Doonesbury Say What?

"I appreciate that the Donald wants to spend his resources in getting to the bottom of something that so interests him and many Americans... He's not just throwing stones from the sidelines, he's digging in. He's paying for researchers to find out why President Obama would have spent $2 million not to show his birth certificate, so more power to him."
— Sarah Palin, furthering the discredited "birther" controversy

LOL! My problem against Trump being prez is that he is demonstrated a failed businessman (who can drive a casino in to bankruptcy?), but so was Dubya.

Yuri's Night!

Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. And here's some articles about it.


Wired's This Day In Tech:
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/04/0412soviet-cosmonaut-yuri-gagarin-orbits/


Soviet Space Propaganda: Doctored Cosmonaut Photos:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/soviet-space-propaganda/?pid=1181&viewall=true


ARISSat-1 to be Activated Aboard ISS Starting April 11

The ARISSat-1 satellite, presently still inside the ISS, will be turned on and use an external antenna to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's first manned space flight. The transmissions will begin on Monday 11 April 2011 at 14:30 UTC and continue until 10:30 UTC on 13 April 2011.

Due to the fact that the solar panels are covered, the satellite will be powered only by the onboard battery. The satellite will run in low power mode. This means that the transmissions will cycle ON/OFF. They will be ON for 40-60 seconds and OFF for 2 minutes.

145.950 MHz FM Downlink:
FM transmissions will cycle between a voice ID, select telemetry values, 24 international greeting messages in 15 languages and SSTV images. One of the messages will be a conversation between Yuri Gagarin and ground control.

I just programmed my Yaesu FT-530 in hopes of hearing something today.

http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/index.php


Human Spaceflight's 50th: a Q&A with David Baker who worked for NASA from 1965 to 1984 and has published 80 books, including his latest, The Space Shuttle Owner's Workshop Manual, in the format of a Chilton's manual.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/human_spaceflight_david_baker/all/1

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/04/shuttle-manual-excerpt/all/1

RIP: Jerry Lawson, the inventor of the modern gaming cartridge

"As an engineer at Fairchild Semiconductor, Lawson designed the electronics of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System, later renamed the Channel F, in 1976.

Predating the release of Atari’s Video Computer System by a year, the Channel F was the first videogame machine that used interchangeable game cartridges, which Fairchild sold separately. Previous game machines like Atari’s Pong and the Magnavox Odyssey had all their games built into the hardware. Lawson’s pioneering design set the standard for the game consoles of today."

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/04/jerry-lawson-dies/