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...

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...

Yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny day in Washington, DC. Today: cold and rainy. We got up and, after much diddling around, finally left the hotel in Fairfax to head back to DC. At the Metro Park and Ride, a "Lot Full"sign greeted us. After much testy negotiation, we drove around until we found Metro station with a Park and Ride lot. Back in DC (at last) we headed back to the Smithsonian Museum of American History and finished viewing the Price of Freedom: America at War , which examines how wars have shaped American culture and society, from the War of Independence to the present. The amazing thing about the Smithsonian is its astonishing collection of miscellaneous objects of enormous historic importance. Things like the coat Marion Anderson wore when she sang at the Lincoln Memorial, security badges worn by workers on the Manhattan Project, the Ruby Red slippers worn by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz. On a less serious note, they had the triple portrait of Stephen Colbert s...