Bright red and yellow primroses glistening with dew in the morning sunlight.
February 2006
SuitSat Batt Flat
I told you this was a Russian brainfart. From SpaceWeather.com
SUITSAT IS SILENT: Space is cold–apparently too cold for SuitSat’s batteries. The Earth-orbiting spacesuit stopped transmitting shortly after it was thrown overboard from the International Space Station on Feb. 3rd. Probable cause: lack of power.
Right: SuitSat floats away from the International Space Station on Feb. 3rd.
This doesn’t mean that SuitSat was a failure. The experimental satellite was “launched” to answer questions such as “Can a spacesuit-satellite function without internal temperature controls?” The answer, apparently, is no. Next-generation SuitSats will take this into account.
SuitSat will continue to orbit Earth for weeks, spiraling slowly into the atmosphere. Stay tuned for information about seeing SuitSat in the night sky.
Damsel Sends You Wilson Arch
I thought I would share this picture of Wilson Arch I took during our vacation to Utah last Autumn. The arch sits right along US 191 just south of La Sal Junction on the road from Moab to Monument Valley. This beautiful natural sandstone formation isn’t in one of the National parks or monuments that are also in this part of Utah, but it’s just right there alongside the highway, not far from the famous Hole-in-the-Wall!
New Star Whores Inductees
Today, we are able to induct four new members to our Star Whores Hall of Shame: Alec Baldwin, Meryl Streep, Gary Busey and Billy Zane.
Now these folks are not new to the “dark side” of political opinion. They all have issues and a consistent record of moonbat rhetoric. Some of them even have problems staying on the right side of the law.
Alec Baldwin, actor and abusive husband/father, can’t seem to keep his temper under control (remember his bitter divorce from Kim Basinger? The incident with the photographer?). He recently called the 20 Democrats who voted for cloture in the Samuel Alito confirmation “a number of chickensh*t Democrats.” Baldwin has always been outspoken on political issues, but he uses lies and vitriolic rhetoric in his discourse, seldom with any valid arguments. Welcome to the Hall of Shame, Mr. Baldwin.
Meryl Streep, a very talented actress, falls into the “shut up and act” category of the Hall of Shame. On occasion she will render opinion to the media about political matters (sort of like Tourette’s Syndrome). Her recent remarks about Justice Alito’s confirmation: “I’m so demoralized.” You should check with your doctor, Ms. Streep, and see if you need your change-of-life medication re-prescribed. While you’re at it, you might want to ask about the psychological effects of all those Botox injections. Oh, and welcome to the “Shut up and Sing-or-Dance-or-Act” section of the Hall.
Gary Busey, who has been at the edge of the law for many years now (Remember the DUI? The motorcycle crash?), has steadily accepted the actual lifestyle of the roles he played as a degenerate criminal type (one exception is his role in the “Buddy Holly Story”). Continuing the downward spiral of his career, in the Turkish-made film “Valley of the Wolves – Iraq,” Gary Busey appears as a Jewish-American doctor who carries out organ transplants on unwitting Iraqi casualties, sending the organs off to Israel and the United States. For your role, Mr. Busey, in fabricating the falsehoods about the US for a foreign country’s terrorist interest propaganda, you have been selected for induction into the anti-American Asshole wing of our little Hall of Shame.
Billy Zane always seems to play the on-screen role of a son-of-a-bitch; I think it comes naturally to him. He is co-staring with Busey in the Turkish film, which earns him an induction into the “Son of a Bitch” wing of the Hall. Paraphrasing General Patton: “Welcome aboard from one S.O.B to another”
Hat tips to:
Michelle Malkin
Little Green Footballs
Power Line
Mudville Gazette
Basic Training
Happy Groundhog Day
We tend toward more scientific data collection for weather prediction, but he folks in Punxsutawney seem to be having fun with this, so we’ll take Phil’s word on it.
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog who fans claim is never wrong, predicted six more weeks of winter on Thursday, matching the forecast of professional meteorologists.
“Phil is incapable of error. If he says six more weeks of winter, you can take it to the bank,” said Mike Johnston, one of the 15 members of the Groundhog Club Inner Circle in Punxsutawney, site of the annual Groundhog Day ceremony.
Visit Groundhog .org – the Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club
Moondust and Gunpowder?
This is from the third installment of Science@NASA’s Apollo Chronicles.
NASA – Apollo Chronicles: The Smell of Moondust
January 30, 2006: Moondust. “I wish I could send you some,” says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. Just a thimbleful scooped fresh off the lunar surface. “It’s amazing stuff.”
Feel it—it’s soft like snow, yet strangely abrasive.
Taste it—”not half bad,” according to Apollo 16 astronaut John Young.
Sniff it—”it smells like spent gunpowder,” says Cernan.
How do you sniff moondust?
Right: At the end of a long day on the moon, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene cernan rests inside the lunar module Challenger. Note the smudges of dust on his longjohns and forehead. Photo credit: Jack Schmitt.
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Michael Yon on the Pulitzer Prize
From Michael Yon’s Online Magazine:
Michelle Malkin was the first serious blogger to suggest that my work deserved consideration for the Pulitzer Prize. Her sentiment was echoed by thousands of email messages and comments on the open forum site, asking me about a Pulitzer Prize, and whether my work might receive such a great honor. I was clueless. I knew that Pulitzer was synonymous with first-rate and prestigious, but that’s about it. A Pulitzer Prize was as far from my mind as the moon was from my feet.
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