Well… about the above… there’s the literal and the metaphorical aspects to consider, eh? The literal:Astronauts John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel have managed to remove a refrigerator-sized, mirror-packed instrument called COSTAR. It was installed in 1993 to correct Hubble's blurry vision, but is no longer needed because new instruments have the same corrections built in. They'll replace it with an instrument called the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), which is designed to detect the existence of filaments of dark matter that bind the galaxies and all visible matter together in a kind of invisible cosmic foam.
Then Grunsfeld will have to perform the most daunting task of the entire mission: He must repair the non-functioning Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was never designed to be repaired -- not on Earth and certainly not in space.
The spacewalker must extract 30 screws, remove a protective plate, and reach into the ACS with a specially designed tool that will clamp onto four sharp electrical circuit cards. He'll remove the cards -- being careful to keep his gloved hands away from any sharp edges -- and then install a new power source to the instrument.
Grunsfeld's task will be made all the more difficult by the awkward position of the instrument. He will not be able to face the screws head on, but rather from a 45-degree angle. A strut will partially block his vision.
Are you not amazed and mystified, Gentle Reader? I most certainly am. What an incredible age we live in!
Amazement of quite another sort, getting to the metaphorical aspect of the ‘toon:
Apparently President Obama models himself after "Star Trek" Capt. Jean Luc Piccard. They both want to travel through the universe with a personal empath to guide them.
[…]
Mr. Obama recently gave
[…]
Down this road of empathy lies a staircase of increasing evils: selective justice, favor seeking, outright prejudice and the meltdown of judicial impartiality and the respect for law.
If Mr. Obama succeeds, "We would have entered a strange new world, where everybody is equal but some are more equal than others," writes Thomas Sowell. "The very idea of the rule of law becomes meaningless when it is replaced by the empathies of judges."
There’s more… in a week-old op-ed from the Washington Times. I’m getting tired of saying it, but: elections have consequences. These sorts of consequences last two or more generations, though. (sigh)
―:☺:―
More strange weather. We’re on some sort of celestial yo-yo here on The High Plains of
And now today:
It’s just NOT nice outside at the moment but I suppose things are better here than other places, where folks might be seriously considering ark construction. It’s been threatening rain all day here but nothing’s been delivered. I’m quite sure we could arrange a trade with any number of concerned farmers.
―:☺:―
Hockey… Damien Cox sez “The hockey’s been GOOD,” and I agree! Excerpts:
It was so close to perfect that it would have been greedy to ask for more.
How much better could the second round of the NHL playoffs have been? Not much, particularly with the overall quality of play so outstanding and with most games played at a blistering pace and ferocious level of competition.
To anyone who believes this league was better 10 years ago, or 30 years ago, well, go watch one of the games from those days, then compare it to what we saw between the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks, or between Anaheim and Detroit in what, at least in the short term, has replaced the Detroit-Colorado matchup as the best rivalry in the Western Conference.
If you really want to be picky, you'd have to note that although the NHL came very, very close to having all four second-round series go the seven-game limit, it didn't quite happen.
The other three series did go to Game 7, which meant it was the first time in 23 years three of the conference semifinals went to seven games and the other lasted six.
[…]
The 27 second-round games, in general, showcased an excellent brand of the sport, albeit with some controversy and some borderline physicality, such as Walker's unnecessary fist to Ward's face and an ugly hit by Anaheim's Mike Brown early in that series that left Detroit's Jiri Hudler lying on the ice in a pool of blood.
But it's a high-speed sport that sometimes seems akin to watching a science project featuring electrons colliding in a high-speed chamber, and you can only get so much artistry in a sport moving that fast. Moreover, the heavy physical toll of the playoffs seems to be mounting, with every team that's eliminated reporting significant players who were competing with injuries that would have kept them out of regular-season play.
Mr. Cox is right. This year’s playoffs are among the VERY best in my hockey memory, which goes back nearly 25 years. What’s better is I’ve evolved from being a Red Wings fan to becoming a genuine hockey fan since I retired, which is mainly a function of my somewhat excessive “free” time. It takes a great deal of commitment… or borderline mental illness, depending on your POV… to watch every available game, every night. But that’s been me over the course of the last few weeks. And I’ve been handsomely rewarded with some of the best hockey I’ve ever seen.
The best is yet to come, of course. I love this time of year.
Buck,
ReplyDeleteA). The Space Thing - I love the whole idea of People living and working up there. All these years and the biggest hitch I think is that it is still only something that the government does, maybe Sir Richard will invest in an orbiting Casino and ferry passengers up there, that will be the day.
On the task immediately at hand, the repair of the Hubble I find it truly amazing and a profound disappointment at the same time. The good part is that for the most part Hubble was designed to be repaired on station and to NASA's credit this is the 6th time they have made the trip. It's too bad that most of the man-made stuff up there is not made in such a way. The disappointment comes from sad business of using non-Tech types to do these repairs. Before the Challenger accident I wrote a letter critical of NASA for using pilots to do the maintenance work in space. This criticism was triggered by the problems they had trying to fix the Solar Max satellite. The main "repair man" on that mission was this guy that had a double Doctorate (I don't remember what degrees) and before all the problems they cropped up they all spoke about how eminently qualified he was for the task. Well, turns out maybe not. There was some kind of attachment on the satellite that was not exactly what they had practiced with in that water tank back here on good ole Earth. So, for many hours they waited around while the figured out what to do. In my mind what they were doing was watching what the Technician with the High School education but a lot of years fixing broke things and recording what he was doing to use in space.
My point is that I am sure the guy that was up there floating in space waiting for new instructions, was more than capable of designing the electronics however, if you want it fixed you generally don't go to the designer for help, its usually a flight line technician. NASA should have a whole crop of space technicians whose main background is fixing electronics not flying. I think the space program is still to eccentric for the good of the country.
B). SCOTUS, I have mixed feelings on this, while I do think we are in for trouble with having a committed communist make picks to the High Bench I am not altogether sold on always picking some Lawyer to hold that Job. Interpreting the Constitution being the main function of SCOTUS I would think that the Job should be open to anyone that was fair minded and educated enough to state his/her rationale in a decision regarding matters before them. The very first SCOTUS (then only 3-member panel) had only one member formally trained in law, the other two were more or less ordinary citizens. How it got hammered into being the province of the Lawyer is beyond me.
C). Hockey - Yeah it was a great second round, but I stand by the idea that the first two series should be 5-games not 7. Think of how good the games would have really been where they all as important as the first one in the series. While I may not have a dog in the fight anymore, I still watch. We even had that International series going on where a bunch of to NHL Pro's were playing, and we watched the collegiate "Frozen Four" as well.
Well, I can't wait for more!!!
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Jimmy: Doesn't NASA have quite a few non-pilot "mission specialists" on staff? I seem to remember more than a few... That said, your point is well-taken.
ReplyDeletere: SCOTUS. I've read a lot of similar commentary about the lawyer/judge - non-lawyer staffing of the Supreme Court. I agree that an educated non-lawyer would probably a Good Thing in this day and age, but OTOH... two words: Earl Warren.
We're also in agreement on a five-game series in the first two rounds of the playoffs. They're TOO long as it stands, and the players are way too susceptible to injury in these long series. Staying healthy is a VERY large part of winning The Cup, and it's a damn shame if and when a team becomes less competitive because of losing a star player. Gonchar on the Pens comes immediately to mind going forward, and the Wings lack of Rafalski and Draper during the first six games of the Anaheim series more than likely hurt them, too. Cutting the series to five games in the first two rounds would mitigate the chances of that happening, IMHO.
Hi Buck!
ReplyDeleteLove your blog! Found you via Reflections by Kris' blog. I just wanted to tell you how much I've enjoyed browsing here, and to thank you for your and your sons' service to our country.
I'm an RV'er too, and live in Oklahoma. Saw that your photo was taken outside OKC.
Wishing you much continued success and happiness, and thank you for the great job you're doing with your blog. Thanks for sharing it with us.
On SCOTUS: I would bet money that I will not like whomever Obama selects. I don't want empathic decision makers, would rather have people who respect and revere the Constitution. It will be interesting.
CP: Thank you SO much for the kind words! I think I won't be pleased with Obama's nominee, either, based on his statements about the sort of person he would nominate, and his past votes as a senator on Dubya's nominees. Yet another hefty sigh from this part of the world...
ReplyDeleteBuck I'd like to respectfully change something in your comment immediately above:
ReplyDeleteI won't be pleased with Obama (full stop).
Kris: Point taken. WELL taken.
ReplyDeleteBuck, on the Mission Specialist position that NASA currently staff's, they are all similar to the Pilot staff, they don't have a "fixer" position. They take someone that tests good with gloves on and put them to work on the "maintenance" business. That person as a Mission Specialist could have been a Biologist or a Chemistry type. They even have Doctors and Physicist flying but no professional technicians. I know that in both the Air Force and the Navy there are In Flight Technicians whose job it is to fix the broken electronics while airborne. Also, not to leave my fellow technicians out whom work the Flight Deck or our aircraft carriers, these guys already know what working under pressure and working with gloves on all the time is all about and lets not forget that Zero Defect thing. When it absolutely has to be fixed right, take it to the Roof!! We always said.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the difference is that people who are trained on how something works and then told "if this happens change this" is a far cry from someone who takes something that is not working and makes it work. The knowledge and temperament between the two is way different and should be embraced. I think they have those guys there at NASA, they just keep them in the basement and pull them out when they need their advice.
Just saying, I want enlisteds in space!!!
BT: Jimmy T sends.
Ah... NOW I get it! Your last line sez it all. But, realistically, both you and I know that the ONLY way the enlisted force is gonna be in space is when space travel becomes so common as to require grunt labor up there. It's just the way of the (military) world...
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