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Tag: Group Writing
The Response to the Launch of Sputnik 1
Monday was the 65th anniversary of the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1.
It has been called the “shock of the century.” This shock grew over the next few days and was a major crisis for the Eisenhower Administration. For the people working on the Minitrack tracking system of Project Vanguard, there was the problem that it was set up to track satellite signals at the International Geophysical Year approved frequency of 108 MHz. Sputnik sent out signals at 20 and 40 MHz. Thus, the Mintrack system needed to be modified ASAP. Marty Votaw worked for my father on this. He recalled in 2008:
The Vanguard program was run on paid overtime from the beginning of the program. On Wednesday [October 2nd, 1957] at work, a memo came out that said there will be no paid overtime after Friday. And I thought “Phew!” we are going to get some time off. And Friday came, I went home from work tired, and, we had company that night, I sat down to dinner and the phone rang. And Roger [Easton] says, “They launched Sputnik.” And I said, “Good, now we know what can be done.” He said, “You don’t understand; we’ve got to track it.” And I said, “Can I eat supper first?” He said, “Well, yeah, but come back right afterwards.”
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Quote of the Day: Taking Aimless
“Sometimes being aimless helps you discover where to aim.” — Russ Roberts
All the talk these days about frivolous college studies has me remembering some of my endeavors at the University of California, Santa Barbara, 1977-1981, that would make me question the academic and career seriousness of a kid doing so today.
Neighborhood Constitutional
Every day, my husband and I go for a walk around our neighborhood. We’ve been walking arm and arm since I fell and sprained my ankle a couple of years ago. I imagine the people we pass think of us as a nice old couple taking their daily constitutional.
But maybe they overhear us talking about what he’s watched on Fox or what I’ve read on Ricochet and narrow their eyes and think, ENEMIES OF THE STATE!
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Raid Rant: Short, Sweet or Sour — Maybe Spicy
Trump owns this. His long silence on the J6 political prisoners led to the American Stasi’s raid on Mar-a-Lago, and to his almost certain fraudulent indictment, show trial, and false conviction by a jury of his haters. He shoulda known. The McConnell and McCarthy congressional cabals also own this, along with the weaponized IRS poised to crush the coalition of working-class citizens Trump first led, as surely as the IRS crushed the Tea Party, to the benefit of the Congressional GOPe. Sorry to say, but your favorite conservative senators and representatives have been no more real opposition than the Washington Generals. They will do no more in the next two years than their team did to actually stop Obama. All these fools or knaves are endangering our constitutional republic as surely and imminently as the feckless Kerensky government led to the Bolsheviks’ victory and 70 years of Soviet socialist tyranny. They all shoulda known. Finally, we have been in similar peril before: Alien and Sedition Acts, anyone? We are not foredoomed to darkness.
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The Fine Art of Snacking
I love snacking. Love. It. Of course, I adore eating in all its forms, but there is something special about snacking. Watching a movie, reading, playing with my phone, working on the computer, or chatting with family and friends: all of these delightful activities are made even more sublime with the addition of snacks.
So herewith, my nominations for the best snacks in each of the theme’s categories (plus one: savory). It’s important to note that a snack is different from a meal course: that is, my favorite dessert (chocolate chip cookies with milk or mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches) will be different from my favorite sweet snack.
Sweet
Post Honey Ohs cereal, dry, straight out of the box. This snack can’t be beat for crunchiness, sweetness, and sheer shove-it-in-your-face-like-there’s-no-tomorrow snackability. I’m (not really) ashamed to admit that one box contains approximately one serving. Best consumed while playing with your phone. Suggested beverage: fizzy water.
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Sounds of Liberty: Bicentennial Memories
In the mid-1970s, when it was still acceptable for public school students to love their country, I was in a small singing group called Sounds of Liberty formed by my high-school choir director. It was, of course, organized for the occasion of the nation’s bicentennial. My audition to be included in the troupe featured not only singing but flute-playing and tap-dancing. All talents were on call. We were putting on a show.
As I recall, we performed locally and on school-break tours for a year and a half or so, ending on 7/4/1976. We had three costume changes for the three segments: one on religious music (I sang a solo of “Ave Maria”), one on regional songs (I did a tap dance to “The Sidewalks of New York”), and one on patriotic tunes (or so I think it must have been; can’t remember what I played the flute to).