Posts Tagged “NASA”
- The federal government’s quarter-trillion-dollar bank buy-in plan is being embraced by the industry as a means to get them back to the business of lending again, but many experts believe it won’t provide a quick fix to the nation’s economic problems. In my experience, depending on a bank to really help me with my problems is like hiring a shark to host a pool party…
- Wednesday’s final presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama may very well be McCain’s last chance to shake up a race that many polls suggest has been wrapped up by Obama. McCain’s people have suggested he may again try to connect Obama to Bill Ayers, the one-time anti-war radical who is now a professor and neighbor of Obama’s–I don’t know about you, that gets me right off worrying about the economy…
 Engineers at NASA say they know how repair the Hubble Space Telescope, and will begin a complicated remote-control fix Wednesday that will require them to wake up parts on the telescope that have been dormant for 18 years. Are we sure they’re qualified–after all, they probably have parts dormant for much longer than that…- A federal appeals court has ordered that Ohio’s election officials must establish a system to verify the eligibility of newly registered voters and make that information available to all of the state’s election boards, a victory for the state’s Republicans challenging the administration of registration policies by the Democratic secretary of state. So, the GOP is convinced the other side is trying to register ineligible pro-Obama votes, and the Dems are convinced the other side is trying to stop eligible pro-Obama voters from registering–at least they agree on something…
- Thanks to a break in Santa Ana winds, firefighters in Southern California have been able to better control 3 dangerous forest fires that have each moved closer to Los Angeles’ northwestern suburbs. The longer they can keep those arid breezes from fanning the flames, the better off they are–then again, it’s LaLa Land, and the Santa Anas are the least of their hot air problems…
 The upstart Tampa Bay Rays, who until now had never won more than 70 games a season, have pushed the mighty Boston Red Sox into an uncomfortable corner with a 13-4 rout of the defending World Series champs Tuesday–their second-straight lopsided win and the team’s third consecutive victory. The Sox have been here before, and they’ve roared back–but that was with "Manny being Manny", who’s now doing that pretty well for someone else…
Tags: Barack Obama, California, debate, Election Day, financial bailout, forest fires, Hubble Telescope, John McCain, Major League Baseball, NASA
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- John McCain and Barack Obama took to the debate stage for the second time Tuesday night in Nashville, and more or less took turns taking shots at one another. Basically, we learned that each of them plan to do exactly what all of us want them to do, and the other guy is responsible for everything that’s messed up in the country now…
- Wall Street continued its worry about America’s economy with a sell-off that sank the Dow another 500 points and set off a chain reaction around the world, including a nearly ten percent decline of Japan’s Nikkei Index–the largest drop there in a decade. I’m tellin’ ya, that Mattress Stuffing Fund is looking like a smarter investment every day…
 Officials of AIG Insurance–who averted a collapse thanks to an $85 billion federal loan–testified before a Congressional committee Tuesday, where they were asked about a corporate retreat held at an exclusive California retreat just a week after their federal bailout–at a cost of nearly a half-million dollars. Those executives testifying claimed they had no idea it had occured–and are probably ticked off that they weren’t invited…- Vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin surprised reporters on her campaign plane Tuesday when she joined them to answer a few questions, explaining her comments about Barack Obama’s relationship with one-time anti-war radical (and now respected university professor) Bill Ayers as a question of Obama’s judgement, then claiming "nobody has anything to hide" regarding her and huband Todd’s Troopergate controversy (see below) in Alaska–despite the fact that both refused to talk to investigators about it. So were the heels off and the gloves on, or the other way around?
 Officials at NASA are worried that the Mars Science Labratory mission is in jeopardy, as total costs for the program are expected to run over budget by at least 30 percent, which would permit Congress to intervene and shut down the entire project on its own. It could be that the future of the whole effort will not literally but definitely figuratively end up on another planet…- Scientists from the US and Japan have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their discovery and development of a jellyfish protein. This breakthrough has wide-reaching possibilities–not only has it helped other scientists understand how cancer spreads, it’s provided sushi chefs with a really cool new ingredient…
Tags: AIG, Bill Ayers, Congress, debate, Financial meltdown, John McCain, Mars, NASA, Nobel Prize, Sarah Palin
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- Top Congressional and administration officials are scrambling to craft a new financial rescue proposal after the House soundly defeated the first Capitol Hill/White House effort–largely due to the response from thousands of constituents opposed to using $700 billion of their money to bail out the private sector. Most of them have a different kind of bailout plan in mind–one with those greedy CEO’s all in a leaky boat somewhere far from shore…
- The stock market reacted to the bailout failure in historic fashion, with a sell-off resulting in the worst drop in Wall Street history–falling 777 points at the close. It’s distressing to say the least–I was sure my 401K couldn’t possibly be a negative number…
- Political experts say that John McCain, who made a great deal of suspending his campaign so he could inject himself into the work of rescuing the nation’s financial industry, has painted himself into a corner now that the bill he essentially married himself to has gone down to defeat. I guess he could blame Obama for making him go to the debate…
 Time for an OJ Update: the prosecution has rested its case against Simpson, who they say kidnapped and robbed some Las Vegas memorabilia dealers. The defense has begun its case but has not yet decided if Simpson will testify–I mean, would you believe anything he said?- It appears that the honeymoon may be over for Sarah Palin, as an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows a dramatic downturn of positive feedback from a month ago and an AP survey found 61 percent of Americans believe she does not have the right experience to be president. The McCain campaign is at a crossroads–do they run or do they pull Palin’s cover story on Maxim…
- NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft has made more dramatic discoveries–including evidence of past water at its Mars landing site and the the lander’s first look at snow on the Red Planet. There are only a couple of possible explanations–there may be or have been life there, or we’re gonna need a plow guy up there…
Tags: financial bailout, John McCain, Mars, NASA, OJ Simpson, Sarah Palin, Wall Street, Wall Street Journal
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- President Bush spoke to the nation Wednesday night, telling Americans and lawmakers that the failure to pass his $700 billion financial rescue plan could wipe out retirement savings, increase foreclosures, cost us jobs and businesses and even, "a long and painful recession". But what happens when we sink our government into unprecedented debt to aid a largely greedy industry–I believe that’s regression…
- The president has also brought in both John McCain and Barack Obama for negotiations to seal the deal on his rescue plan, on which Congress is reportedly close to agreement. He’s either looking for both national party leaders to convince their respective members to support it, or someone else to blame it on…
- More interesting revelations have surfaced about vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, as the grainy video below from the summer of 2005 shows her being blessed by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from "witchcraft":
 Perhaps Palin thought even then that she would have to compete with Hillary Clinton…
- Hurricane Ike is being blamed for NASA’s decision to postpone a shuttle mission to the Hubble Telescope next month–but the delay is a minor one of just four days. The hurricane cost the crew a week of training time, which is crucially important to make up–apparently they need some practice focusing…
- A new study reports that senior citizens are not embracing the use of generic drugs–as long as someone else is picking up the tab. The research found that seniors favor brand name drugs when their insurer covers them, but generic varieties when they’re the ones responsible for payment–which explains why Grandpa only wants coffee when he’s buying, but filet mignon when I am…
 Federal prosecutors say they will prove that Barry Bonds’ personal trainer supplied him with steroids in November 2000–the offseason prior to Bonds’ record-setting 73 home runs. It is crucial evidence to prove Bonds lied to a grand jury in 2003–which should only be slightly tougher to do than prove he’s an arrogant, egotistical jerk…
Tags: Ba, Barack Obama, Barry Bonds, Congress, financial bailout, Hubble Telescope, Hurricane Ike, John McCain, NASA, President Bush, Sarah Palin
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With potentially deadly Santa Ana windsW dying down, firefighters in Southern California are reporting that they are making gains on three wildfires today. They are still battling several areas of hot air–mostly coming from the neighborhoods of talent agents…
Now that space shuttle EndeavourW has arrived at the International Space StationW on its mission to improve and expand the space station’s living area, the crew is busily unpacking the 15,000 pounds of equipment necessary for the upgrade. Hopefully it doesn’t include a bunch of drapes and that guy from Extreme Makeover: Home Editon…
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