The 1985-model Space Shuttle Atlantis (OV-104) rolled out of Florida today, headed for the International Space Station. When the spacecraft returns to Cape Canaveral, NASA will put it up on blocks in the Kennedy Space Center front yard. Some people are upset that Atlantis is being retired, since it only has 120 million miles on the odometer.
Image (“1985 Models: Chrysler 5th Avenue and Space Shuttle Atlantis”) by Mike Licht (Atlantis is the junker on the top). Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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ABC TV announced the cancellation of the long-running daytime dramas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” but the programs will have a new life. Sort of.
The network has licensed the two soaps to a company that plans to keep the shows running on the Web. Four decades of our precious video heritage have been saved (cue the organ music and roll credits).
Image (Midday Melancholy, after Constance Charpentier) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Image by Mike Licht (no biplanes were harmed in making this picture). Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
The French don’t hate Americans because of boorish Yank tourists. They don’t hate us because we’re sexual prudes or because we forced them into NATO. They hate us because we let Mattel Toys corrupt their petits garçons and make them slaves to la malbouffe (junk food).
500 bare-headed motorcyclists participated in the 11th Annual Helmet Protest Run in Onondaga NY, near Syracuse, protesting New York’s law requiring bikers to wear helmets. Philip Contos, 55, was riding a 1983 Harley Davidson with the Onondaga chapter of American Bikers Aimed Towards Education (ABATE) when he flipped over the bike’s handlebars, hit his head on the pavement, and was killed. Police said that Mr. Contos would have survived had he been wearing a helmet.
As usual, we’re walking down to the Mall to see the Independence Day pyrotechnics. This year we’re taking umbrellas as well as water bottles. We’re leaving you these links:
“So You Want to See the National Fireworks on the Mall?” Brian Mosely, WeLoveDC
“July 4th Fireworks in Washington D.C., 2011 – Last Minute Guide to the Best Spots,” International Business Times
“Where to See Fireworks in Bowie, Annapolis and the D.C. and Baltimore Metro Areas,” Leslie Hunt and Josh Flynn, Bowie Patch
Many Americans will celebrate this Independence Day by ingesting a batter-like poultry product (made by forcing bones and attached edible tissue through a sieve under high pressure) blended with a slurry of pork and/or beef meat taken off the bone by advanced meat recovery machinery (AMM) and mixed with potassium lactate, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, corn maltodextrin, sodium nitrate, and paprika extract, then forced into tubes.
These will be heated over glowing little pillows formed of carbonized sawdust and petroleum distillates and placed in enriched flour buns moistened by a paste of ground yellow mustard seeds mixed with acetic acid and tumeric, then garnished with cubes of chemically preserved cucumber dyed an improbable green with FD&C Yellow #5.
Yum!
Have a safe and happy 4th of July.
Read more:
“What’s in Your Wiener? Hot Dog Ingredients Explained,” Katherine Harmon, Scientific American
Image (after James Montgomery Flagg and Oscar Mayer) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
