Tom McGurk again this week on Iraq. In his piece he gives ten good reasons why war with Iraq is foolhardy.
Month: February 2003
US responds to shuttle disaster
From what I have read on the net since the disaster it now appears to me that the reason the accident took place at all was simple – NASA cutbacks. Since Bush came to office cutbacks have had a serious effect safety, indeed Bush received a report not too long ago warning of a potential disaster due to lack of funds. This article by Richard Feynman also demonstrates a flaw in NASAs thinking.
As well as that the reusable launch vehicle intended for the ISS was cancelled due to budget overruns.
Bush is keen to spend up to $100 billion on war with Iraq, but cannot spend $5 billion to revamp NASA.
Why we need war
Julie Birchill writes a diatribe against anti-war folk such as myself. She lists several reasons as to why the arguments of anti-war people are nonsense, but in no real way justifies a war that will kill many of the people that she claims a war would save. Not sure about her logic, and many of her arguments are ad hominem, and fail to deal directly with the issues.
We need more democracy
The inimitable Naomi Klein writes one of her not-so-regular columns in the Guardian today. She extols greater democracy and great activism among citizens.
Horizontal fun
In this piece, the Guardian writer Jack Schofield argues that computer systems have become ‘horizontally integrated’, they give customers greater choice but also lead to unpredictable quality. “Rather than being spoon-fed by high priced vertical suppliers, customers have to become their own systems integrators and IT managers. The products may be cheap, but freedom has its price.”
Columbia space shuttle lost over Texas
The space shuttle Columbia, with 7 crew aboard, has been lost over Texas. It broke up while coming in to land. Very sad news indeed.
It appears that there was a small problem at take off that may suggest a reason for the accident. Spaceflightnow.com says
During a mission status news conference yesterday, Entry Flight Director Leroy Cain was asked about any possible damage to the shuttle’s thermal tiles during launch. The tiles are what protect the shuttle during the fiery reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Tracking video of launch shows what appears to be a piece of foam insulation from the shuttle’s external tank falling away during ascent and hitting the shuttle’s left wing near its leading edge.
But Cain said engineers “took a very thorough look at the situation with the tile on the left wing and we have no concerns whatsoever. We haven’t changed anything with respect to our trajectory design. It will be a nominal, standard trajectory.
Another record month
January has been the best month since this weblog began. After being very happy with my visitor numbers in December, January has turned out to have more than quadrupled my statistics. 8,500 in January! My level of donations has remained low at $0.00, but I am sure that will pick up. LOL.
I just get great satisfaction knowing that the numbers coming here are growing – and I hope they grow more. I am still evaluating Radio and Moveable Type – I may switch to either one of them this month. I have been testing Radio at this address.
I have also been looking into starting another blog, tech related, with Bernie. Anyway that’s for another day. For now, keep coming back – I will keep blogging if you keep reading. And if you like what you read, tell people you know to come here! My hit target for this month is in the 12,000 region – and if things go really well maybe up on 20,000! Who knows!?
All suggestions can be mailed to me here.