When Space Exploration Was Cool

The space shuttle Endeavor docked with the International Space Station (ISS) yesterday and it set a record. It was a small reminder of how excited Americans used to get about accomplishments in space travel and exploration. This time, the record was for the most humans on the same spacecraft at the same time: 13. The shuttle's crew of 7 joined the 6 people on the ISS to break the old record of 10. There have been 13 people in space at the same time in the past, but they were on several spacecraft. This record was set just days before the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing (7/20/1969).

Back in the day, Americans followed our space exploration efforts pretty closely, watching the launches of the various Mercury Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft, the moon landings, and the early space shuttle launches. We would sit glued to radios and televisions, listening or watching launches of sub-orbital flights, the first flights around the earth, and the first tentative efforts to reach the moon. It was exciting stuff, never knowing if the spacecraft and astronauts were going to succeed, but always expecting that American ingenuity would manage to overcome all the obstacles. There were mishaps and missteps, but for the most part, the NASA efforts held our attention and captured our imagination.

After the moon landings, something changed, and not for the better. Our famous short national attention span, I think, got in the way and we were no longer as engaged with the process. We lost focus as did NASA, and there was no clear new objective after the moon landing. The space exploration that continued became routine, and not nearly as exciting. The shuttle disasters briefly recaptured our attention, but it wasn't long before our attention wandered again.

I think it's no small thing to have 13 humans on a single spacecraft. And that group is truly international, representing all five member organizations for the ISS: NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the European Space Agency).

It's no Federation or Deep Space 9 certainly, but I think it's a big deal that this record has been set. We should all get excited for a few moments.

Loose Cannon On Campus?

A local story here involves a now former school board member who had been arrested for battery involving a group of students outside their high school. The full story is here. In brief, when he saw a group of students attempting to enter the school through a "restricted" door, he "ordered" them to follow him to the Dean's office. Along the way, he grabbed another student by the arm and ordered him to come along also. That student refused and filed a battery complaint against the school board member. Prosecutors eventually dropped the charge and the board member resigned from the board because he moved out of the district. He also took the opportunity to declare he'd done nothing wrong and that his actions made him a "hero."

The story is troubling for several reasons. My first concern is that comments on the newspaper story clearly indicate that many people have no clue what school board members are or what their job is. Many commenters lauded him for "doing the job he was hired for" and wondered why the prosecutors filed charges against him for "doing his job." He is not a "staff member." He was a school board member which is an elective office, not an employee of the District. He was totally out of line to attempt to herd a bunch of students to "the office."

Another issue is that school board members as individuals have no particular authority over students or even staff members of a school, or to enforce rules on campus. In fact, in Illinois, the oath of office for school board members states "...a Board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public Board meeting." One school board member equals one citizen, nothing more, nothing less.

This guy is not a hero (since when do people get to declare themselves heroes?). If he thought the students were "behaving suspiciously," he should have called police, not intervene personally. His wife, who was with him in the car, and is a teacher at the high school, might have legitimately gotten involved. His claim that he was concerned about security at the high school rings hollow and sounds more like someone searching for a campaign slogan.

He is nothing more than a bully and the District is better off that he's now resigned. He clearly had no clue what the role of a school board member is and apparently didn't care very much about that small detail. For those who are petrified about students bringing guns or bombs to school, it can happen, but it doesn't get prevented by a board member who happens to be sitting in his car. It's prevented by adoption of procedures and rules by school boards and administrators, not by loose cannons on campus.

Obama's Books Damage National Security?

In what is surely the goofiest story of the month, Federal Prison authorities have denied access to two books authored by President Obama to al-Qaida member Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who is serving a 30-year sentence at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo. The Associated Press report is here. Apparently, the prisoner requested access to the books last year, and based on FBI "advice," prison officials recently denied the access, because "passages in both books contain information that could damage national security." The prison system referred inquiries to the FBI, which was "looking into" the situation Thursday (7/9/09).

This is the kind of thing that gives bureaucrats a bad name. I wonder if this means that anyone who reads the President's books could damage national security, or if it's just convicted terrorists that are causing concern? It seems that if prison officials simply wanted to make the prisoner realize he's in the "supermax" federal prison and should not be enjoying reading books, citing national security was serious overkill.

Red Lights and Shopping Carts

When I drive in the Chicago suburbs, I invariably encounter people who don't really seem to understand they're piloting a couple of tons of steel around the streets and highways. They frequently seem to be preoccupied with other activities, often involving a cell phone, and to be blithely unaware of the existence of other vehicles. I think it's just too easy to get a driver's license.

As a bike rider, I pay close attention to other traffic on the streets, and it's appalling how many people think stop signs are just advisory, and roll on by.

Right turns on red, are another cause of concern for pedestrians, bicyclists, and other vehicles. A ridiculous number of drivers don't recognize that right turns on red are supposed to only be made after stopping not instead of stopping: "drivers must come to a complete stop and yield the right-of-way to oncoming traffic and pedestrians before turning" ). Because so many people don't seem to feel the need to stop before turning, or pull out without yielding to oncoming traffic, I think the right turn on red rules are among the worst rules enacted during my adulthood. I can't remember when the rules were changed to allow turning red at stop lights, but I'm pretty sure it was after I took driver training in high school back in the Pleistocene. I suppose it's too much to expect that people who don't stop at stop lights will stop at stop signs...

Too many people seem to think the rules only apply to others and that they are too important to have to slow down, stop, or otherwise change their course.

Those are probably the same folks who can't be bothered to put their shopping carts into the "corrals" in store parking lots, and prefer to just abandon them in parking spots. Recently I noticed two large lumber carts left in parking spots at a local home supply store lot, when a storage area was about one space away. Who are these people? Why are they in such a hurry? Why do they not care about anyone else's car getting dented or scratched because they abandoned the cart?

Anyone out there remember the concept of a "social contract?" I think the contract is broken.