International Space Station Flyover – Feb. 13, 2018

This morning I was organizing bookmarks in Internet Explorer, something I rarely do, in a browser I never use but for work these days, and I came across a link to ISS sighting opportunities. I had forgotten all about it. As chance would have it, the Space Station was flying over my area in New Jersey just after sunset today!

Also as chance would have it, the sky was clear at that time of the day. I was able to go outside to view the flyover. I made a video.

It amazes me that there are people living up there 240 miles away from the Earth.

It amazes me that it is moving so fast:

The ISS circles the Earth every 90 minutes. It travels at about 17,500 miles (28,000 km) per hour, which gives the crew 16 sunrises and sunsets every day. In the more than 15 years that people have been living onboard, the Station has circumnavigated the Earth tens of thousands of times.

From https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/faq.cfm

Moving that quickly, they probably didn’t see me waving.

The speed is even more astounding when you realize that the Station is the size of a US football field.

That’s one big rig traveling at 17,500 mph!

Photo from https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/overview/index.html

I’ll have to keep an eye out for another good sighting. There’s just something fascinating about it.

Homer, The Stephen King of Classical Writers

Idomeneus speared Erymas in the mouth; the bronze point of the spear went clean through it beneath the brain, crashing in among the white bones and smashing them up. His teeth were all of them knocked out and the blood came gushing in a stream from both his eyes; it also came gurgling up from his mouth and nostrils, and the darkness of death enfolded him round about.

-The Iliad

That is some pretty gruesome stuff!

I’m Dying

The dang baby got me sick.

I’m sick.

We’re all sick.

The baby started it.

I don’t even feel well enough to write about it. Like every other man when he gets a cold: I am dying.

While I’m whining over here on the couch, knocking on death’s door, I recommend you read my wife’s thoroughly satisfying account of this sickness from her point of view. Click here to read: “It’s Not Like I’m Dying or Anything”. Women really are much better at handling colds. My woman sure is.

Je suis Charlie

draw_m

Remembering the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre:

Frédéric Boisseau, Franck Brinsolaro, Jean Cabut, Elsa Cayat, Stéphane Charbonnier, Philippe Honoré, Bernard Maris, Ahmed Merabet, Mustapha Ourrad, Michel Renaud, Bernard Verlhac (Tignous), Georges Wolinski.

I urge you to read Open Letter: On Blasphemy, Islamophobia, and the True Enemies of Free Expression by Charb (Stéphane Charbonnier).

Criticizing a religion is not racist.

Criticizing religious zealots and terrorists is not racist.

Islam itself is not a problem.

People who want to silence others are the problem.

People who want to kill others in the name of a religion are the problem, be that religion Islam or Christianity or Judaism or vegetarianism.

(The above drawing is my response to an attack at an exhibit featuring cartoons of Muhammed. More information can be found at this Wikipedia page.)