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Georgia Tech’s crew at the Mars Desert Research Station is now in place. Myself and ten others are working Mission Support (in rotation), and there are five students and a Research Engineer in situ in Utah at the station.
So read about all the exploits at the above links. In the works: CotB IV, and a post on reliance on procedures and the skill of adaptation (with bonus GT Post Office rant).
…new cell phone from T-Mobile, and think it’s interesting the lengths to which the company will go to keep a current customer. (The following is also a ringing endorsement of T-Mobile’s customer service department, with whom I have never had a problem.)
Those of you who know me know that I’m not a phone person, and don’t spend much time on the cell. I have T-Mobile’s absolute cheapest plan, the $19.99/mo “Basic” plan. Sixty Whenever and 500 weekend minutes. Nothing unlimited, and nothing special about nighttime.
My Nokia 3390 Gold, the free phone that came with my service, is starting to die. I’ve got a few stuck pixels on the screen, the battery is losing its capacity, and the reception is degraded. A month or two ago, I went over to the T-Mobile store in Technology Square and asked about getting a new phone. The person who helped me in the store said he couldn’t get me anything for free, but suggested I contact Customer Service, who has more leeway and can consider my “tenure” (as they called it) with the company. I’ve been with T-Mobile for a total of over two years so he said it was likely.
Today I finally got the chance to call Customer Service and ask. The rep said that he couldn’t get me a free phone either. I kindly suggested that he try a little harder and he put me on the line with a person from account management. He quickly offered me a free Motorola, the inexpensive Nokia 6010, and a less inexpensive Samsung. He also said he could upgrade me—at no charge—to the “Basic Preferred” rate plan, which has an extra 15 Anytime minutes per month. Added to the fifteen Loyalty Minutes I’ve been getting for the past while, I’d be up to 90 Anytime minutes.
So, less than $25 later, and with another 12 month contract, I have a new phone and more minutes per month. Same phone number, same company, no fuss.
Thanks, T-Mobile. You make up for the fact that your cycling team is the U.S. Postal Service team’s main Tour rivals with your excellent service.
I do have Day 3 Petit Le Mans photos processed, which will be followed by a Petit special feature (yes, finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for). At least the first of these should be posted tomorrow.
Meanwhile, a total lunar eclipse, which will not reoccur until 2007, happened earlier this evening. All the below photos (except the skyline) were taken with the TCON-17. Shooting was in Yellow Jacket Park, where a bunch of people had gathered at the invitation of the Astronomy Club, who brought telescopes, to view the event.
ISO 64, f/5.6, 1/320 s
NASA got us to the moon in an amazingly short time. But its subsequent history demonstrates that command-style economics is a little like steroids in athletics: You get a burst of rapid growth when the drugs first take hold, but after a while you realize that your national testicles are shrinking. —Glenn Reynolds
The Path Not Taken is a good read on space policy issues, especially space privatization. Definitely a worthwhile read for interested parties. (From Transterrestrial.)
Just finished Michener’s Space. It’s a good piece of historical fiction, and I enjoyed reading it. Michener brings together so many disparate characters, from the German engineers to American politicians to astronauts to a man who sells outrageous stories of Martian invasions and calls them truth. While lacking something in tension—the story is a very detached, matter-of-fact narrative for the most part—it is made up for in the rendition of the characters. Well worth reading, though I am not sure if I would care as much for other Michener novels.
My reading list currently stands as follows:
And books not in my possession that sit nebulously at the end of the queue:
“In the brief silence that followed, Mott reflected that this good woman had seen space and been repelled by it. As the wonder-machines leaped into the air at Canaveral, probing ever outward, extending the dimensions of the comprehensible universe, she had intentionally contracted the perimiters of her world, making it ever smaller and easier to control. And he concluded that all persons are obligated to wrestle with the universe as they perceive it, and those who are terrified by the prospect retreat to little corners from which they seek to destroy the machines doing the outward probing and the men who manage them.”
—James A. Michener, Space
Though this amply explains the Total Perspective Vortex, it also strikes me as a remarkably powerful sentiment. We are obligated to wrestle with the universe as we perceive it, and more importantly, we must not be scared. That fear leads us only into a denial of truth, which endangers the future of humanity itself.
Reminder to self and others: There will be a total lunar eclipse on the evening of the 15th.
This guy makes a lot of good points about where we should go with the manned space program. I’m curious what ideas that NASA has prevously thrown out that will suddenly be back on deck.
“Broke apart in flames.” (ABC News) Shuttle is always in flames during landing, that’s because it’s a hypersonic re-entry. “May have broken apart due to the extreme pressure.” (ABC News) The pressures were very low, only about 88 psf. Thats pounds per square foot. I calculated it myself. “The first time there has been an accident during landing.” (Fox News) There have only been three accidents in the US manned spaceflight program. And THERE WERE NO TERRORISTS INVOLVED! Stop bringing it up!
The people in the news are bastards. Stop your bullshit, and report the damn news.
