---

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Rice Tells Friends She's Leaving At Year End. "President Bush’s plan to make national-security adviser Condoleezza Rice the first female African-American Secretary of State is dead," the Washingtonian reports. "Republican congressional sources say Rice’s resistance to testifying in public before the September 11 commission—even then doing it so effectively—has made the onetime wonder girl too controversial politically to... [Taegan Goddard's Political Wire] They'll all be leaving in January, so she may as well stick around. 2:28:27 PM  Permalink  comment []

Second Interim Return to Flight Report Released. NASA has been working for the past several months to implement the changes requested by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. The Stafford-Covey Task Group released their second interim report today, which tracks the status of the Return to Flight effort. Three of the fifteen recommendations have been completed, and they expect to wrap up several more by the summer. One of the most difficult tasks so far has been to eliminate falling debris during launch - it was a piece of foam that fell off the fuel tank that critically damaged Columbia - engineers are worried that the only way to test if the problem has been fixed is by actually launching the shuttle. [Universe Today] 11:42:34 AM  Permalink  comment []

A Planetoid Colliding With Critics. Does Sedna, named after the Inuit goddess of the sea, qualify as a new planet? By Clyde Haberman. [New York Times: Science] Idiots and their astrology. 11:25:59 AM  Permalink  comment []

Pretty Polly Give this a listen, and see if the hairs on the back of your neck don't stand up. While you're at it, have a look at the entire collection. Amazing! 9:24:01 AM  Permalink  comment []

Troubled children most likely to confide in pets. Society: Traumatised children may confide in their pets rather than turning to social care professionals, a new report reveals. [Guardian Unlimited] The pets probably give better advice, and don't prescribe drugs. 8:38:38 AM  Permalink  comment []

Hackers all the way up The Big Lab Experiment. Was our universe created by design? [Slate Magazine] "What my theoretical argument shows—and Alan Guth and others who have looked at this matter have come to the same conclusion—is that we can't rule out the possibility that our own universe was created in a lab by someone in another universe who just felt like doing it." 8:25:58 AM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.