lwsimmons.org

April 6, 2005

With the approval of an additional 18 months of funding, NASA’s twin Mars rovers, the Spirit and Opportunity, will continue their exploration of “fantastic” landscapes for an additional 14 months.

“The rovers have proven their value with major discoveries about ancient watery environments on Mars that might have harbored life,” said Dr. Ghassem Asrar, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “We are extending their mission through September 2006 to take advantage of having such capable resources still healthy and in excellent position to continue their adventures.”

With 11 months of extensions exceeding their successful three-month prime missions, “We now have to make long-term plans for the vehicles because they may be around for quite a while,” said Jim Erickson, rover project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Scientists are within a few football field’s distance of a region called “Etched Terrain,” with rocks exposed by actual wind erosion rather than craters. There are rocks different from others in any other time in Mars’ history. “This is a journey into the unknown, to something completely new,” said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., and principal investigator for the rover’s science instruments.

The rover Opportunity has overtaken Spirit in total distance driven. It has been pushed by rover planners to roll more than three miles—eight times the original goal.

On March 20, a new Martian record of 722 feet in a single 24-hour drive was accomplished by Opportunity. Even Spirit is exceeding expectations although it is in much rougher terrain, climbing a rocky slope toward an area called “Husband Hill.”

The rovers have shown signs of wear and tear. Spirit’s rock abrasion tool grinding teeth might be nearly useless after exposing the interior of five times more rocks than its original design goal of only three rocks.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

James Brady, former White House Press Secretary for the Ronald Reagan US presidential administration and advocate for gun control, died yesterday at age 73 in an Alexandria, Virginia retirement community. The family released a statement saying, “We are heartbroken to share the news that our beloved Jim ‘Bear’ Brady has passed away after a series of health issues”. Brady was a few weeks shy of his 74th birthday.

Brady was serving as President Reagan’s press secretary when he was the most seriously wounded out of four, in a assassination attempt on Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. on March 30, 1981. Brady was shot in the head by a hollow-point bullet damaging his right frontal lobe. Dr. Arthur Kobrine, a neurosurgeon, operated on Brady to save his life. Brady survived but was left with brain damage, slurred speech, short-term memory loss, and partial paralysis which required use of a wheelchair.

Following the assassination attempt, Brady and his wife Sarah joined with The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, and Handgun Control, Inc., two organizations lobbying for gun control. The organizations were later renamed in honor of Brady, as Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence respectively. The organizations lobbied for the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, a law passed in 1993 which requires federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States.

Brady never again held press conferences after the assassination attempt; nevertheless, he officially remained press secretary throughout the entire Reagan administration, till 1989. In 2000, the White House press briefing room was renamed after Brady. Josh Earnest, President Barack Obama’s current press secretary, along with eleven other former White House press secretaries said in a statement, “Jim Brady defined the role of the modern White House Press Secretary. With his passing we lost a friend and mentor, and the country lost a selfless public servant who dedicated his life to service, even in the face of tragedy. […] Jim set the model and standard for the rest of us to follow. It’s been a genuine honor for each of us to stand at the podium in the briefing room that will always bear his name.”

Saturday, November 18, 2006

The New Zealand National party is rejecting the government’s ambitions to build a new stadium on Auckland, New Zealand’s waterfront for the 2011 Rugby World Cup final instead it is backing the option of an upgrade of Eden Park.

Yesterday, Friday, Member of Parliaments (MP) from the National party met with Trevor Mallard, sports minister, to discuss the possibility of a waterfront stadium but National remain unmoved. Deputy leader, Gerry Brownlee, said: “If it was a new car I wouldn’t buy it.”

It was reported that John Key, Gerry Brownlee, Katherine Rich and Murray McCully were all present at the meeting with Mr Mallard. And all of those MPs threw a lot of questions at Mr Mallard.

Mr Mallard said: “I actually thought it was a very positive meeting. I thought Catherine Rich and John Key’s level of understanding increased and their enthusiasm was very positive.”

Mr Brownlee said: “The [NZ]$385 million Eden Park costings seemed relatively certain against the $500 million waterfront estimate, where the price would not be known till it’s built.”

The reason for the debate is because to host the Rugby World Cup the venue which is used for the final game has to have 60,000 seats, all of New Zealand’s stadiums are currently under that minimum.

Mr Mallard confirmed that North Harbour Stadium is also being considered as a “very good back-up option.” This is mainly because it can begin upgrading of its stadium before Eden Park or the waterfront stadium. “North Harbour could be called on if you ran into problems with the other options,” Mr Mallard said, “There are consenting issues there with buildability and there would still be a lot of transport issues getting people there and there’s not a lot of infrastructure around it.”

The decision of which stadium will be the venue of the grand final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup final will be made this Friday by the Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Council, which is asking for the public’s opinion to help them with their decision. The council’s decision is the one the government will go with according to Mr Mallard: “There’s no way the Government would override the councils’ decisions.”

Mr Mallard added: “I love Eden Park, and my gut feeling for a long time was to upgrade it. If you like I’ve got a romantic attachment, so for me if Aucklanders decide that’s their approach I will back them.”

The International Rugby Board also announced the Rugby World Cup will be played around September. 2011 instead of around the June period.

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

New filmmaker Solomon Rothman has released a trailer for his upcoming full length open source film called ‘Boy Who Never Slept.’ Both the movie and the trailer are offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. The movie is set to be released at the end of May.

The film centers on the life of an insomniac writer who meets a teenage girl online, and a friendship that grows into an unlikely love story wrapped in harsh reality. The movie deals with various issues, including the romanticization of love, age-related issues in relationships, like statuatory rape (he’s 23, and she’s 16), and the idea of love in the online realm.

Rothman, a writer, amateur filmmaker and web designer, lives in the Los Angeles Area. He wrote, directed and produced the movie with Aurora Mae, his girlfriend and partner. Producing the movie for $200 while they were in college, they used friends as actors and later sold the camera on eBay to recoup the expense.

Rothman has spoken about the power of the internet as a distribution source for movies and has said “I believe it’s possible that this movie I shot with no budget and released online for free could potentially reach as many viewers as a major theatrical release.”

Rothman and Mae started out with the idea of creating a full-length movie that could be shared totally for free online. The film includes a custom soundtrack and script, both of which will be released open source as well.

The trailer is available on the official movie website[1] and can also be found on Google video, YouTube.com, Ifilm.com, AddictedClips.com, and the Internet Movie Archives.

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Yesterday, UK singer Ed Sheeran won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for his song Thinking Out Loud from his album × ahead of Kendrick Lamar’s Alright; Wiz Khalifa’s, featuring Charlie Puth, See You Again; Little Big Town’s Girl Crush; and Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. Girl Crush won the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.

Welsh singer Amy Wadge co-wrote the song. Sheeran during the ceremony said they wrote the song on a couch in his house. In remarks to the Western Mail, Wadge said the album was already complete when they wrote the song.

Thinking out Loud remained #2 on Billboard Hot 100 for almost two months, and topped the UK rankings last year. Its video song has 969 Million YouTube views and has more than four million likes. The song also won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance.

US singer Stevie Wonder announced the winner for the Song of the Year, and the envelope was written in Braille script. He joked about it saying “You can’t read it, you can’t read Braille!”

Along with Ed Sheeran’s first Grammy, Canadians The Weeknd and Justin Bieber won Grammy awards for the first time.

[edit]