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November 28, 2006
Where to begin?
Poor Alexander Litvinenko left a radioactive trail of polonium-210 around London before his death.
Prince Frederik, Princess Mary and young Prince Christian are on holiday in Tasmania.
It's all too much for Silvio Berlusconi.
The Ashes victory in 2005 looks like a long time ago for England.
Bush is in Estonia on his way to the Middle East.
Pope Benedict is on his way to Turkey.
And Michael Grade has jumped ship from the Beeb to ITV.
Posted by daen at 01:03 AM | Comments (0)
Where to begin?
Poor Alexander Litvinenko left a radioactive trail of polonium-210 around London before his death.
Prince Frederik, Princess Mary and young Prince Christian are on holiday in Tasmania.
It's all too much for Silvio Berlusconi.
The Ashes victory in 2005 looks like a long time ago for England.
Bush is in Estonia on his way to the Middle East.
Pope Benedict is on his way to Turkey.
And Michael Grade has jumped ship from the Beeb to ITV.
Posted by daen at 01:03 AM | Comments (0)
November 11, 2006
Remembrance Day
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
-- Lt Col John McCrae, MD (1972-1918)
Posted by daen at 02:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2006
Reminder for December 32nd: Update shuttle calendar software
Apparently, NASA is uncomfortable about flying the shuttle over a year end ...
“The interesting thing about the shuttle computers and the ground computers that support the shuttle is that they were never envisioned to fly through a year-end changeover,” says NASA’s shuttle chief Wayne Hale here at the agency’s Johnson Space Center. “So the shuttle computers actually keep counting and they believe that it is Day 366 instead of Day 1 of the New Year.”
Wha ...? They were never envisioned to fly through a year-end changeover? I would say that's quite an interesting design quirk for a multi-billion dollar project. So for an average 12 day mission, one third of December is basically no-fly time. If the launch is delayed much beyond the 7th of December, NASA may delay until 2007. They're so eager for this NOT to happen that they may bump the launch up a day to the 6th of December. Presumably that's perfectly safe, and any delays won't cost too much anyway.
Posted by daen at 10:42 PM | Comments (0)