Thursday, January 11, 2007
---Ford Funerals, Indonesian 737 Found, Israel vs. Iran, Tuesday, Noodles, Warning Labels, The Pillars of Creation, and Other Stories
FOXNews.com [AP]- Nation Honors Former President Ford
President Ford was honored over a couple of days in seemingly dozens of venues where he served or lived. He was remembered most fondly for his “modesty and humility” in office, conspicious by comparison with various of his successors.
Political commentary centered on Watergate and its aftermath. If the commentary had been remotely honest, Nixon’s lapses of judgement---and Ford’s peculiar pardon of them---would be seen as inconsequential compared to the steaming wreckage of policy and the credibility of the U.S. Presidency left in the wake of the Clinton administration, which will continue to bedevil the nation for decades to come.
Gerald Ford was 93, and we’re likely to miss him even more in the chaos to come.
My Way News[AP] - Piece of Missing Jet Found in Indonesia
The first wreckage of the Boeing 737, missing off Sulawesi in Indonesia for 10 days, has been recovered by fishermen in the area. The plane carried 96 passengers, including a man from Oregon with his two daughters.
My Way News[AP] - Nuclear Agency Head Dismissed for Lapses
Linton Brooks, chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration, has been invited onward---figuratively speaking---for the failure of his adiminstration to correct a humiliating series of security lapses at the nation's nuclear laboratories, including Los Alamos. In the most recent embarrassment, a drug raid on the home of a former employee also uncovered a stash of classified documents from the Los Alamos lab. This occurred in spite of a multi-million-dollar supposed overhaul of the lab's security.
My Way News[AP] - Israel Denies Planning Iran Nuke Attack
The London Times has published a purported leak from the Israeli military which claims that Israel has plans to use tactical nuclear weapons to disable the Iranian nuclear program.
In an absolutely stunning development, the Israeli government has denied that it is doing any such thing....
FOXNews.com[AP]- Bird Deaths Shut Down Downtown Austin
My Way News[AP] - Explosives Said Detected at Miami Port
KHOU.com: “Sugar Land chemical leak sends 25 to hospitals”
Tuesday was more interesting than many people would prefer. There were dead birds in Austin, Texas, a leak of corrosive chemicals from a tanker truck in Sugarland, near Houston, Texas, and a terrifying attempt to smuggle sprinkler parts onto a cruise ship in Miami. Other than some “shelter-in-place” orders for schools in Sugarland, none of these had any particular lasting significance, as far as anybody knows.
FOXNews.com[AP] - Inventor of Instant Noodles Dies at Age 96 in Japan
The inventor of Ramen Noodles, a dietary staple of college students worldwide, has died. If I figured out what percentage of my graduate career was spent trying to determine how to break the hardened brick of noodles into quarters to obtain the optimum noodle length, it might explain a few other things.
Scientist: NASA found life on Mars - and killed it - CNN.com
At least, that is the conclusion of a scientific paper published this week. It concluded that the life detection experiments included in the Viking landers in 1976-77 were not designed with sufficient imagination. They might have drowned and then overheated Martian microbes, which the investigator speculated would be based on a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide.
Since I recently indulged in a fairly pointless discussion about cryogenic life forms on Titan, I can't really dismiss the concept out of hand.
SPACE.com -- Faulty Software May Have Doomed Mars Orbiter
NASA investigators have suggested that software recently uploaded to the 10-year-old
Mars Orbiter may have mistakenly caused it to drive its solar arrray away from the Sun, and then point the heat radiator of a critical battery toward it. The resulting loss of power, followed by heat-related failure of the battery, could explain the loss of contact with the veteran spacecraft.
It's like I've been trying to tell everybody for years---software development doesn't actually work.
JPL.NASA.GOV: News Releases:”Famous Space Pillars Feel the Heat of Star's Explosion ”
One of the most memorable images of the Hubble Space Telescope may have reproduced
something that isn't actually there anymore. The famous “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula have recently been rechecked by the Spitzer infrared telescope. The new image shows the Pillars being approached by the shock wave of a massive supernova explosion.
In about a 1,000 years, any observers left around would likely see the Pillars being wiped out by the blast about 6,000 years ago as of the Spitzer image. Spooky, isn't it?
M-LAW's Wacky Warning Labels
It's time again for those icons of our lawyer-infested society, warning labels. Added to old classics like the warning to remove your baby from the stroller before you fold it up, are a new crop of inductees warning us not to put people in washing machines, not to use matches to check the fuel level in our gas tanks, and never, never, try to dry our cell phones in a microwave. Forewarned is forearmed, or something like that...
FOXNews.com - War Between Donald, Rosie and Barbara Turns Nuclear
Okay, here's 70¢---enough to call two people. But that's my final offer....
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President Ford was honored over a couple of days in seemingly dozens of venues where he served or lived. He was remembered most fondly for his “modesty and humility” in office, conspicious by comparison with various of his successors.
Political commentary centered on Watergate and its aftermath. If the commentary had been remotely honest, Nixon’s lapses of judgement---and Ford’s peculiar pardon of them---would be seen as inconsequential compared to the steaming wreckage of policy and the credibility of the U.S. Presidency left in the wake of the Clinton administration, which will continue to bedevil the nation for decades to come.
Gerald Ford was 93, and we’re likely to miss him even more in the chaos to come.
My Way News[AP] - Piece of Missing Jet Found in Indonesia
The first wreckage of the Boeing 737, missing off Sulawesi in Indonesia for 10 days, has been recovered by fishermen in the area. The plane carried 96 passengers, including a man from Oregon with his two daughters.
My Way News[AP] - Nuclear Agency Head Dismissed for Lapses
Linton Brooks, chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration, has been invited onward---figuratively speaking---for the failure of his adiminstration to correct a humiliating series of security lapses at the nation's nuclear laboratories, including Los Alamos. In the most recent embarrassment, a drug raid on the home of a former employee also uncovered a stash of classified documents from the Los Alamos lab. This occurred in spite of a multi-million-dollar supposed overhaul of the lab's security.
My Way News[AP] - Israel Denies Planning Iran Nuke Attack
The London Times has published a purported leak from the Israeli military which claims that Israel has plans to use tactical nuclear weapons to disable the Iranian nuclear program.
In an absolutely stunning development, the Israeli government has denied that it is doing any such thing....
FOXNews.com[AP]- Bird Deaths Shut Down Downtown Austin
My Way News[AP] - Explosives Said Detected at Miami Port
KHOU.com: “Sugar Land chemical leak sends 25 to hospitals”
Tuesday was more interesting than many people would prefer. There were dead birds in Austin, Texas, a leak of corrosive chemicals from a tanker truck in Sugarland, near Houston, Texas, and a terrifying attempt to smuggle sprinkler parts onto a cruise ship in Miami. Other than some “shelter-in-place” orders for schools in Sugarland, none of these had any particular lasting significance, as far as anybody knows.
FOXNews.com[AP] - Inventor of Instant Noodles Dies at Age 96 in Japan
The inventor of Ramen Noodles, a dietary staple of college students worldwide, has died. If I figured out what percentage of my graduate career was spent trying to determine how to break the hardened brick of noodles into quarters to obtain the optimum noodle length, it might explain a few other things.
Scientist: NASA found life on Mars - and killed it - CNN.com
At least, that is the conclusion of a scientific paper published this week. It concluded that the life detection experiments included in the Viking landers in 1976-77 were not designed with sufficient imagination. They might have drowned and then overheated Martian microbes, which the investigator speculated would be based on a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide.
Since I recently indulged in a fairly pointless discussion about cryogenic life forms on Titan, I can't really dismiss the concept out of hand.
SPACE.com -- Faulty Software May Have Doomed Mars Orbiter
NASA investigators have suggested that software recently uploaded to the 10-year-old
Mars Orbiter may have mistakenly caused it to drive its solar arrray away from the Sun, and then point the heat radiator of a critical battery toward it. The resulting loss of power, followed by heat-related failure of the battery, could explain the loss of contact with the veteran spacecraft.
It's like I've been trying to tell everybody for years---software development doesn't actually work.
JPL.NASA.GOV: News Releases:”Famous Space Pillars Feel the Heat of Star's Explosion ”
One of the most memorable images of the Hubble Space Telescope may have reproduced
something that isn't actually there anymore. The famous “Pillars of Creation” in the Eagle Nebula have recently been rechecked by the Spitzer infrared telescope. The new image shows the Pillars being approached by the shock wave of a massive supernova explosion.
In about a 1,000 years, any observers left around would likely see the Pillars being wiped out by the blast about 6,000 years ago as of the Spitzer image. Spooky, isn't it?
M-LAW's Wacky Warning Labels
It's time again for those icons of our lawyer-infested society, warning labels. Added to old classics like the warning to remove your baby from the stroller before you fold it up, are a new crop of inductees warning us not to put people in washing machines, not to use matches to check the fuel level in our gas tanks, and never, never, try to dry our cell phones in a microwave. Forewarned is forearmed, or something like that...
FOXNews.com - War Between Donald, Rosie and Barbara Turns Nuclear
Okay, here's 70¢---enough to call two people. But that's my final offer....
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