Trending on Friday - July 8, 2011

1. Josh Hamilton
2. www.nasa.gov
3. space shuttle
4. horrible bosses
5. Miracle of the Day - Robbery foiled

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Josh Hamilton - Tragedy at the Ballpark

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During the second inning of Thursday night’s game at the Ballpark at Arlington, Shannon Stone did something that many Daily Fix readers have probably done themselves, at some point in their lives. He called out to Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton in hopes that Hamilton would throw a ball up to where Stone and his young son were sitting. Hamilton obliged, Stone leaned over the railing to catch the ball for his son, and what began as a warm and recognizable reiteration of a familiar ballpark ritual suddenly became something incalculably sadder.

Stone, a fireman in Brownwood, TX, toppled over the railing and fell 20 feet, head-first, to the concrete behind the left-field fence. Although he was conscious after the fall, Stone later went into cardiac arrest and died. In a statement issued after the game, Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan said, “We are deeply saddened to learn that the man who fell has passed away as a result of this tragic accident. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.” “This is unfair,” Yahoo’s Jeff Passan writes. “It’s so very unfair. It’s unfair to Josh Hamilton, a decent man and a father to three daughters. He tried to do a good deed. That’s all he tried to do. It’s unfair to Shannon Stone, a firefighter for 18 years who just wanted to make his kid’s night. It’s most unfair to that son. He will grow up without a father.” There’s not much but sadness to find in this story, at present – what should have been good went bad, and the hushed stadium and tearful locker rooms after the game told the only story that really seemed appropriate to tell afterwards.

The evening’s gamers and analysis – a good start for the home team’s Derek Holland, a rough one for Oakland’s Rich Harden – were just dutiful, but seemed ghoulishly tasteless. Even earnest speculation into how the incident will impact Hamilton, who has been very open about the demons that led him into years of addiction and nearly ruined his career, felt somehow off. It seems best, finally, just to send hopes and prayers to the Stone family. And to remind everyone headed to ballparks or anywhere else that accidents can happen – which is anywhere, really – to take care. So, take care.

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www.nasa.gov
The shuttle launch: A sunrise and sunset every 90 minutes

Belleville native Sandra Magnus is one of the astronauts assigned to the last space shuttle scheduled to launch today. Here are questions and answers about the mission:

When is the launch?

The Atlantis is scheduled to launch at 10:26 a.m. CDT today from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. However, poor weather may force a delay.


Where can I watch the launch?

* NASA will show the launch live on its website, www.nasa.gov.

* The St. Louis Science Center will air the launch at its planetarium.

* St. Louis television: KSDK-TV, Channel 5, will show the launch; KMOV and KTVI representatives did not immediately know if the launch would be aired live.

Will the shuttle fly over Illinois?

The Atlantis will take off in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean and will not fly over the United States, said Joshua Buck, a NASA spokesman.

The path of the Atlantis' return to Earth will be finalized closer to the landing date, Buck said.

Where is the shuttle going?

The Atlantis will bring supplies to the International Space Station, which is about 220 miles up, Buck said.

It will take the shuttle 1 day, 23 hours and 43 minutes to get to the space station, arriving at 10:06 a.m. CDT Sunday.

Will I be able to see the shuttle?

The space station and shuttle are visible to the naked eye at night if they're flying overhead, Buck said.

The spacecraft looks like a big, solid star with no blinking lights, streaking steadily across the sky, Buck said.

To track when the spacecrafts will be flying over St. Louis and the metro-east, visit spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings.

When does the shuttle return?

The shuttle flight will last for 12 days. The Atlantis is scheduled to land at 6:06 a.m. CDT July 20 to the Kennedy Space Center.

What if the launch is delayed?

There is a 70 percent chance the launch will be delayed because of the weather, but NASA decided Thursday afternoon to continue with launch preparations.

Thunderstorms that produced lightning near the launch pad passed through the area about noon Thursday, according to NASA.

Mission managers will reassess the situation before it decides to fuel the Atlantis, which was scheduled to start at 1:01 a.m. CDT today.

The weather is expected to be slightly better on Saturday and Sunday. NASA has until Monday to launch the Atlantis, or else the launch may be postponed until July 16.

Fun facts

* The space station and shuttle will circle Earth about every 90 minutes, and there's a sunrise and sunset each cycle.

* The shuttle will be filled with 500,000 gallons of fuel.

* The Atlantis crew will carry the first iPhone into space to help with experiments on this mission.

* The shuttle will bring 8,000 pounds of supplies, a year's worth, to the space station.

* Orbiters like the Atlantis are the length of about three 40-foot school buses and weigh 178,000 pounds.

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space shuttle

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Requiem for America's space shuttle program

I live in Brevard County, Florida, home of the Kennedy Space Center. I’m not from here. I grew up in New Jersey and lived in Massachusetts, New York, and California. Even though I’ve now lived in Brevard for six years, I’m still not fully “of” this place. I don’t like the heat, I don’t like the sand, and I’m not partial to the sun.

I do like the people, though. When we left New Jersey, the typical Wal-Mart greeter would say hello or goodbye with something along the lines of “What are you looking at?” When we moved to Florida, the contrasting “Have a blessed day” was quite nice. Now, I’m way, way far from being a religious man, but I’ll take the warmth of “Have a blessed day” any time over the implied threat of the typical New Jersey conversation. Religious-tinged greetings are weird, admittedly, but they’re also kind of sweet.

I’m telling you this because a lot (a lot) of my fellow Brevardians are about to lose their jobs. Brevard is not exactly a top-tier county when it comes to employment, but now that the last Space Shuttle mission is about to fly, another 1,900 or so hard-working Americans are going to be out of work.

I am of very mixed feelings here.

It bothers me deeply that once Atlantis roars off Pad 39A and executes Mission STS-135, America will no longer have a civilian lift capacity of any kind. The idea that we’ll have to rely on the Russians (of all nations) to bring us to the International Space Station rankles down to my ankles.

On the other hand, America’s space program has been mind-blowingly expensive and has had some very serious failures. NASA has been run into the ground with some astoundingly poor management practices, and — at the same time — civilian space flight has blossomed.

There is no doubt that the Space Shuttle fleet is old.

It’s 30 years old, this year. STS-1 with the Space Shuttle Columbia, was launched on April 12, 1981 off the very same pad, Pad 39A, that Atlantis will be leaving on later today. We all watched in horror after 27 missions, when Columbia’s final flight ended fatally, when it broke apart on re-entry in February 2003.

According to an article in the Washington Post, the shuttle airframes are certified for 100 flights, and most have logged less than half of that.

And yet, we all know what’s inside the shuttles: 1970s technology. The machines are old and obsolete and should have been replaced years ago. Of course, as we all know, the United States didn’t replace the shuttles. Programs were planned, and then cancelled. Budgets were requested, and then nerfed.

America’s space program has been the story of both the right stuff — and the wrong stuff. Of American heroes — and political failures.

So here we are. Atlantis is on the pad. America’s space-bound future is on hold. And, pretty soon, we’ll be dependent on the Russians to get back and forth to the space station we, here in America, pioneered.

Like many things in America, there is no black-and-white answer.

Emotionally, I almost can’t accept that NASA is out of the airframe-lofting business for the next bunch of years. But as a fiscally-conscious American, I also viscerally despise the waste and stupidity we’ve seen managing many of America’s projects.

We will never regain the idealism of the day when JFK challenged us to send a man to the moon and bring him safely back to Earth. Maybe that’s a good thing. For idealism can obscure inspection, introspection, and examination, and as we’ve seen — over and over — the American space program is exceptional, but flawed. It needs inspection and oversight.

It also needs a new vision, one for the next decade and, yes, for the next century.

This is an opportunity for President Obama and the Candidates 2012. I do believe America must have home-owned orbital lofting capability outside the military. I also know that many of the innovations we enjoy daily are here as a side-effect of the American space program.

Looking into the future, we need a vision, a strategy, and a commitment to space — efficient, effective, smart space travel. Perhaps one of our upcoming candidates will outline a plan. Perhaps President Obama will revisit some of his decisions. Or, perhaps we’ll bequeath the pride, excitement, and industrial and technological advancement that comes from having a space program to one of those other countries, like China or Russia.

Man, that’d be a shame, wouldn’t it?

Shortly after I moved down here to Brevard county, I was in my home office when the entire roof shook. I’d experienced that sort of shaking in California; it almost felt like an earthquake and it sounded like a roof beam had cracked. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was what it felt like when a shuttle broke the sound barrier.

Since that day, I’ve had the opportunity to feel my roof shake, to hear the crack, and to experience the sonic boom of our shuttles breaking the sound barrier almost 20 times.

Later today, I hope to feel that shake one…last…time.

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horrible bosses

"Horrible Bosses" to have a not so horrible weekend

(CBS/What's Trending) - A battle for second place could be heating up as two very different comedies hit the marketplace. First up is the very R-rated "Horrible Bosses" from Warner Bros. which will benefit from the fact that raunchy comedies have found much favor during this summer season with both "The Hangover Part II" and "Bridesmaids" both banking lots of cash over the past couple of months.

It is fitting then that the film featuring the trio of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis should propel the latest ensemble comedy to a solid debut of around $20 million. Jennifer Aniston in her best role in years steals every scene and will have people talking long after they leave the theater. Though receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the comedy flick has only pulled in 65,000 likes on Facebook.

At the other end of the spectrum Kevin James brings the comedy to kids and their families with Sony's PG-rated kid friendly romp "Zookeeper." The unlikely story of zoo animals helping James in his quest for love should capture a gross of around $20 million this weekend. James surprised everyone in early 2009 with the unexpected success of "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" thus showing his viability as a comedy star.

However, expect "Transformers 3" to take over the box office. Last weekend, Michael Bay's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" broke Fourth-of-July records, wowed audiences around the world to the tune of nearly $400 million and posted the best opening weekend of the year thus far. This weekend should prove to be another winner for the sci-fi popcorn action flick with a likely gross in the mid-$40 million range and find itself north of $250 million in North America by the end of the weekend. The movie has been panned everywhere -- barely pulling in 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes -- but has over 300,000 fans on Facebook.

Zooming into fourth place with around $12 million is Disney/Pixar's "Cars 2" which roared to first place in its debut and will top the $200 million global milestone by Sunday night. Heading into its third weekend, the 3D animated film has propelled the Pixar brand to over $6.8 billion in worldwide theatrical revenue to date.

Sony's R-rated comedy "Bad Teacher" from Sony entering its third weekend will battle "Larry Crowne" in week two for fifth place with grosses in the $6.5 million to $7.5 million range. Cameron Diaz starring as a decidedly unconventional educator will approach the $80 million mark by the end of the weekend as Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts in their romantic comedy will cross the $20 million threshold while drawing older audiences to the multiplex.

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Miracle of the Day - Robbery foiled

"I am a nurse at St Mary of the Woods, in Terre Haute Ind,,I work the 3-1130pm shift,,On Jan 3rd 2009, I had to work over for an hr.at which time all the staff from shift had all left,,the parking lot is approx. a half a block from the time clock, the time was 1230 midnight ,as I walked to my car and felt an evil presence, thinking maybe a large coon was out and about , thinking I had an apple I would just throw it at it, but as I came near the parking lot I saw a man covered in camaplage bent over one of the companies trucks, I thought it was the boiler man, but he stood up and we made eye contact, and he immediately crouched down trying to hide,realizing I saw him,he stood and yelled,HEY to apparently his accomoplices,I stood there frozed like a deer in headlights,I had no place to run or no one to hear me yell for help, I let the man make the next move,he began running, praise God toward the darkened woods, I made a mad dash to my car not knowing what this man would maybe do,,praise God I managed to unlock my car with trembling hands, I reported this to security , which the following day called me to tell me I had interrupted a major robbery, as the men had broken into the utility trucks ,breaking the ignitions and stealing tools, I am so thankful, when I think what couldve happened, I know the Lord had his hand on me that frightful night."

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