You Have To

Read this to believe it.

Would Anyone Care For A Piece Of Yellow Cake?

This may or may not be a big deal. The radioactive stuff called yellow cake showed up in a scrap steel yard in the Netherlands. Interesting that the steel came from Iraq.

Color Televsion Turns 50

I grew up with black and white TVs. Well, to be truthful, we didn't have a television set until I was in my teens. About the only TV watching I got before then was driving to a friend of my Dad's house and watching Friday night "rasslin" on channel 2. I almost grew up only listening to radio.

We lived in the boonies and reception was marginal even with a 30 foot slip-up mast and antenna mounted atop the house. For some reason, the program I remember most is the Mickey Mouse Club. Since I was mainly interested in either hunting or fishing, I don't know why Mickey Mouse held my interest but there's a lot I don't remember about those times.

Anyway, I was reading today in TV Technology that last January 1 was the 50th anniversary of the first network transmission of a color program. Appropriately enough, it was the Rose parade in Pasadena. The article implies that that event was the beginning of the end for black and white sets. Maybe so but 50 years later, you can still buy one at Radio Shack or Target. People are still watching black and white sets so I guess color doesn't always matter.

Now we are entering another phase in the life of television--digital transmission, commonly called High Definition Television or HDTV. But in fifty years, there may not be a way to see color or black and white TV as we know it today because FCC rules specify that the transmission scheme, known as NTSC, will be phased out. The original timetable was May, 2006. Since there's not yet many high def TVs sitting in living rooms, I suspect the date will be more like May, 2026. But when the 100th anniversary of color television rolls around, there probably won't be much of a celebration because there won't be anything to celebrate.

Use A Cell Phone In DC

Get a ticket. But if this is so:

The new prohibition is part of the increasing attention being paid to the dangers of cell phone use while driving as well as other distractions such as putting on makeup, eating and changing CDs.

Then they should give tickets for all the other things that distract us. I've seen far worse than all this stuff. Playing a flute or a hand of cards--which I've seen happen--while driving on the freeway seems a lot more distracting to me.

James Lileks

Wants to go into space:

I want my child to look at the night sky and always think: this is the beginning. This is square one. More, please; faster. I want my child to be bored with the Moon, used to Mars, and desperate to learn what the Europa expedition has learned. I want my daughter to be an old woman sitting in a chair at her cabin up north, looking up at the bright brilliant sky, wondering if her kids remembered to dump daddy’s ashes on their field trip to the moon, or whether they just plain forgot, flushed them down the shuttle loo and claimed they scattered me near the LEM Memorial Site.

It's all here.

Rover Is On The Ground

The wheels have finally touched the Martian surface.

Wide angle view of Spirit's wheels on Mars

Is This A Sign Of Things To Come?

Democrats are bolting the party to support President Bush. In President Carter's home state no less.

Spirit Is Headed

In this direction.

Wesley Clark and The Mad Hatter

Clark was a three-star (lieutenant general) who directed strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. On Aug. 26, 1994, in the northern Bosnian city of Banja Luka, he met and exchanged gifts with the notorious Bosnian Serb commander and indicted war criminal, Gen. Ratko Mladic. The meeting took place against the State Department's wishes and may have contributed to Clark's failure to be promoted until political pressure intervened. The shocking photo of Mladic and Clark wearing each other's military caps was distributed throughout Europe.

So says Robert Novak.

Brazil Nuts

Spirit Will Be Off And Running Tomorrow

President Bush

Has outlined a new plan for getting the U.S. to the Moon by 2015. It will also free us from the International Space Station and retire the Space Shuttle by 2010. He talks about a new dual purpose vehicle that will be capable of getting us to the ISS and the Moon. The goal for a Moon base is 2020 and for man on Mars by 2030. If I'm lucky, I'll see man on the Moon (as opposed to man in the Moon) but I will have to be very lucky to make until we reach Mars. But my mother is 89 and still kicking so who knows.

As I Said

Paul O'Neill is crawfishing.

You Say Potato, I Say Potahto

Paul O'Neill Crawfishes

Howard Dean:

I can't be bothered with junk like this.

Worldwide Terror

In a comprehensive article, Guardian reporters show that we are indeed fighting WWIII. And it won't stop until the people like this understand why we must fight it.

Are Paul O'Neill And Ron Suskind

Liars? And will O'Neill wind up in jail?

She Thought That Clam Tasted A Little Rubbery

Does Wesley Clark Need Vindiciation?

Appears to be the case.

Al Qaeda Planned

To attack Houston--according to this report on Fox News. Doesn't surprise me that we would be targeted considering that we have one of the worlds largest oil refining centers along with a nuclear power plant.

Howard Dean:

Loud mouth bully.

As If We Didn't Already Know This