Fallout

Dr. S and I had a lengthy conversation about the Columbia Tragedy as the story was breaking. The conversation had a number of threads, only a few of them are publishable.

Terrorism?

Not a chance in the world. At 200k feet and Mach 18, there is nothing on Earth that could bring this machine down. That stated, I have no doubt that some wackos will call Art Bell in his trailer in Roswell and submit something that sounds like this:

A) �I think it was that Israeli Jew-boy astronaut that blew up the shuttle in order to have the Americans blame Iraq.�
B) �I saw some Al Qaeda guys standing in a field with a shoulder mounted rockets and towels from the Ramada Inn wrapped around their heads. They did it. I called the FBI and they didn�t listen to me�

And there are plenty of people who will absolutely believe it. Great. Just what we need.

This is dangerous business

I was writing my Master�s comps when the Challenger blew to pieces back in the 80s. I was aghast, but a professor � Eddie Bowen � helped to put this in perspective. He opined that seven people were basically sitting atop a massive bomb and he was surprised that it didn�t happen more often. Dr. S, a statistician amongst other things, said that flying around in space is extremely hazardous occupation, that it is a lot more dangerous that taking a cab across Manhattan (or the Bronx for that matter).

And despite the recent boom in space-type tourism, I�m inclined to believe this.

One must also remember that the shuttle is basically late �70s technology. Were we to build it from scratch today, it would look and function a lot differently.

Dancing in Ramallah

I�m waiting for footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets of Ramallah or Gaza over the death of the Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. Another thing to help their cause here in The States. Any bets on parties being thrown in Baghdad?

01 Feb 03 dpny