Sure, it took her about two weeks to finish a marathon: seemingly, a pretty slow pace. But considering that she’s paralyzed below the chest and she nevertheless walked the whole thing, that’s actually pretty good.
May 082012
May 062012
The Space Shuttle system was seemingly designed for modularity… the orbiter could be replaced, the boosters could be replaced. Payload shrouds could be placed alongside the tank in place of the orbiter, or on the nose of the external tank either replacing the orbiter or supplementing it.
Martin calculated that the payload for the standard Shuttle using lightweight fiber wound solid rocket boosters and a lightweight ET going to a 215 nautical mile orbit would be 60,800 pounds. Payload to the same orbit would increase to 69,700 pounds if the ET was taken all the way to orbit (the more efficient SSMEs would be used all the way to orbit rather than relying on the OMS engines). By using the ACC and dragging the ET and ACC all the way to orbit, total payload would be 60,100 pounds.
A brochure from Martin Marietta describing the ACC is available HERE.
May 062012
Last’s nights’ “supermoon” was largely shrouded by clouds and haze, with the following results:
May 062012
Attorney in hijab defends call for other women at 9/11 hearing to wear ‘appropriate’ clothing
Not only does she dress up like a sideshow phony in court, but she wants all the other women in the courtroom to do the same. And for no better reason than to appease her client, who is accused of being… well, an unutterable scumbag who worked to kill tens of thousands of people in support of a crackpot religious ideology.
I say: make sure all their meals are catered by Hooters.
May 062012
A UN human rights official is urging the U.S. to turn over control of lands considered to be sacred to Native Americans, including the site of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial.
James Anaya, the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, unveiled his recommendations in Geneva on Friday after completing a 12-day visit to the U.S. where he met with representatives of indigenous peoples in six states.
May 052012
The news story:
Man finds turtle with son’s initials on it
In short: an 85 year old man finds a box turtle with his sons initials and the date “1965” carved into it… 47 years after his then-13-year-old kid carved them into the animals shell.
The flashback: The movie “The Bermuda Depths.” This was a made-for-TV movie broadcast back in 1978 and features a turtle (a sea turtle in this case) with carved initials that comes back years later. I’ve found over the years that a lot of people my age, who were just kids when we saw this flick on the tube back in the day, remembered the movie… but almost universally remembered it almost as if it were a dream. Something about it apparently resonated with kids of the 7-12 age group.
It’s available as a DVD-R:
May 032012
If there was money to be made in photos of sunsets, I expect I would’ve made my fortune tonight. I took a whole lot of photos, with a great need of processing (stitching, mostly), but at the moment I’m short of both the time and resources… the laptop is busy slooooooooowwwwwwwly cranking through burning DVDs. I’ll probably post panos at a later date if there’s interest.
May 022012
For reasons some of you may know, blogging will be a bit reduced for the next little while. In the meantime: here are two sleeping cats. Enjoy.
May 012012
I’ve had a few people recommend that I try Kickstarter as a way to crowdsource some of the things I’d like to do. I’ve given it a bit of thought, but am unsure as yet just how to go about doing what (how do I crowdsource my mortgage payments?). Maybe crowdsource the purchase of a new computer system, using poster-sized diagrams of the Space Station V, or something…
In the meantime, here are some examples of apparently how to NOT succeed with Kickstarter:
37 Saddest Failed Kickstarters
But on the other hand, there are some successes:
Replacing the “N-word” with “Robot” in Huck Finn
Currently funded at 500% (which means it’s successful)
Wollstonecraft
Currently funded at 2,293% (which means it’s *fantastically* successful)
May 012012
This could be interesting:
Beer companies want tribe lawsuit dismissed
In short: the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota is suing beer companies and stores in a Nebraska town over the troubles booze has brought to the rez. Here’s the thing: they are suing beer stores in Nebraska not because they’ve broken the law… but because they *haven’t.* The suing Sioux are suing to force the stores to racially profile and refuse to sell beer to people who look like Injuns.
Yeah.