So Long Space Shuttle

At just before 6:00AM this morning I was awoken by the last sonic boom of the last space shuttle, Atlantis, that would ever re-enter, or leave for that matter, the Earth's atmosphere.

It was very depressing to think that we, the United States of America, who have led space travel, space exploration, and just about anything else that has the word "space" in its name, for the last 50 years, are no longer the leaders.

I really don't have much to else to say on this.  I blame one person's administration for this.  And the THOUSANDS of jobs that are lost because of it.

God bless all the men and women of the NASA Astronaut Corps who have helped get us to the stars, land on the moon, and discover more about this amazing "space" around us.

Ad astra per aspera.

-UA

Cashing in on the Law

Living in Central Florida, I've had the "privilege" of putting up with the "she who shall not be named" (Casey Anthony for those of you outside of my fair state) murder trial over the last 3 years.  Thank God it is finally over...mostly.

Apparently, some of the jurors in the case who have stepped forward (Judge Fred Sanford...I mean Judge Belvin Perry has not released the jurors names as of yet) are going to be writing books, selling their stories to Hollywood (or Bollywood for that matter), etc.  I have no issue with this, but it seems State Rep. Scott Randolph, D-Orlando, does.

"The bill Randolph intends to introduce during the 2012 legislative session would prevent jurors from making money or receiving compensation in exchange for information about the trial in which they participated". (Orlando Sentinel)  If you want to read the full story go here.

Why this is bothering Rep. Randolph I really have no idea.  We took about 2 months out of the lives of these people so that they could do their "civic" duties.  They were sequestered, which in this day and age of technology and news being everywhere is tantamount to being a prisoner themselves.  I personally will not buy anything having to do with this trial as I'm ready for the area to get back to normal (not saying that Central Florida is ever TRULY normal), but see no issue in these people coming out and making some cash on doing what we ask them as citizens.  Lawmakers, politicians, and many others do it every day.  Why not the "regular" people?

-UA

Short Post #9 - Netflix Redux

So, for those of you who didn't know, Netflix has split their plans into "Streaming" and "DVD" divisions with no benefit of having packages of both any longer.  Essentially, my plan went from about $16/month to $23/month.  They gave some BS reason for this as basically along the lines of:

"Damn, we didn't realize so many people would continue to want to rent DVD/Blu-Ray discs so we have to charge them more for not wanting our sub-par streaming library AND we also make them wait at least 28 days until they can rent the 'latest' movie releases from us because of poor business deals on our part so we need to get more money out of our current client base."

Yes, I paraphrased a lot, but that is essentially what they said.

So, what am I going to do?  Well, if Netflix hadn't finally just added pretty much all of the Star Trek television show library I'd be cancelling today.  But, since they did that, I'll most likely cancel my "by-mail" movies from them come the end of August and switch to those boxes outside of pharmacies, gas stations, and Walmarts.  You may have seen them?  They are big RED BOXES.

-UA