Monthly Archives: November 2006

Nov162006

Another 1000 Days, and a Rescue Mission

The Opportunity rover up on Mars has now reached its 1000th “sol” (or Martian day) of operation. If you’ll recall, Opportunity’s brother Spirit reached the same milestone a few weeks ago.

To celebrate these twin achievements, a multi-media producer and rover enthusiast named Doug Ellison has created a pair of posters that he sent as gifts to the rover teams at Cornell University and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The posters are mosaics composed of images taken by the rovers themselves, and they’re pretty cool. Emily over at The Planetary Society has the details; you can see the Spirit poster here, and the Opportunity poster is here.

Not all of today’s news from the Red Planet is happy, though: the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), yet another of our intrepid robot proxies, has vanished. Mission controllers haven’t heard from the spacecraft since November 5. They are hopeful that the MSG is still operational and has simply oriented itself at an angle that makes communication difficult (i.e., the antenna is turned away from Earth). Plans are afoot to try and spot the missing spacecraft with the cameras on board the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (that’s the one that photographed the Opportunity rover a while back) and then to use the rovers to relay a signal to the MGS. For more information, check out the Planetary Society’s complete article.

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Nov152006

On Notice

I hate to admit it, but I have no idea who Stephen Colbert is. I gather he’s got something to do with that Jon Stewart guy the kids seem to think is so ginchy, but to tell the truth, I really don’t know who he is either. Yes, it’s true — I am terminally unhip. I still get my television the old-fashioned way, by snatching it out of the air with a bent coat-hanger instead of through some kind of fancy-schmancy “cable” or “satellite dish,” whatever the heck they may be. I’m so unhip, in fact, that it’s a wonder my bum doesn’t fall off.

I am, however, cognizant of developing Web trends, and I’ve seen several blogs over the last couple of days posting these Colbertian “On Notice” lists. Eric D. Snider explains that “Stephen Colbert tells things that have been misbehaving that they are ‘On Notice.’ They’re not dead to him yet, but he’s keeping his eye on them, and they should know it. It’s like having two strikes against you.”

In the interest of following the herd, here is my list of things that I think have two strikes against them and need to know it:

OnNotice.jpg
Go here if you want to make your own. It’s fun for the whole family!

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Nov102006

Browsing with Celebrities

So where would you expect to see a genuine movie and television star here in little old Salt Lake City? A fine restaurant, perhaps? Maybe a private club? (FYI for the out-of-towners: that’s what the rest of the country would call a bar or a nightclub. It’s a long story…) How about browsing postcards in your favorite neighborhood bookstore?

I walked over to Sam Weller’s on my lunch hour today, as I often do, and this is who I spotted not three steps inside the front door:

Continue Reading…

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Nov102006

The Future That Wasn’t To Be

Here’s a striking (if rather depressing) quote attributed to city planner Victor Gruen, writing for Life magazine in 1959:

If the good life of the future is not to degenerate into a vast traffic jam and a strangled complex of cities, there is urgent need for immediate urban, regional, statewide and nationwide master planning.
The growth of the cities will not be an evil if we make them again a pleasant place to stroll, eat, shop, sightsee, enjoy cultural amenities, and live. Only then will our leisure time be worth living. Otherwise, we will spend our precious hard-earned leisure within our own four walls, cut off from society by the foes we have created: murderous traffic, smog, disorder, blight and ugliness. We will be trapped in our suburban or city homes, all dressed up with no place to go.

1959. Think of how much trouble we could’ve saved ourselves if we’d paid more attention to him way back then. Salt Lakers certainly could have; almost 50 years after those prophetic words, it seems like we’re struggling desperately to catch up in a race we didn’t know we were running, trying to figure out how to revitalize downtown and deal with traffic problems that just kind of happened while we weren’t looking. I get so frustrated at the collective short-sightedness of my community. We waste so much time shutting barn doors after the fact instead of just sitting down and doing a little thinking before we approve the building permits…

[Thanks to Leif Peng for the quote, and the great old illustrations of how the future used to look.]

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Nov092006

Palate Cleanser

I’ve been puttering off-and-on all day on an entry about Rumsfeld’s resignation and the curious timing thereof, but you know what? My heart’s really not in finishing the damn thing. What can I say that a million other bloggers haven’t already said? I thought the guy was an obstinate, condescending prick who always believed himself to be the smartest kid in the room, even when he was being shown to the door, and I’m more than happy to see him gone. Hopefully the new guy won’t make me want to start singing that old Who song (“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Look it up, kids.)

I think I’m all politicked out for a while. When you get right down to it, I’m just another typical American male with a stereotypically short attention span, and I’m ready to change the subject. I imagine you folks are, too. I think I’m in the mood for something superficial, distracting, and a bit naughty. Let’s see, what have I got here in my files that would fit that bill? Ah, I know:

Russian girl on a car

Yes. Yes, that’s much better, don’t you think?

(Thanks to English Russia.com for a lovely collection of “booth-babe” shots from a Russian videogame trade show.)

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Nov082006

Rummy Resigns, and Other News

Wow, what an afternoon! My previous entry has generated a number of comments that I’d like to respond to, but I haven’t yet been able to settle down long enough to compose anything worth reading; I’ve just learned one of my co-workers is in the hospital after wiping out on his longboard last night (he was skating in downtown Salt Lake when a car cut him off; he evaded, but crashed into a concrete planter box at about 30 mph); and, as everyone’s no doubt heard by now, Rumsfeld is hitting the showers. I’m still processing that one — I expected some changes in the wake of the Democratic victory, but I didn’t expect anything so major to happen so soon. Frankly, I’m a little overwhelmed.

I think I’m going to spend the rest of this afternoon and evening unplugged from politics. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the following thought, courtesy of Mark Evanier:

Someone on Fox News just said that everyone should try and find something to be happy about today. I think I’ll be happy that I wasn’t around Dick Cheney last night when he was armed and getting the news.

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Nov082006

Election Results ’06

It seems to be the topic du jour, so here’s my reaction to yesterday’s election results (which I’m sure won’t surprise any of my three loyal readers): I’m pleased. Pleased that the brakes can now be applied to the runaway “unitary executive” and that the rubberstamp Congress which enabled it has been disbanded.

Continue Reading…

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Nov072006

Vintage Star Wars Interview

I’m sure everybody out there is glued to the TV waiting for election returns, but just in case you need a break from the grim spectacle of our political process, check out this precious artifact from a simpler time:

It’s a wonderful reminder that Star Wars used to be a movie instead of a franchise, that the droids were once considered the central characters of the story, and that people simply loved it instead of wanting to analyze and debate it to death. It amuses me to no end that Gene Shalit compares it to Rocky and predicts that it will be “one of the biggest money-making movies of our time.” If only he knew.

Oh, yeah, that little princess girl was really cute back then, too.

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