ET=external tank (the big orange thing)
SRB=solid rocket booster (the tall white rockets)

The Israeli newspaper Maariv on Monday published a picture of Columbia purportedly showing two cracks on its left wing.

The picture was taken January 21 as video accompanying a satellite video conference between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Colonel Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli to travel to space.

It's been a difficult two days for all of us. I seem to have worked through it much like Owen Garriott, Huntsville resident and astronaut on Skylab 3 and STS-9. He wants more information. I've sought whatever information I could get, and come up with my theories as to what went wrong.

NASA has put together another pair of rovers reminiscent of Sojourner, the little Mars buggy we all watched cruise around in July of 1997. It brought us stereo images from Mars and plenty of information on its rocks. The new rovers are designed to last longer and offer some improved instruments for the next exploration. Read about the Mars Exploration

If you're worried about safety in China, it looks like the best place to be is a net cafe. China has temporarily closed 12,000 of 45,000 net cafes, 3,300 of them permanently, for safety concerns brought to the administration's attention by a June 16, 2002 fire. The shutdown is much more effective than the May, 2002 attempts.

Giant party toothpicks smell of sweet pine.
Watery Lite-Brite pegs escorted pine needles to the ground;
They won't release their grip until tomorrow.
Chainsaws whine as the day of rest yields to the day of cleanup.
Blankets replace electric heat while wires slither on the streets.

It seems all of North Carolina (or at least from here west) got 1/2 inch or more ice. The utility linesmen have been very busy lately. One tree was leaning towards the house yesterday - I feared it might crash into the upstairs bathrooms. My fears have been allayed - it only took out the banister on the deck.

I took some pictures of the ice but can't upload them until Elizabeth gets back with her laptop. To tide you over, I wrote this this morning:

Sailors, Africans, and Aussies will observe a total solar eclipse on Wednesday, Dec. 4. The International Space Station will only fly through a partial eclipse area, but they'll have a fantastic view of the dark spot on the Earth below. Mir cosmonauts photographed a similar view on August 11, 1999. It looks pretty weird if you ask me. See pictures and read more in NASA's report.

Here's a gem from MAD Magazine: a Gulf Wars: Episode II movie poster. It reminds me of the 1998 StarrWars movie poster (mirror|.cz).