I have some thoughts today, over at TechCentralStation.
A Heart Breaker
It looks like the private solar sail mission may have gone in the drink.
This just points up how ridiculous our space transportation situation is. There is no other field in which we would accept the horrifically low reliability of vehicles, and the only reason for it is that we’ve historically simply come to accept it, and won’t demand better.
[Update on Wednesday morning]
Good news. Or at least better news. They seem to have found it. It’s not in the right orbit, but it’s in an orbit. Let’s hope it’s in an orbit that will last long enough to get it on its sunshiny way.
[Another update at 9:20 AM]
Emily Lakdawalla is blogging the progress.
[Update at 1:20 PM EDT]
Looks like the mission is history.
OK, He’s Apologized
That’s a good thing, though as I recall, it wasn’t enough for Trent Lott.
More when I see an actual transcript of his lachrymose blatherings.
I will say, snarkily, that I assume that this apology is now (in the famous words of Ron Ziegler) inoperative?
[Update at 8 PM EDT]
OK, it’s a non-apology apology.
Here are the key words:
OK, He’s Apologized
That’s a good thing, though as I recall, it wasn’t enough for Trent Lott.
More when I see an actual transcript of his lachrymose blatherings.
I will say, snarkily, that I assume that this apology is now (in the famous words of Ron Ziegler) inoperative?
[Update at 8 PM EDT]
OK, it’s a non-apology apology.
Here are the key words:
OK, He’s Apologized
That’s a good thing, though as I recall, it wasn’t enough for Trent Lott.
More when I see an actual transcript of his lachrymose blatherings.
I will say, snarkily, that I assume that this apology is now (in the famous words of Ron Ziegler) inoperative?
[Update at 8 PM EDT]
OK, it’s a non-apology apology.
Here are the key words:
He Changed The World
Jack Kilby has died. Without him (or at least without the work that he did–someone else surely would have if not him) there would be no desktop computers on which to type brief obituaries like this, or an Internet to communicate them.
What A Difference A Year Makes
Last summer solstice, a year ago today, I was in Mojave, California, watching SpaceShipOne go into space for the first time. Tariq Malik describes all of the activity since then that bodes well for private space passenger travel.
What Am I Doing Wrong?
I’ve downloaded the ISO for disk 1 of Fedora Core 4 several times now. Each time, the file size is the same, but each time, I get a different sha1sum, and it never matches the one listed in the directory.
The Beginning Of A New Holocaust
It is my sad duty to report the first death due to Post Election Selection Trauma:
He had strong political opinions and followed Amy Goodman’s radio broadcast “Democracy Now.” Alas the stolen election of 2000 and living with right-winged Americans finally brought him to his early demise. Stress from living in this unjust country brought about several heart attacks rendering him disabled.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Shockingly, it didn’t occur at ground zero for this affliction (my current residence of Boca Raton), but in Tucson. I’m sure that this is just the first death of many, in what is certain to be a sweeping slaughter and national tragedy, all part of Karl Rove’s plan.
Divide And Conquer
Well, you know the old saying about no honor among thieves? It seems to apply to terrorists and Ba’athists as well. The native Iraqi “insurgents” don’t seem to be getting on that well with their foreign “allies”:
Marines patrolling this desert region near the Syrian border have for months been seeing a strange new trend in the already complex Iraqi insurgency. Insurgents, they say, have been fighting each other in towns along the Euphrates from Husayba, on the border, to Qaim, farther west. The observations offer a new clue in the hidden world of the insurgency and suggest that there may have been, as American commanders suggest, a split between Islamic militants and local rebels…
…Capt. Chris Ieva, a fast-talking 31-year-old from North Brunswick, N.J., said he could tell whether an area was controlled by foreign insurgents or locals by whether families had cellphones or guns, which foreign fighters do not allow local residents to have for fear they would spy on them. Marines cited other tactics as being commonly employed by foreigners. Sophisticated body armor, for example, is one sign, as well as land mines that are a cut above average, remote-controlled local mines, and well-chosen sniper positions.