What Caught My Eye Today

Space - This is historic. We've just had our first fender-bender in space. U.S. and Russian officials traded shots over who was to blame for a huge satellite collision this week that spewed speeding clouds of debris into space, threatening other unmanned spacecraft in nearby orbits. The smashup 500 miles over Siberia involved a derelict Russian spacecraft designed for military communications and a working satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium, which served commercial customers as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.A prominent Russian space expert suggested NASA fell down on the job by not warning of the collision. But U.S. space experts said the Russian has the wrong agency. The U.S. military tracks the 18,000 objects in orbit, monitoring only certain threats because it lacks the resources to do everything. An Iridium spokesperson said the company can move any of its 65 satellites out of the way if it gets a precise warning ahead of a crash, but such a warning was not made. The company has never redirected a satellite before because the warnings they get aren't precise enough and there are just too many satellites to be constantly rejiggering their orbit. There are 800 to 1,000 active satellites in orbit and about 17,000 pieces of debris and dead satellites.Typical. Just like rear-enders here on Earth, it's always the other guy's fault. A couple of observations. Despite all the finger pointing, it does not appear that the U.S. is denying culpability, which I find fascinating. Think about it. The think that the U.S. satellite collided into was a busted Russian satellite that has been out of commission for over a decade. If it was me, I'd be asking the Russians, why they hadn't gotten their junk out of the way. Instead, they've turned the tables on the Americans, saying it was our fault that we didn't avoid their dead ship.

Obama Cabinet - After getting off to a screaming start, President Obama is having a dickens of a time trying to round out his Cabinet. Saying, "I made a mistake," Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire abruptly withdrew as commerce secretary nominee. Gregg cited "irresolvable conflicts" with Obama's handling of the economic stimulus and 2010 census in a statement released without warning by his Senate office. The Commerce Department has jurisdiction over the Census Bureau, and the administration recently took steps to assert greater control. Republicans have harshly criticized the decision, saying it was an attempt to politicize the once-in-a-decade event. The outcome of the census has deep political implications, since congressional districts are drawn based on population. Many federal funds are distributed on the basis of population, as well. Both of those factors mean there is a premium on counting as many residents as possible. Historically, the groups believed to be most undercounted are inner-city minorities, who tend to vote Democratic. I give credit to Obama for attempting to have a bipartisan Cabinet, but I have to believe that he didn't think it was going to be this difficult. As for this census thing, I'm confused. How is it politicizing the census, by trying to make the count as accurate as possible? One theory is that the groups believed to be most undercounted are inner-city minorities, who tend to vote Democratic. Now if I'm a Republican, I'm thinking rather than not counting those inner-city minorities, maybe I take a look at what the Republican party can do to appeal to a broader population. But that's just me.

Economy (Part I) - Key lawmakers announced that all issues were settled on the $790 billion economic stimulus legislation. House leaders announced a vote for Friday, with the Senate to follow later in the day or over the weekend. Republicans, lined up to vote against the bill, piled on the scorn. Really? I cannot tell you how shocked I am. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader said, "The taxpayers of today and tomorrow will be left to clean up the mess." Seeing as it would be rather difficult to get the taxpayers of yesterday to chip in, I'm not sure what the honorable Senator from Kentucky is getting at here? More from McConnell in a moment. The bill includes billions of dollars for victims of the recession in the form of increased unemployment benefits and food stamps, subsidies to defray the cost of laid-off workers who want to continue their private health insurance and expanded government-financed coverage for the poor. Billions more would head off deep cuts in services by the states, many of which face deficits of their own because of the recession. The bill also included Obama's signature tax cut, although on a slightly reduced scale. It will mean a $400 break for most individual workers and $800 for couples, including those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes. How timely. See I'm from California, and my state lawmakers are going to be raising my taxes by about the same amount to make up for a $42 billion budget shortfall. Of course, I'm pretty sure this tax break is a one time deal, as opposed to those tax hikes which will probably be permanent.

Economy (Part II) - You all know how much I like numbers. Here is a whopper. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky in criticizing the president's economic stimulus package, which at one time was nearing a price tag of $1 trillion, said, "If you spent a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn't have spent a trillion dollars." I did the math, and wouldn't you know it, Senator McConnell was right. This is a rough approximate (not accounting for leap years and what not), but when you multiple 2009 years by 365 days, you come up with just under $733.3 billion. Makes you think, don't it?

Blogosphere - Regular readers have noticed that the volume of postings has dropped off a bit in recent months. Others have asked me why I haven't thrown some ads up to make a little coin off my musings. It is with those folks in mind that I bring you this item.. Technorati, a blog researcher, estimates that bloggers who run ads earn an average of $5,060 per year. Advertisers shy away from blogs because they are too unpredictable and because few blogs attract anything approaching a mass audience. One blog was visited by 1.5 million people in a month and through Google's AdSense program, the blogger earned $1,039.81. The blogger eventually shut down--not for financial reasons, but because Steve Jobs appeared to be in poor health. The blogger walked away feeling burned out and weighing 20 pounds more than when he started. By comparison, I've been at my blog for just over two years, and tracking visits for about 18 months. In that time, 1,752 visits from 712 unique visitors. By my calculations, that's about 1 new visit a day and just over 2 visits a day. At this rate, I might be able to buy a coffee at Starbucks to celebrate my retirement. Yeah, I think I'll skip the money and do things at my own pace.