On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

Photo sourced from the European Space Agency via Flickr:



I'm a sucker for spacewalk/EVA imagery. Also for logo designs.

I cannot promise that I will never forget. But, for as long as I can remember, I hope to show respect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-51-L

Francis R. Scobee
Michael J. Smith
Ellison S. Onizuka
Judith A. Resnik
Ronald E. McNair
Gregory B. Jarvis
S. Christa McAuliffe

Per ardua, ad astra

I didn't know that they've been involved in this! Mind you, the doctor involved has had to travel to Germany to do some of the work...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/artificial-gravity-1.5216905

In addition to the news about Notre Dame de Paris and Gene Wolfe...Owen Garriott of Skylab 3 and STS-9 is no more.

My source for the info:

https://twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/status/1117875297334910977

Been meaning to get back to this subject for a few days.

I might suggest that if the USA gets those Trumpist tariffs out of the way, we might be able to do more and more useful things towards that lunar goal and others relating to space exploration in general.

Whether or not lunar communities of any sort are actually useful...well, that's another debate that's been going on for a few decades, right? It might be better to set up a new major telescope on the Moon than on disputed soil in Hawai'i. No?

Is it wrong to sense DT-45's hand in this? Or Jeff Sessions'? Especially in the wake of Charles Bolden's exit as NASA Chief Administrator and there being only an "acting" successor...

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/nasa-has-pulled-jeanette-epps-just-months-before-her-first-flight/

Accepting applications between June 17th and August 15th, 2016. Good luck!

Okay.

I voted on Friday night.

Then I went to see Paul Gross's new movie Hyena Road, which was - as expected - disorienting. I don't know that it'll compare to the greats of the genre, but I did get a sense of what the latest Afghan War's been like for Canadians serving in the middle of it. Which, aside from making back the money spent on it, was all that Gross really wants out of it. I figured if I didn't see it ASAP - premiere night, as it turned out - I wasn't going to have much chance beyond that. I've mentioned before that Canadian movies tend to get short attention from our movie theatre chains, and fully expect this to be no different, even though it should be.

Hyena Road, people. If you've got violence-trauma triggers, be warned. The fight scenes are bloody. But I do believe it's worth the time and money to see at least the once.

Come to think of it, not being patient was exactly why I voted at the advance poll on Friday after work too. I just didn't want to cope with any more pressure to vote "strategically". One acquaintance has accused me of maintaining "purity", but I can't trust a party that turns its back on several of its best contributions to Canadian life to avoid the inevitable false accusations of terrorist sympathy. And those accusations were trotted out by the incumbents anyway on other excuses.

Anyway. A more positive note...

Today, I listened to Chris Hadfield's Space Sessions: Songs From a Tin Can for the first time, having picked up the album at Compact Music yesterday. As you might expect from Hadfield, there's more of a country/folk vibe off the album. You may consider that either ironic or totally expected given that this was the first ever album with the vocals recorded Up There.

There's a certain exceptionalist satisfaction I get from that. Admitted freely. It took a Canadian to do this. No one from anywhere else thought of it.

And now I'm headed off to see the 6 PM showing of The Martian. I bought, read and enjoyed the book after looking at the first trailer. I figure they've got enough good raw material to work with. If my brains are working properly after getting home again, I'll let you know what I got out of it later tonight.

Later, all!

And for the Canadians reading this? Please vote. I don't need to know for whom, I don't need to be able to approve of your choice(s) before or after the fact. Ever.

Just vote.

Slate has cobbled together their (well educated) idea of the best in space photography for this year still in progress:

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/bad_astronomy/2013/12/the_universe_in_pictures_the_best_space_photos_of_2013.html

Enjoy it when you can...