Archive for May, 2003
20:25 13 May 2003
That’s a quote from Col. Richard McPhee as reported on DefenseTech. Some of our WMD hunters are being pulled out of Iraq.
The 75th Exploitation Task Force “consistently found targets identified by Washington to be inaccurate, looted and burned, or both,” the Washington Post reports. And “some information known in Washington, such as inventories of nuclear sites under supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency, did not reach the (75th’s) teams.”
So we know Iraq had WMD at one time. But none of the repeated reports have been verified. They may have been destroyed utterly. They may have been cleverly hidden. They may have been burned beyond recognition. We just don’t know where they are, what happened to them, or even where they were before the bombs started falling. It may be a matter of time, before we turn up conclusive evidence. We may never know what happened to them. Just like Chemical Ali.
But no one says that Chemical Ali wasn’t in Iraq. We’ll see.
12:31 09 May 2003
On April 23, Robert F. Thompson testified before the the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He was the space shuttle’s progam manager from 1970 until just before the first flight in 1981. He dropped a few bombshells, especially some info about fudged and outright fabricated numbers to help justify the shuttle during budgeting and development. Of note is the fact that although they advertised 40-50 flights per year, the maximum output of the external tank supplier was 24 ETs per year. The higher launch rate was then used to calculate a $118 dollar per pound to orbit cost, which was a major selling point to Congress. Also, the total cost of development and the 1981 first lauch date were more or less accurately predicted, but lower estimates and a 1979 first launch were officially presented during justification hearings. Also is this observation on his part:
“Neither one of these accidents [Columbia and Challenger] that we’ve had on the Shuttles require Ph.Ds in physics to understand. In fact, they barely exceed high-school physics to understand.
“Erosion on an O-ring when there should be no erosion is an obvious thing.
“Kinetic energies of a 2 1/2 or 3-pound hunk of foam when it’s traveling 700 feet per second — that’s high school physics.”
None of this really comes as a surprise. Even though the space shuttle is definitely “cool”, I think that NASA has really lost it’s way ever since the shuttle pushed other post-Apollo programs off the board. All of the real big successes since the moon landings have been unmanned space probes (Pioneer, Viking, Voyager, Pathfinder). Maybe the problem with manned space flight isn’t the space shuttle, per se. Maybe the problem with manned space flight is NASA itself. Just a thought.
13:21 08 May 2003
Hmmm. Russia will not allow NASA to participate in or have access to the investigation into the botched Soyuz landing last weekend.
Nikolai Zelenschikov told the ITAR-TASS news agency that no US experts had been invited to take part in the inquiry, as “that will create difficulties in the work.”
He did not elaborate, but recalled that NASA had not invited Russian experts to investigate the reasons of the Columbia shuttle crash.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but there were ZERO Soviet cosmonauts on board the Columbia when it was destroyed. And the shuttle wasn’t on an ISS mission. Two of the three men aboard the Soyuz were American astronauts, and the spacecraft was operating as part of the ISS mission.
I’d say let them do their own investigation, and keep the ISS as well, but pretty soon the US is going to be adapting Estes model rockets for use as orbital launchers. If the little motors aren’t outlawed by the Department of Homeland Security.
And, no, the use of “Soviet” wasn’t a mistake this time.
13:07 08 May 2003
I just received my InFocus X1 DLP projector for our basement home theater project. It is pretty awesome.
I picked up a $13 Parkland Plastics screen at Menards. I just tacked it up on the wall for now. It’s a 4×8 sheet and you can order 5×8 and 5×10 direct from Parkland. I think the cost is quite a bit more for the bigger ones, much more than the slightly increased size would suggest. But still only $50 or $60 shipped. They know that they have a cult following among home theater types, and produce (and price, it seems) the bigger sheets specifically for them. It rolls up. Very portable and storable, and ultra cheap. I’m ordering samples of real screen material, but there’s no rush now. This stuff works.
I’m running an old non-progressive Pioneer DVD player using S-video connections. I was surprised at how good it looked. The only adjustments I made were using the THX Optimizer on a DVD. I checked out a bunch of trailers and watched parts of Apocalypse Now Redux, Apollo 13, and the howitzer assault in part 2 of Band of Brothers. All incredible, especially BoB. Watching anamorphic DVD on widescreen is great. That alone blows me away.
I’m currently running it at about 80″ diagonal (4:3, 64″x48″). It’s quite watchable from only 3 feet away, although 7-8 seems to be the best. View from the angles is excellent. Even with lights on it looks good, but it is great with everything dark.
If you’re thinking of a big screen television, check this puppy out. Great picture, less expensive, much less floor space. $1199.
12:59 08 May 2003
Well, okay. I didn’t actually reference Mr. Heston until I mentioned him in the post subject line. But anyway. All three of you should enjoy this if you haven’t seen it already.
12:31 08 May 2003
Madonna thanked France for opposing the war in Iraq. Now, I’m for everyone having their own opinion and all, but to THANK FRANCE? As if they hold the moral high ground in this debate? I wouldn’t begin to suggest that there are no ulterior motives behind the US invasion, but anyone who believes France’s behavior deserves applause is simply wrong.
Remember, this is the same woman who recently said Americans should care more about happiness and health and less about material [girl] things. Why is it that once people are set for life, usually after a decade or two pursuing and winning financial autonomy, they are so quick to criticize others for caring about the mortgage and grocery money?
As she thanked the French for opposing conflict in Iraq, she told fans: “Here in France I feel at home.”
She’s welcome to stay.
14:24 06 May 2003
The Indiana Jones movies will be coming out on DVD in November. It looks like a 4-disc boxed set, with all three films and a disc of bonus material, will be available for $49.95. No specific word on individual titles, though.
12:09 04 May 2003
The three crew members left high and dry on the International Space Station by the grounding of the shuttle fleet are back on earth. They returned in a Soviet Soyuz TMA capsule, which was on the station as a lifeboat. However, due to technical problems on the Soyuz, they missed their planned landing site by about 275 miles. It took over two and a half hours for them to be located, but in the end everyone was fine. That’s a relief. The two man crew that arrived last week remains onboard for maintenance and a little science.
Boeing has completed a study to keep the ISS running using Soyuz and unmanned Progress flights to resupply the station and ferry crew back and forth. That’s great, but the fact that such a study had to be conducted is truly embarrassing. These are very dark days for the US manned space program.
I’m trying to think of a way that Saturn Vs could bail us out of this one, but we’ve pretty much painted ourselves into a corner.
Update 12:22 04 May 2003
The Soyuz is a RUSSIAN spcecraft, not a SOVIET. Heh.
13:11 01 May 2003
My Iraqi Most Wanted cards arrived yesterday. I picked up one for myself, plus one for each of my three brothers. One of the three also ordered one for each of his brothers. I haven’t talked to the other two brothers, but it’s possible that the four of us bought sixteen decks of cards for the four of us.
This is probably happening across the country. I doubt these will be worth much in the future. Not when there are 700 million of them stashed in drawers because everyone they were going to be given to already had one. Or four.
