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look it up-- the first time anyone figured out "hey, ANFO blows up!" a transport SHIP full of ammonium nitrate bags had become contaminated by fuel oil.

I did look it up, and here are some of the basics:

* The initial explosion, on April 16, 1947, involved a French-owned ship full of ammonium nitrate explosive left over from the war. It was to be recycled into fertilizer. They knew it was explosive, but there were none of our modern regulations on handling it.

* The ship caught fire early in the morning, but the cargo didn't explode until 9:12am. It took with it most of Texas City's firefighters and firefighting equipment, destroying the the entire dock area as well as 1000 homes and businesses.

* Also at the dock was *another* ship full of ammonium nitrate. Inevitably, it caught fire as well. When it exploded 16 hours later, there were no firemen left to combat the blaze.

* At least 600 died, with fewer than 400 identified. Many of the dockworkers were undocumented, untraceable migrant workers.

Sources:

The Handbook of Texas Online has the facts & figures.

The Houston Chronicle's special report on the 50th anniversary, with pictures and personal stories.

MapQuest map to help you find your bearings.

When exactly will it hit? One modded-up reply said it would hit at 8am UTC (2am CST) on the 28th, which is a few hours from now. But this news story says midday CST tomorrow. So my question is, what are some estimates of when it will strike, and who is in a position to know? Where does this data come from? Also, when will we know what the polarity of the cloud is?

There is a short account of a similar situation provided in Carl Sagans Contact. Apparently the more densely shielded part of the ISS is the 'aft end of the Zvezda module'.

I seem to recall somebody mentioning using Hyrogen enriched plastics for this kind of shield as well, but I have no idea if this actually works.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the ISS astronauts/cosmonauts took shelter earlier this week from the radiation effects of the sunspots. I imagine they are doing the same with this new, stronger, storm. But seeing as how they got a week's worth of radiation in a 12-hour period earlier, I imagine they're concerned about the strength of tonights activity.

Chip H.

Russian Soyuz has had successful crew ejections when the booster rocket exploded on launch: here.

What Enron did in California (price gouging) was unethical certainly, but legal.

I think Apple's original strategy with iTMS was to create a cool premium service that you coudld get only by buying a Mac...then later launch it for windows in order to capitalize on the whole market.

Trouble is, the lag time waiting for the PC version of iTMS is so long that a smart competitor (Dell) has decided to step in and try to steal the hype.

From a Houston Chronicle article:

"Apple has said it will make the program available for the Windows operating system by the end of the year"

It looks like there will be some interesting competition by the end of the year. That's never a bad thing for consumers as far as I can see.

That's right. There's also SARS patients, grizzly bears, incompetent politicians, no jobs, horrible traffic, we're right next to the Pacific Ocean (which routinely produces typhoons that kill thousands of people), nuclear power plants, deadly blizzards... we even have a place called Death Valley.

Hmmm... maybe I should reconsider. Here in Texas, we have West Nile Virus, alligators (though they leave people alone), incompetent politicians (wish they would), jobs that go away when oil prices dip, horrible traffic, we're in Tornado Alley (with a direct hit on downtown Ft. Worth), cement plants, 120-degree weather, and we have a 32,000 square mile region (larger than all of New England) called the Llano Estacado that is so flat, it slopes just 10 feet per mile, and barely gets 12 inches of rain a year.

Screw it all, I'm moving to Barbados!

Almost everything is for sale on the Internet -- even the Social Security numbers of top government officials like CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft, consumer advocates warned Wednesday. The California-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said for $26 each it was able to purchase the Social Security numbers and home addresses for Tenet, Ashcroft and other top Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser. [ original story]

When Border Patrol agents came across the corpses of 14 Mexican immigrants who died trying to cross the searing Arizona desert in 2001, a brand new tool helped U.S. authorities identify the bodies and, eventually, the smugglers who abandoned them.

The tool was a database containing the personal information of 65 million voting-age Mexican citizens. The U.S. government bought access to it for $1 million a year from a giant data vendor called ChoicePoint.

U.S. drug and immigration investigators prized the data, accorting to the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement sources, because it gave them latitude to track suspects inside Mexico without alerting local authorities. original article)

My only complaint with online papers is that they don't carry local advertisers. I'd love to read the online paper and see ads for local merchants just like reading the old fashioned news print. Heck... Send it to your printer and get a coupon for boneless chicken breasts at $.99/lb down at the local Kroger.

Alas, online papers don't follow the same paradigm as their successful predicessor... Instead I see ads for match.com and other online services I'll never subscribe to. This is where I don't get it: People who surf online still have lives offline. (I know this is Slashdot, but admit it, you occasionally squint at that bright thing up in that big blue ceiling.) When will companies realise they can combine local content with local advertisers for products people might be interested in buying when they step outside the door in their locale?

The Houston Chronicle version of the story allows you to vote on who's to blame:
Microsoft, The virus writers, or people who click on attachments.

Come on you anti-MS-types, get clicking!

Finally this is our chance to make Congress liken spammers to cyber-terrorists, and for a reason politicians fear and know well enough to do something about it: "Now some of the spammers are even building a network of worm-ridden computers, possibly at the fingertips of a madman who is willing to do anything for money, and may only be waiting to turn them into Weapons of Mass Disruption, wreaking havoc to the Nation, the Internet, and e-mail as we know it..." (spooky, huh? ;-))
Outlaw spammers, put an end to spam. Sometimes it's as simple as that. (And it works: Haven't seen much fax spam for years...)
Just be "Mr. Concerned Citizen" for once and send articles like this to your congresscritter now. Let them know what spammers have already done "to your kids" (rather omit the "to your p...s" part even if you've ordered their pills and pumps) "and to your computers".

Houston Chronicle article on court case.

Novell wins one in Illinois.

The National Society of Professional Engineers doesn't want riff-raff.

IEEE Computer Society sasy NO, at least in Texas.

ACM editorial saying we shouldn't call it engineering anyhow.

Enron trader pleads guilty to rig california energy prices

Another trader pleads guilty.

Fastow indicted in defrauding California PERS

The Texas PUC recommends that Enron pay $7 million for manipulating power prices in Texas
Texas has an obscene overcapacity of power, and obscenely low prices.

As I said, there is truth in that California does not have enough capacity, but that does not mean they were not hoodwinked. I think it is kind of like ordering a penis pump that never is received. The mark is just too embarrassed to admit the crime took place

After traveling through the Jemez Pueblo reservation this summer, and observing first-hand the deplorable conditions they live in, I'm deeply ashamed at the way the government is treating the true founders of this country. The government treats the Native Americans as a public attraction, a curiosity like the rest of the projects the DOI oversees.

But rest assured, the BIA will never be moved to State under the current administration. Why? Too much of an embarrassment. Very few Americans have seen first-hand how the government treats the Indian tribes, how they foster the rampant crime, poverty, and social ills that plague many reservations. Why would the current administration want to draw attention to their disregard for human decency? Plus, putting the BIA under State would give many Indian tribes the standing they need to pursue their claims against the government for unlawful seizure of their lands. Can you imagine resolving a dispute such as this by returning all 520,000 acres of privately-owned land to their rightful owners, the Kiowa and the Comanche?

Of course you can't. Neither can the government.

iTunes Music Store does not "check" to see where you are via IP address, or any other network method.

Music you own is never "deleted".

The only reason this user encountered the issue is because he had to reinstall his entire OS, and reauthorize the computer with a credit card whose billing address had since been changed to a non-US address - this didn't specifically disallow him from playing his purchased music; rather, it didn't allow him to REauthorize the computer in order to play the purchased music. As others have said, this seems to be more of a unique situation/accident than intentional on Apple's part (notwithstanding the valid legal considerations Apple has).

Music you burn to CD from iTunes Music Store is yours to keep - FOREVER. No matter where you move. You DO own the music you buy from iTunes Music Store. (Unlike other sites).

As soon as international licensing arrangements are worked out, more and more countries will have iTunes Music Store available.

Apple did much better than anyone else with keeping broad rights with the user/customer, where they belong.

And, finally, a letter from the Canadian equivalent of the RIAA:

The reason why the Apple iTunes Music Store isn't yet available outside the US is because Apple hasn't made arrangements to obtain the rights outside of that country (this is called "clearing the rights" in the music business).

I run the largest music licensing agency in Canada, CMRRA. On behalf of our clients from around the world, we represent the owners of the vast majority of songs used in Canada.

Yesterday afternoon I placed a call to Apple Canada to open a discussion on the licensing of Apple's online music store in Canada. Apple's Canadian office is basically a sales operation; no products are designed or produced by Apple in Canada, to the best of my knowledge.

I'm hoping to set up a meeting with Apple, probably in Cupertino, in the next two weeks. We're looking forward to doing business with Apple - among other things, our clients don't make any money saying, "no". Until we've cut a deal with Apple, it won't be possible for them to do business in Canada - that's why I'd like to negotiate that deal and have it set up as soon as possible.

We love Mac and iTunes, too! We're sure that a substantial number of Canadians are going to want to do business with Apple, and we look forward to our discussions with them.

All Apple has to do is call me back to set up the meeting.

David A. Basskin
President
Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd.
Toronto, Canada

I see this as a welcome development, especially seeing the SBC company is rapidly growing into a huge communications monopoly right before our eyes and until now nobody has raised questions. For those who don't know, SBC has controlling ownership of Cingular Wireless and are already bundling residential phone service with wireless, and as if that's not enough, they are now jumping into the satellite TV market as well. The plan is to have people buy their home phone, cell phone, high speed Internet and satellite TV (and God knows what next) from the same company, paying one combined bill.

If that isn't leveraging monopoly power in one market into other markets to gain undue advantage (through bundling), I don't know what is. There better be more antitrust lawsuits, because this one barely scratches the surface of SBC's monopoly power.

Perhaps you will recall the "kmart" incident. This is where the cops took it upon themselves to hold a 'raid' on people in the in the parking lot of a 24 hour kmart and a fast food restaurant. There was no complaint by kmart and the cops arrested people who has just exited both the kmart and the fast food joint without cause, under the auspices of 'loitering' or something else equally as stupid.

Im going to end my commentary here.before i get more irritated. It might please you to know that the cops got in a shit load of trouble and all the people were un-arrested.

You remind me of this. And maybe everyone should walk around with a GPS recorder everyday, so that we know where you went. Oh - you're opposed? You must have something to hide! Are you a terrorist?

As the police rely on DNA more and more, they stop performing thorough criminal investigations. And it is a slippery slope: do you start using DNA evidence to catch the guy who's only crime was to spit gum on the street? If this doesn't give you pause, then I hope you enjoy the fruits of such an environment.

here

A quick check on Spacetoday.com points to several good articles ...

SpaceFlightNow article
Florida Today article and it has three video's of the test
Orlando Sentinel article
Washington Post article
Houston Chronicle article

And from the "they keep shooting themselves in the head" department, Metallica says no iTunes do to principles. :
"Artists hold out on iTunes on principle
Reuters News Service

LOS ANGELES -- The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Metallica are refusing to make their music available as individual downloads on Apple Computer's iTunes online music store.

That move comes in response to Apple's decision to allow users to buy single tracks and is intended to protect the future of the long-playing album, said Mark Reiter of Q Prime Management Co., which manages the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica and several other artists.

Green Day and Linkin Park, according to a source familiar with the situation, have also refused to make their songs available as individual downloads on the Apple service, which has sold over 5 million songs. "

-- Hey .. I have a great idea. Let's tick off our customers. They want this, but let's not give it to them. In fact, let's prosecute them. Works for me.

Idiots.

- There is nothing on the moon valuable enough as a commodity worth bringing back to Earth

What about power? If we can get to the moon with a small plant that can fabricate solar collectors, the Moon could provide a vast amount of power back to the earth, and we don't have to "ship" the power back.

Here's an article.

I saw a presentation on this not too long ago, and it was pretty convincing. Unfortunately it requires investment that won't pay back for a couple of years, and these days it seems nobody wants to do anything that won't pay back in the next quarter's statements, or the next election season.

Ever heard of a progressive tax?

In the US? It's a myth.

The [tax] rate actually paid by the top 400 [incomer earners in the U.S.] in 2000 was about the same as that paid by a single person making $123,000 or a married couple, with two children, earning $226,000, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a labor-backed group whose calculations are respected by a broad spectrum of tax experts.

See this

Ah a walking, talking tragedy... To think, I spent four years in the Army defending your freedom. Such is the state of public education in the nookyooler power known as 'merika. I mean, really--if you're going to lay flamebait on me, at least make it worthy of response.

Ken Lay (or as prezitend george likes to call him "kenny boy"), has a long history contributing to the prezitend.

I'm talking about Enron executives, not Enron. Get it? I'm talking about people directly responsible for creating the California energy crisis, who were responsible for stealing the retirement of thousands of hard working aging people, who are still walking free. I'm talking about Ken Lay in particular. A person who has been working closely with the Bush family for over a decade.

I'd invite you to discuss this, but I'm sure you'll just cry some more. It's okay, you can cry, just don't expect me to listen.

TIA has nothing to do with protecting U.S. citizens from terrorism. It is instead part of a hidden political agenda.

Every year, the U.S. government gives between $3.5 billion and $5.5 billion to Jews in Israel. This money is used to kill Arabs. (The Jews call it defense.) The terrorism toward the U.S. was caused by Arabs who feel they have no other way to protest the brutality of moving them from their homeland, and continuing to kill them, to make a new country called Israel. They are sacrificing their lives to try to make a statement. I don't think violence is justified, but the U.S. government thinks violence is justified, the Jews think violence is justified, and it would be illogical to think that violence is okay for politically powerful groups in the U.S., but not for the people they want to kill.

The people who have brought you TIA have also put the U.S. government back into the huge debt it was in during the Reagan-Bush years. The people who want corruption cause the U.S. government to borrow money so that they can spend it (tax cut) to make themselves look good and on high-profit weapons.

Here are a few links that discuss other kinds of corruption:

War Profiteers card deck.

"Speaking to Pentagon reporters in a video teleconference from Iraq, General Conway said, 'What the regime was intending to do in terms of its use of the weapons, we thought we understood.' He added, 'We were simply wrong.'" [last paragraphs]

Secretary of State General Powell believes he may have been lied to about weapons in Iraq: Powell's doubts over CIA intelligence on Iraq prompted him to set up secret review.

"Could be the greatest intelligence hoax of all time."

More about war profiteers and conflict of interest: Lawmaker Questions Scope Of Iraq-Related Contracts.

Questionable accounting practices -- The U.S. government becomes another Enron scam:

Questionable accounting practices in the U.S. government: "The U.S. government is broke." George Bush gave U.S. citizens a tax cut, but it was fraud. The tax cut will be paid by money the U.S. government will borrow.

Questionable accounting practices at Halliburton, Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney's company.

Should U.S. President George W. Bush be impeached?

In a CNN article, John Dean asks, "Is lying about the reason for a war an impeachable offense?"

An Associated Press article reports that a retired Department of State analyst says the Bush administration was "not entirely honest".

International reaction is extremely negative. The Hindustan Times mentions that "a former CIA analyst with 25 years' experience" ... "accused the Bush administration of lying to Congress".

The videos are here (where the panel visibly ripples after the impact) and here.

The accompanying slide presentation has the details: the 1.7 pound foam block was fired at 531 mph and, where it struck a T-seal between two panels, displaced them and caused a 4/10 inch gap. This fake wing was made of fiberglass, but given the results, a test with actual shuttle wing material from the Space Shuttle Discovery is planned for today.

Here are some of the headlines from news.google.com:
Shuttle Wing Under Gun
Investigator Amazed by Shuttle Foam Force
Foam theory faces pivotal test
Tests Show Foam Causing Wing of Shuttle to Deform
Foam chunk was shuttle's undoing, tests indicate

Subject: FW: IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NEEDED: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

URGENT ASSISTANCE - FROM USA

IMMEDIATE ATTENTION NEEDED : HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: GEORGE WALKER BUSH
202.456.1414 / 202.456.1111
FAX: 202.456.2461

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am GEORGE WALKER BUSH, son of the former president of the United States of America George Herbert Walker Bush, and currently serving as President of the United States of America. This letter might surprise you because we have not met neither in person nor by correspondence. I came to know of you in my search for a reliable and reputable person to handle a very confidential business transaction, which involves the transfer of a huge sum of money to an account requiring maximum confidence.

I am writing you in absolute confidence primarily to seek your assistance in acquiring oil funds that are presently trapped in the republic of iraq. My partners and I solicit your assistance in completing a transaction begun by my father, who has long been actively engaged in the extraction of petroleum in the United States of America, and bravely served his country as director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

In the decade of the nineteen-eighties, my father, then vice-president of the United States of America, sought to work with the good offices of the President of the Republic of Iraq to regain lost oil revenue sources in the neighboring islamic republic of Iran. This unsuccessful venture was soon followed by a falling-out with his Iraqi partner, who sought to acquire additional oil revenue sources in the neighboring emirate of Kuwait, a wholly-owned U.S.-British subsidiary.

My father re-secured the petroleum assets of Kuwait in 1991 at a cost of sixty-one billion U.S. dollars ($61,000,000,000). Out of that cost, thirty-six billion dollars ($36,000,000,000) were supplied by his partners in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other persian gulf monarchies, and sixteen billion dollars ($16,000,000,000) by German and Jap

Umm, hello? No one's discussing the navally-launched seersucker which impacted outside a shopping mall in Kuwait city. We are discussing the fourteen or so SCUDs which were fired on ballistic trajectories from southern Iraq into Kuwait in the first week and a half of the war.

In case you weren't paying attention, here are some stories on those attacks.

• The Guardian: Iraq launches Scud missiles
• Canadian Broadcasting Corp.: Iraq lobs missiles at Kuwait
• Houston Chronicle: Patriot system proves its worth

I mean really, faced with fourteen SCUDs fired at Kuwait, your answer is `look, this one attack was with another type of missile, so there are no SCUDs'? Iraqi information minister Mohammad Sayeed Sahaf would be so proud...

The rolling california blackouts are the perfect case for the advocacy of Utility Regulation (like the new 'computer utilities envisioned by HP/IBM/Sun etc).

The power companies, colluding with the marketers themeselves, PURPOSEFULLY manipulated the energy market in california to raise prices. the rolling blackouts were the 'shot across the bow' of regulation-advocates; "we'll shut your damn power off it you dont pay" extortion.

Why is this on-topic? because someday, in the future, computing-as-utility will become as necessary as electricity is today... want to get a job? have to have computing-ability. Want to pay your bills? have to have computing-ability. want to get a loan? have to have computing-ability. want to vote? have to have computing-ability.. without accepting that WHEN THIS HAPPENS, that regulation of the industry in the public interest becomes necessary... unless you want the future-monied-kings to shut down your house/town/state.

- why no links on X10 ?

Because they are misinformed. They are thinking of X10-the-company, which is notorious for pop-under ads. But what they really mean is X10-the-protocol [scroll down a bit for a good introduction], which is used by many companies.

- which maxim is obvious ?

Maxim is a "gentleman's magazine" that has been pushing the limits of how much semi-porn you can include without getting banned from shelves. Recently this and competing magazines went too far for Walmart.

It is earthlink's and his employer's mail server. He is playing nicely

I notice that despite all the anti-spam efforts, the junk flowing to my inbox is increasing rapidly.

ACLU on Immigrant detentions

Mass detentions in LA

'Handful' detained in Houston

CIvil liberties groups file suit on behalf of INS detainees

US detains nearly 1200 during registry

Forgotten detainees

After Oaklahoma City, the US passed laws allowing the use of "Secret Evidence" to detain or deport. It's been used almost exclusively on Arabs and Muslims.

As Jonathan Miller once said,

in the U.S. they have two parties, just as we [in England] have two parties. They have the Republican party, which is like our Conservative party. And they have the Democratic party, which is like our Conservative party.

I'm not sure what to make of your statement that you're concerned more with criminal than civil litigation. This whole thread was a about civil matters (California's laws on implied warranties). As to criminal matters, local judges and juries in the South in the 1960s accurately reflected racist community values and exonerated some awful murderers and terrorists, some of whom took advantage of the Constitutional protection against double jeopardy and sold the stories of their brutal acts to the press.

If you think this is all ancient history, look at what local judge Edward Self did in Tulia Texas. When rogue cop Tom Coleman framed about 15% of the black population of Tulia Texas for selling cocaine in 1999 (one 57 year old hog farmer was sentenced to 99 years), Judge Self refused to admit evidence introduced by defense lawyers that demonstrated a pattern of deceit and shoddy police work by Detective Coleman. Later Judge Self lied about his refusal to admit this evidence and despite being caught lying and forced to recuse himself from appeals of the Tulia cases, Judge Self was re-elected. This spring, the cases were re-opened by higher authorities who don't have to stand for election in Tulia. Detective Coleman has been charged with three counts of aggravated perjury and all the convictions are being vacated. The State of Texas is preparing to pay the victims up to $3000 for each year they wrongfully spent in prison.

Before you get too enamored of direct local democracy, I would recommend re-reading Federalist X on the danger of faction and the tyranny of the majority. This spring, people farther removed from the local level got involved and

As Jonathan Miller once said,

in the U.S. they have two parties, just as we [in England] have two parties. They have the Republican party, which is like our Conservative party. And they have the Democratic party, which is like our Conservative party.

I'm not sure what to make of your statement that you're concerned more with criminal than civil litigation. This whole thread was a about civil matters (California's laws on implied warranties). As to criminal matters, local judges and juries in the South in the 1960s accurately reflected racist community values and exonerated some awful murderers and terrorists, some of whom took advantage of the Constitutional protection against double jeopardy and sold the stories of their brutal acts to the press.

If you think this is all ancient history, look at what local judge Edward Self did in Tulia Texas. When rogue cop Tom Coleman framed about 15% of the black population of Tulia Texas for selling cocaine in 1999 (one 57 year old hog farmer was sentenced to 99 years), Judge Self refused to admit evidence introduced by defense lawyers that demonstrated a pattern of deceit and shoddy police work by Detective Coleman. Later Judge Self lied about his refusal to admit this evidence and despite being caught lying and forced to recuse himself from appeals of the Tulia cases, Judge Self was re-elected. This spring, the cases were re-opened by higher authorities who don't have to stand for election in Tulia. Detective Coleman has been charged with three counts of aggravated perjury and all the convictions are being vacated. The State of Texas is preparing to pay the victims up to $3000 for each year they wrongfully spent in prison.

Before you get too enamored of direct local democracy, I would recommend re-reading Federalist X on the danger of faction and the tyranny of the majority. This spring, people farther removed from the local level got involved and

here Or just look throught articles on yahoo's full coverage section. I just call them like I see them.

I do know two things about the true motive of the war:

• It has something to do with Israel.
• It has something to do with oil.

You're very close. I'll give you a hint.

Dick Cheney used to be the CEO of a company called Halliburton. Cheney is still receiving large payments from that company. Halliburton has a subsidary called Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR).

KBR was recently offered a contract for putting out oil fires in Iraq, without Congressional approval. The contract has an estimated value of $7 billion, but has no maximum "ceiling" cost. These types of contracts are normally discouraged in the Executive Branch, as they are quite prone to cost padding.

KBR has also recently been awarded other lucrative contracts related to post-war construction in Iraq. These contracts were awarded after KBR was fined $2 million for excessive charges in prior government contracts. KBR and Halliburton also did millions of dollars of shady business with Saddam Hussein in the 90's (while Dick Cheney was at the wheel).

Why would the White House start a war, then in the ensuing chaos award lots of money to companies which in turn are paying money back to those in the White House? Hmmm...you tell me.

I've only scratched the surface here; Representative Waxman gives some more information at http://www.house.gov/reform/min/inves_admin/admin_ contracts.htm. The Houston Chronicle has a decent story about recent developments.

Children, please be careful. Specifically, don't put frogs in them, and don't ever look down the barrel of one! (by choice)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/bizarre/1 870788

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/hi nes/1799629.

Damn! I knew it should never have been repaired!

I wanted to respond to several comments, not all by this person but I thought I'd try to get it all in here. First, tossing stuff out of the shuttle would be disasterous. NASA already tracks over 40,000 pieces of debris from spent rocket stages and dead satellites, all of which are a major hazard to the shuttle and anything else up there. Because of the speeds involved, even a paint flake becomes potentially dangerous. If it collides with the orbiter, it carries the punch of a 22 caliber bullet. In fact, the shuttles windows have already been hit with paint flakes and they have left pits. That is one of the reasons why the orbiter flys backwards while in space, to minimize exposure of oncoming debris from the crew cabin windows.

How would they have gotten rid of the science module? Columbia did not have it's remote arm to lift things out. And they cannot keep the payload doors open in lower oribt.

Someone else mentioned those "s" turns, I think it was with the idea that they could have somehow changed those to favor the left wing. Those s turns are very precise and are designed to reduce orbiter speed. They already plot a course for maximum reduction of speed and therefore exposure to higher temperatures. And trying to reduce heat by keeping the orbiter in a less steep descent would have been just as disasterous because it would have meant a longer period of time, even if in slightly lower temperatures. That was just as risky, and possibly more, than the descent carried out.

Someone else mentioned ditching the orbiter and saving the crew. How? Where would the crew go? Columbia was not outfitted to dock with the ISS, so that was out. There were no EVA suits on board so the astronauts could not go outside the orbiter. In fact, one of the reasons that KC was chosen for this flight was because it was a non EVA mission, because she was so small they had no suits to fit her. The crew couldn't leave, there was nowhere for them to go.

Another person criticized Ron Dittemore for not having the military take satellite images of the shuttle's wing. That was not a decision made solely by Ron. A group of engineers met repeatedly, all week, to discuss what to do about the issue of possible damage from the foam. For one thing, the military was already overtaxed trying to prepare for Iraq. Also, military experts did not feel that they could get any images that would show enough detail to be any help. Remember, it took a CAT scan to show the gaps in Atlantis' RCC.

And finally, on to the personel of NASA and the integrity of Ron Dittemore. I am sure that, like any other organization, there are those who would play politics and do things to protect their jobs. I do not believe this portrays most of NASA and I certainly don't believe it indicative of Ron Dittemore. Take a look at these articles about Ron:

Houston Chronicle story and this on in USA Today

Ron didn't come in to NASA from the management side, he is an engineer, and a darned good one, and a good guy altogether. Let's give him a chance. The orbiter is a very complex vehicle, as I am sure most of you know. Let's not see conspiracy everywhere and get lost in "what ifs" and "should have/could have" because in doing so, we could easily lose sight of fact. I don't think this is going to be a case of management vs engineers like Challenger. I don't know if any of you have read Richard Feynman's books, but he sat on the investigation board for the Challenger disaster. He commented that one of the hardest things to do, but that which they had to do, was put what ifs and suppositions out of their minds and try to deal with the facts.

Dittemore has never given anyone any reason to believe he will deliver less than the truth. I think the real enemies here are the politicans who have cut away at NASA's budget forcing people to not only work for less pay, but to even work overtime for free. These kind of people do this because they love what they are doing. Let's please give them a chance. Kathy

Perhaps, and I suspect that engineer after engineer will testify before the legislative committee considering this matter. However, the State of Texas regulates a number of professions, from lawyers and nurses to dentists and doctors. Part of that regulation is deciding who may bestow upon themselves the title traditionally associated with that profession.

As for engineers, their profession is regulated by this chapter of the Texas Occupations Code. According to section 1001.002, an "engineer" means a person licensed to engage in the practice of engineering in this state. See section 1001.003(c) for a thorough definition of the "practice of engineering."

Now, the Houston Chronicle article alludes to an Attorney General's opinion letter which prompted all of this controversy. The Attorney General interprets the law, and his interpretation in this case was apparently solicited by a legislator. For the sake of the discussion, I have appended it below:

State of Texas

Opinion No. JC-0525
July 9, 2002

Re: Whether the Texas Engineering Practice Act permits in-house engineers to include their job titles on business cards, cover letters, and other correspondence (RQ-0495-JC)

The Honorable Warren Chisum
Chair, Committee on
Environmental Regulation
Texas House of Representatives
P. O. Box 2910
Austin, Texas 78768-2910

Dear Representative Chisum:

You ask whether the Texas Engineering Practice Act (the "Act") permits in- house engineers who work for private corporations that do not offer engineering services to the public to include their job titles on business cards, cover letters, and other forms of correspondence. We conclude they may not do so.

You believe that an employee for a private corporation whose in-house job title is that of "engineer" should be able to use a title, such as "Engineer" or "Process Engineer" on business cards, cover letters, and other forms of correspondence because of an exemption under section 20(a)(5) of the Act. See Request Letter, supra note 1, at 2. You find "it . . . difficult to fathom how a member of the public could be misled into believing that an in-house engineer for a company that does not perform or offer to perform any engineering services for the public is somehow offering such services by the mere use of the job title 'Engineer."' Id.

The Act, article 3271a of the Revised Civil Statutes, specifically addresses the use of the designation of "engineer" in section 1.1. Section 1.1, in part, provides:

[I]t is the intent of the Legislature, in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare, that the privilege of practicing engineering be entrusted only to those persons duly licensed and practicing under the provisions of this Act and that there be strict compliance with and enforcement of all the provisions of this Act, and, in order that the state and members of the public may be able to identify those duly authorized to practice engineering in this state and fix responsibility for work done or services or acts performed in the practice of engineering, only licensed persons shall practice, offer or attempt to practice engineering or call themselves or be otherwise designated as any kind of an "engineer" or in any manner make use of the term "engineer" as a professional, business or commercial identifi

Saddam's music videos and his hit number "Who's yo fadda?".

Damn freedom of speech can't live with it... can't shoot it...

Heck its almost like the government forcing you to give a concert or some such shite. Which is it do we hates em or does we luvs em'? Difficult concept for redneck brain...

I have both attended at work at UT in IT, so I can give you my observations.

For many years, UT had a non-centralized IT infrastructure. That is, the Colleges did one thing, the Administrative Computing Group did another thing, the Academic Computing Group did yet another thing, and the Libraries something else entirely. This was recently changed with the introduction of a new Office of Information Technology head by a new Vice Provost (Dan Updegrove, originally at Yale). One of the very first things I heard him address was the Social Security number problem in which every student, faculty, and staff member used their SSN as their ID. That practice had to change in order to meet both legal and privacy standards (see FERPA) , and UT has been trying for the past couple of years to make that happen. The trouble is, it was so integrated into all of the different services and departments that it is a slow process to remove it. They started to phase it out, but now UT is seeing the effects of this particular practice. I'm likely one of the ones who will be affected, so I'm waiting for them to announce where people can find that out. (It may be at the UT site, http://www.utexas.edu/datatheft/.

The Daily Texan (student newspaper) has an article about the theft, as does the Houston Chronicle.)

By the way, your Social Security Number isn't public information. It is required for use by some agencies of the government, but you are not required to provide your SSN to private groups unless they need to interact with certain government agencies (this includes your employers, who deal with the IRS). That being said, SSNs are so commonly used a search may pull up that information- but that doesn't mean it is legally public info.

I think you are just waiting for the DNS to update.

Today for example had interviews with some engineers at USA regarding the Cult of Safety, and a bunch of other things.

They've got a whole ongoing section dedicated to the investigation and how its going.

Today for example had interviews with some engineers at USA regarding the Cult of Safety, and a bunch of other things.

They've got a whole ongoing section dedicated to the investigation and how its going.

Some dutch pilots may have gotten a better view of the breakup.

Patently False?

Not

quite.

Sure, California's scheme for "deregulation" had some major flaws, but that doesn't excuse Enron, as well as other energy corporations from committing wire fraud, to the point of almost bankrupting the state.