KAOS Joins Forces with Anonymous. Its 1:15 P.M. at the Imaginarium

Hello Troops,
I woke up this morning, checked my email, looked through Facebook for anything remotely interesting - found nothing expect for my brother in law's birthday. Wasted too much time reading through everyone's status and can't for the life of me figure out why. I'm wondering if our subconscious is preprogrammed with a nosey inquisitiveness source code at birth.
Then I did something I usually don't do, I checked out the Space Center's Web Site. This is what I found


"Odd," I thought to myself.
I quit out of Firefox and pulled up Safari.


The web site looked normal on Safari. I pondered over the problem, wondering why the website would look OK with one browser and complete gibberish on another.

"KAOS!" I shouted. Our nemesis must have joined forces with Anonymous, the world wide organization of professional hackers bent on replacing our ordered societies with mayhem, anarchy and chaos.

"That's it!" I shouted again. Chaos and KAOS - it all made sense. We've been hacked. The Space Center has finally made it into the big leagues alongside the FBI, the Pentagon, the Kremlin and the entire United States Government.

"What to do, what to do," I fretted over my Cheerios. Who did we have at the Space Center capable of reversing the damage done by Anonymous? Who could engage them in a stare down and have a reasonable chance of blinking last? The answer was as obvious as the lack of butter on my toast. I just had to think for a minute. I shot an email to Brent Anderson. Brent is our Batman to their Joker. He is our prime rib to their liver. And what supreme super hero ventures into murky water without a side kick? Who was Brent's Robin? I'll send another email to Matt Ricks.

Hopefully our Dynamic Duo will have the problem solved quickly. While we wait, how about a few things from the Imaginarium?

It's 1:15 P.M. at the Imginarium Station. Let's disembark the Wonderland Express and
see what mischief we can get ourselves into.

Who would have imagined that Mr. Bean also attended the venerable
Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry? It's all becoming clear to me.

Take an everyday household item, add imagination, and suddenly
You've made Magic

In the 1950's and 60's we thought the future was bright and full of promise.
We thought peace and goodwill towards men was achievable.
It was the early days of space travel. We had our sights set on the stars.

What happened?

I still believe the impossible is possible.
I still believe mankind is capable of great things.
I believe the future is bright and full of possibilities.
I believe we spend too much time listening to politicians and doomsdayists. They seem to share the same agenda - control and manipulation through fear. If they keep us frightened
we will take our sights off the good and look only to the their predicted coming night.

Will our own fear be the genesis of our undoing?

Take a moment and tell her you love her.
She won't be with you forever.

Wise words.



And finally, words as art -
A symphony of imagination

I'll see you in the trenches.
Let's make this a good and fearless week.

Mr. W.

Tonight at the Space Education Center.

Hello Troops,
The Space Center is firing on all cylinders tonight. Highland Elementary has 43 of their best and brightest 6th and 5th graders here at camp. Our mission's tonight are:

Voyager: Greenpeace (as told by Jon)
Magellan: Summit (as told by Zac)
Odyssey: The Sum of All Fears (as told by Devin)
Galileo: Crisis (as told by Stacy)
Phoenix: Intolerance (as told by Megan)

Pleasant Grove just experienced a drop in atmospheric pressure. A moment ago a gust of wind rushed over the school. The atmosphere suddenly rushed from an region of high pressure to a region of low pressure. I believe the unexpected appearance of a low pressure system was caused by the sudden intake of air into the lungs of hundreds, if not thousands of Space Center veterans all over the country reacting in shock after reading that Greenpeace is still on the Space Center's flight menu.

"I did Greenpeace when I was a camper a hundred years ago," someone just muttered. How do I know? I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand. Remember, you became a part of the Space Center Collective when you attended your first Space Center camp. We are all tied together in one Galactic Universal Consciousness.

Freaky, isn't it?

This Collectiveness manifests itself from time to time as sudden bursts of memories created from the hours of time you spent at the Space Center. These memory bursts can strike anywhere, like in the middle of a movie, or at church, or while you're doing your taxes or collecting free food samples at your local Costco.

Are you ready for another shocker? Hold on, before I write anything else I need to go outside and take down the American Flag from the flagpole in front of the school. I don't want the flag damaged by the next gust of wind caused by the rapid intake of air from our veterans. Stand by.....

OK, flag down. Here's the news.
I'm bringing "The Hunt for Horace" back for this summer season!
WOW. That sounded like a freight train moving over the roof of the school.

A Report from the Chronicle detailing an original telling of The Hunt for Horace in the
Space Center's Middle Ages.

"The Hunt for Horace" was told a long time ago. It was a favorite of thousands of campers in the late Middle Ages of Space Center history. In fact, many experts in Space Center Lore believe that "The Hunt For Horace" was the pivotal piece of literature that transformed the Space Center from the simple tales told during our Middle Ages to the renaissance of thought and creativity we all recognize at the Space Center today.

Clint Sanderson was the first person to play Horace when he was in the 5th grade at Central. Today, Clint is a married father of three living in Pleasant Grove. His eldest attends school here at Central. Amazing isn't it?

The transition from the Space Center's Middle Ages of story telling to our Renaissance.

Today's Hunt for Horace

"The Hunt for Horace" tells the story of Horace, the Paklid Crown Prince, and his epic adventure on board the USS Voyager as he travelles with his trusted body guard Dweeb from Earth to Paklidia, the Paklid home world. Accompanying the Voyager is the Paklid Royal Tug captained by the brave and somewhat forgetful Admiral Maximilian Alexander Rump.

Be sure to register for a summer camp before all available slots are taken.

It's after midnight and time for bed. The boys are down, the staff semiconscious and I'm drifting between worlds - typing and listening to my bedtime playlist on iTunes.

BonVoyage,

Mr. Williamson

Russian Mechanical Problems Delay Launches

Soyuz manned capsule in orbit in better days.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-04M was discovered through a test to have failed its ability to correctly pressurize. It was originally scheduled to have been the next manned Russian craft to travel to the ISS in March. Now, the Russians will have to delay that mission as they build a replacement. The next launch is now postponed until mid-April and may even reach back into May.

While this event does not impact the number of astronauts that can stay on board the ISS, it does bring up a point made by many space enthusiasts about the end of the shuttle program. As President Obama cancelled the Constellation program before the end of the series of shuttle retirements, many of us predicted there could be trouble relying on the Russians. Of course the first thing that happened was that the Russians took advantage of our weakness and promptly raised the taxi fares by $20 million per seat. Then to add insult to injury the Russians began declaring that perhaps the ISS should be a mostly Russian operation, since NASA had no way to replace astronauts or get supplies to the station. And congressman and pro-US human spaceflight enthusiasts fumed at the embarrassment of watching our government fumble with budgets (it's been over 1000 days since our Senate approved a budget- NASA has had to get by with less than they needed) and leadership.

Then suddenly the Russians began experiencing problems. Last year there were serious worries about accidents that could occur during the Soyuz landings, and then the Russians had to put a stop to all rocket launches while they searched for answers resulting from rocket failures. They then assured us that the problems were fixed.

Progress resupply rocket on pad.

Now we have another series of Russian failures that hold up the program. Not only the Soyuz seems to have problems, but the Proton rockets as well. A Proton-M rocket ready to carry the SES-4 communications satellite has been delayed a second time because of failures with either the avionics or an unspecified problem. Will this result in grounding Progress rockets? The World wants to know.

Phobos-Grunt probe readying for launch.

All of this latest trouble follows on the heels of the Phobos-Grunt disaster. That Russian Mars probe failed to leave Earth orbit and tumbled to a fiery re-entry this month. It was finally reported that before launch, problems with the probe's construction had led to more than a dozen welding repairs while the craft still had fueled tanks! As late as last week, Russian space leaders had even blamed US radar on causing the malfunctions while the craft launched to orbit. Now this week, we have the Russian space circus claiming it must have been cosmic radiation that affected the craft's avionics. At latest report, Russian investigators are blaming the problem on a cheap faulty counterfeit microchip, unable to withstand the rigors of outer space radiation. Some Russian engineers are quietly looking at the probability of internal problems with Russia's space manufacturing.

This causes NASA leaders untold headaches of course, but also deserves an appropriate "I told you so" response from those of us who warned about relying on the Russians for our space transportation.

Miss the shuttle yet?

Posted by Mark Daymont