This Was the Week That Was...

What a week.

Van Allen died. Not so much a fan of human space exploration was that one. Robots were the name of the game for him.

In a sense he's right. If our only goal in space is to do science and nothing more, old Johnny Five will do.

But if this is about bringing humanity to the stars, turning man into a more than one world species, ensuring our survival in the universe and curing the drift in this world with the spark of a new frontier then we will need REAL people - men and women- to do it.

Those friggin' little robots on Mars are still going. What do you call a robot that has lasted 3 years that was designed to last 90 days? You call it well designed, planned, and managed by NASA's JPL.

Calls to mind an idea... Why not get NASA to outsource almost everything it does to JPL? Extending JPL's raison d'etre seems mighty juicy a prospect at this point no matter how unrealistic.

Then there's the whole foiled global terrorist plot in britain , that some are sure, and some are unsure whether it was Alqeda driven or not.

Bush called on people to remember that the US is at war with "islamofascists."

Funny. I thought we were at war with "terror." A war that had clear goals that included taking out the Taliban in Afghanistan, capturing or killing Osama Bin Landen, and wipping out the Alqeda terrorist network.

Some suggested that, not the US, but the WORLD was to be soon or already was at war with radical Islam or so-called islamofascism. And that 9/11 was just the opening salvo of what would be a larger conflict. The President was silent on that idea originally.

I don't understand what Bush's extention of the definition of the war on terror was all about, but my thinking is the drift this administration is experiencing in the polls can be directly related to the drift it has experienced in everything else it has been doing lately.

Well whatever Bush is thinking, he better figure it out soon.

Pluto, as we've all known for a while, shouldn't be a planet. When we find other floating rocks bigger or the same size that aint in the same designation, I'm thinking that's a clear sign there's a problem in your naming system. From now on, on this blog Pluto will be called the "Wanna-be Planet." So there.