Wednesday and All Hands on Deck!

Hello Troops,
We start today's news by offering our condolences to Sheila Powell on the death of her father yesterday.

Many of our staff and volunteers do not know Sheila. She is a field trip teacher working the A.M. session from 9:30 to 11:45 A.M. Sheila has been with us for three years now and does a fantastic job working with our visiting teachers and students.

Our thoughts are with you Sheila and we anxiously await your return to the classroom.

It's All Hands On Deck!

With Sheila absent the full duty of running the Space Center's classroom falls on Lorraine and Aleta. With Lorraine in the classroom full time we found ourselves short staffed in the simulators. I sent out the alarm yesterday for help and, true to the Space Center spirit, our staff rose to the occasion.

Aleta stayed for the full day, putting aside the work she had to do for scouts. Aleta will also be going the extra mile and helping with the extended field trip today.
Thanks Aleta!

Casey gave up much needed sleep (he works the graveyard shift at a local motel) to come in and help. Thanks Casey!

Ben came in to help even though it was a school day. Ben has the option of doing many of his high school lessons online. Thanks Ben!

Lorraine will be working exclusively in the classroom which is very difficult. The students aren't always well behaved and the repetition of doing everything (same lesson and star show)over and over again up to four times a day for 8 hours isn't good.
Thanks Lorraine!

Today we have double field trips (9:30 - 1:30 and 2:00 - 6:00). Everyone will be rolling up their sleeves to get the job done.

Here's a few thoughts for today.

Fresh ideas. It's what we are all about.

If you're wondering when is the best time to get things done. This is your answer.
This is so true. I remember as a young boy my depression era grandmother would take us to JB's Big Boy for lunch in Rapid City, South Dakota. She always put several of these things in her purse.
"You never know," I remember her saying.

Well, me for one sure enjoys my refrigerated air, but I see the point.

Have a great day Troops,

Mr. W.

Tuesday's Chatter

Hello Troops,

We had a good Monday. I want to thank Alex Anderson for coming in with no notice to fill in for poor Emily. While we enjoyed a sunny warm day, Emily was under a dark cloud. She looked like death warmed over and was promptly sent home. We're hoping for a speedy recovery. Casey and Ben volunteered to come in today to make sure we are properly staffed for the two large classes coming for a field trip.

This is another example of the quality of people that work and volunteer at the Space Center. They understand our Center is a community effort. Each of us stand side by side to provide our visiting students with an outstanding experience. And when a musket ball takes one of us down, another steps in to keep the line strong.

I appreciate the extra mile everyone gives.

How about a few items from the Imaginarium to get this day started right?

Apple can improve anything. Right? It's all in how its packaged and sold.

Another high school event sponsored by the "Whatever Club" ruined by members of the "Killjoys". Any other life long members out there besides me and Spencer Merryweather?

I thought for a moment what a perfect sticker this would make and distribute. Think of all the places you could leave one? How about sending one to that High Councilman who kept everyone in a stupor for forty minutes. How about sticking one on your parent's bathroom mirror after spending an hour or so with them, trapped in the car, as they reminisced about their childhood and the lessons they learned that you somehow are not getting?

Or what about sticking one on the forehead of the kid you were asked to babysit for an hour or so. You know the type, never stops talking about things that make no sense. Oh and mesmerizing you with her full doll collection with accessories.

But then I realized I'd be sure to find one or two or more left for me by my math class and decided against it.

Have a Great Day,
Mr. W.

The Outcasts and the Dreamers (From the Space Center's Archives)

Hello Troops,
John Martellaro wrote this article. It discusses Macs and PCs (a modern debate with a flavor of the Crusades) and introduces us to revolutionizing the mainstream by pushing the envelope - thus moving the establishment forward. Our work at the Center does just that. I enjoyed the article and encourage you to read it. Share your thoughts by commenting.

Mr. W.
P.S. Thanks Bill for bringing it to my attention.

Utopia Planitia
I recall the proposition by the science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) that the first starship will never be built by Earthlings. Heinlein maintained that only the children of the Lunar colonists or Martian colonists, having been born in space or Earth colonies, would have the vision to reach for the stars. Earthlings, on the other hand, would remain steadfastly mired in the mud of Earth politics - war, poverty, and taxes.

Heinlein doubted that the governments of Earth, having only an Earthly focus and
orientation will ever have the vision, courage, and money to build starships. Today, 37 years after the Apollo missions, we remain unprepared to make the commitment to building a space- faring infrastructure. Our first space station, the International Space Station (ISS), is not designed for the fabrication of additional space vessels in space. The Shuttle conducts routine tasks in low Earth orbit, but cannot even travel to the Moon and service a colony there. So how does this apply to computers?

The point here is that one can seldom make a quantum leap by being absorbed into the mainstream. Innovation, by definition, means something out of the ordinary. Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times, January 21, 1998, "Actually, Microsoft has been a force for greed in the economy, more brilliant at marketing and purloining and crushing than it has been at innovating." (Note: I will, generally, in this column, follow the company line set by Steve Jobs: Apple must succeed by building brilliant products, not by insisting that Microsoft is the enemy and must lose for Apple to win.) But I quote Ms.Dowd to make the point that if the general culture is moving in one direction, then it is almost surely due to human nature and human foibles. On the other hand, the people who have made the most impact on our culture, for the good of mankind, have almost always been courageous outcasts and renegades. Albert Schweitzer, Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Madam Currie, George Patton, Amelia Earhart, Harry Truman, just to name a few at random.

So if you are part of the mainstream, then you have been absorbed into what every one else is doing. (The whole point on Apple's 1984 commercial.) By default, you will always see things their way. You can never make a contribution to the group as a whole by giving up your individuality and going along with the group. You wear the blinders of the group. You care only for the passions of the group. But to step outside is to see the group in perspective.

Robert Heinlein saw the same effect in the governments of the world attitude towards space travel. (In his day, a slide rule and space travel were the absorbing interest of young scientists. Today, computers seem to have taken over that preoccupation.) He predicted that only those pioneers who left the Earth would be tough enough and
courageous enough to build a space-faring infrastructure.

To all those people who say, "Microsoft has won the war. Give in and go with the flow," we say, "You should go about your business. Those of us who work with the MacOS (and BeOS, Unix, and Linux) are the outcasts and the dreamers. We will pave the way with a different way of thinking and a different agenda. We want our freedom to create, and we enjoy the excellence of our systems. We will remain steadfastly on the outside while we invent the future."

If the time ever does come when technology enables us to leave the planet and build
a homestead on the Moon, Titan or Mars, you can bet that it will also be the renegades and outcasts that will be first in line to leave. The rest of mankind will remain, dwelling on the Green Hills of Earth, content to stay at home and be satisfied with what everyone else is doing.