Saw a great documentary with Glen over the weekend about Spirit and Opportunity. Both were supposed to last 90 days, but they’re still going. Helping that is this latest news – Spirit just received a mystery bath similar to one given (?) to Opportunity some time ago. No one understands it really, but it’s cool.
I’m also trying to figure out how to support Sentator Barbara Mikulski in her bid to keep the Hubble running. You go, Babs!
Space Review invites you to “Meet Michael Griffin”:http://www.thespacereview.com/article/339/1, the new nominee for NASA administrator. While I’ve been extremely skeptical of the Bush administration’s space exploration initiative, this nomination actually gives me hope that NASA could be shifted to the right track.
It wouldn’t be without losses, of course; the shuttle, ISS, and Hubble are all likely to take a back seat to human exploration of the solar system. However, I think that if we can really put people back on the Moon and/or send them to Mars, the gains would be worth it.
Environmental conservation, community development and women in Kenya plus a Nobel Peace Prize . . . I mean, one woman really can make a difference.
The 2006 budget proposed by the Bush administration is truly sickening. This “article by Molly Ivins”:http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/H022105B.shtml says it so well that I’m too disgusted to comment.
For a friendlier version of how easy it would be to change our budget priorities, “Ben Cohen explains it with cookies”:http://www.truemajority.org/fun/.
An update on the Buster in Vermont controversy I “ranted about”:http://www.globalspin.com/mt/archives/000480.html earlier: An “absolutely idiotic article”:http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/02/27/news/opinion/edit07.txt by Bill O’Reilly underscores the basic misconception involved. O’Reilly claims that the issue isn’t gay couples, it’s that “sex in general is an inappropriate topic for small children.”
And there you go. The first thing Bill O’Reilly thinks of when he sees two women working on a farm in Vermont is _sex_, of such a prurient nature that the mere hint of it would sear a child’s eyes for life. We might look at such a show and see a family working together to make maple syrup, but O’Reilly (and, by his deduction, the toddlers of America) see hot girl-on-girl action.
It’s all so clear now.