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the bbc is reporting that the mars exploration rover team is trying to make the case for an extended extended mission beyond the 250-sol current extended mission.
the plan is to basically park the machines and turn them into weather stations through the martian winter, then kick them back into gear in the summer when there’s more daylight available.
T-Shirt Protests [wtap]Two people protesting against President Bush were cited for trespassing Sunday shortly before the president gave a speech at the state [West Virginia] Capitol.
Nicole and Jeffrey Rank of Corpus Christie, Texas, say they were removed from the event because they wore t-shirts bearing anti-Bush messages.
i couldn’t find details on the t-shirts, but we do have the president on the record at the event in question…
Remarks by the President at 4th of July Celebration [white house press office]And today we remember names like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin. We honor their courage and we honor their vision on the 4th of July. We’re thankful that this nation they created 228 years ago remains free and independent and the best hope for all mankind.
Today is the day we gather with our friends and family and give thanks to the United States of America; give thanks to the fact that we are citizens in a free land.
free for some, anyway.
the john-john team got a freebie today…
Fiscal drug abuse [cincinnati post, july 8, 2004]An internal investigation has confirmed that the Department of Health and Human Services threatened to fire Medicare’s chief actuary if he told Congress that the estimated cost of the prescription drug bill was far higher than the White House was letting on.
The probe said no criminal laws were broken, that Medicare’s then-chief official Thomas Scully was within management rights in withholding the information and threatening to discipline chief actuary Richard Foster if he released it to Congress.
we’re going to point to this as yet another example of “just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s right.”
and it can only get more interesting…
Fiscal drug abuse [cincinnati post, july 8, 2004]Although HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson promised to release all the documents relevant to the incident, his department is withholding 149 pages out of the 162 pages requested and the Democrats and the Associated Press are suing to get them.
more from the new york times [registration] and washington post [registration] yesterday.
i guess this also opens up a front on the right of the administration, for those republicans who still believe in small government and fiscal responsibility.
reaching? opportunistic?
Md. Firm Files to Limit Google Trademark [washington post, july 8, 2004, registration]“We want them staying out of the children’s space,” [Steven] Esrig [head of Stelor Productions Inc.] said. “Anything that could potentially be a children’s item as far as I’m concerned is legally ours.”
that’s staking out some pretty big turf for a little company with seven full-time employees, but i’m all about thinking big, so you go, guys.
Md. Firm Files to Limit Google Trademark [washington post, july 8, 2004, registration]Esrig said he wants to coexist with Google and has suggested that Googles.com become the children’s arm of the search engine company. “The ‘s’ could be for ‘safety,’ ” he said.
that’s an interesting poposition…
it’ll be interesting to see how the soon-to-ipo, don’t-be-evil google responds. so far, they haven’t.
State says e-voting machines must leave paper trail by 2006 [seattle post intelligencer, july 8, 2004]Secretary of State Sam Reed announced a series of safeguards to bolster public trust in electronic voting machines yesterday, including a requirement that by 2006, each device produce a paper trail allowing voters to verify their ballots.
at least someone’s paying attention. i did my part to promote elections after then 2000 disaster, but i still think 2004 is going to be the scariest election year ever.
light transmitting concrete, in block form, available from litracon is now on display in washington dc at the national building museum. this is fun stuff.
apparently invented by aron losonczi, litracon embeds optical fibers in the concrete to allow light to pass through the building material. this reminds me of a thing i ran into several years ago, while researching the history of an old building. the architect, one charles emmett cassell, apparently patented a way to bring light into basement floors of buildings through glass embedded in the sidewalk. that was 19th century whiz-bang technology, so welcome to the 21st century.
President declines NAACP invite to speak [ap via seattle post intelligencer, july 8, 2004]Bush spoke at the 2000 NAACP convention in Baltimore when he was a candidate. But he has declined invitations to speak in each year of his presidency, the first president since Herbert Hoover not to attend an NAACP convention, John White, a spokesman for the group, said Wednesday.
just for reference, hoover was president from 1929 to 1933.
the alcu has filed suits in maryland alleging that a state law against same-sex marriages violates the state constitution. it’s going to be an interesting election year after all…
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