What Caught My Eye Today

Entitlements - Otherwise known as Social Security and Medicare. Social Security and Medicare are fading even faster under the weight of the recession, heading for insolvency years sooner than previously expected. Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, a year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner. Medicare is in even worse shape. The program for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year, just as it did for the first time in 2008. The Medicare fund will be depleted by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year's report. Let's try to look at this from slightly different perspective. Maybe that will make this seem a little less bleak. Let's say you're in Las Vegas and want to do some gambling. Depending on the casino, you are looking at a payout in the range of 95% to 98%. That means for every dollar you invest, on average you'll walk away with 95 to 98 cents. Take that same analogy and apply it to Social Security. For every dollar that you invest, you'll walk away with about 75 cents. Feel better? Me neither. Now get this. According to some analysts, we could shore up Social Security for another 75 years if Social Security withholdings were increased by just 2%. Doesn't seem like much does it? As for Medicare, I'm not sure I care. Seriously, if I have no money to live off of in retirement, I'm not sure living to a ripe old age is going to be that appealing anyway.

Space Shuttle - Space shuttle Atlantis is now in a rough orbital neighborhood — a place littered with thousands of pieces of space junk zipping around the Earth at nearly 20,000 mph. There are more pieces of shattered satellites and used-up rockets in this region than astronauts have ever encountered. And the crew must be there for more than a week to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The telescope orbits about 350 miles above Earth, a far dirtier place than where shuttles normally fly. And all those tiny projectiles raise the constant threat of a potentially fatal collision. The Air Force is tracking more than 19,000 objects in all sorts of orbits — most of it junk. NASA now puts the risk for a catastrophic collision with junk during the mission at 1 in 229 — greater than typical flights to the space station but lower than the agency's initial estimates. I'll get to my point in a moment. Bear with me. Initially, when Johnson and other experts at the Johnson Space Center calculated the risk for losing Atlantis because of debris, it was slightly worse than 1 in 200. That's the threshold for NASA to think twice about doing the flight. Engineers came up with some maneuvers to reduce the likelihood of getting hit, and have now decided the risk is an acceptable 1 in 229. That risk is usually about 1 in 300 during space station missions. I have to be honest, I'm not a big fan of any of those odds. But enough about that. So what was it that reduced the risk to an 'acceptable' level? Apparently, the brain trust at NASA has decided that it now has the ability to repair tile damage sustained in orbit. Bear in mind, the last time an astronaut stepped outside to do a repair, she dropped the tool; that tool is now one of those 19,000 objects that the Air Force is now tracking. As an added precaution, NASA has decided to have Atlantis haul ass to a lower orbit after it finishes its repairs on the Hubble to inspect itself before re-entry. Yeah, dramatic orbit changes sounds real safe. And finally, in it's infinite wisdom, NASA's final contingency plan if something happens to Atlantis is to send up Endeavour for a rescue mission. Let me see if I have this straight. Atlantis has a 1 in 229 chance of having something go wrong and the back up is to send up another shuttle with a marginally better 1 in 300 chance of failure. Say what you will about the logic of this plan; these guys have some serious brass 'ones' for even suggesting this, let alone going through with it. In all seriousness, I'm a big proponent of the space program, and hope that all this stuff I've been mocking does not have to be contemplated. Best of luck, astronauts.

Iraq - As if our troops deployed in Iraq didn't have enough to worry about. A 44-year-old soldier has been charged with murder and aggravated assault of five fellow soldiers. It has been suggested that the soldier was treated poorly at the stress center and that counselors "broke" him before the gunfire erupted in a military stress center. The attacks came just weeks before the end of his third tour of duty in Iraq. There is so much wrong with this sequence of events, that it's difficult too determine where to begin. There is nothing even remotely humorous about any aspect of this story. The system clearly failed, exhibiting a level of incompetence that one could describe as laughable. Unfortunately for the victims of this tragedy, there is nothing amusing about it. I find myself surprisingly sympathetic to the plight of this soldier as well. While I will stop short of saying his mental condition excuses his actions, the soldier was obviously a casualty of questionable treatment practices. He and the soldiers whose lives he cut short, deserved better, especially considering the service they were providing their country.

Okay, then. We got a little too serious there. Time to lighten things up. And what better way to do that...

Cycling - Yeah, boy. The first grand tour of Europe is under way, baby! The 2009 Giro d'Italia is the 92nd running of the Giro d'Italia and marks the 100th year since the first Giro d'Italia. It will be held from 9–31 May. It started in Venice and will finish in Rome. There is also going to be a stage finish on Mount Vesuvius. Yeah, yeah. Big whoop. Here's the big news--Lance Armstrong is racing. That's right. The same Lance who broke his collarbone, like yesterday (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit. Dude broke it about 2 months ago, but still an impressive comeback). The real injustice here is the television coverage, or lack thereof. American audiences pretty much have to rely on Universal Sports for online video stream coverage of the race. That aside, American cyclists are having a pretty good go of things four stages into the 3 week race. Levi Leipheimer is in fifth place overall 26 seconds off the lead and Armstrong is in sixth just 28 seconds off the pace. Did I mention that the dude broke his collarbone a few weeks ago and, oh by the way, is coming off 4 years in retirement. Boy has skill.