Spaceships in Kazakhstan...

Via Slashdot, pointers to an article and a photo essay on the aftermath of launches from the launch complexes at Baikonur. The photo essay has some interesting images, though the lack of captions makes it hard to figure out just what one is looking at in some instances. The shot with the cows is surreal.

Thinking of "downrange" in Kazakhstan reminds me of briefings during previous launch campaigns that covered who was to do what in case a satellite fell back to earth as a result of a launch vehicle failure. I seem to recall that interpreters would be assigned to various search-and-recovery crews aboard helicopters sent out into the boondocks to find the payload, but nobody really dwelt on the issue.

The other night, it occurred to me that getting ready for and working a launch campaign in Kazakhstan is a lot like anticipating and going off to camp. Here I have in mind traveling to Baikonur (the charter is a lot like a camp bus), the hotel (which provides a place to sleep, eat, hang out, do laundry, etc.), the environment (few outsiders, few distractions, only occasional trips outside a limited set of places), and the people (you see many of the same faces from campaign to campaign).

Just this morning, as I was looking for a data cable for an old PaperPort scanner, I ran across a power cable with an integral European plug that ought to be pretty useful (no adapter needed), and put it aside with some other items that I, already somewhat in anticipation mode, intend to take along on the next campaign.

Cheers...

It was only a matter of time...

From the New York Times:

The authors of an editorial in the latest issue of the British Medical Journal have called for knife reform. The editorial, "Reducing knife crime: We need to ban the sale of long, pointed kitchen knives," notes that the knives are being used to stab people as well as roasts and the odd tin of Spam.

It seems obvious, doesn't it, that manufacturing blunt kitchen knives will go a long way toward stemming the the increased rate of violent crime in Britain, which rose nearly 18 percent from 2003 to 2004.

Or will it only result in future calls to make hammers out of Nerf?

Ye gods. What do these people think with?

Cheers...