At least there's some concession of humanity there, as opposed to this t-shirt from Zazzle.com :

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Even as the new Star Trek movie rekindles interest in space travel and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, NASA's voyages into the cosmos may fall victim to a more earthly reality -- multibillion-dollar budget deficits fueled by bailouts to the banks and automakers.
President Obama on Thursday ordered a full review of the Ares and Orion program, under which the space agency is building a rocket and crew capsule designed to replace the aging shuttle fleet and carry humans deeper into space.
NASA last week implemented layoffs associated with the shuttle's planned retirement next year.
Obama tapped former aerospace executive Norman Augustine to lead a blue-ribbon panel of experts that will review NASA's goals and related funding requirements. Augustine, who also served on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said the review won't be easy.
"I am excited about working with my fellow panel members to examine these difficult and complex questions," said Augustine, in a statement. "I am a real believer in the value of this nation's human spaceflight activities and will do everything I can to provide the information needed to help the country maintain the spectacular arc of progress NASA has fueled for five decades."
The Ares and Orion program was born of former President George W. Bush's "Vision for Space Exploration" blueprint. The Ares and Orion vehicles were scheduled to come online in 2014. Work will continue on the program while the review is ongoing, NASA said.
Meanwhile, the agency said it received a 5% increase in funding, to $18.69 billion, for the fiscal year 2010. The funding will cover a range of activities, including work to complete the International Space Station, exploration of the solar system, and aeronautics research.
"With this budget NASA is able to support a balanced portfolio of priorities," said acting NASA administrator Christopher Scolese.
"Recently I saw a physician for a personal health issue," he said in the statement. "He gave me a medication, not a steroid, which he thought was okay to give me. Unfortunately, the medication was banned under our drug policy. Under the policy, that mistake is now my responsibility."Mistake?
The suspension will cost Ramirez $7.7 million, or roughly 31% of his $25-million salary. Players in violation of baseball's drug policy are not paid during suspensions.But now his 100+ RBI pace propelling the Dodgers to a season opening at home win streak, and the NL's best winning percentage plus last year's spectacular finish are called into question.
Ramirez would become the biggest star suspended under an oft-criticized major league testing program that started in 2003. He had been a model citizen since arriving in Los Angeles last August, following a stormy tenure with the Boston Red Sox."
Be careful. Manny could be telling the truth.
If any baseball superstar is capable of taking a medication in all innocence, and then finding out that something in it is included on Major League Baseball's banned list of substances it is Manny Ramirez. It certainly fits the profile.
After all, who should know better than us?
But losing Manny until 4th of July weekend is no joke to the Dodgers organization and fans.
Photo: Getty Images via Newsday
![]() Artist: Duffy Title: Mercy Album: Rockferry Year: 2008 |
Boston Globe management was continuing to negotiate concessions with its major unions well past a midnight deadline, but said it was prepared to file a plant closing notice with the state today if they failed to reach agreement. (Boston Globe)The newspaper's unions framed the conflict as a classic local heroes vs New York struggle, tapping into longstanding regional resentments.
In "Hackers delight -- A history of MIT pranks" the Boston Globe offers a photo retrospective... Including this from 1999, when students transfomed MIT's landmark dome into Star Wars' R2D2.
The latest: This year hackers placed a solar powered subway car replica atop an architectural feature of the dome that looks like tracks. They caputured a short round trip on video April 28, 2009.
Photo courtesy of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Museum
New Media is Now Just "Media"
KUOW, Seattle, discussed "Your Brain on New Media" on its Weekday show April 20th.
Howard Finberg, director of interactive learning at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and manager of the News University - a project that offers online training in New Media to journalists around the globe, told host Steve Scher: "Media is no longer a one-way message to a passive audience."
Hanson Hosein, director of the University of Washington's Master of Communication in Digital Media, explained how the old established media (newspapers, radio, TV, et al) have now become "legacy media" and that what we called "new media" is now the new norm, just plain "media".
The entire program is available as a podcast. (Run Time: 54:13)
I want to be a firefighterThe Las Vegas City Fire Department's cadets wore red t-shirts, their instructors blue. A similar platoon from Clark County's Fire Academy came a few minutes later wearing coats and pants from their protective turnout gear.
I want to go to rookie school
I want to be a firefighter
I must be a crazy fool