Which is this blogger's slang for a broken-down old junker.

The Space Shuttle never did all that much. I think it was originally sold not according to its usefulness -- it can't do much that a conventional rocket can't -- but on the basis of its putative gee-whiz factor, a real live spaceship, launching into the heavens and landing again. It was sold, I imagine, on the intangible benefits of exiciting a whole new generation about the wonders of exploration and science.

But even as a kid I was a little underwhelmed by the Shuttle. Partly that was out of childhood ignorance and unreasonable expectations; a real space ship, I thought, ought to be able to manage more than an orbital mission. Or a scientific mission (many of these scientific missions concocted by fourth-graders in unending public-relations maneuvers to justify continuing the program) to determine how spiders build their webs in zero-g.

Is this really a concern for anybody? I can't even imagine arachnologists being particularly excited about spiders in zero-g. See, they don't actually live in zero-g. So what the hell does that tell us? That creatures will behave slightly differently, and be a little disoriented, in an enviornment entirely alien to them? For this we need $500 million shuttle missions?

It's like designing an experiment to find out how a pack of pumas behave when addicted to smack and forced to live 24/7 in one of the seedy back-booths at the Viper Room.

Sorta fun, yes, and it would be just terrific to see Steven Dorff mauled by junkie hipster pumas, but is that really the sort of science that we're interested in funding?

Depends on the price, I guess. If it could be done for a ten thousand or so, it seems well worth it to me. More than that, and I'd demand a bigger name celebrity than Steven Dorff. Someone like, say, Stacey Q, or Rip Taylor. Or, preferably, both.

The newest or best two shuttles should be maintained for those few missions actually requiring the shuttles' capabilities. Ferrying people to the boondoggle-but-too-much-money-sunk-into-it-to-abandon-it-now international space station; fixing or recapturing malfunctioning satellites; maybe even the rare space rescue mission. But it doesn't seem worth the price or risk to continue sending the shuttles up on routine, make-work missions that do little but serve as PR for NASA funding (and not very well at that).

NASA should stick by and large to unmanned probes, launched by conventional rockets. If they want a real gee-whiz, inspire-a-generation-of-kids-(and adults) mission, they ought to go back to the Moon again. Yes, it's been done, but not in my lifetime (or at least not in the working-memory part of my lifetime), and I'm sure they can think of some new twist on the mission to make it seem new.

Like-- how would monkeys in space-suits react to the Moon's reduced gravity? Something fun like that. Toss a bushel of bananas into the low-gravity non-air and watch those monkeys go literally ape-shit berserk trying to catch them, jumping around and doing f'n' back-flips like acrobatic retards on Red Bull.

Not really science so much as the world's most expensive reality TV show.

And of course I'd watch.

Shuttles to be Retired by 2010: Which is a good idea, but until then, let's ixne on the frequent and frequently useless shuttle flights. Only launch them when actually, genuinely needed, and stop with all this idiocy about these ungainly, awkward flyin' minivans "exciting a generation of children about the wonders of science."

Thanks to My perpetual tormentor Dave From It's Old.

Posted by: Ace at 08:17 AM | Comments (28)
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Eh, it's always possible that there are new readers here. So what the hell.

The stupidest lyric ever written. It involves a duck.

The origin and first issue of Geoffrey the Duck (skip down to "Never Waste A Good Premise Update").

Eh. These are the things you do trying to prep for a show.

Awww, Nuts: Please excuse the unfortunate reference to Peter Jennings at the end of the post about the lyrics. It was written months ago. I had no idea that was in the post.

Posted by: Ace at 09:37 PM | Comments (7)
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They denied it, but now it's confirmed. Sleazy as hell.

I don't know if I feel like engaging in this -- payback is a bitch for all concerned -- but the press should know that if they're going to engage in this sort of scandal-fishing, well, they do call themselves "The Fourth Estate." They are important political actors, by self-admission (well, self-boasting, actually); perhaps they need a similar vetting.

Surely there are dirty little secrets our nobel press corps wouldn't want let out of the bag about them...?

There's a Shadow Media out there, kiddies. And we can get tips and make confirmatory phone-calls the same as you.

And do a lot of digging and publish embarassing stories about personal matters, same as you, only about you.

Y'all really ready to play by the same rules you torment the rest of us with?

There used to be a line. Apparently no longer. Fair enough.

But if the MSM indulges in this sort of digging and smearing, they're hardly in a position to cry foul if all the people they've ever screwed or screwed over or both start sending little emails to bloggers. And if some of those scandal-tips see their way on to the Internet.

After multiple layers of painstaking editorial fact-checking, of course.

Posted by: Ace at 09:07 PM | Comments (26)
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Gotcha.

Thanks, Nick.

Posted by: Ace at 07:13 PM | Comments (2)
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It's really no secret. The Weathergirls' classic cock-pop It's Raining Men, on continuous loop, 24/7.

Even when I sleep. Because it gives me terrific dreams about a shirtless Fabio and Lorenzo Lamas working in a garage. Lifting engine blocks, changing oil, massaging Marshmallow Fluff into each other's thigh-hair... you know, just good clean guy-fun.

Posted by: Ace at 06:02 PM | Comments (29)
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Two big findings: blogs are big guns now, read by 1/6th of the American population, and, even more shockingly, you blog-readers aren't the inbred morons I expected you were.

Well, you may be morons. But you're wealthier than the average moron in any event, which is all that matters as far as I'm concerned (because that's all that matters as far as advertisers are concerned).

This interested me:

Of 400 of the biggest blogs observed, segmented by seven (nonexclusive) categories, political blogs were the most popular, followed by “hipster” lifestyle blogs, tech blogs and blogs authored by women.

I'd like to invite everyone over to my new blog, Sexy Cindy's Gonzo Republican House of Ecstacy-Fueled Cuddle Parties and COBOL Programming Tips and Tricks.

Posted by: Ace at 05:57 PM | Comments (16)
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A big drawback with PM is the flat rate of payment, which keeps anyone who thinks their blog might increase in readership (which is every blogger, pretty much, except me; I'm resigned to being eternally almost-big-enough-to-be-taken-seriously) from signing up.

It turns out there may be increases in payments. According to a spokesman for PM:

At the end of the contract period, if your traffic has gone up, which we believe it will significantly due to our promotion via our portal, your contract will change to reflect the new readership. Moreover, if your daily visits go up significantly more than the rest of the bloggers we are promoting --if you grow by 25% above the norm in the group's increased traffic, and your 25% jump is sustained over two months' time--you will get your new contract and more money mid-term to reflecting your readership growth.

Sounds... well, chancy, but if your traffic does rise for a sustained period of time you'll get more money. The suggestion is that you'll be paid according to the standard formula, but that's not actually said. Maybe you'll get less.

On the other hand... one beef I have with PJ's standard contract is that it's for 18 months, which takes us right through the 2006 midterms. Political bloggers know that traffic spikes during elections. A midterm won't goose readership like a full presidential election will, but still, one could imagine a 10-20% rise in traffic for the few months before the election and the month after. There's just a lot more news and a lot more interest in the news.

The standard contract doesn't seem to take into account that this period is a windfall for bloggers selling ads. I'm not going with the standard contract because I won't be able to get that little bit of extra ad money if I'm with PM, rather than with BlogAds.

I'm just not sure of this entire business model. Honestly, I could sign up for PM tomorrow, take the 18 months of not-so-crazy blog-money, and then never post again. As others have pointed out, this seems to be a strage and very counterproductive (dis)incentive system. I understand their desire to fix costs, but really, they ought to have some kind of fixed formula for higher or lower payments based on rising or falling readership.

Posted by: Ace at 04:49 PM | Comments (12)
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"I have a thousand years of power!" he exclaimed and he charged into melee combat with the cops.

Alas, it turns out he failed his saving throw against the Taser.

Posted by: Ace at 04:26 PM | Comments (11)
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Unbelievable. Hardcore hard-left hack Elizabeth Bumiller strikes again, inserting, for no real purpose, that "annother anniversary" of the President's Daily Briefing on terrorism (shock: Al Qaeda wants to strike us!) has passed.

She notes that the President is trying to appear busy during his vacation out of a

desire to be in purposeful motion on another anniversary of the now-infamous C.I.A. briefing that Mr. Bush received at the ranch on Aug. 6, 2001. That briefing, which informed the new president that the terrorist network Al Qaeda had maintained an active presence in the United States for years and could be preparing for hijackings here, created a political uproar when its contents were eventually made public.

Kaus notes that this "anniversary" isn't exactly on everyone's minds at the 7-11 he frequents. Perhaps it's more celebrated at Bumiller's favorite Starbucks.

I've got to give it to the Daily Kos-- the tail is now wagging the dog. The most unhinged and hyperpartisan elements of the sinistrosphere say jump and the Times' neutral and objective reporters ask how high.

Posted by: Ace at 04:05 PM | Comments (6)
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Planned Parenthood Golden Gate cartoon shows pro-choice superhero killing abstinence supporters and abortion-clinic protestors.

Yes, it's only a cartoon. But ideas have consequences. When exactly did it become acceptable for supposedly mainstream organizations to suggest political violence, even in a "kidding" manner?

The "superhero" provides a disclaimer about pro-life protestors having the right to protest peaceably, but then admits, "Sometimes I wish they would all just... disappear," and fires large condoms at them, which encase the protestors. Which is fine... until the protestors explode and, presumably, die.

There are unstable people out there, people willing to kill or die to vindicate their political preferences. And they're not all Islamicists, either.

Why on earth is it necessary to give such people moral encouragement to commit acts of political terrorism?

Would Planned Parenthood Golden Gate think it prudent for me to write a little sketch in which I "jokingly" suggest the "funny" killing of abortion doctors? Or Planned Parenthood staffers?

I don't think they would find that funny at all. And, for that matter, neither would I.

The hard left imagines itself as peaceful and anti-violence, but why is always the left advocating, seriously or "jokingly," political violence?

(Yes, I know, there are those considered to be on the right who do so as well. But these are extremely marginalized figures. They're not working for major pro-choice organizations or the University of Colorado at Boulder. Time and time again, there are hints that a little bit of violence is acceptable for the right sort of cause coming from ostensibly-respectable and highly paid and highly educated folks, and those hints aren't coming from the right.)

World Net Daily comments on the piece.

Thanks to Allah.

Ironically enough.

More... at Dawn Eden's Dawn Patrol, with screencaps and a partial transciption of the key bits.

Plus she notes that PP is getting government money to promote a wink-wink nudge-nudge attitude towards the right sort of political violence.

Thanks to See-Dub for the tip.

Posted by: Ace at 01:18 PM | Comments (27)
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