A look at Huntsville's Space legacy and discussing the impact of Space Command remaining in Colorado
Alabama Senator Tuberville could be to blame for his idiotic fight against abortion rights in the military. Single handedly blocking promotions and titles in the Pentagon, leads many believe this decision for Space Command's location to not move to Alabama are political blowback.
But this week the Pentagon announced it had reversed that call, instead keeping the headquarters in Colorado Springs. The decision left many in Huntsville smarting at being cast into the outer orbit of influence and questioning whether their city was passed over for political reasons beyond their control.
The article goes on to highlight that this isn't explicitly political blowback on Tuberville, but many think it is:
Pentagon officials said keeping the headquarters in Colorado, where it has been temporarily located on a Space Force base shared with NORAD command, was a matter of maintaining military readiness and avoiding a potentially lengthy and costly move.
But some political observers saw the choice of a Democratic-controlled state both as a rejection of the hard-line conservatism in Alabama and a repudiation of its senior Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville, who has blocked hundreds of military promotions over a Pentagon policy that reimburses military personnel who travel to obtain an abortion or fertility care
I have friends in Huntsville and it's the only city in the state that I'd agree to visiting. It's role in the Space industry was fascinating to me since it wasn't Florida, or Texas, or California. It always felt weird to me. But that's how politics go. Someone pulls a favor or makes a deal and suddenly you've got a government industry in your state.
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"Hiroshima's Anniversary Marks an Injustice Done to Blast Survivors"
I told Katie yesterday, I have a hard time getting excited to go see a movie about Oppenheimer. I don't laud the creation of the nuclear bomb. And I think hero worship of that sort is problematic. Especially considering it in light of today, a day where so many people were killed and so many more had their lives changed forever.
On August 6, 1945, the U.S. used an atomic bomb for the first time in history, against the city of Hiroshima. The U.S. dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki three days later. Experts estimate that the two bombs instantly killed more than 100,000 people.
But an equally disturbing and important story should not be forgotten—the fate of the more than 500,000 hibakusha, those Japanese civilians who survived the nuclear bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
American leaders wanted information about the human cost of fighting what many thought was an inevitable nuclear war against the Soviet Union. Japanese survivors of nuclear bomb attacks were drafted for study with no informed consent and no discussion of the risks of radiation. Within six weeks of the bombings, U.S. and Japanese expert teams were in both cities studying the biological impact of radiation while saying nothing about their suppositions of its dangers. The survivors’ enrollment began just as the victorious Allies concluded Nuremburg trials of Nazi doctors and scientists, which ended with convictions for atrocities including treating unwilling people as guinea pigs.
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Indian Space Mission Enters Moon's Orbit
A fantastic accomplishment, especially when you consider the cost for the mission was less than $75 million!
Experts say India can keep costs low by copying and adapting existing space technology, and thanks to an abundance of highly skilled engineers who earn a fraction of their foreign counterparts’ wages.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has taken much longer to reach the moon than the manned Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, which arrived in a matter of days.
The Indian rocket used is much less powerful than the United States’ Saturn V and instead the probe orbited Earth five or six times elliptically to gain speed, before being sent on a month-long lunar trajectory.
If the landing is successful the rover will roll off Vikram and explore the nearby lunar area, gathering images to be sent back to Earth for analysis.
The rover has a mission life of one lunar day or 14 Earth days.
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Writing Project Overview
This morning I spent some time writing. I've got four projects I rotate between working on depending on motivation and inspiration. I'm trying to focus and wrangle my efforts be on one piece and, when I need a change, to have another one I can switch to for a bit. This morning's work is on my most complete project, "Thorn."
Here's a quick overview of them. I am loathe to give away many spoilers or plot details, because A) I'm jealous of these stories, and B) who knows how correct they'll end up being when they are eventually finished.
Here's a quick overview of the projects and their current state. All titles are just placeholders.
"Thorn" (Modern Fantasy)
- Current word count: 81k
- Status: Editing and rewrites
The working title for my first book, I wrote it during COVID and have continued to work on it over the past few years. I am firmly convinced it is mediocre at best. But it has potential and it represents a "complete" book. I just need to make it better. Right now I'm giving it a bit of a rewrite as I change the position of one of the characters and need to adjust the book around it.
"Canopy" (Science Fiction & Fantasy)
- Current word count: 10k
- Status: Early writing
A science fiction novel with elements of fantasy interwoven. I have much of the plot laid out and now it's just about writing it. Notable because it's the only one on this list which ventures outside of Fantasy, and also the others are all such that they could be a larger series and I think this one is self-contained. We'll see.
"Lukas" (High Fantasy)
- Current word count: 7k
- Status: Early writing
A high fantasy epic. I have broad strokes of it figured out, and it's currently about a core cast of characters and a larger plot, but I still have a lot of work to do to figure out what the story is.
"Runes" (High Fantasy)
- Current word count: 2k
- Status: Very early work
This is the newest on the list. The main concept and plot came to me before a flight last week. I've started work on world building and figuring out the plot to flesh it out. I have a lot of excitement over this right now, but there is a lot of work to do to figure out what this story is about.
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Barbie (2023) - 4/5 Barbies
A truly fantastic movie. An amazing commentary on society from top to bottom, delving into what it is to be human.
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Automated Archives for August, 6th 2023
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Blog Posts On This Day
- 2002-08-06 (1 post)
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