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Today's Topics:
1. Space station computers continue to fail (Williams, Gregory S.)
2. 1957 Plymouth Unearthed in Tulsa (George Antunes)
3. Credit Cards Cut Off Gas Purchases (George Antunes)
4. Data stolen from 64,000 Ohio gov. workers (George Antunes)
5. Space Station Computers Back Up (George Antunes)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:38:03 -0400
From: "Williams, Gregory S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Space station computers continue to fail
To: <medianews@twiar.org>
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/06/15/space.shuttle.ap/index.html
HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Cosmonauts aboard the international space station
struggled for a second day Friday to try to reboot failed computers that
control the orbiting outpost's orientation.
The Russians worked on the system through the night but only succeeded in
getting one of three power channels to the station's computers operating before
flight controllers told them to get some sleep, NASA flight director Holly
Ridings said.
Valery Lyndin, spokesman for Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow, said
Friday that support staff on the ground had so far been unable to pinpoint the
source of the computer failure.
"The lives of the crew are not in danger," Lyndin stressed. (Watch what's being
done to fix the computers Video)
He said there were no plans to evacuate the space station, and a NASA
administrator said the chance of abandoning the space station was remote.
The station's oxygen-regeneration and all basic life-support systems are
functioning properly, but the orientation system was affected by the computer
problems, Lyndin said.
The computers, in the Russian segment, control thrusters that are fired to
orient the station and its solar panels toward the sun for maximum energy
production. Gyroscopes on the station's American segments are functioning, and
the station is in a more-or-less proper position, Lyndin said.
NASA said the engineers tried turning off and on the power between the U.S. and
Russian sections before rebooting the computers to test if perhaps a bad
connection between the Russian side and a pair of new solar arrays might be the
problem. They were still testing that theory Friday morning.
"A power line has a certain magnetic field around it, and that can affect
systems near it," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager.
"This is the leading theory today."
The new solar arrays were connected by the space shuttle Atlantis crew Monday.
If the power feed from those arrays turns out to be the problem, the Russian
section can still get power from other solar arrays.
NASA has said that in a worst-case scenario, the space station's three crew
members might have to return to Earth early if the computers can't be fixed.
The space station has a more than 50-day supply of oxygen without the Russian
oxygen-machine running.
Cameras, computer laptops and some lights on Atlantis were turned off Thursday
to save energy in case it needs to stay an extra day at the station to help
maintain the outpost's orientation while the problem with the Russian computers
is addressed. The mission had already been extended from 11 to 13 days to
repair the thermal blanket.
The computer problems also created a small inconvenience for the shuttle
astronauts: Because the routine dumping of the astronauts' waste from the space
shuttle requires a change in orientation, the Atlantis crew was told to use the
toilet in the Russian section of the space station so that the shuttle's
doesn't overflow.
While Atlantis is still docked, its thrusters can help, if needed, to maintain
the station's position. Gyroscopes on the U.S. side of the space station also
were helping maintain orientation, but they can't do the job full time.
Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, called
the chances of abandoning the space station because of the computer problem
"remote." Seven visiting shuttle astronauts and three crew members are
currently living at the orbiting outpost.
"We're still a long way from where we would have to de-man the space station,"
Gerstenmaier said.
This type of massive computer failure had never been seen before on the space
station, although individual computers do fail periodically.
"These sorts of things happen," said astronaut Ed Lu, who lived at the space
station for six months in 2003. "I don't think it's that serious."
Friday afternoon, astronauts James Reilly and Danny Olivas planned to climb out
of the space station to staple down a thermal blanket that peeled back during
Atlantis' launch.
The blanket, covering an engine pod, protects part of the shuttle from the
blazing heat of re-entry. While engineers don't believe it would endanger the
spacecraft during landing, it could cause enough damage to require repairs on
the ground. Watch NASA repair techniques Video)
The astronauts will secure the blanket using staples from the shuttle's medical
kit and loop-headed pins from its tile repair kit. If those methods don't work,
NASA flight controllers will have the astronauts sew it into place using a
stainless steel wire and an instrument that resembles a small needle.
Engineers don't think the damaged section of the thermal blanket, which
protects part of the shuttle from the blazing heat of re-entry, would endanger
the spacecraft during landing. But it could cause enough damage to require
schedule-busting repairs.
NASA has focused intensely on any problems that could jeopardize a shuttle's
re-entry into Earth's atmosphere since shuttle damage resulted in the 2003
Columbia disaster that killed seven astronauts.
Gregory S. Williams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
?
?
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:10:41 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] 1957 Plymouth Unearthed in Tulsa
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
[Click through to the article to view a couple of photos of the car being
dug out of the coutrhouse lawn.]
1957 Plymouth Unearthed in Oklahoma
Jun 15, 2007 8:55 PM (ET)
By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070616/D8PPJAM83.html
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - Thousands watched Friday as a crane lifted a muddy
package from a hole in the courthouse lawn: a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere
buried a half-century ago to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood.
The wrapped car was covered in red mud as it came out of the hole. Its
trademark fins were exposed, caked with either rust or mud, and a bit of
shiny chrome was visible on the bumper.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Miss Belvedere," said event
organizer Sharon King Davis, a fourth-generation Tulsan whose grandfather
helped bury the Plymouth.
The gold and white two-door hardtop spent the last half-century covered in
three layers of protective material and encased in a 12-by-20-foot concrete
vault, supposedly tough enough to withstand a nuclear attack.
But event officials already had to pump out several feet of water from its
crypt.
Some in the crowd had arrived downtown at dawn and endured torrential rain
just to glimpse the car. By the time of the midday ceremony, people were
standing on rooftops and looking out office buildings as news helicopters
buzzed overhead.
The car was placed on a flatbed truck so it could be unwrapped, spruced up
and officially unveiled Friday evening at the Tulsa Convention Center.
Spectators lined the streets to watch its journey.
Whether the car will start was unknown. The suspense drew Pittsburgh car
enthusiast Dave Stragand.
"It's our King Tut's tomb," Stragand said. "It's like a fairy tale."
He and others weren't too concerned about the car's condition. "It's just
the whole idea somebody thought of it in 1957 and here we are living it,"
said Denver retiree Bob Petri.
Buried with the car were 10 gallons of gasoline - in case internal
combustion engines became obsolete by 2007 - a case of beer, and the
contents of a typical woman's handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14
bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, a lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues,
a pack of cigarettes, matches and $2.43.
There was also a spool of microfilm that recorded the entries of a contest
to determine who would win the car: the person who guessed the closest of
what Tulsa's population would be in 2007 - 382,457 - would win.
That person, or his or her heirs, will get the car by June 22, along with a
$100 savings account, worth about $1,200 today with interest.
Legendary hot rod builder Boyd Coddington, host of the TV series American
Hot Rod on The Learning Channel, will try to start the car Friday
afternoon. Thousands of tickets were sold for a Friday evening unveiling.
Back on the day the Belvedere was buried, all Bixby resident Marlene Parker
wanted to do was find a photographer for her wedding. Catching a glimpse of
the car being lowered into the ground was the last thing on her priority list.
Unfortunately, not for the photographer: He was shooting the burial.
This weekend, the 70-year-old will celebrate 50 years of marriage and may
come downtown to see what all the fuss was about back then.
"Probably across the pond people know about it," Parker said. "If nobody
knew where Tulsa, Oklahoma was before, they do now."
---
On the Net:
http://www.buriedcar.com
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:01:12 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Credit Cards Cut Off Gas Purchases
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"; format=flowed
[A little news of the weird. My Scion XB has an 11 gallon gas tank, so I
haven't personally experienced a Big Brother cut-off at the pump from the
Commissars of Credit. In fact I knew nothing about this before reading the
article.]
Credit Cards Cut Off Gas Purchases
Associated Press
Friday June 15, 2007 7:28 PM EDT
http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8ppi1sg0&;
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? So you're at the gas station filling up your
vehicle, and without warning the gas pump shuts off. What? The tank isn't
full, and you know your credit card isn't over its limit.
"Using my Visa card, I commonly hit a limit and I would be standing there
scratching my head," Shawn Bloomfield, who pumps premium gas into his SUV,
said from his home in Allentown, Pa. "I would always assume it is the gas
station setting a limit on how much gas I could purchase. It felt like a
ration scenario."
As the price of gasoline continues to rise, rules to prevent credit card
fraud at the nation's pumps are confusing consumers who just want a full
tank of gas.
Caps on transaction amounts ? or the total dollar amount of gas a customer
can pump into their car ? are limiting some drivers of gas-guzzling vehicles.
"When I go to the gas station I now have to use two credit cards just for
one tank of gas," said Paul Brisgone of Oxford, Pa. "Kind of defeats the
convenience of pay-at-the-pump."
Brisgone, a field operations manager for a telecommunications company, said
he alternates between three different credit cards ? two Visa and one
MasterCard ? when filling up the 32-gallon tank in his Ford F-150 pickup.
"When I can go 400 miles a day, it inconveniences me if I need a full tank
of gas and can't get one," Brisgone said.
Credit card companies say the policies, which aren't new, are designed to
ensure that merchants and consumers are protected from fraudulent
transactions that could occur at a gas pump.
When a customer uses their credit card at a cardholder-activated terminal,
such as a gas pump, the transaction is authorized without knowing the final
bill of sale.
Typically, consumers who use their credit card are not liable for any
fraudulent purchases, and gas merchants are not liable either.
But credit card companies have established a protective layer by setting
caps on how much gas a consumer can pump at any one given time.
That means in the event of any fraud, "the merchant is protected from
bearing the cost of the fraudulent transaction," said MasterCard
spokeswoman Joanne Trout.
But only up to a certain amount.
For MasterCard customers, it's $75. Visa and Discover users have a $50
pay-at-the-pump limit. Transaction limits vary for corporate card holders
and American Express users.
Not all gas stations have to abide by the cap. And there are no limits if a
customer goes inside and pays with their credit card at the counter.
The caps went unnoticed when gasoline prices were low.
"We get more calls, questions, when gas prices increase," said Visa
spokeswoman Rhonda Bentz.
The average price of regular unleaded gasoline increased from $1.50 a
gallon at the start of the decade to $2.28 a gallon in 2005, according to
the American Automobile Association.
Today, gasoline prices are topping $3 a gallon.
"Yes, it's an inconvenience," said Bloomfield, who often reaches his $50
limit when filling up his Nissan Pathfinder. "I guess you could say it's a
necessary inconvenience for more secure transactions."
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:21:23 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Data stolen from 64,000 Ohio gov. workers
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Data stolen from 64,000 Ohio gov. workers
Disk taken from state employee's car last weekend
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:36 a.m. CT June 15, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19247094/
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A disk carrying the Social Security numbers and other
personal information on all 64,000 Ohio state employees was stolen from a
state worker's car last weekend, Gov. Ted Strickland said Friday.
Strickland said it takes special equipment to access the information on the
disk, so he doesn't believe the workers' privacy is in jeopardy.
It was just the latest case of personal information on thousands of
employees disappearing or being inappropriately accessed. Several
universities, corporations and even the Veterans Affairs Department have
reported lost or stolen data.
Strickland said the Ohio employee mistakenly left the disk, a backup, in a
vehicle parked outside an apartment Sunday.
The employee is being investigated, but there is no reason to believe there
was a security breach, he said. He also issued an executive order that
would change state procedures for handling the data.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19247094/
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:50:38 -0500
From: George Antunes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Medianews] Space Station Computers Back Up
To: medianews@twiar.org
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Message-ID:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Space Station Computers Back Up
Jun 15, 2007 8:19 PM (ET)
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press
http://apnews.myway.com//article/20070616/D8PPIPTG0.html
HOUSTON (AP) - Two Russian cosmonauts began to get crucial computers up and
running Friday, four days after they crashed at the international space
station and curbed the outpost's ability to orient itself and produce oxygen.
The progress came after days of frustrating effort and, for the time being,
removed a set of troubling options lying ahead for NASA and the Russian
space agency if the computers continued to fail.
"They're up and operational and this is good news for all," said Lynette
Madison, a NASA spokeswoman in Houston.
Cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov pulled off the feat by
bypassing a power switch with a cable to get four out of six processors on
two computers running. They planned to watch the computers for the next
several hours to make sure they were functioning properly.
Had the machines continued to malfunction, the three-member space station
crew could still have remained on board, but other steps would have been
taken to maintain oxygen supplies. Russia had already begun to move up
plans for a cargo ship to deliver supplies, including new computers, next
month.
And ominous questions were raised about the possibility of eventually
needing to bail out of the space station - something a top NASA official
rejected earlier in the day.
Maintaining the correct position in orbit is key for the space station. It
must point its solar arrays at the sun for power and be able to shift
orientation to avoid occasional large debris that comes flying through space.
The computer crash came as astronauts from space shuttle Atlantis were
resuming work on the long-running construction of the station. Atlantis'
seven astronauts arrived last weekend, NASA's first visit to the space
station this year.
During the computer failure, the shuttle's thrusters helped control the
station's position. And some of Atlantis' lights, computers and cameras
were turned off to save energy in case in case the shuttle had to spend an
extra day docked to the station to allow more time to figure out the problem.
NASA officials said the crew was never in danger of running out of oxygen,
power or essentials.
However, the failed computers were the latest technical glitch for the
half-built, $100 billion outpost. In past years, a Russian oxygen machine
and gyroscopes, which also control orientation, have failed.
Critics have called the space station a boondoggle, an ill-conceived,
post-Cold War venture between the superpowers which at the moment is
producing little science as it undergoes construction.
The days-long computer problems fueled skepticism toward the Bush
administration's "Vision for Space Exploration," which calls for finishing
the space station in three years, grounding the space shuttles in 2010 and
building next-generation vehicles to go to the moon and Mars.
"This growing chorus of opposition to the current vision ... is finding
expression in the difficulties of the station," said Howard McCurdy, a
space public policy expert at American University. "We're learning a great
deal from the space station, and one of things we may be learning is we
shouldn't have built this particular one."
Meanwhile, two Atlantis astronauts Friday had another mission to
accomplish: repairing a torn thermal blanket that helps protect the shuttle
from heat on its return flight to Earth.
Danny Olivas used a medical stapler to successfully secure in place the
4-by-6-inch corner, while James Reilly installed an external valve.
"Looking great!" Olivas said as he made rows of staples along the blanket's
edge.
Plans for the 11-day mission were disrupted by discovery of the rip in the
thermal material, a problem that extended the mission by two days so that
Friday's repair spacewalk could be worked into the schedule.
For now, Atlantis is set to land at Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday.
---
Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov in Korolyov, Russia, Seth
Borenstein in Washington and Juan Lozano in Houston contributed to this report.
---
On the Net:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
------------------------------
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End of Medianews Digest, Vol 295, Issue 1
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