sloppy wording in the last sentence. The “her” referred to Nowak, not Shipman.
Just checking in from London Towne (literally–I just checked in to my hotel). It’s noon here, early in the US, but not so early that my TCSDaily piece isn’t up. I have some thoughts on Lisa Nowak, and NASA.
I’m having dinner with Perry De Havilland tonight, and then off on the train to Brussels on the morrow.
I’m flying to Europe this afternoon to deal with a family situation. I’m taking my computer, but I don’t know how much time, or Internet access I’ll have, so I may be out of touch for a while. I do plan to be back Tuesday night, though.
Of an old story: waste, fraud and abuse at the National Reconnaissance Office.
Unfortunately, as the article points out, it’s very hard to oversee a program as secret as this one. I think that we actually need to scrap the agency and start over from scratch with some fresh thinking, which would include responsive space, rather than the fragile and vulnerable battlestar galacticas, such as the Keyhole series.
While I agree with Don Imus that there’s “something wrong with” Chris Matthews, I’m amused to see that no one pointed out the obvious. Imus isn’t upset about the F-bomb on his show. He’s upset because he owns a ranch.
And I love this:
Imus: “If you were on
While the New York Times (unlike most of the media), manages to actually criticize Edwards’ choice of campaign bloggers, it can’t resist bashing bloggers (or, as I now prefer, bloggists):
Two bloggers hired by John Edwards to reach out to liberals in the online world have landed his presidential campaign in hot water for doing what bloggers do
Ted Haggard says that he now realizes that he’s completely heterosexual. Guess he’s just one of those complete heterosexuals who likes to get in on with guys occasionally.
…about Joe Wilson’s trip to Niger.