Dead Robot The space between gay and straight, stupid and smart.

The End of the Shuttle

I can't help but feel a bit saddened by the last of the shuttle missions. NASA says they'll be using Ares rockets in the five year gap between the old Bessies being phased out and the next generation of orbiters. The Ares are basically the solid rocket boosters you see on the side of the massive fuel tank when the shuttle takes off, but in bigger form. To my futurists sensibilities, this seems like a step back and wish that Steve Jobs was presiding over their design teams. I think the extended and long history of the shuttle program has proven that re-using a multiform vehicle is much more practical than "reusable" rockets that crash back to earth for inevitable repair.

Listen to me, all rocket scientist.

Regardless, the gap is there and not pointing any fingers at anyone, NASA has to fill it if the US wants to stay viable in commercial space development. Meanwhile, the US military allegedly is testing a reusable shuttle of their own, but it's purportedly a drone, unmanned robot that flies very high and very stealthily for surveillance. It looks like a Red Bull can with tiny wings. Renderings suggest it's perfect Space Shuttle 2.0 but it's a long time coming, like the second generation of Microsoft's Zune. Too late!

As things play out, Faking Hoaxer has just released a new video of "Shuttle Scenarios" which are creepily foreboding as the last of the aging shuttles come home.

The Cool Before the Storm

Last winter SharkBoy and I bought ourselves lovely man-purses (murses? Mansacks? Over the Shoulder Macho Holders?) in anticipation for our winter vacation. The superficial justification being that some crazy terrorist decided to blow up some planes and the world freaked out and decided that it wasn't going allow a lot of onboard luggage. So we needed something small for our electronics and maybe a magazine. After a few weeks of looking, we discovered WWII Nazi/Russian messenger bags - At least that's what the guy in the store told us they were. Loudly he proclaimed that the one SharkBoy chose was German and mine was Russian. While the thought of using a bag that might have carried instructions on the proper way to close off the city of Minsk to stave off the encroaching Nazi hordes excites me, I doubt that it's really Russian. But I can fantasize.

SharkBoy wrote about our purchases here.

Since buying it, they relaxed the restrictions and we never used them.

I (not so) secretly wanted it for the impending iPad arrival in Canada. It's the perfect size - well I assumed at the time since no one actually had seen one at that time. It sits by my bed waiting to be shown to the world.

Kann ich jetzt gehen? ist es Zeit, um cool zu sein?

Gizmodo freaked me out yesterday (no not the whole Jason C getting his house ransacked by Apple California Computer Police) by posting the "coolest bag for the iPad".

You guessed it. We rock. You may touch our sleeves.

As an update too, I am going for my second interview sometime this week. Need to sched. (snicker... "sched"... I need an ascot scarf hipster thing)