Korean Space Research... WOW!

   

Tucson Weather Today

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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and the president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Seung Jo Kim, met in Washington to discuss collaboration in aeronautics research and space exploration, including KARI's robotic lunar mission and NASA's asteroid initiative. This was the first meeting between Bolden and Kim.

"Our two agencies share a mutual interest in aeronautics research, and have identified opportunities for collaboration," said Bolden. "We also have partnered for several years in the International Space Exploration Coordination Group and are looking forward to continued discussions on potential cooperation in space exploration."

Bolden and Kim also discussed NASA's plans for a new asteroid initiative, previously announced in President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget proposal. Kim welcomed the chance to discuss opportunities for collaboration.

NASA's asteroid initiative involves robotically capturing a small near-Earth asteroid and redirecting it safely to a stable lunar orbit where astronauts can explore it.

Capturing and redirecting an asteroid integrates the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration capabilities and draws on the innovation of America's brightest scientists and engineers. The knowledge gained from the initiative will help us protect our planet, advance exploration capabilities and technologies for human spaceflight, and help us better utilize our space resources.

--From NASA Release 13-235, July 29, 2013

I don't understand what Korea can contribute to America's space endeavor. And I have found little regarding their value to NASA.

According to Wikipedia, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute is developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, high-altitude airships, and a next-generation multi-purpose helicopter project. In addition, several satellites, including the KOMPSAT (also known as Arirang) Seriese, the COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite), and the STSAT (Science and Technology Satellite), are developed, operated, or under development by KARI. On January 30, 2013, they launched a satellite into space from their own soil for the first time.

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A couple of interesting little factoids pertaining to today's date caught my attention.

On this day, August 1, back in 2001, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore had a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office. Christians just can't seem to accept the simple but absolutely necessary principle of separation of Church and State. They are almost as stubborn about that as are Moslems.

Also, on this day, August 1 in 1988, Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting his nationally syndicated radio program. I am listening to him right now on radio station KNST in Tucson.

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TRIVIA

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

Charles Joseph Whitman was an engineering student and former United States Marine. On the afternoon of August 1, 1966 he killed seventeen people and wounded thirty-two others in a mass shooting rampage located in and around the Tower of the University of Texas in Austin. Three people were shot and killed inside the university's tower and eleven others were murdered after Whitman fired at random from the 28th-floor observation deck of the Main Building.

Prior to the shootings at the University of Texas, Whitman had murdered both his wife and mother in Austin.

Whitman was shot and killed by Austin Police Officer Houston McCoy.

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WORD FOR TODAY

transcendent  (tran-sen'-dunt)
adjective
1. Surpassing others; preeminent or supreme.
2. Lying beyond the ordinary range of perception.
3. (Philosophy)
a. Transcending the Aristotelian categories.
b. In Kant's theory of knowledge, being beyond the limits of experience and hence unknowable.
4. Being above and independent of the material universe. Used of the Deity.

In religion transcendence refers to the aspect of God's nature and power which is wholly independent of (and removed from) the material universe. This is contrasted with immanence where God is fully present in the physical world and thus accessible to creatures in various ways. In religious experience transcendence is a state of being that has overcome the limitations of physical existence and by some definitions has also become independent of it. This is typically manifested in prayer, seance, meditation, psychedelics and paranormal "visions".

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Tempestt Bledsoe

(born August 1, 1973)

Tempestt Bledsoe is an American actress. She is best known for her childhood role as Vanessa Huxtable on the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show.

Note: A few years ago, I saw Tempestt Bledsoe sitting outside her room on the VIP floor of the Contemporary Resort at Walt Disney World. She smiled at me as I walked by and gave me a little wave. A guy tends to remember little things like that.

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia

(Aug. 1, 1942 - Aug. 9, 1995) 

Jerry Garcia was an American musician who was best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead.

Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his unstable weight, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions, and was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995

In 1987, ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's came out with Cherry Garcia (my favorite ice cream flavor) which is named after the guitarist and consists of "cherry ice cream with cherries and fudge flakes"

Dominick "Dom" DeLuise

(Aug. 1, 1933 - May 4, 2009)

Dom DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the father of actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise, actor David DeLuise, and actor Michael DeLuise. He starred in a number of movies directed by Mel Brooks, in a series of films with career-long best friend Burt Reynolds, and as a voice actor in various animated films.

William Clark

(Aug. 1, 1770 - Sept. 1, 1838)

William Clark was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor. A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri. Clark was a planter and slaveholder.

Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark led the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1803 to 1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States. Afterward, he served as governor of the Missouri Territory. From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

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Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
--William S. Burroughs

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

To Boldly Go . . .

    

Tucson Weather Today

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Teach me your mood,
O patient stars.
Who climb each night,
the ancient sky.
leaving on space no shade, no scars,
no trace of age, no fear to die.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson


There has been tremendous improvements to the NASA TV channel. I have been watching it a lot lately. Way too much, I fear... it's habit forming. Have to tear myself away and get back to my other pressing tasks. Such as writing this blog.

Give it a try if you are interested in outer space and technology.

NASA TV


John Young, veteran of Gemini’s 3, 10; Apollo’s 10. Apollo 15; STS-1 and STS-9 said, "NASA is not about the ‘Adventure of Human Space Exploration’…We won’t be doing it just to get out there in space -- we’ll be doing it because the things we learn out there will be making life better for a lot of people who won’t be able to go."

NASA TV lets you virtually go along for the ride.

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TRIVIA

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 20 in 1979, President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter climbed to the White House roof to celebrate the installation of the $28,000 solar-heating system of solar-energy panels there. The system consisted of 32 photovoltaic panels that generated enough energy to provide hot water for the entire White House.

In 1986, President Reagan had the solar panels removed.

LINK

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WORD FOR TODAY

collaboration
noun
-  the act of working with another or others on a joint project
-  something created by working jointly with another or others
-  the act of cooperating as a traitor with an enemy

Collaboration is working with each other to do a task.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Nicole Mary Kidman
(born 20 June 1967)

Nicole Kidman is an Australian actress, singer and film producer. Kidman's film career began in 1983. She starred in various Australian film and television productions until her breakthrough in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Following several films over the early 1990s, she came to worldwide recognition for her performances in Days of Thunder (1990), Far and Away (1992), and Batman Forever (1995). She followed these with other successful films in the late 1990s. Her performance in the musical, Moulin Rouge! (2001) earned her second Golden Globe Award and first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Her performance as Virginia Woolf in the drama film The Hours (2002) received critical acclaim.

Kidman's other notable films include To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The Others (2001), Cold Mountain (2003), The Interpreter (2005) and Australia (2008).

John Stephen Goodman
(born June 20, 1952)

John Goodman is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is known for his role as Dan Conner on the television series Roseanne (1988–1997), for which he won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award in 1993, and for providing the voice of Sulley in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. Other prominent roles he has portrayed include his leading voice role in Frosty Returns, his recent supporting roles in Argo, Flight, and The Artist, and a cameo in C.H.U.D. As a film actor, he has frequently collaborated with the Coen Brothers on such films as Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and upcoming indie drama Inside Llewyn Davis.

Morna Anne Murray
(born June 20, 1945)

Anne Murray is a multiple award-winning Canadian singer in pop, country and adult contemporary music whose albums have sold over 54 million copies worldwide as of 2012. Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one of her signature songs, "Snowbird" (1970).

Patrick John Mahoney
(June 20, 1940)

John Mahoney is an English-born American actor. He started his career on the stage in 1977, moving into film in 1980. He played Martin Crane in the American sitcom Frasier on NBC from its inception in 1993 until the final episode in 2004. He has also worked as a voice actor, and performed on Broadway and in Chicago theatre.

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
--Arthur C. Clarke
  

To Mars And Beyond?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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A pair of woodpeckers have built a nest inside a hole they pecked in a Saguaro cactus out on the back deck a few feet west of the swimming pool. There are some cheeping chicks inside the cactus. I took about a dozen shots of the parents entering and leaving the nest. But they are cautious and they are fast.

My task was made more difficult because Eva does not want any birds in her territory, and she growls and roars out her loudest and most bass snarls and barks whenever they fly near. I suppose I could have left her inside while I took the pictures, but that would hurt her feelings terribly. And I try not to do that to her.

I got one pretty good one, though. I cropped it and posted it below.









The Science Channel (SCI) is presenting a series on the upcoming mission to Mars. It is titled MARS RISING and it comprises several hours of documentary style programming describing all the dangers and challenges that might arise to plague the astronauts on their long, long journey.

I watched the first three fascinating hour-long episodes.

I suppose I am the eternal pessimist, but it seems to me that the perils, both known and unknown, are too numerous for such a journey to succeed. And human beings, no matter how proud and intrepid, are still just that... 'human beings.'

If astronauts ever do survive a trip to Mars and if they then succeed in finding indications pointing to the possibility of biological life having once been able to inhabit the planet, then beyond this 'possibility' remains the fact that biological life is no longer capable of surviving on Mars. And we already knew that before Man began the trek.

What would have been gained?

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TRIVIA

You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On June 5 in 1968 Senator Robert Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by the 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan.

Senator Kennedy died a day later.

Sirhan, who was born in Palestine, confessed to the crime at his trial and received a death sentence on March 3, 1969. However, since the California State Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty sentences in 1972,

Sirhan has spent the rest of his life in prison.


More details  . . .

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WORD FOR TODAY

intrepid
adjective
Resolutely courageous; fearless.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg
(born June 5, 1971)

Mark Wahlberg is an American actor, producer, model, and former rapper. He was known as Marky Mark in his earlier years, and became famous for his 1991 debut as frontman with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. Wahlberg is well known for his roles in films such as Fear (1996), Boogie Nights (1997), Three Kings (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), Rock Star (2001), The Italian Job (2003), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Four Brothers (2005), The Departed (2006), Invincible (2006), Shooter (2007), Max Payne (2008), The Lovely Bones (2009), The Fighter (2010), Date Night (2010), Ted (2012), Pain & Gain (2013) and Transformers 4 (2014). He has also served as the executive producer of the TV series Entourage, Boardwalk Empire, and How to Make It in America.

 

 

Susan Lynn "Suze" Orman
(born June 5, 1951)

Suze Orman is an American author, financial advisor, motivational speaker, and television host. Orman was born in Chicago and received her B.A. in social work. She worked as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch. In 1983 she became the vice-president of investments at Prudential Bache Securities and in 1987 founded the Suze Orman Financial Group. Her program The Suze Orman Show began airing on CNBC in 2002. In 2006 she won a Gracie Award for Outstanding Program Host on the The Suze Orman Show on CNBC. She has written several books on the topic of personal finance.

Bill D. Moyers
(born June 5, 1934)

Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the Johnson administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public television, producing documentaries and news journal programs. He has won numerous awards and honorary degrees. He has become well known as a trenchant critic of the U.S. media. Since 1990, Moyers has been President of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy.

 

 

Mary Kay Bergman
(June 5, 1961 - November 11, 1999)

Mary Kay Bergman, credited on the first season and the first half of the second season of South Park as Shannen Cassidy, was an American voice actress and animation voice-over teacher.

Bergman had previously acted in plays in high school and also studied theater at UCLA. In 1989, she began voicing the Disney character Snow White and is now perhaps best known for her roles in South Park, which she voiced from its 1997 debut until her death, and The Fairly Odd Parents. She also did voice work for over 400 television commercials.

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For the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions.
--Lao Tzu
    

Science? Fiction? Or . . .?

The final mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled for February 24, 2011. Discovery will deliver the PMM (Permanent Multipurpose Module) to the International Space Station and will also carry Robonaut 2, which will be the first human-like robot in space, Robonaut 2 will become a permanent resident of the station.

Uh-oh... reminiscent of HAL, but Robonaut 2 will be orbiting Earth. Yikes!

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Still tending to my other current writing endeavor.

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