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Android, And Freedom Unrevoked

John — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:19:32 +0000

I must once again take my hat off to the nearly godlike hackers over at Unrevoked for renewing my path to rooted Android, hackery-goodness. I put off dealing with this update for the last month because as you probably know by now, I went to Afghanistan for a short spell. I tried to avoid any smart phone drama until I returned but was rather unsuccessful as chronicled here. Aside from some of the minor annoyances mentioned in the previous link, you can’t go wrong with Android because it is not only free (as in freedom, not as in beer) but there are tons of things you can do with it whether it is rooted or not. The following describes my latest, if not earth-shaking, customizations.

In any case, the coolness of Android and the interesting things an adventurous individual can do with this phone OS continues to amaze me. First I had to decide if I would wait for HTC to push a Froyo update (v2.2) or to download a custom ROM. Since HTC was offering this update as I returned, I opted for the former. This is a stark contrast with Apple which rarely if ever pushes new features to its devices. Apple customers get security updates (most of which are designed to thwart jail-breaking) but when they make improvements, they want you to buy them by purchasing a new device the following year. Google’s approach is 1000 times better even if they get short-sighted and inexplicable comments about version-based confusion caused by frequent updates. I can’t imagine Google holding new features until some far-off keynote at a convention next summer. Shockingly, Apple fans claim that they prefer Apple’s method of holding advancements for a year to avoid “confusing its customers.” If I had an iPhone, I wouldn’t say that loud enough for anyone else to hear it.

The 2.2 update failed several times because I had too many programs installed. The update requires 25MB free space of phone storage in order to complete and I had a mere 23.7 MB. This means I had to delete 1.3MB worth of apps in order to proceed. I chose 2 apps I have used very little and deleted them, freeing up just over 2 additional megs. This was worth doing in either case because one of the issues that Froyo addresses is the need to store installed apps on your SD card rather than in phone memory. It is silly to run out of space when you have a 16GB card that is mostly empty. This was a terrible oversight by Google’s Android team in the beginning but at least it’s been remedied.

Next, I downloaded the latest rooting tool from Unrevoked. Since I already had the HBOOT drivers installed from rooting Android 2.1, all I had to do was connect my phone to my desktop USB port and then download and run the latest ClockworkMod Recovery program. The program detected my phone immediately and asked if I was sure that I wanted to proceed. After confirming, it rebooted the phone 3 or 4 times while giving progress updates in the program window. When it finally said “Done,” the phone was already booting into it’s rooted 2.2 config. It’s that simple. ["Simple" being a relative term. I've pointed out before that rooting is not for the average grandma. It's for danger seekers. ]

Note: If you installed the keyboard mod for the mic mentioned in my Android Primer and then later update to Froyo, remember you have to uninstall the keyboard mod HTC_IME mod or you will get errors.

On top of Froyo I’ve found some great new Android tools that I think you should try. First up, Drop Box.

I mentioned how I hate Google’s lack of native support for their own productivity software Google Docs. Even if you use the app GDoc, you have more limitations than anything else, not the least of which is that it functions as little more than a text editor. Drop Box can help you get around this in conjunction with another productivity app like Documents to Go (for example). The version of Documents to Go that can write files (the free version is crippled) costs $14.99 which is outrageous considering they were too lazy to implement .rtf support. I didn’t buy it for that reason alone. But if you need it…nuff said. You can place all your needed documents into a Dropbox storage area that you share with your desktop or any number of other devices (get an extra 250MB storage by using this link to register). Any file placed into the dropbox (not to be confused with Al Gore’s lock-box) is automatically synchronized between all linked devices. If you edit and save a Word doc for example, in the dropbox on your computer, you will automatically see the same updates on the phone copy and vice versa. If only someone would make a productivity app that understands .rtf format, all would be golden.

Dropbox

Documents to Go

Another killer app is Awesome Drop. Awesome Drop is similar to Drop Box in that you can get files to your phone through the cloud. What it’s really useful for is pushing files to your phone without needing a cable. I found this one day after accidentally leaving my USB cable at work. I needed a file on my phone so I searched for more efficient ways to do that rather than emailing them to myself. With Awesome Drop, you drop the file on a green box in your desktop browser window and like magic, the file starts downloading to your phone. You can watch the progress on either device. This works great for photos, mp3′s, videos, etc. The only limits are your available space and how much bandwidth you are willing to use. Usually, the bandwidth only matters when using your 3G network or phone data plan. If you are using Wifi, then send till your heart’s content.

To use Awesome Drop, first install it on your phone and then go to the website on your desktop. On the website you will get a 4 digit code that you need to type into the app on your phone. This is how the two are associated with one another. After the link is joined, you get a green box in the browser window. Just drop 1 or more files on that box. Multiple files will queue one after another. You can find them in the “drop” folder on your sd card. This is probably the most useful app I’ve installed in quite some time.

Awesome Drop

Here are a few other apps that are immensely useful to me. YMMV. Just take a look. You may need to take a half hour or so to experiment so you can see how these can be useful. I think it will be well worth your while.

Bubble

Use your Android phone as a level. Great for the handyman on the go.

LookOut Security

Security and Anti-Virus. Locate your phone if lost with GPS or emit a burst of sound. Backup your data.

Currency Converter

Fantastic 2-way currency converter. See latest exchange rates on 1 screen.

Star Translate

Ever wanted a Universal Translator like on Star Trek? Well here it is. Translates spoken AND written words.

Woman Punched By Policeman

John — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 07:07:50 +0000

Unless you enjoy controversial topics, you may want to skip this one.

This clip was brought to my attention yesterday by my racist colleague Jeramie (he loves it when I say that ). Okay, he’s not really a racist but he plays one on TV. He was so interested to get my take that he was sort of chomping at the bit. I said, “Well…” at which point he jumped in to say the policeman has a right to do his job unobstructed. I said, “Ok…” at which point he jumped in again to say that the woman who was punched had shoved the cop and thus subject to arrest herself. Every time I opened my mouth he jumped in with reasons that this may not be as open-and-shut as one might think and why this cop might not be a racist. Then I shocked him by saying that I provisionally agree with everything that he had said. He responded, *gulp*. I didn’t say I agreed. I said, “PROVISIONALLY.” As always, the devil is in the details.

There are two reasons that might lead one to assume that I would dump on the cop. One: I’m black. Two: chivalry. A third little known reason is that I also have a history with the police. Then again, most black males in America have a history of SOME kind with the police, regardless the kind of life they have led. More on that later.

In order to assess the appropriateness of the officer’s conduct in this video, it is necessary to know why he was grappling with her. The second woman, who was punched was obviously coming to the rescue of the first because she was being manhandled. We still need a bit of back information though. Obviously, the whole thing came about because the officer wanted to cite someone for J-walking. This is usually a weak charge unless they had endangered drivers on the road by weaving and bobbing through traffic. I think this is the only time people should ever be cited for this. I’ve seen policemen stop people for cutting out of a crosswalk 5 or 10 feet from the curb because they were hurrying to a bus stop or something like that. In most of these cases, the cop is just being a dick (pardon my French) and was probably looking for an excuse to check the person out anyway.

My friend Jeramie admitted that his background is such that he has no frame of reference to understand why so many blacks have adversarial relationships with policemen. Allow me to elucidate as I did for him.

In my preteens, I wanted to be a policeman when I grew up. I was the boring kid who raised his hand in class and answered questions correctly, which made me one of the “teacher’s pets” in most of my classes. I was a typical, bright-eyed kid who waved at police cars as they went by because policemen were our friends whose jobs it was to protect us and our families. One day this changed for me.

I was leaving one of our family restaurants with food for my lunch. I had a double cheeseburger, some french fries, and a strawberry milkshake. I was walking through the parking lot when 3 police cars rapidly converged on me from different directions. Out piled 6 cops who ordered me to put my hands on the hood of one of the cars and “spread em.” Keep in mind, I was 13 years old. They kicked my legs apart because no matter how wide you spread ‘em, it never seems to be wide enough.

One cop asked me, “What’s in the bag kid?” I said, “My lunch.” The cop said, “Mind if I take a look?” I shrugged affirmatively (as if I had a choice). He opened the brown paper bag, took out my burger and my french fries and flattened the bag on the hood of his car. Then he flipped the burger over and unwrapped it. He sifted through the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions with his fingers and after satisfying himself that there were no cellophane bags hidden therein, put the top bun with the attached patty and melted cheese back on the now ruined bottom bun with vegetables, then he balled them up within the wrapping paper and then put the burger back in the bag. His partner, who had picked up my french fries, tore the little paper pouch open and made like he was sifting through the fries looking for something as well. Then he grabbed a handful of fries and stuffed them into his mouth. “Say, these are great!” he said. “Mike, you really should try these fries. I may have to come back and eat here again. Or maybe I’ll just look for this kid coming out with food again and just take his.” The other cops chuckled at this. The first officer said, “Okay guys, he’s clean. Let’s go.”

The smart mouth jerk who ate my fries had not had enough fun yet. He looked at me cruelly and said, “Sorry about your lunch kid, but we have to keep our eye on little niggers like you.” The other said, “That’s enough. Let’s go.” They got in their cars and left. I could not help noticing the evil grin on the jerk. He was laughing it up. This was an encounter he had thoroughly enjoyed.

Understand that this shattered my perception of America as a fundamentally just place. The list of people, good or bad, who have experienced a change in attitude like this is probably larger in L.A. than anywhere in the country. It goes back to the hated (in my neck of the woods) and despised former L.A.P.D. Chief Daryl Gates, who made it known quite regularly that he enthusiastically embraced this kind of behavior with his us-against-them policy.

The next day I got a double-whammy at school. My favorite teacher—who was white—noticed that I had not answered any questions that day and was not paying attention. She was the kind of teacher who would notice these things, which probably explains why she was my favorite. After the bell rang, she asked me to stay behind for a minute. She said she was concerned about the look of sadness I had and assured me that if I needed to talk, she was all ears. I began recounting the event from the day before. While I was speaking, tears began to flow freely. I thought it would be cathartic because she would know how to fix it.

When I was finished, she looked at me incredulously. Then she said, “John, that was a very…interesting story. Do you expect me to believe that 6 policemen had nothing better to do than to harass a child for no reason? Tell me the truth. What were YOU doing at the time?”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I already told you, I was doing nothing but trying to eat lunch.”

“I’m sorry John, I don’t believe you,” she said. I was shocked beyond belief.

“But you know me,” I said. “When have you ever known me to be a troublemaker?”

“Well…” she said, “…if you weren’t doing anything this time, I’m sure there were other times when you DID do something and the police weren’t around. Maybe this is payback for that.”

My heart sank at these words. For the rest of the semester, I could not look this teacher in the eye. If she called on me, I said nothing. My disappointment at her was evident but it accounted for just a small portion of my frustration. For this was the day that I stopped being a bright-eyed, optimistic child and became A BLACK MALE along with all that entails. An experience like this can be the difference between life as an empathetic, open-minded soul and someone apathetic to individual rights like a Clarence Thomas—a man who clearly has no problem with abuses of power or position.

I cannot comment on a story like the video above without being impacted by my own experiences with the police. After joining the military, I was stationed for 5 years in California. During this period, I was stopped 11 times while driving my car. I will exclude my time growing up in L.A. and only address the times I was stopped while on home leave or traveling on pleasure trips. I was pulled over once near Stockton for speeding (boy, was I ever). No problem there, I had it coming. This incidentally, was the only stop where I was cited.

I was stopped once in Oakland for “rolling through a stop sign,” which was most definitely a lie. No citation was given. They just wanted to “warn me” while shining their flashlights throughout my car. This is a typical tactic for checking out some black or Hispanic dude. It is not a cop favorite though.

I was stopped 4 times in the Los Angeles area (3 times by LAPD and once by LA Co Sheriff) for, “Recent burglaries in the area…suspect fitting your description.” I was also stopped twice for this excuse’s twin brother, “Recent burglaries in the area…suspect VEHICLE fitting this description.” These are both typical excuses that are used when they want to check you out and rifle through your car, but the latter seems more plausible. I mean, how can I fit ANY description by the back of my head alone?

I was stopped 3 times for the policeman’s new favorite bogus excuse. “You appeared to not be wearing a seat belt so I stopped you to make sure you are aware of our seat belt law.” (Spoken even as I look down at my securely fastened seat belt.) “In any case, I see you are wearing it now so I will let you off with a warning.” They say this while shining a light throughout your car. If their mental questions are not answered, they will ask for ID and maybe to look in your trunk. Though this technique was not the most frequently used, it was the last 3 consecutive excuses I got before leaving for Europe.

The reason I explain all of this is because when I discussed this with my friend, he could not even relate to my distrust of policemen. He thought what my teacher thought. That people get themselves into trouble and then blame policemen for doing their jobs. What gave him pause in this case, is that he knows ME. I served honorably in the military, have never been in trouble, and take matters of integrity very seriously. People who know me well, know that I am not given to self-aggrandizing exaggeration. So when I relate these experiences, they are usually more willing to consider them objectively than the teacher who broke my heart those many years ago—the day after my innocence was stolen from me by bad cops.

If you are white and have never been in trouble, then you are unlikely to have had these kinds of experiences. If you are black and from a metropolitan area, you have likely had these kinds of experiences or know someone who has (and I discount troublemakers from this as well). Before you can understand why black people are so “paranoid” about “the Man“, you must at least attempt to place yourself in these shoes. Imagine your 12 year-old being traumatized as I was. How would you respond to that? How would you feel about the perpetrators? If you filed a complaint and they treated you like you were wasting their time, would your feelings toward this police department change? Would you be less quick to simply give policemen the benefit of the doubt or to automatically dismiss any and all complaints against them without a fair hearing?

Okay. That exhausts the racial component of the story.

Let’s look at gender. My parents are from Mississippi. They raised me in the way of the southern gentleman. As most Southerners will relate, this made me value chivalry very highly. Three things have killed my chivalrous nature utterly. First, women demand absolute equality. I will not elaborate as the implications of this are obvious.

Second, I once saw a woman attempt to toss a drink into a man’s face at a nightclub (you know…like in the movies). Her coordination was a bit off. The glass struck his face. It shattered and sliced his cheek open to the jawbone severing a cluster of nerves and a little-known but major artery. The amount of blood that spurted from his face shocked everyone. She didn’t mean to kill him despite having come close, she just assumed like many that a female expressing her frustration against a man in a physical way is socially acceptable. She was wrong, sort of. The victim was hospitalized for a week but eventually dropped the charges against her since she had only “lost her temper.”

Third, was when a military comrade from years ago got into trouble. I will try to be brief. He had broken up with a girlfriend several weeks earlier. She followed him to a bar and tried to make him jealous by flirting with guys in front of him. He pointedly ignored her. This so enraged her that she walked by several times bumping him roughly, stepping on his feet, and then she finally knocked a drink out of his hands. The only response this got came when he asked the doorman to ask her to leave. The doorman’s response was, “What’s the matter, can’t handle your women?” Having struck out with rationality, he left and headed for his car. The woman followed him to the parking lot and got in his face calling him a “bitch” and saying that he wasn’t a real man and so forth. As he opened his car door, she kicked it shut, punched him, then went for the groin kick. He grabbed her foot before it connected but he dropped his keys in the process. She quickly picked them up. He held out his hand to ask for the keys and she dug one of the keys into his forearm (this required surgery to repair) and she threw the keys halfway across the lot. While he was walking to retrieve them, she rushed to her own car, jumped in and came after him. After missing him once, she came around for another pass. She hit him with the car and then ran into a tree. As she backed up and positioned her car to finish him off, he ducked behind the tree and she rammed it again at which point the engine died. He hobbled his way back to his car but she beat him there. At this point there was no doubt she was trying to kill him. Since she was blocking the door, he punched her, got into the car and went to the hospital.

How do you think this was resolved? SHE filed a police report accusing him of domestic violence for punching her (which was embellished in excruciating detail). Since at least a dozen people had followed them to the parking lot, there was no shortage of witnesses. At least 10 people gave accounts exonerating him. The women who observed this were especially appalled at her behavior. BUT. Isn’t there always a but? BUT, one person said in his report (yes, a man did this) that no matter what she had done, a man is never justified to hit a woman (apparently, not even to save his life). Therefore, he felt that excessive force was used against the female. The military used this one statement to bring a case for domestic abuse against the individual. Because of the zero tolerance policy, he was fined, reduced in rank, and processed for dishonorable discharge. Fortunately for him, his Congressman intervened and the discharge was eventually upgraded to “general.”

So the problem with chivalry is that people are often too biased to apply rules fairly because they become too focused on gender. When a woman can behave as in the previous two examples and then still claim to be the victim, there is a problem with chivalry. You can value it just fine until you see it being used to deprive a good man of his career, his good name, and nearly earning him a life-altering and very bogus federal conviction. It clearly has no place in a society that claims to value equality because at the end of the day, you either do or you don’t.

So, as it relates to the woman in the video and as I explained to my friend, I don’t care that she was a woman. I want to know why the cop was grappling with them. What had she done besides J-walking? I do make exceptions to my anti-chivalry stance from time to time based on the situation. I mean, I’m no jerk. But here is the thing: I know that a man has to uphold certain values in order to feel like a man. I know that if I say certain specific things to even my best friend, a fight will ensue. As a man, there is a certain line of disrespect and emasculation that I will never cross with another man unless I want a fight to the death. But today, some women routinely cross that same line and then dare the man to do something about it because they know most men will not cross that line and because the legal system stands ready to take their side almost automatically. So these women feel safe to do this and will threaten to call a cop if you seem ready to defend your honor. However, an increasing number of men are doing a Snookie.

In an episode of Jersey Shore, Snookie felt entitled to toss a drink in a some guy’s face and was shocked when he slugged her. You hear the same statement being made on the show, “There is never a reason to hit a woman.” But consider, it is precisely the knowledge that throwing a drink in another man’s face will DEFINITELY cause a potentially life-ending altercation that prevents a man from crossing that line 99% of the time. NO ONE—male or female—has the right to express their frustration in this way. NO ONE. As I pointed out above, this can have unforeseen consequences. Now that Snookie knows that some men won’t make an allowance for her to act out, you can be sure she is in no hurry to do that again.

Case in point, do you think the woman in the video would have tussled with this cop if it even occurred to her that he would punch her in the face? Would a black male even have survived such an encounter with the police? Or would he not have received some new lead-lined ventilation for the summer? So viewed in this light, being a woman actually got her off rather easy didn’t it? Nevertheless, the fact the the cop threw the punch so quickly and without trepidation is troublesome since there is little doubt that there are many other policemen that could have managed the situation more professionally than this officer did.

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Daisy Duke Leaves Airport

John — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:28:22 +0000

Some times Karma knows what we need better than we do. As I was squirming in my seat uncomfortably after reading a story about a British woman who ripped a man’s testicles clean off with her bare hands—literally (I wonder if she said first, “this will hurt me more than it hurts you sugar”), as if on cue, I came across a video of a woman in a hurry. It’s a woman leaving an airport like a bat out of hell who does a Dukes of Hazzard jump. Her name MUST be Daisy.

So I can’t help but wonder if Daisy Duke in the video was escaping a crime scene and if said crime involved one or more testicles? Oh never mind. Who would imagine someone could do that and that it would take 5 years for her to go to jail?

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BP to "Redouble efforts." What…now???

John — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:25:12 +0000

BP’s Managing Director Robert Dudley said, “We’re disappointed the oil is going to flow for a while and we’re going to redouble our efforts to keep it off the beaches.” Is there any way to quantify just how little this means to the people on the Gulf Coast whose livelihood will be impacted by this catastrophe? Probably not. Are we supposed to believe that they have been holding something in reserve until now? Like what? Chuck Norris??? Or perhaps they have Harry Potter and his magic wand on retainer?

Candy Crowley asked an excellent question however, which I have been wondering for quite some time. She asked if it had not been true that the techniques they used first were the ones they thought most likely to work and therefore each subsequent technique that they try has an even lower chance of success than the last.

Several important things were said once again in this interview, which were previously said by other BP executives. Mr. Dudley said we have to remember that these techniques are “new.” Really??? Check this out:

I think it is important to understand that oil companies make a huge profit extracting this resource from the Earth. They pay a lot of money to politicians to look out for their interests. When you hear the likes of Sarah Palin using catchy phrases like “drill baby drill” in order to influence the national dialog about energy policy, remember that she doesn’t know any more than you do.

In the 2008 campaign and thereafter, Sarah Palin talked about oil drilling technology as if she was an expert. She said it was safe to do off-shore drilling because the technology we have today makes it safe. Executives of not only the oil industry but also bank CEO’s, the health insurance industry, and a host other corporate entities induce people that are influential or trusted in various communities to make unsubstantiated statements favorable to their respective industries. They count on the credibility of those people to make their supporters fall in line without too much difficulty. Thus, when people who trusted Sarah Palin heard her saying that oil drilling safety had advanced so much technologically, they believed her. Why are those people not outraged now that it is obvious she was lying?

It’s not just her. People give the same blind trust to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and if you’re honest, Fox News itself, which will give air time to anyone who is rides the conservative party line. And let’s face it, conservatives love big business, especially oil executives.

We need to remember this when it’s time to vote again. I think that the worst thing that can happen to Republicans is that they gain ground in 2010. This will reward them for lying to the electorate the last year and encourage them to continue. If they are disappointed, perhaps it will encourage them to prioritize integrity in the future. It will take a strong government by strong individuals to manage big corporations, which have clearly run amok and are quite literally, destroying the ecosystem that we depend on to live.

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Latest Cool Video: Iron Baby

John — Fri, 28 May 2010 23:14:35 +0000

Start your weekend with a little fun. Check out this vid:

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Black Children Biased Against Darker-Skined Blacks

John — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:27:14 +0000

Lest we think that bias derived from skin color applies to white children only (as in the previous article), the same test was given to black children as well. There was plenty of bias to go around. Among blacks, this behavior is most commonly known by the term “color struck.”

This raises disturbing questions about self-image. It seems that even in the Obama era, black children still lack the kinds of role models in everyday life, that would make them feel good about themselves. Alternatively, it could also be indicative of a behavioral phenomenon brought on by subtle influences about how the brain processes color in terms of how it assigns worth to individuals based on physical appearance. If this is the case, then the idea, “you can’t judge a book by its cover” is a learned behavior that determines how a person will interact with others throughout his life. This means that teaching people to resist the temptation to prejudge another human being based on color is even more important than previously believed and should begin very early in life.

Lest one be tempted to assume that such a behavior, if determined to be natural, might be healthy on some basic level (because how can something determined to be natural be unhealthy right?), one must also remember that the natural human attraction to red fruits for example, would lead to a quick death if acted upon by sheer instinct. Since any naturalist will tell you that the color red in nature is generally a warning of danger and that the overwhelming majority of red fruits, vegetables, and insects are extremely poisonous to humans, tomatoes and apples not withstanding. Having completed survival school during my military years proved very valuable in this regard. In fact, the first thing they taught us is to never eat anything red unless you know what it is.

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Kids On Race

John — Wed, 19 May 2010 07:04:37 +0000

Question of the day: Is racial bias a socialized behavior? Is it due to lack of exposure to other kinds of people or a natural fear of the unknown? As a species capable of heightened reasoning ability, are we not morally obligated to guide our children past irrational fears or prejudices? It goes without saying that some people actually encourage this kind of behavior from their children.

See the original on CNN.

It is likely that most parents believe they are raising their kids to the best of their abilities with the goal of making them the best human beings possible. That is obviously the goal of this mother. Perhaps more attention needs to be given to how attitudes and perceptions develop over things we tend to not talk about. Maybe that is the point of this.

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Reprise of the Pedophile Fan Club

John — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:23:02 +0000

A wise man once said, “Don’t hunt what you can’t kill.” It seems that some Hollywood bigwigs are trying to apply that saying to Roman Polanski. I said way back in September 2009 that Polanski sycophants and those who think that the rules do not apply to the rich, were trying to get a pass for Polanski who brutally raped a 13 year old girl. After successfully fleeing justice for over 30 years, he was finally captured but not before making several noteworthy films that misguided fools in Hollywood think place him Above The Law (excuse my lack of objectivity over sexual battery against defenseless children). Sorry, Hollywood. Steven Segal he is NOT.

Now Woody Allen, a man infamously disgraced for his incestuous affair with his then under-aged step-daughter leads a new appeal to let bygones be bygones. Unfortunately for Polanski, even as his Hollywood-based PFC supporters stand in line to disgrace themselves on his behalf, yet another under-aged victim has come forward. Actress Charlotte Lewis claims she was assaulted by Polanski at the age of 16, while filming his 1986 film “Pirates.”

According to CNN, other PFC members include John Landis, Peter Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Debra Winger, just to name a few. I think everyone who believes that children deserve protection from sexual predators should boycott any future projects from these cretins.

If my position on this issue remains unclear at this point, do be so kind as to forgive my ambivalence.

Comments

Obama’s NASA Strategy, Beyond the Moon

John — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:00:14 +0000

President Obama disappointed a lot of people last week when he announced he would not be funding a return to the moon or an extension of the Shuttle program. I still remember the first shuttle launch 30 years ago. The feeling of national pride in the air was so palpable that you could cut it with a knife. The feeling was almost surreal not only because we were the only nation ever to launch and successfully land a reusable shuttle craft but also because I was in the Air Force stationed at Vandenberg AFB, CA. Vandenberg was the location of our new launch complex affectionately called, SLC-6 (pronounced slick six). SLC-6 was all the rage because this was going to become our first polar orbit launch facility. Rather than circling the Earth above and parallel to the equator, this facility would launch craft that would travel in a north to south direction so that spacecraft would circle the Earth top to bottom over the north and south poles. Man oh man was that ever cool! We had no idea why—we just knew that it was.

SPACE LAUNCH COMPLEX SLC-6

I remember the first time we drove into SLC-6. I remember because it looked just like the pictures of Cape Canaveral. The launch complex was gigantic and it had a big American flag, perhaps 200 feet high painted on the side. The mere sight of it gave me a lump in my throat and made my heart beat fast. It was beautiful! And I was there in person, just barely out of high school. That was not the most memorable aspect of the visit however. One of the NCO’s in our group was using his restricted area pass for the first time. Unbeknown to us, his pass had an almost unnoticeable numerical defect in the serial number. ALMOST. Unfortunately for us, it did not go unnoticed by the guard checking our passes. The next thing we knew, we found ourselves face down on the pavement as heavily armed military cops started spilling out of nowhere, intent on somehow getting a turn for each of them to stick a knee or elbow into the fleshiest parts of our backs. It was fun, as you can imagine. The fun intensified as the NCO with the bad pass, Staff Sergeant Bruce Goldberg, chose that moment to see how many of them he could piss off by hurling every insult at them that he could think of. Trust me, he knew quite a few—but I digress.

The good times did not last. Somewhere around ’85 or ’86, a defect was found in the exhaust ports snaking beneath the launch structure. Engineers said that there was a risk of catastrophic explosion from pockets of gas getting trapped inside during a launch. The price of repairing the nearly completed facility was cost prohibitive. The glory of the California space port with its awesome polar orbit launches was not to be. The town of Lompoc, which depended heavily on the Vandenberg space project was economically devastated. Then, as if that wasn’t enough—there was Challenger.

Challenger changed everything. Our roles as supermen ended. We suddenly remembered we were human after all. Nevertheless we got up, dusted ourselves off, and kept on moving…where? Forward? Not really. Our experience with space began a slow, lateral movement with every decision being second and triple-guessed. That one bloody nose and the Reagan deficits, changed everything. It took years to make another launch and just as we were getting back in our stride, we got bloodied again with Columbia. The years that the shuttle fleet was grounded after the disasters was only part of the story of why our dreams of space conquest did not come true. Remember the movie 2001? The TV show Space 1999? In the early 70′s, we thought we would have men at the edge of the solar system 10 years ago and a working warp drive right about now. I’m not kidding, we really did! In truth however, since 1985 what have we done in manned spaceflight except run in place?

Mars Rover

Don’t get me wrong, there were stunning successes since then. The Voyager and Galileo spacecraft gave us stunning photos. The Mars Pathfinder mission gave us panoramic Martian landscapes and let us watch our first sunset on another planet. And the Mars Rovers…wow! The engineers who built these have kept us all from feeling like little girls in the global space achievement club. Despite these accomplishments however, I still get the urge to use an easy-bake oven now and then. As stoked as I was about the Rovers and as closely as I followed them, it was somehow just not as sexy as a couple of space-suited cowboys named Bo and Luke barreling across Mars in a NASA-branded monster truck with top-mounted mini-gun turrets (with a green alien named Rosco in pursuit, naturally). Admit it guys, that’s what we really want. We all thought we’d live to see Chuck Norris mow down some rebellious Martians. No? Maybe it will help if you imagine a Martian with tattoos and a goatee.

We Americans get stuck in our ways very easily. In some ways, it is only natural to want to relive those glory days when we did things that no one else could do and it made us feel terrific. Times have changed though. We are coming off the worst recession since before the second world war. We can’t feed all of our people. (or should I say DON’T) We need to improve our education system to give our students the best chance of competing in a globalized world. We have problems paying for housing construction, also problems paying our firefighters, our police officers, and our bank CEOs. Huh, what’s that? Oh, strike that last part.

Isn’t it time that someone took an objective look at how we spend money in order to find a more efficient way to allocate it? Should we not focus on our successes and the things we do well? That is what President Obama has decided to do—to use our money more wisely by focusing on those things that will yield the greatest benefit to science and the greatest chances for success. He has pledged to increase funding for the kind of robotic spacecraft that scientists crave, which will yield tons more usable scientific data and create thousands of high tech jobs and business opportunities. Let’s not forget, it also creates brain food for the minds of all the young budding scientists that will hopefully keep the U.S. space program a leap ahead in the coming decades.

For those too young to remember the shuttle disasters, we had the news footage on a virtual loop for the first couple of days. Then came the questions about who was responsible and why we risked the lives of mothers on the space shuttle. For the record, these are the same morons who today spend 20 seconds talking about unemployment or Afghanistan, after leading off with a 5 minute story about Lindsay Lohan. With this in mind, is it any wonder that Obama would fall under attack from certain people for listening to scientists about how to spend our NASA budget rather than those cowboys who want to see Bo and Luke take a $20 billion ride across the Moon—a place to which WE HAVE BEEN BEFORE. I’ve seen real Moon rocks in person at the Griffith Park Observatory. Take it from me, it ain’t worth going back for. If China wants to go to the Moon 40 years after we planted our flag there, I say let them have their moment.

Those people who ridiculed NASA (ostensibly Obama) about “bombing the moon” last year are the same ones who are criticizing him today for not sending people back again. But remember, because of that “bombing” mission we found water on the moon—lots of it! We sent men to the moon and brought back rocks but water was found by robots. Are those former Apollo astronauts who want Obama to go back to the Moon asking for the sake of scientific advancement or nostalgia? I want to relive the glory days just like everyone else. Considering that I have young children who will likely end up paying for it some day, would it not be irresponsible for me to allow myself that indulgence? That is how we all must think. Are we not fortunate that just this once, we have a guy in charge who does?

Comments

Want Your Country Back? Really???

John — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 23:23:05 +0000

I don’t like going off on a rant but then, what is else is Mitch McConnell good for if not to inspire a good rant…

For all the right-wing radicals demanding their country back at Tea Party rallies and elsewhere—who we are now being told are the exception and not the rule among Tea Party supporters—Mitch McConnell is the face of what you are asking for. Could it be any more clear that he has sold out to big bank interests??? To explain why he went to Wall Street to ask big banks for money to fight finance reform, he did a tap dance on CNN that would have made Fred Astaire blush. Observe:

Now to be clear, I knew from the first moment that I saw McConnell’s response to the finance reform proposal that his stance was nonsensical. When the President says he will prevent a future bailout and McConnell says that the proposal will guarantee future bailouts, these two positions are diametrically opposed and are not compatible enough to exist within the same conversation. When this happens, it is obviously not a misunderstanding or a slight misinterpretation. One of the two individuals must be flat out lying.

If the Tea Party supporters mean what they say; if they are not racists but concerned patriots, then they will in fact be willing to sit down, take an objective look at the proposal, and decide who is lying based on what is actually in the bill rather than judging by how the bill is being characterized by either of its two principals. If I see some sign that Tea Party supporters are capable of fairness on any issue, then I may have to reevaluate my previous posts about their being filled with racist cretins and morons venting unfocused anger and frustration indiscriminately. Lately, I have seen several taking my advice about disassociating themselves from radicals—a very positive step.

In all cases, it is important to try to see all sides of an issue before acting hastily. If you contrast the stances of McConnell and Obama, and if you are objective, I think the truth is plain to see. If you know better, then educate me.

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