I thought this was an interesting story, but before anyone leaps to conclusions -

"More likely, the TSEC equipment is the encryption box routinely used to receive messages from Mission Control in Houston. NASA codes its messages to the shuttle so no one can intercept them and play them back later to the shuttle, fouling its flight control. "

Our spacecraft have flown with some kind of encryption technology since Gemini, IIRC.

HoustonChronicle.com - Top secret part among the shuttle debris

Good info on hacking TiVo using OSX, something that hasn't had a lot of play yet.

TiVo video extraction with Mac OS X

What is surely a page-in-progress, and well worth monitoring for information relating to the Columbia Accident Investigation as it progresses. Currently contains links to "Risk Management for the Tiles of the Space Shuttle - 1994" and "STS-87 Post-Flight Inspection - 1997" in PDF format.

STS-107 Investigation Reference Page

jessica wrote:
] ] A few days before the Columbia shuttle disaster, NASA
] ] noted that debris that hit the left wing during takeoff
] ] created "the potential for a large damage area to the
] ] tile."
]
] NASA seriously needs to get their shit together. I am sure
] that if they had gotten their act together, the astronauts
] could have done -something-, at least made a spacewalk to
] survey the damage. NASA and their damn memos.

EVA to repair missing or damaged tile is impossible, from a flight safety standpoint.
1) No tether carried onboard would allow a member of the crew underneath the vehicle.
2) Even if one could reach the underside of the vehicle, the crewmember attempting this would be out of sight of the rest of the crew, a major flight safety violation.
3)Even if that was acceptable, there are absolutely no handholds of any kind down there. In zero gravity, you can't do anything if you have nothing to hold on to. This also leads to a signifigant risk of damaging even more tiles, making matters worse.
4)Even if you get down there, don't break anything and don't kill a one of your crew by trying, you have nothing to fix it with.

The risks outweigh any possible gains, and the general consensus among the engineers and managers is that there was no problem. Even the memo that the above quote comes from ends by saying: "no safety of flight issue". If people would read these memos a bit more closely (or the press would report on them more accurately), I think they would see that there was a consensus that there was no cause for alarm.

Debris has hit the orbiter before. Tiles have been damaged before. It has never before caused the loss of the vehicle or crew.

RE: NASA memo warned of 'potential for large damage'

KIRKENES, Norway (Reuters) - The shrinking Arctic icecap may open a fabled passage for ships between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans within a decade, transforming an icy graveyard into a short-cut trade route.

If this isn't a seriously absurd example of looking on the bright side of things, I don't know what is.

Yahoo! News - Shrinking Arctic Ice to Open New Trade Route

"How pathetic that those who want free music don't believe in free speech," she said. "We are working together to get our site restored so that the press and the public can continue to get the information they want and need from the RIAA."

:::::

Har!

Recording industry Web site again attacked

LOS ANGELES - Six retail record store chains hurting from competition from CD burning, online music and large discount stores are teaming to offer consumers digital music downloads in their stores and over the Internet.

The stores have formed a joint venture called Echo that will provide technology and allow them to offer individual tracks for downloading to portable devices and computers.

Yahoo! News - Retailers Form Digital Music Venture

GoogleSynth uses the Google Image Search thingy to randomly grab two images as the "input" and "target" images for the algorithm. In order to do this GoogleSynth uses a large word list (about 62,000 words) and randomly selects two words from it. It then does a search with each of these words and randomly selects an image from the first page of results. If there is an error it will simply select a new word and try again.

Once it has two images it applies the algorithm with the parameters set by the user and produces a new image based on them. The results vary wildly, often the output is a total mess, but it creates some cool looking stuff now and then (depending on your definition of 'cool').

//art.gen.nz/ :: Algorithmic and Generative Art :: GoogleSynth

] The outlines of this new mission are not new, but TIME has
] uncovered enough fresh details to construct the fullest picture
] yet of the CIA's secret army. It spoke to past and current
] intelligence officials, including an active member of the SOG,
] as well as to detractors within the Pentagon.

What is going on in the spook biz? Good read!

TIME Magazine: The CIA's Secret Army

Steve Albini writes an essay for the Negativland site about how screwed the music industry really is, particularly if you're a young indie band looking for a "Big Break."

Never mind any "artists rights" noise you might hear - examine the hypothetical numbers he includes toward the end of the article and you'll see exactly why the music industry hates MP3s.

The Problem With Music