This is more a note to myself than anything, but you might find it interesting as well. JPL has put together an overview called the Basics of Space Flight, covering topics like orbital mechanics, experiments, and communication. It’s supposed to have a bent toward unmanned missions, but a lot of the principles are the same. I look forward to reading it.
All posts by Chris
Laughing on the inside, too
Deana sent this to me, but I thought it should be shared with a wider audience:
November’s Laughter images from Happiness Across Cultures, the topic on Margaret’s Walking Stick.
See, we find things to make people feel good, too! :)
Rights eroding before our eyes
Looks like our fair legislature slipped one past us again. Since the PATRIOT II bill was shot down before it even made it to Congress, some of the proponents decided to sneak parts of it into an otherwise-innocuous spending bill. The new amendment widens the scope of the FBI’s information-subpoena powers to include businesses like casinos, travel agencies, and the US Postal Service.
The Elegant Universe
As Strong Bad would say, “Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” It looks like PBS is offering the entirety of a NOVA series on modern physics for online viewing. Even better, they’re offering it in a good-quality QuickTime stream with closed-captioning!
Between this and the BBC’s Reith Lecture series on the human brain, the future of public broadcasting online seems very promising.
The changing face of bloggery
I’m fiddling with the templates to make the site more palatable to Passepartout (my Sidekick). Hopefully this will be the next step toward swapping out the Global Spin homepage for something more bloggy.
If you see anything amiss with the blog page, let me know and I’ll fix it.
~c