What Caught My Eye Today

Space Shuttle - Space shuttle Endeavour blasted off Wednesday carrying teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan, who after more than two decades is finally carrying out the dream of Christa McAuliffe and the rest of the fallen Challenger crew. Morgan was McAuliffe's backup for Challenger's doomed launch in 1986 and, even after two space shuttle disasters, never swayed in her dedication to NASA and the agency's on-and-off quest to send a schoolteacher into space. She rocketed away in the center seat of the cabin's lower compartment, the same seat that had been occupied by McAuliffe. This is the 22nd shuttle flight to the International Space Station. It will continue space station construction by delivering a third starboard truss segment. The mission is expected to last 11-14 days. I would not go so far as saying that I'm a space junkie, but watching these space shuttle launches never ceases to amazing me.

Utah - Crews hoping to get food and air to six coal miners drilled to within about 1,000 feet of the trapped men and hoped to reach them in two days. It still wasn't known whether the miners were alive more than two days after the initial cave-in. But the progress was substantially better than the night before, when crews had to halt drilling because of unstable ground. Teams also were drilling a second larger hole that could be used to get food to the miners, 1,500 feet below the surface. Over the past 24 hours I've seen updates saying the amount of time it would take to reach the trapped miners ranging from 2 days to about a week. I hope, for the sake of everyone involved, the dude who came up with the 2 day estimate knows his stuff.

Pakistan - The government of embattled Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said it may impose a state of emergency due to "external and internal threats" and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border. It appears the motivation for a declaration of an emergency would be the domestic political woes of Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism who took power in a 1999 coup. The Pakistani government's comments on a possible emergency declaration came hours after Musharraf abruptly announced he was canceling a planned trip to Kabul, Afghanistan on Thursday to attend a U.S.-backed tribal peace council aimed at curtailing cross-border militancy by the Taliban and al-Qaida. If you read this blog somewhat regularly, you will appreciate the irony of this news item. This past Monday, I reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai announced that the Taliban was not a threat to his government. Maybe Musharraf should rethink cancelling his trip to Afghanistan. I mean, if the guys in Afghanistan have got the Taliban under control, I'm sure they would mind sharing a couple of ideas with Musharraf.

Indonesia - A powerful earthquake under the Java Sea rattled Indonesia's capital, violently shaking tall buildings and sending panicked residents into the streets. There were no immediate reports of damage, and geophysicists said there was little risk of a tsunami. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.5 and was centered about 65 miles east of Jakarta at a depth in the Earth of 180 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake that triggered the tsunami off the coast of Sumatra and killed more than 131,000 in Indonesia's Ache province was only 18 miles deep, according to the USGS. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanos and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin. I know I've said this before, but seriously, haven't these poor slobs been through enough?

Minnesota - A week after a deadly bridge collapse, U.S. Navy divers cut through tangled debris with underwater torches and saws in the search for victims while investigators identified a possible flaw in the 40-year-old span's design. National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they had found a potential design problem with gusset plates, or steel plates that tie together angled steel beams of the bridge's frame. Investigators are trying to verify loads and stresses on these plates at specific locations as well as the materials used to construct them. Minnesota officials were quickly laying the groundwork for replacing the vital eight-lane bridge, which had been the state's busiest with 140,000 vehicles crossing it each day. Construction bids were due on Wednesday and officials hoped to choose a contractor within weeks to build a new bridge by the end of 2008, with the help of $250 million promised by the federal government. One proposal called for two spans of five traffic lanes each, with room for light rail or buses. It was unlikely a new bridge could be completed before the Republican Party convention in September 2008, to be held in neighboring St. Paul. Talk about awkward timing? Somehow, you just know that this is going to become a Presidential campaign issue before all is said and done. And for a change, I hope it does. I don't remember the source of the quote, but someone said last week, 'bridges in this country should not just collapse.' Besides global warming, the pathetic state our our country's infrastructure is the nation's worst kept secret.

Baseball - In case you hadn't heard, Barry Bonds hit career home run 756 last night. Bonds sent the 84-mph fastball arcing high into the night, 435 feet into the right-center field seats. And then, the celebration began in force -- fireworks, streamers, banners commemorating the accomplishment, and even a party in McCovey Cove. Conspicuous by their absence were the commissioner and Hammerin' Hank himself. Though he was on hand for the tying homer three days ago, deciding to put baseball history ahead of the suspicions plaguing the Giants slugger, Bud Selig wasn't there for the record-breaker. As for Aaron, he said all along he had no interest in being there whenever and wherever his record was broken. He was true to his word, but he did offer a taped message of congratulations that played on the stadium's video board during a 10-minute, in-game tribute. You have to give props to Barry for finally closing the deal, but the real man last night was Hank Aaron.