The two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been exploring the red planet for the last three-and-a-half years. They were originally designed and engineered to only survive a ninety day mission. This upcoming Saturday, NASA has planned to launch a third Mars rover named Phoenix from Patrick AFB in Florida. The Phoenix spacecraft is currently sitting atop a Boeing Delta II rocket. After the Phoenix launches at 5:26-6:03 a.m, it will make the ten-month-long journey, and then land in the north polar ice cap region of Mars on May 25th, 2008.
The main reason to explore the polar region is to see if life could, does, or did exist below the surface hidden from the harsh Martian conditions. The basic science with this mission is a major motivation for embarking upon it.
First of all, it is rocket science. Launching a spacecraft to another planet and landing it there is an amazing feat of engineering technology that incorporates just about every major engineering discipline.
Secondly, burrowing under the Martian permafrost and looking for forms of life brings geological, chemical and biological scientific disciplines to the mission. For example, simply discovering traces of methane in a soil sample doesn't necessarily mean that the methane was produced by biological processes since methane can be trapped there from geological processes.
If the Mars exploration missions interest you, here are my suggested links:
Last Saturday, I drove my friend's pontoon boat around Lake Weir again. I'm not as sunburned as last time because I did all the sea captaining with the top up.
It makes me wish I had a poontang boat of my own because I'd be on the water more often, if I did have one. There would be hot babes in bikini bathing suits on it, sunning themselves, feeding me cupcakes and whatnot, and getting into some softcore pr0n pillow fights, of course.
As it turned out, we inadvertently showed up on the second day that a brand new $4.4 million boat ramp facility was open to the public within Carney Park, in Ocklawaha. It was very cool in a boating kind of way. They had eight access ramps with big parking spots across from each ramp that lined up perfectly for the backing-up-with-a-trailer-challenged truck drivers.
The new access facility in Carney Park on Lake Weir was very cool. Besides the eight boat ramps that the park rangers informed us were supposed to be "splash and dash" to keep the traffic flowing, the new facility had plenty of spacious parking for trucks with boat trailers, restrooms, and very cool durable plastic docks with tie-downs beyond the boat ramps.
This time when I pulled the poontang off the trailer, I checked the crosswind and parallel-parked it against the dock like a frickin' pro. Yes, I'm still quite proud of myself about that naval maneuver, even now. After my friend parked his truck and walked back to the boat, we were able to get under away.
First, I headed east across the lake to the far shore. Afternoon thunderstorms were starting to form, so I headed north. We didn't stop at Gator Joe's or Ma Barker's because I was sea captain that day and the weather worried me. After a while, I headed southwest back to Carney Park and we got the poontang back on the trailer. Within just a minute, the downpour began. My spidey-sense got the both of us off of the lake before the lightning started flying around.
Dragnet is a classic TV series that ran from 1951-1959. If you enjoy crime drama, like modern day CSI, then you'll probably like this grandfather of the type of show that portrays the professionals of law enforcement. Dragnet's main character, Sgt. Joe Friday, was portrayed by actor Jack Webb. Webb's first film role was in 1932 as a boy in the film, "Three on a Match," which starred Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis. As the face of Dragnet, Jack Webb also developed Dragnet into a franchise TV series, writing and directing seasons of Dragnet in 1967, and then again in 2003. When Webb died in 2004, the Los Angeles Police Department officially retired badge number 714 in his honor.
Watching some of the films and TV shows created decades before I was born is interesting to me. Although artistic works of fiction, the Dragnet series is nearly historical in its portrayal of the LAPD in that era. I have to concede that Dragnet never showed the LAPD in a negative light, to the point of being propaganda, but I enjoy it because it depicts the people of the time: their automobiles, their clothing, and their use of language.
One of the places where I watch a few classic movies and some television is on White Springs TV online. Their broadcast schedule states that on Sunday, July 29th, they will be streaming Dragnet episodes from Noon until Midnight.
Click here to launch Windows Media Player with the White Springs TV video stream. If you are having trouble viewing it, try their video feed page.
Just a sidenote: I have been having some kind of connection difficulties browsing any subdomains at Blogdrive for about a week now. This means that I can't view your blogs. I'm not intentionally ignoring people. I honestly don't a clue why this is happening. I don't have any troubles on any other websites, so I can't fault my internet service provider on this. I can only hope that the problem fixes itself, at this point.
President Bush underwent a colonoscopy procedure Saturday. Bush's butt was news around the world this weekend as the President legally and officially turned the reigns of American power over to his Vice President Dick Cheney for about two hours. Anal retentive people point out that Cheney was actually our Emperor between 7:16 a.m. and 9:21 a.m. on Saturday morning.
I don't know why the mainstream media makes such a big deal about Cheney being in control for two hours. It's not like it's been a secret to anyone paying attention that Cheney has been the actual Dick behind the president for the last six and a half years screwing the planet hard. That fat reptilian alien had no empathy or conscious well before doctors bionically kept him alive with a heart pacemaker in order to be able to manipulate the federal government for our sock puppet President.
Speaking of sock puppets, the eight Democratic presidential candidates were at The Citadel in South Carolina tonight for the first Democratic National Committee sanctioned debate. Trying so hard to be hip, the Dems and CNN used YouTube generated questions. CNN broadcast this dog and pony show live and streamed it on the web.
I watched it. It was more entertaining than a funeral, but tedious in its value for figuring out which candidate would be the best leader of my country. Andersen Cooper moderated the infotainment and moved the show along fast enough to show a number of YouTube video clips.
Mike Gravel, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Joseph Biden, and Dennis Kucinich were on the stage. The CNN host primarily directed questions to future President Clinton, Vice President Edwards and Secretary of State Obama that were serious enough to allow them to get their campaign messages out. And you can tell, the top tier are colluding not to bash each other in the run up to the primary election.
Like the videos played to "lighten the mood," Cooper did ask Gravel and Kucinich a few questions. I admire their honesty to their core message, even if they don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination. I actually enjoyed the humor of Richardson and Biden because both are fairly affable people, think fast, and are occasionally honest and very witty.
Maybe I'm overly cynical, but the only winner in tonight's political infotainment was YouTube ... and maybe these two guys:
If Jeff Foxworthy and Larry The Cable Guy can cash in on whitetrash redneck faux ignorance, these guys have a better than even chance to please Red State America. Watching the millionaire candidates politely laugh on stage after this video was shown disguised the jealously that the front runners have for Al Gore's popularity.
I hope some creative person creates an equally unnerving video for the Republican stepford candidates to answer about Fred Thompson. Their debate is dropping on September 17th, in Florida.
Oh. Wait for it ... wait for it ... okay. I was thrilled to see one of my old bricklayer buddies from the Metro Detroit area in the house tonight (you have to click that link for the punchline).
The U.S. Senate pulled an all-night session to allow nearly all of the Senators to speak on the Levin-Reid amendment to the Defense Authorization legislation. The Levin-Reid amendment calls for a redefinition of the U.S. military's mission in Iraq. The parliamentary mechanisms of the Senate require 60 votes to end debate (invoke cloture) and unless cloture is invoked, no vote can be taken on an amendment. The Levin-Reid amendment would also end the so-called surge strategy of the Bush administration and is seen as a stick to get Iraqi politicians to act.
The political parties are circling their wagons over this amendment to the legislation. Republican Senators support the Bush administration and try to make the point that everyone should just give the surge strategy more time. The Democratic Senators simply say that Bush administration has had four years of failed strategies and that the reason given for the surge -- to provide improved security so the al Maliki government can act politically -- is not working.
RealClearPolitics has a number of headlines and op-ed links about the Senate debates. Some bloggers have gone live to try to cover the speeches on the Senate floor. Some in the news media seem to simply make fun of the whole event.
If you want to see comments making fun of Democratic Senators, visit Michelle Malkin. If you want to see comments making fun of Republican Senators, go to DailyKos. I'm sure there are others, but the Senate all-nighter is going to end about 11:00am local.
I went to bed listening to Senators speaking about Iraq via a live video stream provided by C-Span2 (real video link). Turning the volume to a minimum, I slept well until Hillary Clinton spoke. Her voice grates on my spinal cord when she gets animated.
The thing that pisses me off about the U.S. politicians debating Iraq policy is that they seem to simply sling mud and lies. The Karl Rovian slogans that are endlessly repeated by Republicans piss me off, too. If I hear another ditto-head say, "cut-and-run" or "precipitous withdrawal," I'm just going to smile and wait for another Tim McVeigh-type to surface from the military ranks getting screwed daily to seek revenge. Mark my words.
Look, most military logistics experts say it would take nearly two years for us to disentangle our military from the country of Iraq at this point. Two years is not exactly precipitous. Iran, Turkey, and the U.S. will have new leaders in two years.
Republicans also lie about Anbar province. They say that Bush's surge strategy produced that minimal success story when it was under way last year, before any surge was announced in January.
The Bush administration is lying again to cover Saudi Arabia. While they are kicking up the media hatred for Iran, saying that they are helping kill U.S. troops, the majority of attacks are coming from foreign fighters supported from Saudi Arabian Sunni extremists.
I heard David Satterfield (Condi Rice's deputy) lie about that on Washington Journal one morning the very same month that Saudi security forces arrested 172 people in a sweep of terrorist cells and IED factories. The Saudi's didn't act because the terrorists were going into Iraq; they acted because there were plots against Saudi oil infrastructure and facilities. Satterfield said, "No, I haven't heard about that." What an absolute lie.
Some Democrats are lying about "bringing the troops home" too. Let's be honest. Nobody is going anywhere until Bush and Cheney are out of the White House.
On a lighter note, I heard the Republican Senator from Utah, Orrin Hatch, try to be cool and not be a total Republican tool this morning. He was bashing John Kerry who had spoken just before him. At the end of his speech, instead of saying "cut and run," he said this very pho-net-ic-al-ly:
