Atlantis is Next

The shuttle Atlantis has been moved into the massive Kennedy Space Center assembly building (pictured) where it will be attached to a fuel tank and twin booster rockets in preparation for launch next month. The flight marks NASA's return to assembly of the International Space Station following the 2003 Columbia accident.

"We need to shift from the return-to-flight mode back to a more operational assembly sequence where we're flying, hopefully, four to five times a year and completing the assembly fairly quickly," Atlantis commander Brent Jett said.

Atlantis will be hauling a second set of massive solar arrays which are needed to boost the station's power output for partner laboratory modules. A firm date for the launch will be set following a flight review that ends on August 16th. The lift-off of Atlantis and six astronauts from Cape Canaveral in Florida is targeted for August 27 or 28.

Modern Monopoly

The London version of Monopoly is swapping its iconic bank notes for debit cards and replacing the dog and iron playing counters with a burger and a mobile phone in a bid to catch up with the times. The changes also include an increase in property prices, rocketing rents, and a change in the London addresses printed around the board. The new version of the game, called Monopoly Here and Now Electronic Banking, comes with a little machine that transfers money from one player's bank card to another.

Despite the changes and the upgrades, there is one thing that remains the same - the 'go to jail' punishment. "You do go to jail, that will never change," the spokesman said.

Museum to Feature Shiloh in Wax

According to a recent article on the ABC (Australia) website, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's baby Shiloh Nouvel will have her own figure at the Madame Tussaud's wax museum in New York. She will be the first baby ever given the honour and will be joining more than 200 celebrities portrayed in wax statues. The statue of Shiloh will feature her mom's the pouty lips and delicate features and "will lie peacefully inside a woven bassinet" in her "very own African-themed nursery," near figures of her parents, the museum said in a statement. "The nursery - painted a pale yellow - also includes jungle-themed curtains, a whimsical chandelier, a white changing table and giant stuffed animals. Soft African lullabies will be played in the background, and guests can pose for a 'family photo'with the three figures," said the museum, which promises to send $US1 per photo to the UN children's fund UNICEF. Jolie has been a United Nations goodwill ambassador for several years.

Advertising Ruse

Aussie and I got an envelope in the mail today with STATEMENT ENCLOSED stamped on it, so Aussie opened it to discover that it was from GEICO, a company we do not do business with. On the top of the letter above the fold was printed: "Please review your summary statement". Aussie being curious as to how we could have a bill from GEICO opened the letter out to read the following:

STATEMENT: At GEICO, we will strive to give you an outstanding
customer service experience. We will support you online and by
phone and help you...

The Statement continued for several lines, then was signed Ted Ward who is of course the Vice President.

Add this ruse to the fact that I hate that lizard with his fakey accent which IS NOT AT ALL Australian, we will never ever buy anything whatsoever from GEICO.

Quitting is Just a Jab Away!

According to this article, smokers struggling to kick the habit may soon be able to dispense with nicotine patches and chewing gum, in favour of a simple injection. The nicotine vaccine works to block the pleasurable effects of smoking from reaching the brain and reduces the withdrawal symptoms of giving up smoking. It is currently being trialed in the United States. Researchers say, "What this does is it keeps nicotine out of the brain altogether, and in that way keeps a smoker from finding it rewarding to smoke. The vaccine should also reduce the severe withdrawal symptoms of giving up smoking.

Heavenly Help

"We had just been wondering whether the cabin we're building is getting too expensive, and then this falls out of the sky," Bjørn Herigstad said with a laugh.

According to news from Norway in Aftenposten, a meteorite weighing around two kilos landed right in the yard outside Bjørn Herigstad's cabin in coastal Jæren, western Norway, over the weekend.

Herigstad isn't sure what he’ll do with the meteorite, which could be a valuable sales object. A quick check on the Internet revealed prices as high as NOK 700,000 (more than US$100,000).

Urban/Kidman Union Bears Fruit

I believe our Nic is pregnant! This would explain so much, including why she married the short guy, tears at the wedding (hormone upheaval), shopping at Target (lt), plus this photo of her obvious bump with pokey navel.

Outback Australia Telescope

An innovative radio telescope made up of square tiles instead of conventional dish antennas will be built in outback Western Australia to study what switched on the first stars.

The Mileura Widefield Array, which will cover an area 1.5 kilometres in diameter, will use 500 six-metre square 'tiles' to gather radio signals from its site in the mid-west of the state.

The array will operate at low frequencies to 'see through' the neutral hydrogen, which is opaque to optical light, that filled the early universe.

Mileura Station (a livestock ranch) is roughly 300km inland from the western Australian coast, a few hundred km north of Perth ,and 350km from the small coastal city of Geraldton . The target region is extremely sparsely populated, and is characterized by fairly flat, sparsely vegetated, semi-arid terrain criss-crossed by shallow washes and watercourses.

Dan Klass Cracks Me Up!

If you have the time, listen to the Dan Klass podcast, The Bitterest Pill. And start with #59: Get Her Some Crackers. He's a stay-at-home dad and his two-year-old daughter is awake while he's trying to be interviewed at home on his podcast by an English chick who is doing an article on podcasting. The two-year-old rules the day! The child's need for cheese and crackers while dad is otherwise occupied is hilarious!

We All Age

Our Sandy is 42! She was wonderful in The Lakehouse, but how much longer can she play the ingenue? I love Sandy, probably because she loves Texas. Can she graduate to the next roles awaiting her talent? Time will tell...

The Haka and the Handbag

The New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, begin every game with a traditional haka. A haka is a Maori war dance (more of a chant with hand gestures and foot stomping) which describes graphically how the opposition will be treated, and the players standing opposite the display on the field have got to be intimidated. Besides the haka, there is also the fact that the All Blacks are one tough team. In this video of the haka, note the "speaker".

His name is Tana Umaga and in a recent pub incident in Christchurch, he famously belted a team-mate with a woman's handbag.

Now Channel 7 in Australia is using the haka and the handbag incident to promote its coverage of Saturday's Tri-Nations Test against the Wallabies by presenting a digitally-altered clip which shows the All Blacks performing their traditional haka with handbags.

All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith described the ads as disrespectful. "It's insensitive, I think, to Maori and disrespectful of all the All Blacks," he said.

There is no video of the clip available on internet, but here's a still photo from it.

ISS/Discovery Passes

Since Discovery has docked with the International Space Station, it's a good time to check the almanac page at the Sky and Telescope site to see if there are any ISS/Discovery fly-overs in your skies. Simply put in your location (even the zip code will work in the US and Canada) and the almanac will give you the dates, times, duration, appearing and disappearing coordinates, and maximum elevation of the passes. The docking will continue until July 14th.

I don't know this for sure, but it seems that the passes could be brighter than usual. However, even if that is inaccurate, the ISS is the easiest object to spot in the clear night sky if you know where to look.

Here are our passes for tonight:
July 06, 9:22 pm 3 min.
July 06, 10:55pm 1 min.

Proofing for Project Gutenberg

Here's a list of the Top 100 downloaded books from Project Gutenberg.
Notice the link at the top of the page which states:

Did you know that you can help us produce ebooks by proof-reading just one page a day? Go to: Distributed Proofreaders

The mission of DP is the digitization of Public Domain books into Project Gutenberg.

I have been proofing pages for DP for a month now and find the "work" very engaging and rewarding. The concentration necessary to proof the pages takes me right out of my everyday life and transports my attention to the printed page. The software used at DP is simply amazing and everything about the operation is highly organized and simplified. There is a proofreading forum and a wiki which puts me in touch with all the other proofreaders from around the world. All the workers from project managers to P1 proofreaders are volunteers.
Here's the link to Distributed Proofreaders. You can look around the site and at the Smooth Reading Pool Preview without signing in. Give it a look-in!

In Progress: Discovery Docking with ISS

We are watching Discovery docking with the ISS on NASA channel. The live pictures are amazing. Here's a summary of the Discovery's mission from the NASA website:

Space Shuttle Discovery fired its engines just after 7 a.m. EDT beginning its final approach with the International Space Station. Discovery, which launched Tuesday afternoon to begin STS-121, is scheduled to dock with the station at 10:52 a.m. EDT today.

STS-121 will deliver supplies and equipment to the station. Much of the cargo is located in the Italian-built Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module. The STS-121 crew will also conduct at least two spacewalks while docked to the orbital outpost. During the excursions, the crew will demonstrate techniques for inspecting and protecting the shuttle’s thermal protection system.

Also, arriving with STS-121 is European Space Agency Astronaut Thomas Reiter. He will become Expedition 13’s third crew member. His arrival will return the station’s crew complement to three for the first time since Expedition 6 left in May 2003.

About two hours after Discovery arrives, the hatches will open and the STS-121 crew will enter the station for the first time. STS-121 is currently scheduled to depart the space station on July 14 and land in Florida on the 16th.

STS-121 will be the first shuttle mission to visit the station since STS-114 left in August 2005.

No Pork on the Menu

Because this tigeress was born in captivity and nursed for four months by a pig at a zoo in Thailand, the piglets have thankfully lost their place in her food chain!

More really cute photos here.

LeTour

What's the Tour de France without Lance Armstrong? Just another bike race...

However, if you are interested in what's happening day to day in France with the racers, check out the daily news on Lance's website.

4th of July Dinner Party

We really enjoyed our 4th of July dinner with friends. Here's a recipe for the main course which was stuffed Cornish game hens:
1 package long-grain and wild rice mix, 6 ounces
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 can (about 4 ounces) chopped mushrooms, drained
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 Cornish game hens (approximately 1 pound each)

PREPARATION:
Cook rice according to package directions; cool. Add celery, chopped mushrooms, chopped apricots, butter, and soy sauce; toss lightly to mix. Stuff hens; place in roasting pan. Roast, loosely covered at 375° for 30 minutes. Remove cover and continue roasting Cornish hens for about 60 minutes, or until done. Baste Cornish hens with butter during last 30 minutes, if desired.

We added a beautiful wild green salad with maple-coated walnuts and gruyere cheese and also an asparagus side dish. A riesling made the meal complete. We followed with a tasty strawberry dessert and a sweet wine. Then port and chocolate. What a meal!

Need I mention the conversation, the new friends, and the lovely cool night air on the back porch overlooking the Guadalupe River?

Hot and Dry

There is no rain in the guage in the Texas Hill Country. It's dry and there is very little prospect for rain in the near future. Add to that, the thermometer is registering in the upper 90's every day. So it's hot and it's dry and there's no relief in sight!

Since our house sits on the side of a hill with no fear of flooding, we want rain and lots of it. Actually, it would take a flood to reach our average rainfall and to fill the Guadalupe River and recharge the aquifer.

"Prada": What Was Missing?

Days after seeing "The Devil Wears Prada", I have finally hit on what was missing from that film. It had great acting, beautiful clothes, NYC locations, a wonderful supporting cast, but it didn't have a PLOT! I will say that Streep, a fav of mine, has never looked better and her performance was worth the price of the ticket.

Beauty Destroyed

OMG! Whether this is anorexia or not, who cares? Keira was my top choice for "most beautiful woman" until this photo. What has she done to her body? That's not sexy or even photogenic, it's sad! Please Keira, eat a burger!