Live feed: http://www.msnbc.com/m/lv/default.asp?0cv=c644 (thanks Jeff)

Status: http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/delta4/status.html

Story: http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/delta4/021114ascent/

Overview: http://spaceflightnow.com/delta/delta4/021112overview/

"Powered by the first new U.S. liquid-fueled rocket engine developed in a quarter-century, the inaugural Delta 4 is scheduled to launch..."

Let's see if this happens...

[Update: Nope. Didn't happen, not due to weather, but due to some problem with what they did during the last hold which WAS for weather. Don't ask me, I can't even launch my kids out of bed sometimes.]
3:30:59 PM    comment []  Google It!  

"The Content Cartel has the aura of celebrity on their side - they're "protecting" the rock stars and movie stars who sit at the pinnacle of today's society. They're the cool kids, whereas the people who campaign for civil liberties are often considered dull and overly earnest. My main ray of hope is that the reason most of the software industry voluntarily gave up copy protection technologies - primarily that consumers hated copy protection - will rise again, but unless we speak out now, all of our content may be locked up in a trusted system protected by the DMCA."

I don't pretend to understand a lot about the intracacies and legalities of this issue, but this article does introduce a concept that I can understand, one called "trusted systems" and how the DMCA and it's writers are attempting to build it.

"The trusted system's goals are simple - to eliminate all unauthorized uses and create a situation where we pay more for the content we consume."

And I do know that the DMCA scared Jazz 88 away from it's webcast. That's enough for me to dispise it.

Link thanks to Doc.
2:35:19 PM    comment []  Google It!  

If it had been any colder, I wouldn't have, since I hadn't really planned out any clothing (and didn't want to find warm stuff in the dark). But temps were with me and there was a good chance it wouldn't disapoint, so with a little coaxing, boy answered an affirmative yes, letting me know that he had seen a meteor shower before with Grandma and Grandpa ("your ma and pa", which was last year at this time). I loaded him up (with jacket, blanket, and huggy bear) and we headed down to the courtyard and a lounge chair for stacked viewing. We had a pretty good section of the east sky to look at, with Venus blazing overhead and the bright moon blocked by the house. Talk of atmosphere, planets, why people would be driving by in the middle of the night, and other relevant subject would be punctuated every 20 or 30 seconds by "ow", "uuuuu", and "saw one". We didn't see any real spectacular long tails or bright burners from this city-bound view, but enough to illustrate the awesomeness of space and the protective bubble of earth's atmosphere...truly amazing.

Had to blog it. Surprised that Doc hasn't yet...especially from the desert (except there's lots of lights there).

Let's get another hour or two of sleep...
3:57:29 AM    comment []  Google It!