is a collection of daily posts that peruses all aspects of life. Most of the focus is on environmental sustainability, the island nation of Dominica, Baton Rouge, LA, and the random things that is life.
Using the guiding principal of living everyday to the fullest, this blog will hopefully entice you to come back for your 'Daily Dose'
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!
Shuttle Pad Damaged Inspection after the launch of the Space Shuttle has revealed the tremendous power that the shuttle has at take off. The Apollo era launch pad suffered significant damage at launch and has concerned NASA officials who plan to use the pad in October. There are only two working shuttle launch pads and both must be operational in October when the final non-International Space Station mission is flown to repair the Hubble Telescope. Since all remaining missions are flying to the ISS, the need for a rescue ship is negligible as the astronauts can use the ISS as a safe haven until help arrives. With the mission to the Hubble, no such safe haven exists, therefore a second shuttle will be on the other launch pad to serve as a rescue ship. Crazy power equals crazy damage. Will be interesting to see in the near term what comes to be.
Discovery Space Bound The Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off today bound for the International Space Station with the Japanese made Kibo lab on board. I documented the last shuttle launch back in February, and again, NASA did not disappoint. For some reason these launches captivate me. The pure power that these machines poses is crazy! I just wish it would have been last weekend, RAC and I would have motored over and watched!
Discovery has quiet the payload on board, including Kibo. Kibo is the largest module to go up in the shuttle and is a huge 32,000 pound science lab. It fills the entire cargo bay of the shuttle, leaving room for very little. What little they could bring on board is some plumbing parts for the faulty toilet on the station. Does NASA have protocols on plumbers crack in space? Anyways, Buzz Lightyear also made the trip up as a part of a children's science awareness project. Pretty cool. So Check out the awesome spectacle that is the shuttle launch. Only 10 more remain before they head to the bone yard. Bummer!
Discovery Launch
Back on 250 until gooey and golden brown... Tonight, after the launch I got busy doing another modification on Calie, the MINI Cooper. I decided to do what they, on the MINI forums call a "Joey Mod" and I decided, what they hay, I might as well try it right? The Joey Mod essentially blacks out a headlight, giving it a really different and unique look. So I checked out the DIY forums and found a simple how to and I decided that I was going to do this mod.
Little did I know that in the course of the evening I would be backing my headlights in my oven. Yes, my oven. Seriously its not as bad as it sounds. The epoxy that they seal the the plastic lens onto the main body of the light is really gooey at higher temps. I tried using the sun as my heat but it just didn't get it loose enough. So, back at 250 degrees F for about 5 minutes, pry gently with a screwdriver and you get the clear lens off. Now all I have to do is mask the reflector and paint in the morning. Check back later for the completion of this mod...oh and MMA is on CBS...lets go Kimbo Slice!
Chinese Lunar New Years Wahoo!!!! Its the year of the RAT!!!!!!! Anyways, thought I would pass along a wish of happy New Years to all of you that celebrated:-) The Around the World For Free man Alex Boylan was in Vietnam and partied hard and I wish I could have joined him. Alex will be making his way back to the United States this coming week, so if you know anyone on the west coast that would like to help him out check out the site! (http://www.atwff.com/)
Shuttle Launch The space shuttle Atlantis blasted off today for the International Space Station with a 2 billion dollar science lab. Atlantis has been delayed for 2 months due to some faulty fuel gauges. Does anybody know if they ever got that annoying "Check Engine" light to go off?
I watched it live today and even though it does not get much press unless something is wrong, it was still amazing to watch. When they start dropping the fuel right before ignition and then it lights....truely awesome! I hope everything goes well and that shiny new space station lab works like a charm!
BioFuel Bummer Some disappointing, but not really surprising, news coming out of the biofuel world today. It appears that when the "costs" of creating biofuel are taking into consideration, biofuels actually create more greenhouse gas than conventional fuels. Why does this happen? When you take in the effects of land use change into account the carbon output increases dramatically.
In many tropical nations rainforests are being harvested to either 1.) grow biofuels (palm oil) or 2.) grow grains that have been phased out in other parts of the world (soybeans in Brazil). The whole biofuel initiative is still missing the boat. We cannot assume that biofuels will be able to replace all current traditional fuels to maintain our current transportation/consumption habits AND lower our greenhouse gas emissions. Hopefully we will learn (including myself) to curb our driving habits and use our own means of transportation (i.e. our feet) more and at the same time trim our belt lines. I think I need to run, I mean drive, to go get me some ice cream...cheers! :-)
Shuttle Pad Damaged
