“Mission complete, Houston. After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle
has earned its place in history. Atlantis has come to a final stop.” — Shuttle Atlantis Pilot Doug Hurley
With its recognized dual sonic booms, Space Shuttle Atlantis touched down this morning at the Kennedy Space Center completing the final scheduled shuttle flight. It ends the era successfully for NASA and opens the door to the unknown future of space exploration.
The landing was “picture perfect” and a example of what men and machines can do with dedication and training. The 5:56 AM touchdown completed STS 135 and closes the door on 30 years of utilitarian service as well as a superb platform for scientist to learn about space and our “good earth.” The program’s end comes with mixed emotion for Americans growing up with NASA and U.S. superiority in space exploration. I’m included in what I suspect is the majority wondering if America will be content with riding shotgun?
Atlantis — the last of NASA’s three surviving shuttles to retire — performed admirably during the 13-day flight.
It dropped off a full year’s worth of food and other supplies at the International Space Station, just in case upcoming deliveries get delayed.
The space station’s international partners — Russia, Europe and Japan — will continue to carry up cargo loads. And Russia will keep launching American astronauts to the orbiting lab until private industry is ready to fly people up in three to five years.
Several private companies are vying for the cargo runs and astronaut ferry flights. The front-runner hopes to make its first shipment of supplies by the end of this year.
Something tells me that I’m not alone in wondering why an organization that has successfully carried out it’s mission while continuing to grow its ministry since 1951 is changing their name. Not only are they trying to create a less-descript “Cru” identity, but are dropping “Christ.”
Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC) — the popular, large-scale Christian organization — has decided to make a major change. In early 2012, the multi-faceted para-church group will officially drop the name it has held for 60 years, replacing it with a three-letter word — “Cru.” While many within the group are praising the change, some outsiders wonder if the ministry, which seeks to “build spiritual movements everywhere so everyone knows someone who truly follows Jesus Christ,“ is making the wrong decision by removing ”Christ” from its title.
For those looking for a bright spot on the horizon for the economy, American Airlines must be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel if they are placing the largest airplane order in history.
American Airlines parent AMR Corp. said Wednesday it reached agreements with Boeing Co. and Airbus to buy 460 single-aisle aircraft, including versions of both manufacturers’ re-engined versions that will be more fuel efficient.
AMR, which has had an exclusive purchase agreement with Boeing for years, said it will purchase 260 Airbus A320s from Boeing’s European rival.
AMR said the deals bring $13 billion in committed financing provided by the plane builders through lease transactions.
A surprise jolt of bipartisan support emerged Tuesday for a $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan that had been in development for months, though it was thought to be dead just several weeks ago.
Roughly half of the Senate’s 100 members sat through an hour-long briefing on the plan, which was designed by a group of lawmakers known as the “Gang of Six” and would cut spending, overhaul entitlement programs such as Medicare, rework the tax code, and make significant changes to Social Security.
The plan is sweeping in its scope but was thought for months to be both overly ambitious and slightly ambiguous, which nearly led the effort to collapse in recent weeks. But the plan was revived, in part by its lead authors—Sens. Mark Warner (D., Va.) and Saxby Chambliss (R., Ga.)—and the flood of bipartisan support coming out of the meeting surprised them both, the lawmakers said.
I was really hoping to see a new TDI Passat wagon in North America. Maybe I’ll just keep waiting for the crossover?
Despite the unabashed public appearance of a camo-draped Volkswagen Passat wagon on American soil, the company is not planning to offer such a vehicle for sale here, we’ve learned from company sources. The car seen in testing is headed for the European market, and is just undergoing some development in the States, as is common practice among automakers. With an abundance of engineering firms, suppliers, and rain-free and hot climes here, the U.S. frequently attracts cars that will never reach our dealerships. This is the case with the Passat wagon.
Other than Subaru’s offerings, wagons in the family segment have become deeply unpopular, and Volkswagen discontinued the Passat wagon after it repositioned the sedan in the U.S., dropping the base price by nearly $8000 and going after the mid-size market’s biggest players. With a renewed focus on achieving big sales numbers, Volkswagen doesn’t see a new Passat wagon as an effective use of resources.
With all of this said, we already know that aVolkswagen is working on a three-row crossover, priced like a Honda Pilot or Ford Explorer at or near $30,000. Since that is precisely the category to which former wagon buyers have shifted in the U.S., it’s the right product for VW and makes way more business sense than does a Passat wagon.
Don’t look at your IRAs or 401K plans today — actually don’t look at them until the powers that be in Washington DC can figure out how to rein in our “Governement Gone Wild.” (I’ve already given up on Europe)
Stocks fell as the combination of anxieties about debt in the bloc of euro-using nations and a lack of progress in U.S. debt-ceiling negotiations sparked an early selloff.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 146 points, or 1.2%, to 12334, led lower by Boeing, which shed 2.5%, and Bank of America, which fell 2.4%. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index fell 14 points, or 1.1%, to 1302, led lower by financial stocks, which were hit by the debt worries. The Nasdaq Composite INdex slid 28 points, or 1%, to 2762.
Far be it from me to defend the “corporate jet” crowd, but am I the only one who wonders what numbers President Obama is talking about when they advocate that wealthy in America “pay their fair share.” I’ve looked at most of the numbers and no matter how you slice the pie, those earning over $200,000 (a minority of Americans) are paying over 60% of U.S. taxes. Personally I think Democrats are just playing politics and using this debt ceiling debate as an excuse to continue growing the Federal government and raising taxes?
“[you] can’t solve it without asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share …”
Unfortunately I’m also concerned that those who are “playing chicken” in Washington DC are also putting all of us at risk because they only know how to spend money. What really needs to get done is to simplify the “special interest” oriented tax code – something both sides of the congress talks about … as does President Obama.
What is missing from this debate is the focus on job creation and the broadening of the tax base. If our central government was smaller and the red tape in order to operate a small or large business was less, it would be far easier to hire and expand. I can’t see a reason at the moment that an investor or business entrepreneur would risk capital to hire new employees while there is the threat of higher taxes and the unknown cost associated with the “Affordable Care Act” – aka: Obamacare.
It doesn’t surprise me that wealthy Americans pay the most taxes, but it does surprise me that the majority of American citizens (earning $100,000 and below) cover only 15% of the taxes collected – of course we’re also borrowing another 40% on top of what we collect to cover Washington DCs’ spenders.
This was the first air travel that I opted to go fully paperless using Delta’s E-Boarding barcode utilizing my Palm Pre.
The process from check-in online to bag checking and the TSA and boarding went well and although I questioned losing the barcode webos card (and Internet connection!) between the ticketing counter and TSA, it probably wouldn’t have been an issue. Actually during the first flight earlier last week I even opted to save a screen capture of the barcode on my Pre in fear of losing the card.
Although the photo doesn’t show the dodger and ac awning down just yet, all the canvas that should be put below has been stripped. I’ve rigged the extra dock lines, but have left the solar panel up (but tied to the lifelines). Besides prepping Encore for the potential of a storm, I was able to remove some of the rust stains that “stainless” steel makes – plenty more to work on. I did want to work on a bit more of the brightwork, but the sun was just too unbearable and would have made it difficult to get a decent finish.
As enjoyable as it was to be spending the last few days working on the boat, I do miss not having Brenda here with me; unfortunately she doesn’t have the spare vacation days to come down just to do work. Back to the work-a-day grind for now.
Left: An extra set of new lines (with chain) | Right: Encore at sunrise
