Political Commentary

The Flexibility Of The Word “Bigot”

Isn’t it amazing?

The Times is a good target. People who believe in the “left-wing media” believe that the New York Times is the leftiest of them all. The people who believe in the “mainstream media” believe that the Times is the mainest of them all. Hardly anyone has a good word to say about it, except that it’s the best newspaper in the country. But really, how important is that?

Also, the name of the New York Times contains the word “New York.” Many members of the president’s base consider “New York” to be a nifty code word for “Jewish.” It is very nice for the president to be able to campaign against the Jews without (a) actually saying the word “Jew” and (b) without irritating the Israelis. A number of prominent Zionist groups think the New York Times is insufficiently anti-Palestinian, so they think the New York Times isn’t Jewish enough.

Particularly considering that the latest left epithet of “neocon” seems to often really mean “Zionist Jew.”

Administrative

Off To The Cape

We’re going to go, and trust to luck (it’s about a two and a half hour drive, not counting inevitable launch traffic once we get close). No blogging until return–I don’t have wireless (though maybe I should get Verizon). See you tonight, hopefully with Discovery safely in orbit.

[Update at 8 PM EDT]

Well, another wasted day. The frustrating thing is that the weather wasn’t a problem for the launch–it was a problem for the extremely unlikely “attempted suicide in order to avoid certain death” maneuver of a Return To Launch Site (RTLS) abort. Unfortunately, at the last minute, as I was listening to the MMT poll, I also heard that there was a boat in the box, with no estimated time of removal.

As is often the case, the launch commitment criteria created an overconstrained system. Sometimes it amazes me that we’ve ever launched this thing.

Space

Glitch

There’s a problem with a vernier thruster heater. I’m not familiar enough with the commit criteria to know if that could result in a launch scrub. It’s certainly not something that can be easily worked on the pad, but there may be sufficient redundancy that they could go anyway. The problem is that for many missions in the past, verniers aren’t necessarily required, but I suspect they don’t want to try to dock to ISS if they’re missing one.

We haven’t left for the Cape yet. We may drive up anyway, just for the drive, and hope for the best, since it will likely be windy and rainy here the rest of the weekend.

By the way, the gang of Florida Today reporters over at The Flame Trench is probably the best place to keep tabs on the launch, at least as far as blogs go.

[Update a few minutes later]

Can’t be fixed on the pad, as I suspected. They’re figuring out now if they can live without it, if necessary. There are so many thrusters on the vehicle (though a lot more primaries than verniers), that I’d guess they can come up with a workaround control scheme.

The problem is either with the thermostat or heater. The heater was supposed to read hot, but it read ambient.

I wonder how they know that it’s not just a failed temperature sensor?

Technology and Society

The End Of The Battery?

This looks promising:

The researchers are working on a new device that uses carbon nanotubes to store and release electrical energy in a system that could carry as much power as today’s lead or lithium batteries.

But unlike the rechargeable batteries used on today’s cellphones and laptop computers, these devices could be recharged hundreds of thousands of times before wearing out.

There are the skeptics, of course:

Andrew Burke, research engineer at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California at Davis, said that the new capacitors would have to be many times more powerful than any previously created. “I have a lot of respect for those guys, but I have not seen any data,” Burke said. “Until I see the data, I’m inclined to be skeptical.”

Even if Schindall’s capacitors work, he doubts they’ll transform the electronics industry overnight. Companies have too much invested in today’s battery systems, and it would take years before carbon nanotube capacitors could be mass-produced.

A classic innovator’s dilemma.

I’ve never been a big battery fan. Chemical energy storage always seemed very crude to me.

Space

Looking Better

It looks like the weather prospects have improved for the launch today–now only a forty percent chance of getting weathered out, as opposed to earlier estimates of sixty percent. We may drive up and try to see it from Cocoa Beach or Titusville. If they don’t go today, it may be several days before they get better weather, because there’s a tropical wave coming into Florida tonight from the Caribbean. But a successful launch today would be like an early Fourth of July.

Note also that today is the hundred fifty third anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Popular Culture

Go Tigers

Baseball is a game of numbers and stats, and right now, for Detroit, they look pretty damn good:

Every Detroit fan everywhere knows what 35-5 means — the Tigers’ record after 40 games of their 1984 World Series-winning season.

That start was so good Detroit had to play just a little above .500 ball the rest of the season to cruise home in first place. In fact, the Tigers closed 69-53.

Detroit enters its Friday interleague game at Pittsburgh with a 54-25 record. If the Tigers win Friday, they will be dead even with the 1984 team’s record after 80 games.

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