Congratulations to everyone at NASA and JPL for successfully landing the Opportunity rover on Mars. And it looks like Spirit may also be on the way back to good health after being in critical condition for the last few days. I heard on the NASA channel last night that their website has received over 4 billion hits in the last few weeks. I like to think that this mission might improve the science literacy of Americans. I’m surprised by the number of people who think that driving the rover is a simple matter, like playing a video game. They don’t get the concept of the time lag created by the distance a radio signal has to travel between Earth and Mars. Then again, wouldn’t it be cool if we actually did have something like LeGuin’s ansible at our disposal? I wonder if any serious research has been done in this area.

Last week, I mentioned I spoke to a class at Hamline. I had one other duty to fulfill as part of that commitment, which was to have one of the students job-shadow me. I did that today. I was a little concerned because there just isn’t much to see at my work. After all, I’m not performing surgery or or fighting fires. And I didn’t think it would be very exciting for my student to watch me write e-mail and answer the telephone. So I decided to talk to her and simply let her ask me whatever questions she had. My student was a sweet and charming young woman and it was fun to listen to her talk and remember my own college experiences (which are nearly ten years ago now). College was a mixed bag for me. I went to a small liberal arts college in Wisconsin where there weren’t too many students with disabilities and the student body was surprisingly conservative. In more ways than one, I felt like I really didn’t fit in there. At the same time, I had some truly awesome friends and some first-rate professors who taught me how to write well.
I’ve been on an iTunes spree lately, with a particular emphasis on The Cure. I dig Robert Smith’s voice and his melancholy verses resonate with me. I can’t stop listening to “Pictures of You.”
Watch this space next week for a really cool announcement.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to be ridiculously cold around here. And of course, I have to run between two or three meetings at different locations. You would think that having lived in the Midwest almost my entire life, I’d be accustomed to Arctic blasts. But I still think they suck. I hate having to go through the whole bother of getting dressed for outside and how it takes a good half hour for sensation to return to my fingertips. When I was a kid, my parents would insist on wrapping my legs in a blanket on days like this. This didn’t go over well once I became a teenager. “No, Mom, not the blankey! Anything but the blankey!”
Rumors are going around the geek sites that Star Trek: Enterprise might be canceled. My reaction? Eh. I like Star Trek as much as the next nerd, but I think the franchise needs to be put to rest for a good long while. I’ve been watching the first couple seasons of Babylon 5 and I think Straczynski was on to something with the idea of a five-year story arc. Genre shows shouldn’t be allowed to go on just for the sake of squeezing every last bit of profit out of them. About the only thing I’ll miss in this series is that hot Vulcan woman. What can I say? Give me a little eye candy in my television and I’m a happy guy.

Some of the British papers are running a story about Stephen Hawking possibly being the victim of physical abuse inflicted by someone close to him. If this story is true, it wouldn’t completely surprise me. People with disabilities are easy targets for abuse. I’ve never been in an abusive situation myself, but I’ve known plenty of peers who have experienced abuse at the hands of a parent, spouse, or other caregiver. The situation only becomes more tragic when the abuse victim is unable to speak for him- or herself. And if you add in the social isolation that is the common denominator in the lives of many people with disabilities, you can see how many abusive situations can go on for years at a time without being discovered by anyone else. I hope that Dr. Hawking’s family and colleagues are vigorously advocating for him and monitoring his safety.
Here’s my absolutely worthless prediction for the Iowa Caucus: Dean first, followed by Kerry and then Edwards in a close third.

Here’s another reason I will never, ever shop at Wal-Mart. They engage in the decidedly Dickensian practice of locking overnight employees in the stores with no easy way to get out in an emergency. Isn’t it interesting to note how this wildly successful company can barely conceal its contempt for its own workers?
The Hubble Telescope has fallen victim to the fallout from last year’s Columbia disaster. Pity. I really enjoy looking at the images it produces. They’re a great reminder that the daily trivialities of life aren’t terribly significant in the larger scheme of things.