NASA confirms reports of intoxicated astronauts

NASA officials on Friday confirmed that on at least two occasions astronauts were intoxicated immediately prior to missions as the agency said it was taking steps to investigate and remedy the situation.

I don't drink alcohol but thinking about it if tomorrow I was going to put on a big orange space suit that weighs, oh 50 lbs? Get into what amounts to a huge firecracker, strap myself in and then feel the sensation of being thrust out of Earths orbit at a couple of G's knowing full well that I'm one malfunction from being blown to bits, I'd probably get smashed too. I'm just sayin'. I understand.

NASA confirms reports of intoxicated astronauts

Law is 'unjust' for unwed couples?

The BBC is reporting that:

It says the current law is "unjust" and the 2.2m co-habiting couples in England and Wales should have more protection if they split up.

The report says the majority of couples who live together wrongly believe they are protected by what is known as "common law" marriage.

But it has denied its proposals will undermine marriage.

Ummm Yeah yes it does. If you've been living together for ages without getting married it ain't an accident. You know full well that you have an out that does not include judges, lawyers, lawyers bills or alimony. Given the divorce rate in the US (not sure if it holds up in the UK) THAT is a heck of a deal.

For example, if a partner has given up a career to bring up children, they should receive compensation in the event the couple separates.

Compensation? For what? You knew you weren't married. You knew full well that the relationship could basically end on a whim and you ought to be compensated for what could have amounted to a dumb decision while knowing the risks? If you wanted to "compensation" you should have gotten married. What they hell is wrong with people? They don't want to play the game, but want all the benefits.

You want legal cover for your relationship, get married. Want an easy out: Shack up.

Debt Free

On a related Financial note, Deb Price shares her story:

We set a date -- February 2008 -- to be debt-free and made all money decisions based on that shared goal. Quick examples: Joyce loves to travel, so we took up tent camping -- and found ourselves happily cooking lobsters over an open fire and walking the beach alongside wild Assateague ponies. We swapped golf for tennis, a far cheaper sport.

Most importantly, we prioritized debts, putting every extra nickel toward erasing first one car loan, then the other. Once they were gone, we immediately doubled up on house payments. Each time one loan was wiped out, the pace of our progress picked up. Why? Less was being lost to interest.

Yep.

Pay Cash for that Next Car

the NY Times has an informative article on people who pay cash for cars. The most important statement made here was (IMHO):

For Matthew Galloghy, 30, who lives in Batavia, Ohio, outside Cincinnati, it is simply saving money. He recently paid about $20,000 for a Honda Accord, and plans to drive it for about 10 years.

Mr. Galloghy takes his thrift to another level. He said he would make a monthly deposit equal to a car payment, or about $300, in a money market account. “And now I certainly have a cushion for emergencies or anything else that may come up,” Mr. Galloghy said.

Do the math on that.

Texting While Driving

Chris Case in an entry at the Huffington Post does something I despise: Texting while Driving.

I want you to know that I do not feel good about myself. I do not feel good that I had to tell you in this way that your keys are too sensitive, that I tried to use you while driving and almost killed myself because I had to look down to use your "intuitive" keyboard.

Not cool at all. I've been rear-ended 3 times by mofo's paying attention to their phones. I will sue the retirement account off the next one to hit me.

BMW 1 Series Coming to America

I have and immensely enjoy a 1998 E30 convertible. The 3 series has gotten kinda big since then. Here comes the 1. I've signed up for a test drive.




The 1 series may be the vehicle that gets me to actually take on a car note again.

iPhone v N800

I have a Nokia N800. I purchased it not long after the iPhone was annoued. It's kind of amusing to read about the limitations and 'new' abilities that the iPhone supposedly brings to mobile computing when in most cases the N800 has 'been there and done that.'

This brings me to this post over at the Maemo blog :

I have a surprise for you, Andrew: it's called the Nokia N800, and today it can function as a basic laptop replacement. It even supports VOIP phone use via Skype, Gizmo or Googletalk. And you were saying...?

Yeah. Nuff said. Oh yes, this was posted from my N800 thank you very much.

Fattening Friends

Interesting read on contageous obesity:

The answer, the researchers report, was that people were most likely to become obese when a friend became obese. That increased a person’s chances of becoming obese by 57 percent. There was no effect when a neighbor gained or lost weight, however, and family members had less influence than friends.

It did not even matter if the friend was hundreds of miles away, the influence remained. And the greatest influence of all was between close mutual friends. There, if one became obese, the other had a 171 percent increased chance of becoming obese, too.

Not surprised in the least that family were less influences than friends. Wives tend to not say much about weight gain by their men. Men are afraid to mention weight gain by wives under threat of sexual retaliation or being labeled "sexist" for idealizing some rail thin model (or both). And close friends? In my experience most people's close friends are close because of what they don't say to each other and not necessarily for their blunt honesty.

Bonobos

An article about Bonobo's
and an article about the article about Bonobo's.

Good read.

Tour De Fraud

I like cycling. I like cycling very much. I am not liking the recent news.

I bike. I run. I actually like knowing that those that beat me are simply better than I. They are either gifted by nature, better trained, more disciplined or any combination. Similarly I enjoy watching Le Tour because I know just how hard it is to ride at those speeds for the amount of time they do. I am especially impressed by those climbs. I hate hills regardless of whether I am on foot or on my bike. Hat's off to those who actually race up those things.

I watched as "Vino" crashed. I was amazed and in awe of his iron determination to continue regardless of the 65 stitches in his knees and hip. Anyone who has run or biked with an injury knows full well that it takes a lot to block out that pain and keep going. I was amazed when he slaughtered the field in the time trial. I was amazed again when he killed the mountain stage on Monday.

Every time I was on the phone with someone I told them about "iron man" as I called him. I called him that in reference to the Rocky IV movie where the Russian boxer refers to Rocky as a piece of iron that could not be broken. I knew that regardless of who won the Tour, "Vino" was going to be a frickin legend.

Then came the news. While we are still awaiting the results of the B test, and any possible medical explanation such as the healing process resulting in elevating his red blood cell count; Vino had doped. I don't quite understand what the hell this man was thinking. Seriously. He was NOT going to win the tour. Why take that risk? Why shame his team and countrymen? We were already impressed that he was still going and up in the rankings. Let's just say I was highly annoyed.

Apparently I wasn't the only annoyed person as a few riders staged a small "sit in" at the start of today's stage. Not long after that it was reported that another rider had been caught. This one didn't even request a retest. He was arrested and the team ejected. But oh, it wasn't over.

Rasmussen, who has been leading the Tour, had missed numerous drug testing attempts prior to the Tour. The reason: he didn't inform his team where he was going to be. Is this serious? What part of a plane flight to Mexico is "forgettable" to report to your team? The reason he was allowed to start the tour was because the rules state that a rider has to miss three attempts at testing by the same testing body. Since "Rassy" missed different organization testings, he could not be barred. However; today he was removed from the race. So basically what we saw for the past couple of weeks was a fraud. We were cheering for cheaters and suspected cheaters. Not cool.

I've gotten out of bed for 7:30 AM starts. I've skipped days at work and quality time with friends to watch the Tour. I really feel that I have wasted my time. We don't even know who won last year's tour because of the issues surrounding Floyd Landis. Now it seems we are set for that whole thing all over again. In my opinion the rest of the tour ought to be cancelled. I know that people have spent lots of money to stand on the side of the road to cheer on the riders. I know there are lucrative broadcast contracts in play but enough is enough. When riders figure out that their cheating will cost everybody their year(s) of training and family neglect, I think they will think hard before taking that injection. Heck it may precipitate some death threats and scare some people straight.

Personally I'm done watching the race. As far as I'm concerned this has been a big fraud. Maybe it's an extreme reaction, but there it is. I simply am not interested in finding out that whomever I've been cheering for is a "Sporty crack head".


related:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/sports/AP-CYC-Tour-de-France.html?hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/sports/sportsspecial1/25tour.html?ref=sportsspecial1

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