Space Food Sticks tasted like Spumcø Log. Which tastes like slide rules, which are made of logs. How convenient.

Forty years ago was truly a great day, even though it turned out the whiz kids with the slip sticks were creating quite a few problems while they were solving the ones on their drafting boards and desks. Happy Monday.

40 years ago today I was in Australia on R&R. The Aussie’s had a tracking station that was part of the Apollo project so it was a huge event “Downunder”.
My fondest memory was calling home. . . collect. My pop never forgot it either! I wonder how much that call cost?

Good morning, pups. Krugman and Cohen are both off today, so we’re left with Asshat. Solo. In “Race in 2028″ the little putz says affirmative action has always been understandable, but never ideal. As the first “post-white” generation rises, race-based discrimination needs to go. I guess it’s all very slick and easy to talk about being “post-white” when you’re pasty white yourself.

Here he is.

The coffee and tea are ready, the cold drinks are in the fridge for later, and the biscuits are out of the oven. Having read Asshat I’m considering putting gin on my corn flakes. Have a great day…

What Douthat is really expressing is that Chunky Reese Witherspoon should have been fertile and receptive to Ross’s Republican Seed.

EEEEEWWW!!!!! Brain bleach and a wire brush to get it into the nooks and crannies…

Heh, indeedy. I did a bit of scrounging around and found this, a piece called “A Pisher’s Privilege,” from the New York Observer in 2005. They had him dead to rights then, and not much has changed. (For those of you not familiar with the Yiddish, here’s the definition of pisher. Fits Wee Ross to a T.)

I need more than Gin on my cornflakes this morning after reading this

Two previous wage hikes, one in 2007, the other in 2008, pushed the federal wage to $5.85 and then to the current $6.55 an hour. The third, which goes into effect Friday, will push it to $7.25 an hour.
That’s not a life-changing raise — an extra $28 a week for a fulltime worker earning the federal minimum — though low-wage earners like Kendell Patterson in Oklahoma City, Okla., say it’ll help.
But some economists worry that the wage hike is coming at the worst possible time and will only make the recession-battered job market tougher for the very workers it’s intended to help.

Living wage in this town is $22 hour three times more than the minimum wage.

Living wage in this town is $22 hour three times more than the minimum wage.

Is there some group or organization that collects/publishes figures like that? Not doubting…….would just be interested in knowing. IANASP (I am not a stat person) but it sure would be handy for anyone who wants/is forced to move to a specific location.

Living wage calculator

I was just getting started on a delightful 6 weeks camping holiday at Fort Dix.

whoa. Just waking up, waiting for sentience to kick in….

I can’t see outta my windows – either there’s some serious goddamned fog, or I need to go back to bed and try this whole thing again…..

Or both.

Thankee….interesting tool.

What’s there to do in Fort Dix?……….wait! wait! wait! Was that in reference to something military? Bell’s bells and codfish! If so, jayt! you keep that forkin’ fog wherever you are ’cause I’ve already got too much of it in my brain.

Here in SBN my kitchen skylight is all fogged up and it’s 64 degrees in the house. Brrrr.

Morning all,
Starting to get light here in CO. 62 degrees

57 degrees here. I’m digging this a whole lot…..

f**k July….

It’s 53 here. This hasn’t been much of a summer for those of us who look forward to warm weather to carry us through the ugly winters.

Just a note to Attaturk and all of the early morning commenters….I love waking up to you all.

Curtsies.

77 degrees here. Grrr. I am up to walk the dogs at the only cool time of the day. Then I go work in a greenhouse for a few hours until the heat gets to me.

anything that happens in South Bend I’m automatically wary of….

there’s some serious catholic influence there.

OT – time to suit up and get gone……

Curtsies.

I’m thinking that you did that just a little bit too well….

j/k – later, y’all.

http://www.nasa.gov/images/con…..11_lrg.jpg

Look at the shadow-casting object right in the center of that image. Yep, that’s it.

You can make light of it all you want, but I get damned choked up with pride knowing that my country used to be able to accomplish these things.

Putting flags on the moon is way more important than messing around with countries that have the moon on their flags.

“One of These Days, Alice. Bang! Zoom! Straight to the Moon!”
Ralph Kramden was a prophet

Aldrin left a geocache at these coordinates:

Apollo 11 – Mare Tranquillitatis
Lunar Landing Time 4:17:40 p.m. EDT, July 20, 1969
Landing Site Coordinates 0.67408° N latitude, 23.47297° E longitude

Items left to be found by the intrepid geocacher:

It’s a tradition for astronauts to carry mementos into space for themselves or others. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first who would make a stop in another world before returning to Earth. So they took some things to bring back home and some to leave behind.

In the first category was the tiny, silver Communion chalice Aldrin carried. The crew also took bits of wood and fabric from the Wright Brothers’ first airplane. Congress insisted that they take two American flags. There were three gold olive-branch pins for the astronauts’ wives. And, as a favor to veteran launch pad boss Guenter Wendt, they took an opal he had picked out to give to his wife when it came back from the moon.

The things left behind include the descent stage of lunar lander with the commemorative plaque on its strut, the U.S. flag the astronauts planted in the lunar soil, their backpacks, outer boots, a nice Hasselblad 500EL camera (they took the film magazine home, of course) and used food trays – as well as lots of footprints.

In his haste to complete all the mission tasks, Aldrin nearly forgot about a few items he had stashed in a pocket of his spacesuit. He was already back inside Eagle when Armstrong reminded him. So instead of conducting the small ceremony they’d planned, Aldrin simply tossed the packet out the door and into the dust of the moon.

It contained a gold medallion with the image of an olive branch and a small silicon disc engraved with microscopic goodwill messages in native languages from more than 70 world leaders.