On the next season of LOST...

I know that the "snake in the mailbox" changes everything and I understand that there might be some changes on LOST next season, but I think they've gone too far...



Courtesy ThisJustIn.com via Watch with Kristin

Serenity flys to station

So this blog tends to cover space and pop culture, usually two very different topics, but every once in a while, the two come together and it's beautiful.

Case in point, my friend Flygal pointed me to this site:
BREAKING ATMO - Here's How It Is...
which details the efforts from some of NASA's Browncoats to bring the joys of Firefly and Serenity to the astronauts aboard station.

How shiny is that?

Thanks Ed

Just wanted to thank Ed who has added this blog to his extensive collection of space-related blogs at Space Feeds!

And check out the cool new widget I added at the bottom of the sidebar, it's all the latest posts from all the blogs on Ed's blogroll.

Did everyone see Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed on the History Channel last weekend?

If you missed it over the weekend, don't worry, they're going to repeat it a couple more times. It's a really well done "2-hour special exploring why the emotional impact of the Star Wars Saga remains as relevant as ever."

With interviews from the likes of J.J. Abrams, Joss Whedon, Kevin Smith, and Steven Colbert, as well as a number of academics and for some reason Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich, the show explores many of the archetypes developed though the films and how Lucas borrowed from everything from Greek mythology and American westerns to the Bible and why 30 years later Star Wars still resonates with so many people.

I highly recommend it.

The History Channel's website has lots of cool short clips and other resources too.

And while you are setting your Tivo, don't forget to schedule it to tape the Robot Chicken's Star Wars special on June 17!

What is up with the Lunar Robotic Program? - Update

Well, it looks like Marshall is keeping it's Lunar Robotic Program office. According to an article in today's Huntsville Times (via NASAwatch), "The 32-employee Lunar Precursor Robotic Program office will be included in the NASA budget at $20 million a year for the next six years. Also, the office will continue to manage two planned NASA lunar probe missions and begin a new assignment: mapping the moon to find sites of scientific value, Shelby's office said."

I don't always agree with Keith Cowing, but he's right on the money here:

Reversing the decision could become a problem for Griffin and his successors, and "it opens up their decisions for further second-guessing," said Keith Cowing, who runs NASAWatch.com.

"It makes a joke of any leadership on Mike Griffin's part if he makes a decision and then he reverses it because Senator Shelby or (Rep. Bud) Cramer tell him to back off," Cowing said. "How can NASA administrators actually manage if they constantly have Congress reversing decisions they don't like?"

It's hard to blame Mr. Griffin though, it's not like he had a lot of options here, when Congress tells you to do something, you can't just say no. And it wasn't just one congressman, Senator Shelby convinced Senator Mikulski and Representative Mollohan, the chairs of the respective appropriations committees which oversee NASA's budget (i.e. people you don't want to piss off). I don't think Mr. Griffin had any choice here, I think the blame lies with Congress who shouldn't have made the request in the first place. Congress' job is not to micromanage. Does Sen. Shelby really think that he knows better how to get us back to the Moon than NASA does?

Breaking news: Evidence of water found on Mars!

Yes, it's true. Once again those little energizer-bunny rovers have made news because once again one of them has discovered evidence of water in Mars' past.

Doesn't it seem like every few months we find new and exciting evidence of water on Mars? Is anybody else impressed by how they can continue to make the same headline newsworthy over and over again?

Okay, in all seriousness, what is truly impressive to me is that they continue to make new discoveries after wandering around for so long. I think that really says something about the complexity of Mars, not to mention the complexity of the rovers.

The cynic in me read this headline and thought that the rover teams are sending out press releases for some minor thing in an attempt to stay in the news and stay relevant and not have their extended mission funding cut and their rovers turned off. But actually, this looks to be a genuine find.

What the rover found was a patch of soil that is 90% silica - something you just can't do without a whole lot of water. It was discovered by the aging rover Spirit, who has a broken wheel that won't rotate anymore, and so it leaves a deep trench as it drags through the soil, which is what exposed the silica-rich stuff (in fact several of it's recent discoveries have been made this way).

The patch of soil has been named "Gertrude Weise," after a player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Seriously, they named a patch of soil after some random baseball player. I looked her up, she wasn't even a particularly famous AAGPBL player (by which I mean that there was no character based on her in A League of Their Own), and she died last year, so she will never even know about the great honor bestowed upon her.

Like many in the planetary community, I dream of one day having something in the solar system named after me, an asteroid or a crater, but a patch of soil? meh.

This made me laugh today...

I can always count on Homestarrunner to amuse me. Today's adventure involves some mysterious DNA evidence.