- NASA doesn’t shoot humans into space any longer, but that
doesn’t mean the nerds in cramped control rooms with stadium seating have
nothing to do. They are still busy spending billions of dollars landing a robotic rover on
Mars about 150 million miles away and celebrating with some of the most
dork-tastic high-fives and fist bump attempts ever seen and oh yeah, blowing
expensive sh*t up as the world looks on. The latter came Thursday as a test
model planetary lander crashed and burned at Kennedy Space Center in Florida
just seconds after liftoff. The craft, called Morpheus, was on a test flight at
Cape Canaveral when it tilted, crashed to the ground and burst into a giant
ball of flames. The spider-like spacecraft lifted only a few feet off the
ground before crashing and burning, but NASA spokeswoman Lisa Malone said that
despite its short fall, the methane-and-liquid oxygen powered lander is a total
loss. The good news is that Morpheus was an unmanned experimental craft, so no
one was injured in the crash (other than NASA’s pride and shrinking budget) and
the flames were put out. No official cause was immediately given, but NASA
officials said they suspect a mechanical device that is part of the craft’s GPS
navigation system was to blame. By comparison to most of NASA’s other projects,
the Morpheus program is relatively cheap at $7 million and counting and that
figure also includes parts for a still-to-be-built second lander. If its
prototypes ever stop crashing, Morpheus is expected to be the forerunner for a
cheap, environmentally friendly planetary lander. Thursday was its first untethered
free flight, although it had performed 19 flights at Johnson Space Center in
Houston, where it was designed and made, and one more in Florida. During those
flights, it was always tethered to a crane, officials explained. The lander was
constructed of low-cost, off-the-shelf materials and was viewed as something of
a DIY effort to build a craft that used cheaper, more readily available and
environmentally friendly rocket fuel. It was supposed to undergo three months
of test flights over a specially created field designed to mimic the surface of
the moon, with boulders, rocks, slopes and craters. NASA promoted Morpheus as a
"green" project because methane is more environmentally friendly than
the toxic rocket fuels it commonly uses, but orange and yellow flames were the primary
color on display Thursday. Still, the agency plans more test flights just as
soon as a new lander can be built……..
- Social issue fights involving food products are not an
exclusively American phenomenon. While fighting over chicken sandwiches and
their greater social significance or what percentage of them is comprised of
pure, unadulterated hate and evil is consuming many Americans, disability groups in France fighting a battle of their
own with cheese maker Babybel. They are angry with Babybel because of accusations
that a promotional summer toy insults the mentally ill. In July, the company
included toy inkpads featuring the term "mentally ill holidays" in
bags of Mini Babybel, the round cheese with the unique red wax coating. Babybel
said the expression, "des vacances de malade mental" was merely a fun
word play on a French expression meaning extraordinary. Terms and phrases can
often become twisted in translation, so it might be wise to give Babybel the
benefit of the doubt…..unless one is a member of a French disability group. In
that case, it’s freaking on. Those groups called for a boycott on the offending
packs on Monday, accusing them of promoting "discriminatory values."
Much like un-cool, older people who try to use terms they hear teenagers and
those who aren’t old and out of touch say in their everyday life, Babybel
defended the slogan by insisting it merely used an everyday term among young
people, and that no offense was intended. Then, like any company or public figure
or entity that has done nothing wrong and has nothing to apologize for, it ceased
production of the controversial stamp and apologized publicly. Who could have
ever imagined food would become such a bitter battleground for important
societal issues like gay marriage and rights for the disabled………….
- There are courageous Olympic efforts, there are heroic
Olympic efforts and there are just plain badass Olympic efforts. United States 4x400-meter
relay team member Manteo Mitchell falls into at least the last of those three
categories after he helped his team to finish in 2:58.87 to qualify for
Friday's final of their event. The team headed into that race knowing Mitchell
would not be running after he literally broke his left leg running the leadoff
leg of the relay during Thursday’s qualifying heat. Mitchell broke a bone in
his left leg, USA Track and Field confirmed, but initially thought it might be
something relatively minor. "It might be a simple cramp," he said. "I
wanted to just lie down. It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in
half." Making his feat of keeping his team in the race and allowing the
final three runners to inch back into second place, Mitchell actually snapped
his fibula with 200 meters to go. He knew he needed to finish his leg or his
team would be eliminated and not earn a spot in the finals. If he continued to
run but ran too slowly, they probably would not qualify. So Mitchell nutted up,
battled through the second half of his leg and ran in excruciating pain until
he handed off to Josh Mance. Mitchell’s time of 46.1 seconds wasn’t great, but
it was solid and as he limped off the track afterward, it was impressive
considering his level of pain. He attributed the break to a poor landing on
Monday as he was was going up a set of stairs, missed one came down awkwardly.
Maybe that was the root cause of the fibula snapping like a twig and maybe it
wasn’t, but either way he has earned a special spot on the long list of
Olympians who overcame adversity not just to qualify for the Games, but fought
past even bigger hurdles once they arrived……….
- Watch The Throne has received plenty of love. Fans, peers, celebrities
and media have fawned over the combination of a hip-hop legend like Jay-Z and
the bloated, overrated egomaniac that is Kanye West. Their self-titled album
has spawned hits and catch phrases, but one icon of their genre still isn't
impressed. Public Enemy's Chuck
D real name Carlton Ridenhour, "doesn't get" Watch the Throne or the
excitement over them. As Public Enemy, rap pioneers and icons in their own
right, prepare to release a new album with a track titled “Catch the Throne,”
Chuck D sounded off on Jay-Z and West’s partnership and suggested the pair are
missing the point because they are too focused on materialism.
"Hip-hop
celebrates those who wanna make a killing instead of a living. I like those
guys, but they make me laugh sometimes because I don't get who they're here
for, other than themselves,” Ridenhour fumed. He went on to explain that he now
considers himself a "classic rapper" and likened his group to another
long-tenured band of musical giants. "We're already the Rolling Stones of
rap. I'm 52 and Flav's 53; that's 105 years coming at ya,” Ridenhour explained.
Those who believe that hanging around for as long as the Stones have is
excessive and leaves fans depressed at having to watch their idols get old and
slow down won't be happy to hear Ridenhour’s response when asked if he’d still
like to be going 25 years from now. "I'd would like to. B. B. Kin's doing
it at 87,"
he said. “Catch the Throne” appears on “Most Of My Heroes
Don't Appear On No Stamp,” which is slated to be the first of two albums Public
Enemy will release later this year………..
- Americans love their significant other and they love
cheap, fatty food that will make them even more obese than they already are.
That makes the newest addition to the ever-gaudy scene that is Las Vegas just
about the smartest combination since peanut butter and jelly were dropped into
the same jar. As a revitalization of
downtown Las Vegas and the long-struggling Neonopolis shopping center progress,
developers have added a Denny's restaurant to the mix and this will be no
ordinary Denny’s. It will offer not only the Grand Slam breakfast and
Moons Over My Hammy, but a few extra amenities. With a full bar and a line
of Denny's merchandise exclusive to the location, it will definitely be a
distinct place to eat, but its most noteworthy feature will have very little to
do with food. The Neonopolis version of Denny’s will also boast its very own
wedding chapel so lovebirds can down two pounds of pancakes, sausage links,
hash browns and eggs before saying, “I do.” Denny's Corp. sounds very fired up
about the idea and believes the combination of wedded bliss and greasy diner
food is a perfect fit. "Denny's is ‘Always Open' - 24 hours a day, every
day of the year - and there is no question that Las Vegas operates on the same
schedule, so this city was a natural fit for a world-class Denny's," said
John Miller, Denny's chief executive officer. "With two Denny's diners on
The Strip, we knew there was no better place for us to bring our flagship store
than to Fremont Street, the heart of downtown and the future of Las Vegas. This
location will embody the Denny's of the future, so Neonopolis was a logical
location for us." Hear that, America? The diner of the future. That means
more 6,400-square-foot eateries offering newly minted married couples a wedding
cake made of "Pancake Puppies" and an interactive photo booth from
which guests can share their pictures via various social media platforms right
from the restaurant could be coming to your city if you can’t make the trip to
Sin City. Destination weddings just received a high-ranking entry on their list
of tantalizing places to tie the knot…………
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