Wednesday, August 27, 2003

10:20:42 PM    

More On The Shuttle Report I'm still working my way through the 248 pages of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report, but I see there is already a member of the board who thinks that the report does not go far enough: The Columbia investigation board did not go far enough in its recommended safety changes, one of the investigators says in a supplemental report that urges NASA to strengthen shuttle inspections and correct mechanical problems that were unrelated to the disaster but could cause another. Air Force Brig. Gen. Duane Deal said Wednesday he felt compelled to highlight these issues after they ended up being buried, downplayed or dropped from the final report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. "I feel an obligation that if I know of something that could cause the next accident that's waiting to happen and I didn't bring it forward, that's when I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror," Deal said in an interview with The Associated Press. I remember back in the time of the Challenger disaster that Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman felt compelled to issue his own Appendix to the Rogers Commission report which stated as follows: Let us make recommendations to ensure that NASA officials deal in a world of reality in understanding technological weaknesses and imperfections well enough to be actively trying to eliminate them. They must live in reality in comparing the costs and utility of the Shuttle to other methods of entering space. And they must be realistic in making contracts, in estimating costs, and the difficulty of the projects. Only realistic flight schedules should be proposed, schedules that have a reasonable chance of being met. If in this way the government would not support them, then so be it. NASA owes it to the citizens from whom it asks support to be frank, honest, and informative, so that these citizens can make the wisest decisions for the use of their limited resources. For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. File under  Space, The Final Frontier 10:20:42 PM    Go ahead, make my day  []  trackback []

8:05:57 PM    

No Ordinary Day There's a very important post over at Michele's blog that everybody should read. She's also putting together a project called Voices that you should check out too. File under  Current Events 8:05:57 PM    Go ahead, make my day  []  trackback []

8:14:41 AM    

Holy Matrimony Batman! The French must be putting something in the champagne these days. First we have the battling bride, and now we have Michael VanStrate, a wedding guest, biting off a man's finger, smearing cake in a nine-year-old's face, and knocking out a 49-year-old woman: VanStrate, an invited guest of the Owosso-area couple, "was causing altercations and arguments with other guests" at the Friday night reception, [Corunna Police Sgt. Kevin] Clark said. "He was asked to leave a couple times, and he'd leave and come back in." After witnesses said VanStrate, who is 6-foot-2 and weighs 260 pounds, smeared cake on the boy's face, Clark said "the father came to the son's rescue, struggling with the suspect, and he apparently had his finger bit off at that time." And they say June is the month for weddings. UPDATE: It gets even better. An apparently "unsatisfactory" male stripper was beaten after "performing" at a bachelorette party. File under  Stuff That Don't Fit Anywhere Else 8:14:41 AM    Go ahead, make my day  []  trackback []