Space Library Heads Towards Mars

http://www.space.com/news/070804_phoenix_spacelibrary.html

Pay special attention to the GLASS DVD and the fact that it is careening towards Mars. I also love the implication that the DVD contained explosive gases. What they mean is that any gas trapped within the material could exert forces strong enough to break the disc, but what it sounds like is that this "super strong" glass contains pockets of high explosive. The science in this article is staggeringly bad, as is the science fiction. Someone could have fed some homeless people with the money they spent on this project. That is the standard criticism of the space program, right? I've opined on this before. It's probably longer ago than I realize, but I didn't intend to launch into a rant on it tonight.

I found out today that one of my high school friends in serving in Iraq. He was in all the science / math classes I was, and he was on the wrestling team. He's also just a good guy. He did ROTC to help defray some of the costs of his MIT Mechanical Engineering degree. I'm not sure what his job over there is. One can hope it's non-combat with his engineering degree, but he's still in Iraq and even non-combat isn't what we'd call safe. I don't have the circulation on this page that I did back in undergrad or even earlier in grad school, but I'd ask anyone who does follow this page to keep the servicemen and women in your thoughts and wish them safety wherever they are. This quote is on his facebook page, and I can think of nothing better to say right now than this:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
- Theodore Roosevelt

More tomorrow.