Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

I've been following, on and off, the efforts to surpass Joe Kittinger's 52 year record for highest balloon ascent / highest parachute jump by Austrian Felix Baumgartner . After a delayed launch for wind, today Baumgartner did it: jumped out of a capsule lifted by balloon to 128,000 feet (that's around 24 miles) and plunging earthward, broke the sound barrier (and quite a few records) without benefit of aircraft. During his freefall he achieved speeds of Mach 1.24. The ride up took about 2 1/2 hours; the trip down, 11 minutes. The whole thing reminded me a little of watching the NASA launches of Mercury back in the early 1960's. Here's the trip down. Incidently, the gentleman talking is Joe Kittinger , the previous record holder, who acted as Baumgartner's mentor and was part of the team who pulled this feat off. You can read more about this on Wikipedia ; this was done with the corporate sponsorship of Red Bull energy drink. It was a stunt, but that...

Just saw a Reuters report that journalist Walter Cronkite , often called "the most trusted man in America," has died at the age of 92. Born in Missouri on November 4, 1916, he moved to Houston, Texas when he was ten. His broadcast career began when he was 20 and became a radio announcer in Oklahoma. During WWII he covered North Africa and Europe, and was selected to fly on bombing raids over Germany. After the war he covered the Nuremberg Trials. Edward R Murrow recruited him for the new CBS television division in 1950. He became the anchorman of the CBS Evening News on April 16, 1962. Hearing his voice crack when announcing the official confirmation of John Kennedy's death was a defining moment for a generation. My generation. He was a passionate supporter of the U.S. space program and covered most of the launches for CBS. After a Cronkite editorial that called the Viet Nam war unwinnable, Lyndon Johnson reportedly said, "If I've lost Walter Cronkite, I'...

Finally! A decision on the Node 3 naming contest. Astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams appeared as a guest on the Colbert Report tonight and announced NASA's decision. Cut to the chase: they are not naming Node 3 after him. (Surprised? If so, why?) The new Node 3 name will be...drumroll... Tranquility . Colbert affected mock surprise and outrage. "You promised you'd put my name in space!" he protested. Referring to notes written on her hand, Suni revealed that in August, NASA would be launching the "Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill" (a.k.a. the C.O.L.B.E.R.T). The treadmill will include the patch (see above). Suni said when astronauts need to work out, they'll say, "Time for me to jump on COLBERT." The thought obviously pleased Stephen. On the NASA page , Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Space Operations, explained further, "Apollo 11 landed on the moon at the Sea of Tranquility 40 year...

Update! The NASA " Name the Node 3 Page " states they will announce the new Node 3 name on the Colbert Report on April 14! Can they dare call it anything besides Colbert? By choosing this venue to unveil the new name they are practically guaranteeing they've decided to name some part of the Node (if not the Node itself) after Stephen -- a toilet or urine processing unit at the very least. From the press release: NASA TO ANNOUNCE NEW SPACE STATION MODULE NAME APRIL 14 WASHINGTON -- NASA's newest module for the International Space Station will get a new name on April 14. The agency plans to make the announcement with the help of Expedition 14 and 15 astronaut Sunita "Suni" Williams on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." The program will air at 11:30 p.m. EDT. The name, which will not be publicly released until the program airs, was selected from thousands of unique suggestions submitted on NASA's Internet site, www.nasa.gov . The ...

Quick update on the Colbert/NASA naming battle. On tonight's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert put it to NASA: two weeks and no announcement even thought he's the clear winner in NASA's online vote to name Node 3. Despite NASA's tight-lipped reaction to his victory, official support is beginning to surge. Traffic to posts on this site about the vote outcome has included more than a few hits from within NASA, indicating interest is running high within the agency itself. Congressman Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania has come out in support of Colbert, saying, "The people have spoken and Stephen Colbert won it fair and square. We insist on democracy in orbit." NASA, feeling the pressure, has implied its willingness to name Node 3's toilet after Colbert. No word yet on when America can expect an answer. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Space Module: Colbert - Urine Recycling Room comedycentral.com Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Na...

I confess I've been shamelessly whoring for hits the last week or so by continuing to post updates re: the Stephen Colbert / NASA Node 3 naming game. Over half my traffic came from searches on Google for "Colbert NASA" or some variant. As of this evening I'm the 6th and 10th search result on Google for those terms. Amazing. It shows just how popular this particular meme has become. Web stats generated by Google Analytics and Stat Counter (both free services) showed "Colbert" and "NASA" were the top search terms. Below are some of the more interesting places from where visitors came. housegate10.house.gov gnat.generalmills.com unallocated-(xxxxxxx).mcafee.com (xxxxxxx) .google.com (xxxxxxx).larc.nasa.gov Although Colbert / NASA are popular, other persistently popular pages include one on fixing up hard drive partition issues (I get a lot of foreign visitors for this one) and for a while, a page republishing some piece of spam I got. For about a...

Okay -- this is extremely unofficial and third hand, but after some Googling about, I found a post on the No Fact Zone which claims the final numbers on the Node 3 on-line vote were: Colbert: 230,539 Serenity: 190,196 Numbers (allegedly) courtesy of NASA’s Jacob Keaton. Hopefully releasing these won't be a career-limiting action on Keaton's part. It must be repeated, NASA has left themselves an out by stating the name should "reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity- and Node 2- Harmony." Uh-huh. So the Firefly Fanboys may get naming rights, but Colbert Nation gets the glory. Again, in the spirit of compromise, if NASA can't bring themselves to name Node 3 after Stephen Colbert, the least they can do is name the Urine Processor Assembly after him. SCUPA -- it has a nice ring to it. A tinkle, as it were. ( Thanks to No Fact Zone for ferreting out the numbers . Consider them ...

Okay, the voting ended yesterday for NASA's Name That Module contest, er, survey. While the official results have not been announced, the unofficial tally seems to have it that Colbert whipped the competition , outpolling NASA's own fave, Serenity. Even the Firefly Fanboys couldn't come to the rescue. The "winner" is scheduled to be announced in April. Even before this started, NASA reserved the right to disregard the outcome of the vote, if they felt it didn't "reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity - and Node 2- Harmony. " In other words, no way in hell are they going to name it "Colbert." Okay, we probably all knew that from the start. I'd like to suggest that NASA strongly consider, at the very least, naming the Urine Processor Assembly (UPA) portion of the module after Stephen. It seems only fair. When astronauts are taking a number one, th...

According to the Discovery Channel website, Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report is now outpolling NASA's officially sanctioned name for Module Number 3. As of March 11, the tally for "Colbert" stood just shy of 115,000 votes, with Serenity trailing at 98,641. More than 451,000 people have voted. If you haven't voted yet, go to the NASA site - you can vote once a day - and check the box labeled "Suggest your own" and enter Colbert . Hurry though. Voting ends March 20. UPDATE: NASA to announce name on the April 14th Colbert Report!

Quick reminder: NASA is having a (we suspect) slightly bogus "vote" to name a new module on the International Space Station. Stephen Colbert has called on all loyal Colbert Nation fans to sneer at NASA's wimpy suggestions ("those are organic teas") and instead name it after him . Go to the NASA site - you can vote once a day - and check the box labeled "Suggest your own" and enter Colbert . Go on, you know you want to. Serenity, NASA's officially sanctioned name, is sinking fast. Hurry though. Voting ends March 20. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Stephen Becomes Scientology's Galactic Overlord Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Rap Battle Joke of the Day