Jack’s Old & Busted Blog

I’m saving for one of these (monkey automaton page).

“Clean the machine regularly with a moisty cloth . . . “
UPS arrived promptly at 5:03 p.m. The Technivorm (website) makes a swell cuppa, and looks cooler than the photos! There’s really nothing like it to compare with in the coffee world. The instructions are very sparse for such a formidible piece of hardware. I guess they expect you to know what to do. With the quality of translation, it probably wouldn’t have made any difference: “Place the machine horizontally in a frost-free room”?

Well, one of my photos is being used on the cover of the next company magazine. La-ti-da!

Via Robot Wisdom, this jpeg of the space shuttle Columbia (large!) on the launch pad surprised me. One assumes the shuttles are kept mechanically sound; I guess the car wash was lined up that day.

I was in high school when the space shuttle Challenger exploded. It affected all of us. Everyone I knew felt a sincere and profound loss. I remember the country, and the world, being in the thralls of the Cold War, and the shuttle was something to feel patriotic about. My “class” was also of the age to have been especially curious about the shuttle, having witnessed the first test glides live on TeeVee. I have vivid memories of this and plastic space shuttle toys with opening cargo bays.

So why don’t I feel the same sense of loss with the Columbia? Of course, it was tragic, both in the popular media sense and the human meaning. But the event failed to “stop time” for the world the way the Challenger did. Why? The obvious answer is that the Events of September 11th have reattuned our tragimeters; the stage of National disasters is just a lot bigger now. But that’s an easy answer, and I think it’s more complicated.

For one, we are more aware of the real dangers of space travel, via movies like “Apollo 13″ and “The Right Stuff.” That these machines ever make it back is amazing in itself.

Science Fiction movies have also made us cynical about space travel. We expect things to go wrong; it’s part of the plot.

And finally, the coverage of the Challenger disaster made it very clear the success of these missions can hinge on parts as small as an O-ring. There’s just too much to go wrong.
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So what will happen to the shuttle program? I think it’s finished. Done. Make room in the Smithsonian. It’s too outdated to bother fixing, and NASA has repeatedly failed to produce a suitable replacement. It’s clear that if we ever want to vacation on Mars, space travel will have to be privatized,and fast. This is no insult to the crews of the Challenger and
Columbia. They were brave in that they performed a task with very real risks for very little compensation. I bet that future space travelers will be paid much better by their sponsoring corporations.

If anything positive comes out of the Columbia it should be the realization that the risks of space travel are no longer imaginary or heroic or patriotic. Space travel is dangerous, and only for the foolish or well-compensated.

One of the great things about ordering stuff online is package tracking. You get to see all the places your parcel has been, and will go, before it lands on your doorstep. This can be maddening, too, because often a package will backtrack before heading again in the right direction. Do they forget and leave things on the truck? Shipping entropy? Not enough room on this trip? anyway, it looks like the New Coffee machine is slowly creeping toward Albuquerque.

By the way, have you ever read the “Terms & Conditions” associated with package tracking?

UPS authorizes you to use the Tracking Systems solely to track shipments tendered by or for you to UPS for delivery and for no other purpose. Without limitation, you are not authorized to make the Information available on any web site or otherwise reproduce, distribute, copy, store, use or sell the Information for commercial gain without the express written consent of UPS.

Now, what possible purpose would one have for tracking the delivery of a package other than wanting to know when it would arrive? Is there some sort of underground para-mutual package wagering going on? Is the fact that my package somehow goes from oregon to New Jersey in 45 minutes a clue to some secret cosmic shipping wormhole?

Waiting for the 12th. That’s when the Technivorm will land (am I violating the T&C by saying this?).