On Rob Reiner’s This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Reiner, as documentary filmaker Marty DiBergi, wears a baseball cap embroidered “USS Coral Sea OV-4B” (rather than CV-43). Why is this changed? What’s the joke here?
This From Mike Shelton at the Orange County Register:
This from Ratherbiased.com:
CBS News is scheduled to release a statement to the media shortly but chances are that the Eyemark Network is going to stick to its story.
While the release is being carefully crafted with the assistance of the Viacom legal department, Dan Rather and his associates are directing members of the media to an interview which Rather did with the highly influential New York Observer media columnist Joe Hagan in which the 72-year-old anchor blasts his critics in no uncertain terms.“I think the public, even decent people who may be well-disposed toward President Bush, understand that powerful and extremely well-financed forces are concentrating on questions about the documents because they can’t deny the fundamental truth of the story,” Rather told the paper. “If you can’t deny the information, then attack and seek to destroy the credibility of the messenger, the bearer of the information. And in this case, it’s change the subject from the truth of the information to the truth of the documents.
“This is your basic fogging machine, which is set up to cloud the issue, to obscure the truth,” he said.
So first it’s “some guy in his living room in pajamas,” now it’s the vast right-wing conspiracy.
While most enviromentalist organizations, like the Sierra Club, use their resources to pressure government into stealing the public and private land use rights of everyone, the Nature Conservancy actually goes to the marketplace and buys the land they wish to protect. Through their efforts, we now have a new national park:
Great Sand Dunes National Park – The tallest sand dunes in America rose to new heights Monday when Interior Secretary Gale Norton signed documents creating the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
At a sun-splashed dedication ceremony, Norton officially redesignated the Great Sand Dunes National Monument and Preserve as the nation’s 58th and Colorado’s fourth national park.The declaration was made possible when the Nature Conservancy on Friday completed the last of a set of real estate transactions to buy the 97,000-acre Baca Ranch, which borders the sand dunes, a geological jaw-dropper nestled at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Has-been NFL quarterback is in drug trouble again:
Former USC and Oakland Raiders quarterback Todd Marinovich is serving a 90-day jail term stemming from an arrest in Newport Beach last month for possessing methamphetamine, officials said Monday.
Marinovich, who played at Mater Dei and Capistrano Valley, pleaded guilty last week to a felony count of possessing a controlled substance and two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and the unauthorized possession of hypodermic needles, said Mark Macaulay of the Orange County district attorney’s office.
Marinovich, 35, was on probation for a 2001 conviction for felony heroin possession.
What? 90 Days?!?!?! I can assure you that had any “average citizen” with Marinovich’s record been up on similar charges, he/she would have been off to the state pen for at least a couple of years.
There is a feral cat, a sleek charcoal beauty, that has adopted our home, but not yet adopted us. It hangs out on our porch all the time. But when I offered it a piece of deli ham this afternoon, it stared at me longingly, but apprehensively. When I opened the screen, it bolted – all things in time.
I must admit, I haven’t followed this series closely. But, for those of you that have, how many wish that Lenny and Michelle get together?
I mean, from a literary stanpoint, this has all the elements of a best-selling romance – better than Rhett & Scarlett in Gone With The Wind or Sam & Diane in Cheers.
Ratherbiased.com reminds us that this isn’t the first time 60 Minutes has relied upon fake memos:
Lesley Stahl apologized for it back then, but currently the network is still holding out on apologizing for memos Dan Rather used as proof that George W. Bush was a misfit in the National Guard. The memo cited in 1997 was supposedly written by Rudy Camacho, a customs official whom CBS suggested was linked to a drug cartel. The memos today are supposedly written by Jerry Killian, a National Guard officer whom CBS claims gave preferential treatment to George W. Bush.
Any woman that might pair-up with me needn’t worry about becoming a ‘football widow’ (but last night’s Colts-Pats game WAS GREAT!). However, I do like my news analysis shows.
I’ve just found another one! Inside Washington on PBS is sort of like a more tempered, less ego-driven version of The McLaughlin Group. Panel Chairman Gordon Peterson, whom I’m not previously familiar with, was joined tonight by WaPo’s Colbert I. King , WSJ’s John Harwood, NPR’s Nina Totenberg, and the ubiquitous Charles Krauthammer.
It was good – I recommend it.
Ratherbiased.com, the source which appears to have broken the ‘Memogate’ scandal – and the source I first blogged on, is inviting one and all to participate in a live fisking of the 72 year-old liberal icon.
Dan Rather’s defense of himself tonight, while probably impressive to shallow observers was far from convincing. Here’s a list of things he ignored, did not properly address, or concealed from viewers. Feel free to send us your suggestions to this live fisking. For the transcript, click here.
Sourcing problems
1. The 72-year-old anchor conveniently did not mention the fact that James Moore, one of his key validative sources, is a left-wing activist and author who has written two anti-Bush books, Bush’s Brain, and Bush’s War for Reelection. Rather referred to him as “author Jim Moore has written two books on the subject.”2. He deliberately ignored statements from Col. Killian’s wife and son who said that he hated using typewriters, hardly ever kept notes, and very much liked George W. Bush. In today’s Washington Post, CBS conceded that it had not asked his wife to authenticate the letters it claims were written by her husband. Both Killian’s widow and son say that the alleged memos are not characteristic of his style and do not believe they are all authentic.
3. Rather did not mention that Ben Barnes, the Democratic lobbyist who is now saying he helped young Bush into the Texas Air National Guard (TANG), has changed his story according to his Republican daughter, Amy. She says that Barnes is making his Bush claims in preparation for his upcoming autobiography and to build up his political profile in the hopes of getting hired by a Kerry administration, all of which he allegedly told her.
4. Also left out by Rather was the fact that one of the CBS documents dated in 1973 refers to pressure that then-Col. Walter B. “Buck” Staudt, had supposedly been applying on Killian to make things easier for Bush. Unfortunately for CBS’s case, however, Staudt had retired in 1973.
5. CBS’s own paid signature expert (the network featured no typographers or typewriter experts tonight or in Wednesday’s report), Marcel Matley, directly undermined CBS’s case several years earlier in an essay for the American Law Institute:
“Do not passively accept a copy as the sole basis of a case. Every copy, intentionally or unintentionally, is in some way false to the original. In fact, modern copiers and computer printers are so good that they permit easy fabrication of quality forgeries.”
In his defense tonight, Rather admitted that “the documents CBS started with were also photocopies.”
6. Rather conveniently did not mention that one of its main validators, retired Maj. General Bobby Hodges is accusing 60 Minutes staff of lying to him in order to get him to say the supposed Killian memos were authentic. ABC News has the story:
“Hodges, Killian’s supervisor at the Guard, tells ABC News that he feels CBS misled him about the documents they uncovered. According to Hodges, CBS told him the documents were ‘handwritten’ and after CBS read him excerpts he said, ‘well if he wrote them that’s what he felt.’
“Hodges also said he did not see the documents in the 70’s and he cannot authenticate the documents or the contents. His personal belief is that the documents have been ‘computer-generated’ and are a ‘fraud.'”
The Washington Post reported earlier today that CBS considered Hodges its “trump card”:
“A senior CBS official, who asked not to be named because CBS managers did not want to go beyond their official statement, named one of the network’s sources as retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, the immediate superior of the documents’ alleged author, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian. He said a CBS reporter read the documents to Hodges over the phone and Hodges replied that “these are the things that Killian had expressed to me at the time.”
“These documents represent what Killian not only was putting in memoranda, but was telling other people,” the CBS News official said. “Journalistically, we’ve gone several extra miles.”
The official said the network regarded Hodges’s comments as “the trump card” on the question of authenticity, as he is a Republican who acknowledged that he did not want to hurt Bush. Hodges, who declined to grant an on-camera interview to CBS, did not respond to messages left on his home answering machine in Texas.
Looks like jokers are no longer wild.
Typographical problems
1. Although he tried to minimize the typographical concerns raised by many critics, Rather nonetheless tried to defend himself in this area. He failed, however. On the superscript issue, which Rather tried to explain away by throwing out the red herring that “Critics claim typewriters didn’t have that ability in the 70s. But some models did.”
The problem with this statement is that Rather fails to list any such typewriters which might have the capability or how a measely Air National Guard office would be able to afford such expensive machines. Simply showing a photocopy of a letter in Bush’s official file which originated from the Army’s national office is no proof at all.
2. The split screen image CBS offered of an official Bush document with superscript ordinal suffix and one of its own documents was not very convincing. The superscripts are quite different-looking and the typefaces used are very different.
3. Rather also neglected to mention that all of the documents which were written by Killian himself and his officers relied on simple mechanical typewriters incapable of printing in proportional fonts, let alone superscript.
4. Dan also appears unfamiliar with fonts and typography. At one point in the rebuttal, he refers to the font used in the CBS letters as “New Times Roman,” when the real name is Times New Roman. Rather also appears to be ignorant of the fact that Times New Roman was never used in typewriters and only came into wide use in the early 1990s when Microsoft licensed the font from the then Monotype Corporation in preparation for the launch of Windows 3.0.
Rhetorical Problems
1. Rather tried to smear critics who disagreed with him: “Today on the Internet and elsewhere, including many who were partisan political operatives, concentrated on the key questions of the overall story, but on the documents that were part of the support of the story.”
Since Rather failed to differentiate between who is a “partisan political operative” and who isn’t, it’s hard to conclude this line is nothing more than a red herring meant to scare his viewers who have not been following the ongoing story.
Les Jones adds: “Partisan political operatives? That’s funny, I don’t recall cashing any checks from Karl Rove. Translation: the jury didn’t believe the witness, so they ignored the witness’s testimony. Therefore CBS is going to claim the jury was rigged.”
The Word Is Out – The Fix Is In. The last appearance of Jeopardy master Ken Jennings – number 75 – has been taped, and will air in mid-October. He will retire with over $2.8 million in winnings.
If properly marketed, this might just out-Neilson of finale of Seinfeld.
The other day, for $59.99 at Costco, I bought a 145 pc. Cresent brand tool set. The nation of origin is unknown, but I would guess Taiwan. I didn’t really need them. But the finish is so good, the ratchets so smooth and so fine, and they all have the ‘flank drive’ feature Snap-On made famous a quarter-century ago. I simply couldn’t resist.
This brings up one of my great axioms of life: To certain men, tools are as jewelry to certain women.
I have just learned that the Brady Campaign is using the image of Osama Bin Laden in it’s effort to thwart the sunset of the Evil Assault Weapons Ban. In a FNC interview, their spokesman, Peter Hamm, claims that a pamphlet, supposedly found in Afghanistan, instructs the fledgling terrorist to go to American gun shows to buy weapons.
Tell me, with the average price of a good (and fully automatic) AK-47 in the third world at $25, why would the prospective terrorist care to arm-up at American gun shows?
Personally, I believe the threat of terrorism is more reason than ever to remain well-armed.
Another of the big losers in the Evil War on Drugs are the scores of millions of Americans with pain management issues (of which I am one). I will be following this conference carefully; The Politics of Pain:
Drug Policy & Patient Access to Effective Pain Treatments:
More than 48 million people in the U.S. suffer from chronic pain, according to the National Institutes of Health. Recent high-profile news cases of opioid usage have placed the issue on the front pages, including a debate over dependency vs. addiction, who is “deserving” and who is “undeserving,” of opioid treatment, and whether pain patients should be subjected to different standards of personal scrutiny than other patients.
The DEA claims drug diversion has reached crisis proportions, justifying increased investigative initiatives that frequently circumvent the Congressional appropriations process. Physicians are being prosecuted and imprisoned, and patients sentenced based on pill counts. As a result, physicians are afraid, and pain is going untreated. A bi-partisan amendment sponsored by Reps. Conyers and Paul, M.D., to defund these initiatives failed this session, but is gaining more support.
But efforts by some, including featured panelists, have exposed how news stories have overblown the problem by using faulty statistics and methodology in reporting drug diversion. The Orlando Sentinel recently retracted a series of articles and fired the reporter.
Medical research and treatment has made tremendous advances in pain management, but is public policy keeping up? And is law enforcement discouraging patient access to treatment as a result of prosecution of physicians under the Controlled Substances Act?
This distinguished panel will examine the current state of pain management, law enforcement initiatives, patient experiences, economic impact of untreated pain, funding sources, sentencing guidelines, H.R. 3015 prescription drug database act, and solutions for cooperation between lawmakers, regulators, law enforcement and the medical community.
I would advise anyone in the Washington DC area to attend:
121 Cannon HOB
11am-12:30pm (Light refreshments following presentations)
RSVP: briefing@aapsonline.org or (800) 635-1196 by 12:00 noon, Wed. Sept 15.
Briefing & lunch are free of charge
Hat Tip: Talkleft
Talkleft blogs on the allarming practice of police attempting to get search warrants for people’s homes based upon samples taken from thier doorknobs:
Is it my imagination or are our Fourth Amendment protections shrinking? A U.S. District Court in Utah is considering a challenge to searches of the doorknobs to our homes. It’s a tactic being used around the country and it’s called the Ionscan test. Police swipe a doorknob with a drug-detecting cloth and if the cloth then tests postive for microscopic particles of a controlled substance, they tell a judge they have probable cause to get a search warrant. Do they? It’s up in the air right now.
I am reminded, in this case, of U.S. v. $30,060 (1994):
On November 8, 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit again took the lead in asset forfeiture reform by putting dog alert evidence into its proper perspective.
For the past ten years, the lure of asset forfeiture revenue has prompted law enforcement officers to use dog sniffs as witch- hunting tools to seize cash — any amount of cash — without any other evidence of criminal behavior. So called “drug-sniffing dogs” are supposedly trained to alert to the smell of drugs on money, and their noses, police claim, are so sensitive that they can detect miniscule amounts of drugs. When dogs “alert” to cash, the officers claim that proves that the money has come into contact with drugs, therefore, the money is drug proceeds, and the person whose money was seized is a drug courier. FEAR has long pointed out the falacy of this argument — the dog’s alert may prove there is drug residue on some of the cash, but that proves nothing about the person from whom the money was seized.
In United States v. $30,060, the Ninth Circuit held that a drug dog alert has little probative value in showing that cash was connected to drug trafficking.
The court recognized the fact that “cocaine can be easily transferred simply by shaking hands with someone who has handled the drug: a pharmacist, toxicologist, police officer, or drug trafficker” (quoting Andrew Schneider & Mary Pat Flaherty’s Presumed Guilty series for the Pittsburgh Press, August 1991.) A dollar bill used to snort cocaine goes back into circulation, contaminating all the other bills it comes into contact with — in wallets and cash drawers, the court explained.
The court’s opinion cited reports showing that 75% to 90% of all circulated currency in Los Angeles (the city where the seizure occurred) is contaminated with cocaine residue.
Orin Kerr also has an interesting analysis of this case.
The website Ratherbiased makes a very persuasive argument that last night’s 60 Minutes story questioning President Bush’s National Guard service record was based upon forged documents:
…but it is becoming increasingly evident that 60 Minutes, and the Dan Rather, the reporter behind the story, may have been relying on forged documents to prove their case.
Several indicators point to this conclusion including the fact that the four memoranda, which Rather said were written during the early 1970s by Bush’s commanding officer Lt. Colonel Jerry Killian, are printed in a proportionally spaced type style similar to the common computer font Times New Roman. But such computer technology had not even been invented when the documents were allegedly written.
[…]
For its part, CBS has refused to disclose where it had obtained the controversial documents. During last night’s program, Rather stated “we are told [they] were taken from Colonel Killian’s personal file.” Contacted by The Washington Post, Kelli Edwards, a spokesperson for 60 Minutes declined to elaborate any further.
Other evidence points toward the conclusion that CBS News may have been duped. Two of the alleged memos, dated May 4, 1972 and August 18, 1973, use a font technology that was beyond the capabilities of the day.
[…]
In the face of such evidence (including the fact that Killian has long since been deceased), and CBS’s refusal to reveal its third-party source, it seems increasingly likely that Dan Rather’s “exclusive” has turned out to be a hoax. Should that be the case, it would not be the first time that the 72-year-old anchorman has been embarrassed by reporting unconfirmed stories.
In his legendary book on the 1972 presidential campaign The Boys on the Bus, author Timothy Crouse relayed how many of Rather’s rivals on the White House beat resented him for his gung-ho approach to the facts.
“Rather often adhered to the ‘informed sources’ or ‘the White House announced today’ formulas, but he was famous in the trade for the times when he bypassed these formulas and ‘winged it’ on a story. Rather would go with an item even if he didn’t have it completely nailed down with verifiable facts. If a rumor sounded solid to him, if he believed it in his gut or had gotten it from a man who struck him as honest, he would let it rip. The other White House reporters hated Rather for this. They knew exactly why he got away with it: being handsome as a cowboy, Rather was a star on CBS News, and that gave him the clout he needed. They could quote all his lapses from fact, like the three times he had Ellsworth Bunker resigning, the two occasions on which he announced that J. Edgar Hoover would step down, or the time he incorrectly predicted that Nixon was about to veto an education bill.”
Update: Big Media is now on board. The story is now being run on FNC’s Special Report with Brit Hume.
Update: On MSNBC’s Hardball, Chris Matthews mentioned the 60 Minutes story, but cited nothing about the apparent forgery. Instead, they concentrated on the film Stolen Honor (yesterday’s news). Now they have Donald Trump talking down Bush. Is it any wonder why FNC is #1?
Update: MSNBC did bring up the issue on ex-sportscaster Keith Oberman’s show. Rather and CBS are currently putting up a stonewall that would make John Kerry himself proud. But this isn’t a simple news story; we are talking about forged government documents here. It seems to me like something John Ashcroft would want to look into.
The liberal media is up-in-arms over the sunseting of the 10 year-old federal “assault weapons” ban, Typical is this WaPo article, which virtually mimics the material supplied by its primary source:
The report by the Consumer Federation of America, which favors greater regulation of the gun industry, concludes that “assault weapons will be more lethal and less expensive” without the ban and argues that police “may be forced to adopt a more militaristic approach” as greater numbers of firearms flood the market.
You’d think it’s the beginning of a new arms race. We may need to call out the National Guard to maintain order.
I have yet to find a gun control advocate that can tell me (without being easily and definitively refuted) what makes an AR-15 “more lethal” than a Ruger Mini-14.
Update: Surprisingly, Fox Butterfield presents a mostly ‘fair and balanced’ article in todays NYTimes. The major exception is one glaring factual error:
One statistic not in dispute is that the weapons are disproportionately involved in the killing of police officers. A Violence Policy Center study found that of the 211 police officers killed in the line of duty from 1998 through 2001, 41 were killed with an assault weapon, many of them post-ban models.
In truth, the VPC has taken a very broad definition of what is an ‘assault weapon’ in arriving at that figure:
The VPC claims 41 of 211 officers dying in 1998-2001 were wounded by assault weapons. In addition to misleading the public about Officer Stem’s death, the VPC has other cases of stretching the truth.
Their list of officer deaths includes 14 cases where they claim assault weapons were used, but the rifles indicated were not on the Federal assault weapons list. In two cases, the rifles were the Ruger Mini-14 rifle, a rifle model specifically excluded by name from the assault weapon list as a sporting firearm (see Appendix A of 18 USC Sec. 922 or Senator Feinstein’s publication http://feinstein.senate.gov/booklets/assault.pdf). In 4 cases the rifles were M-1 carbines and in 8 cases the rifles were SKS carbines. None of these rifles are on lists of assault weapons.
In one case, the primary weapon to down the officer was a shotgun and an assault weapon was used during the thug’s attempt to flee. In four cases the killers used 9 mm handguns classified as assault weapons and these guns are already banned in Maryland.
In one case a rifle was stolen from a police department and used to kill two officers. Bans usually permit police to hold these weapons, so it is deceptive to include this case as an example where a legislative remedy is possible. So, in 20 of the 211 killing or roughly one in 10, killers used assault long guns whose use might have been prevented by a ban. That is, if killers could not devise an effective substitute for the same situation. In all of the remaining 211 cases, the killers did find satisfactory alternative solutions by using 30-30 and other rifles, shotguns and handguns.
A point not addressed by the VPC is that the killers for 26 of the VPC’s 41 officer had prior criminal records sufficiently serious to disqualify them from owning firearms. Two had convictions for previous killings. One in five of the killers of the VPC group of officers was on probation or parole. The idea that a ban would be effective is hard to accept given these criminals were already disqualified from possessing any firearms.
I am currently watching Star Trek: Generations. It is quite lame; in that it misses the fact that, so long as the evil Dr. Soran is successful in unleashing the Nexus of Joy, Kirk and Picard can continue to come back and attempt to thwart his plans. That aside, it is salvaged only by the over-the-top performance by the great Malcolm McDowell.
However, I notice that I have seen several of the Star Trek movies on cable lately. I can attribute that only to an attempt to save the failing franchise. I am a first generation Trekkie – having built mock-ups of The Bridge in my friend’s garage in the late ’60s (I was always Spock). But Enterprise has no more attraction to me than Andromeda or Stargate SG-1. It’s time for Berman and Braga to step aside and give the franchise a break.
In an interesting confluence, while reading The Cato Institute’s Michael F. Cannon’s opinion piece, stating that former President Bill Clinton is lucky that his 1993 public health plan did not succeed, I’ve just been watching a concurring opinion from Fox News’ John Gibson. One salient point, which escapes them both, is that any legislation enacting such a plan would, no doubt, exempt current and former government officials, and their families.
I advise all to check out AMC’s Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood – just as a reminder that the town doesn’t only breed fools. 🙂
My guess is that this has something to do with the Navy’s “super-secret” AURORA project:
They have become legendary in UFO circles. Huge, silent-running “Flying Triangles” have been seen by ground observers creeping through the sky low and slow near cities and quietly cruising over highways.
The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), has catalogued the Triangle sightings, sifting through and combining databases to take a hard look at the mystery craft. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, NIDS is a privately funded science institute with a strong research focusing on aerial phenomena.The results of their study have just been released and lead to some unnerving, still puzzling conclusions.
The study points out: “The United States is currently experiencing a wave of Flying Triangle sightings that may have intensified in the 1990s, especially towards the latter part of the 1990s. The wave continues. The Flying Triangles are being openly deployed over and near population centers, including in the vicinity of major Interstate Highways.”
But, due to the end of the Cold War, the need for secrecy has become not nearly so marked as with the B-2 or F-117 projects.
hat tip: reader Kayse
I have long been envious of my mother’s big, plush, SitOnIt executive chair. We knew a guy at the factory in Brea, and hardly paid the $900+ list price when we bought it. But he’s long since moved on, and such deals are not to be repeated for those on the outside.
For the past year or so, my computer workstation perch has been a stenographer’s ‘task chair’ that I purchased for the rock-bottom price of $15 (the foam was galled on one of the armrests) from a vendor at the ACP Superswap. Surprisingly well-made, this might have been a fine chair for some anorexic waif of a secretary. But, for one of my rather Falstaffian proportions, it felt as though I was the victim of an attempted anal impalement by the Jolly Green Giant.
All that has changed today. At the sacrifice of new front strut cartridges (shock absorbers) for my Escort in my budget, I just paid $95 at Costco for a fabric-covered low-back executive chair called ‘The Titan’. It appears to be quite well-built. And while it lacks all the features of mom’s chair, it is at least 95% as comfortable.
From your standpoint – look for more from me. After all, a comfortable blogger is a productive blogger. 😀
Contrary to what it may seem at times, I do have a real life. And, as such, I was unable to catch most of today’s GOP convention. But, from what I saw, if the rest of the convention follows the tone set today, I fully expect Bush/Cheney to see the bounce from this that Kerry/Edwards didn’t see from theirs
Rudy Giuliani was in particularly fine form. His joke about Kerry needing Edwards’ ‘Two Americas’ to accomodate his position(s) on the issues was a master stroke.
But I really liked the women that directly preceded him. I broke out in a huge smile when the last one mentioned being proud and happy to :share her son with America” when the Navy sends him to the middle east shortly. I your face, Micheal Moore!
I’m currently watching C-Span’s Washington Journal this morning. And a woman called in from Florida claiming that a person can write the registar of voters claiming they are moving there, and then can vote on the Florida ballot for ten years.
So, Florida readers, or anyone else in the know – any truth to this?
As well as science projects, this competition may be right up your alley:
Enthusiasts on Friday unveiled an effort to establish an annual competition for space-elevator technologies, taking a page from the playbook for other high-tech contests such as the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
Many of the details surrounding the “Elevator:2010” challenge — including financing — still have to be fleshed out, however.
The project, spearheaded by the California-based Spaceward Foundation, would focus on innovations in fields that could open the way for payloads to be lifted into space by light-powered platforms. Such platforms, also known as climbers, would move up and down superstrong ribbons rising as high as 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.
From fiction to fact
The space elevator concept goes back to vintage science fiction — with emphasis on the “fiction.” But in the past couple of years, researchers at institutions such as Los Alamos National Laboratory and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center have been looking into ways to turn the idea into reality.‘We firmly believe that the set of technologies that underlie the infinite promise of the space elevator can be demonstrated, or proven infeasible, within a five-year time frame.’
If space elevators could actually be built, the cost of sending payloads into space could be reduced from $10,000 or more per pound (455 grams) to $100 or less — opening up a revolutionary route to the final frontier. Like the X Prize for private spaceflight, Elevator:2010 is aimed at jump-starting the revolution.
“We firmly believe that the set of technologies that underlie the infinite promise of the space elevator can be demonstrated, or proven infeasible, within a five-year time frame,” the Web site for the competition declares. “And hence our name. Elevator:2010. We promise to get an answer for you by then.”
In order to work, the elevator’s ribbons would have to be made of materials stronger than any that exist today; carbon nanotube composites are the current favorites. Conventional rockets would launch components of the elevator, which would be anchored to an Earth station to form a bridge to outer space.
Most of the current schemes call for the climbers to be powered by sunlight and/or intense artificial light focused onto photoelectric cells. The climbers would ride on the ribbons like rail cars.
Enlisting student teams
Elevator:2010 seeks to encourage technology development through annual contests that start small: One contest would pit climber prototypes against each other in races up a roughly 200-foot (60-meter) ribbon. A second contest would focus on developing better materials for the ribbons, and a third would encourage construction of power-beaming systems.The first competition is tentatively scheduled for next June or July in the San Francisco Bay area, said Ben Shelef, a member of the Elevator:2010 team. That time frame would give student teams at universities enough time to build light-powered climbers — just as teams of engineering students build solar-powered vehicles during the school year for the American Solar Challenge.
“We’ve gotten feedback from the universities, so we know it’s feasible,” Shelef said. “It’s the same thing as the solar cars, but on steroids.”
The fastest-moving climber would earn its team a $50,000 prize, with a $20,000 second prize and a $10,000 third prize. The strongest ribbon would win a $10,000 first prize, and the best power-beaming system could win $10,000.
Details of the ribbon and power-beaming competitions have yet to be fleshed out, and the financial foundation of the entire challenge depends on sponsorships yet to be announced. The Silicon Valley mechanical design company where Shelef works, Gizmonics Inc., is listed as an initial sponsor.
Actually, if anyone is interested in talking to me about collaborating on this project, I have some ideas.
Hat Tip: Instapundit.
Now that Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is being released on video, it is again the grist for media talking heads. I just watched a repeat of a fairly good panel discussion from last February on The History Channel’s History vs. Hollywood.
One thing that struck me as particularly interesting – and I can’t necessarily call it a ‘double standard’, as I haven’t heard both determinations from any one single person: The Passion seems not to be a ‘documentary’ for the very same reasons that Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 is.