September Morn
Neil Diamond

Stay for just a while
Stay, and let me look at you
It’s been so long, I hardly knew you
Standing in the door
Stay with me a while
I only want to talk to you
We’ve traveled halfway ’round the world
To find ourselves again

September morn
We danced until the night became a brand new day
Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play
September morning still can make me feel this way

Look at what you’ve done
Why, you’ve become a grown-up girl
I still can hear you cryin’
In the corner of your room
And look how far we’ve come
So far from where we used to be
But not so far that we’ve forgotten
How it was before

September morn
Do you remember how we danced that night away
Two lovers playing scenes from some romantic play
September morning still can make me feel this way

Sun from near space

Team TechShop RDU (or NC Nearspace, as they are now calling themselves) had the balloon they thought was lost located yesterday. It turned up in the field of a soybean farmer in Wendell. Like the second balloon they launched, this one took some amazing photographs of near space.

You can see the collection of photos at Adrian Likins’s Flickr page.

A life that never changes doesn’t hold much appeal to me. If I weren’t willing to step out of my comfort zone I would never grow. Otherwise, how can you ever find out who you are?

I’m still finding out who I am. I know that’s a question I will likely never be able to answer, if I live my life right that is. I must constantly raise my own bar.

Sailors once feared falling off the edge of the earth. Those who took the risk were rewarded handsomely. I’m soon to cast off on another grand adventure. There may be treasure and there may be dragons. No matter what, I aim to enjoy the ride.

At Umstead State Park

Yesterday was my last day at my last job so, being in-between jobs and with the kids in school, I took the opportunity to spend the day bike riding with Kelly. We rode from our house through downtown Raleigh, then on the Chavis Way greenway to Chavis Park. While at Chavis we got a chance to ride the beautifully-restored carousel before heading on. The Little Rock Creek greenway brought us past the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center, at which point we headed west along the Walnut Creek Greenway.

We basically had the Walnut Creek Greenway to ourselves, which was nice. In fact, the biggest challenge for us was the treacherously-muddy culvert under Hammond Road. We somehow stayed upright through that culvert and were passing Dorothea Dix soon enough. Once again, I was stuck by the beauty of the Dix property, and thought that it would be a shame for it to become anything but a park.

By that time it was 11:30 and we were beginning to plot our lunch spot. I suggested Neomonde and Kelly readily agreed! We turned at Avent Ferry Road onto N.C. State’s campus and quickly burned up all the uphill climbing we had just done! Dumb, dumb, dumb. Leaving campus at Hillsborough Street we continued down to Neomonde, where I know we made a sight in our mud-covered biking clothes!

After a delightful lunch, we headed out again along the greenway through Meredith’s campus. Then it was through the demon hills of the North Carolina Museum of Art. We then crossed Blue Ridge Road and began the Reedy Creek portion of our ride.

Somewhere near the top of the hill I began to lose steam, though we pressed on long enough to roll into Umstead. Two women had just completed a jog there and happily snapped our picture for us as a souvenir. MapMyRun.Com tells us now that we had ridden 15.02 miles to get to that point, which was .02 more than what I had guessed we had ridden at the time. The accuracy of my guess amazed me, too!

Then it was back home. We were pressed for time as we had to be back to pick up the kids from school but being pressured was the last thing I felt I needed then. I had to hop off my bike in the middle of those dreaded art museum hills and walk a bit. Fortunately I soon hopped back on and rode over the Beltine’s beautiful pedestrian bridge and on through Meredith’s campus.

The rest of our trip was uneventful with the exception of one particular stretch of the Walnut Creek Greenway. We crossed the construction at Fayetteville Street (south) and continued east towards the Walnut Street. As we went over the bridge crossing Walnut Creek, a number of shady individuals were hanging out around the bridge. None seemed particularly interested in us so we continued on. As we turned to enter the long boardwalk behind the Walnut St. apartment complex, we approached three men who were involved in some suspicious behavior. One man put down a pipe he was holding as we passed and called out an insincere hello to us as we rode by.

A little ways after we had passed, I called the cops and asked them to check those guys out as I was betting that guy had been smoking crack there. To Raleigh Police’s credit, I got a call almost immediately from the responding officer, asking for more detailed directions and descriptions. Five minutes later he called again, asking for even more details. Though those guys probably scattered like flies before the cops got there I was glad to have called as I don’t like the greenway being used as a crackhouse. Dadgummit, I spend too much time working to improve Raleigh’s parks and greenways to let some crackheads take them over.

On the home stretch, we rolled down Person Street and made a stop in for our victory treat: ice cream at the Krispy Kreme! We had just enough time to finish our frozen rewards before we had to roll down the hill to pick up the kids at school. I had fun explaining to the other parents why I was covered in mud!

So we rode 30 miles total today and for the most part it felt great. I look forward to many more rides like that whenever I can get them!

I’m just looking forward to finishing my last day tomorrow at my current job. Then I’ve got a few days off before jumping all-out into my next gig. I’m really psyched about it but it’s been really tough splitting my attention between the two worlds. I’ll be really happy when I’m settled in with my new job.

Skylab

The recent balloon launch and it’s subsequent pictures of near space has gotten my thoughts lifted skyward. I was pondering the 4-pound weight limit of the balloon and contrasting it to the heavy lifting that was once done in this country by rockets like the Saturn V. That led me to some online videos of Skylab.

Skylab was America’s first space station, launched in 1973 on a modified Saturn V rocket. The station itself was made from spent Saturn V rocket stages and was so roomy that it makes the current International Space Station look like a toy. Sadly, Skylab fell from orbit in July 1979.

Watching the footage, I was captivated at how enormous Skylab was. If ever there was a playground in space, Skylab was it. And the amazing thing is, as wondrous as it was, Skylab was almost an afterthought: overshadowed by the Apollo moon missions being flown at the time. It actually began as a project to keep the hundreds of thousands of Apollo engineers employed after the moon landings were over.

The promise of Skylab was never fully fulfilled. NASA botched an opportunity to save it when it miscalculated a solar storm forecast. The resulting atmospheric heating sped up the friction acting against Skylab, dragging it down and dooming it before the space shuttle was ready to fly. Skylab met its untimely fate in the summer of 1979, when its millions of dollars of irreplaceable space technology was deorbited over the Indian Ocean, with parts of it landing in Australia. I was ten years old at the time and still remember the media frenzy.

Yes, America used to go to space. America once assumed we would conquer space. Once we dreamed big, made big plans, and damned if we didn’t carry them out. Most of them, anyway.

Since that time we’ve discovered so much more about our universe. We’ve gotten up-close looks at our neighboring planets and confirmed the existence of hundreds more beyond. We’ve even had the first private commercial space vehicle. Yet in spite of these achievements, our spark of curiosity regarding space seems gone. Sad, isn’t it?

As a kid I used to dream of becoming an astronaut. Little did I know that was our space heyday. Our dreams of traveling the stars now belong in the museums with the other remnants of the Apollo moon missions.

Who knows how long it will be before we again look heavenward and ask, “what if?”

Dogfeng photo by Max Smith

A new weapon in the Chinese military arsenal is said to be causing a stir in the U.S. Navy: the Dongfeng 21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). Some experts are calling it a “game changer” because the missile is the first ballistic missile with the capability to take out a moving aircraft carrier. Because it’s ballistic it can travel at incredible speeds: this missile reportedly clocks in close to an astounding Mach 10!

Says the U.S. Naval Institute blog:

The size of the missile enables it to carry a warhead big enough to inflict significant damage on a large vessel, providing the Chinese the capability of destroying a U.S. supercarrier in one strike.

Because the missile employs a complex guidance system, low radar signature and a maneuverability that makes its flight path unpredictable, the odds that it can evade tracking systems to reach its target are increased. It is estimated that the missile can travel at Mach 10 and reach its maximum range of 2000km in less than 12 minutes.

The Associated Press wrote a breathless report on the missile this month, and some have chimed in to say that with the development of the Dongfeng 21D the U.S. has lost its supremacy of the sea. Others aren’t so sure.

I’m sort of in the middle on this issue. It’s well-known that the Chinese are working to build a blue water navy but such huge leaps don’t come overnight, even to a country growing as rapidly as China. And while some may say this missile ups the ante, a missile is not the same thing as sea power.

Secondly, carriers became outdated with the development of the cruise missile. They’re big, expensive, lumbering, and manpower-intensive. Carrier technology, with the exception of their nuclear power plants, really hasn’t changed since World War II. It’s my opinion that a carrier’s biggest asset lies in its ability to show the flag. It’s the projection of power. Carriers play the role that big battleships used to play. But like the battleships before it, carriers are also doomed to obsolescence.

About the time I was leaving the Navy, there were those who envisioned the modern fleet would consist of inexpensive floating missile barges.These arsenal ships with virtually no superstructure and only the smallest of crews. While that approach is quite effective, it isn’t sexy. It doesn’t get recruits in the doors, or get Congress writing checks (nor generate as many construction jobs, I might add). So the carrier’s message is as much for our side as it is for the enemy’s.

Then there are our wonderful fleet of submarines. Subs, you might be aware, are the ultimate military weapon: silent, deadly, and capable of hiding completely for months on end. Good luck on finding one, and if you do then good luck on attacking it with a missile.

Pretty much, should a missile from China or anywhere else take a shot at one of our aircraft carriers, the gloves will come off. The incoming missile may as well be nuclear-tipped because there will be no second chance: there will be hell to pay. Ballistic missile launches provide a nice, easily-detectable heat signature, so there will be no secret about where they originated.

Fortunately, China isn’t stupid and wouldn’t endanger the trade and business relationships that have benefited both countries tremendously over the years. Thus I think these threats are overblown and offer little more than bragging rights. Will this missile radically alter how the U.S. Navy operates? I seriously doubt it.

It is more commonly known as the gas that fills cheap party balloons and makes your voice squeak if you inhale it.

But helium is actually a precious resource that is being squandered with Earth’s reserves of it due to run out within 25 to 30 years, experts have warned.

Earth’s resources of helium are being depleted at an astonishing rate, an effect which will spell disaster for hospitals which use it to cool MRI scanners.

via Earth’s helium reserves ‘will run out within 25 years’ | Mail Online.

My friends were ultimately successful in their balloon launch yesterday! Tanner Lovelace posted a collection of near-space photographs on his Flickr page.

Amazing work, folks!

Update: Here’s a nice video slideshow of the launch.