International Space Station |

From Politics to Hollywood to Technology. The Coots are Eclectic.

Posted by Justin at 18:17 Coot Smirk, Technology

Jul 072014

Do you ever have this post written in your head and even mostly edited, it just takes too much time to get it written? Yea. Turns out there is not a plugin to allow people access to your wonderfully crafted posts in your head. You still must write them out!

So this week has been interesting for Coots subject matter. Bob’s wonderfully snarky post about bin Laden, Ralph’s lament over old movie theaters, well, today, I wan’t to talk about a very special birthday. And then you go and do some more research and find that there is a “(the quotes are important here, think air quotes to get the sarcasm implied)”WEBSITE” that has a different date than the other 47 sites that you look at. Imagine that, something on the internet is wrong.

So I searched for something else that happened on this day in history and came up with the first H bomb test or a patent for wireless radio broadcasting. I don’t really feel like writing about nuclear warheads so I am going to go with wireless broadcasting.

Back in 1908 Nathan B. Stubblefield created a primitive cell phone type device that transmitted via electromagnetic induction. Didn’t work very well and would never be real “radio” broadcasting like Marconi came up with, but it was something to send information over space without wires. Think of what we do now without wires. I am writing this post on my laptop that is connected to the internet over a wireless network. If I wan’t to print, the printer is in the basement hooked to my other computer, but I can connect.

I have wireless headphones, wireless phones, wireless keyboards and mice, heck even my new MP3 player can connect to the internet wirelessly. Think how much easier losing wires has made our lives. How many electronic things actually have to be connected anymore?

Now I am not saying Nathan Stubblefield is the cause of this wireless revolution, because his inventions are not actually radio waves. For instance, his inventions could never reach the International Space Station, yet with other technology we can. (just an aside, I think that the ISS is the freaking coolest thing that mankind has ever invented. That is another post though.) But Mr. Stubblefield was a thinker. He saw potential in holding a device and talking with someone far away.

Even if his tech isn’t used today, the same thinking and desire to do the next biggest and greatest thing still pushes people. The entrepreneurial spirit still makes people bust their humps to invent things that they can use on the ISS. (did I say that is the coolest thing ever?)

Now, my question to you all is, what have you invented? By invented I mean written or created. Will your idea spark millions of others? Will it inspire people? Will your name end up on a “this day in history” search because of your invention? If not, get out there and create. Quit following the pack and create your own spot in history. Now if you will excuse me, my Stay at Home Dad site needs some work.

Thanks for reading.

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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A retro moment I could have done without

Posted by Bob@HayleStorm Interactive at 01:52 Softer side

Jun 282013

Image via Wikipedia

I’m going to throttle back my overbearing, know-it-all, in your face attitude just a bit this week, and ask Ralph to forgive me for horning in on one of his favorite categories to write about… Nostalgia.

Despite this post being due for publication on Monday, February 28, I sit here on the previous Thursday feeling the need to write Monday’s post now. I saw something happen today that got the muse going, and she will not be denied.

First, let’s back up a little bit. 50 years, to February 20, 1962 to be exact.

Just nine months after JFK had called for the United States to put a man on the Moon by 1970, a fellow no one outside of military flying had ever heard of, John Glenn, climbed into a Mercury capsule and into the role of American hero.

Two men, wearing that newfangled career moniker “astronaut” had preceded Glenn in our quest to conquer space, taking brief, sub-orbital flights.

This day, this flight, was to be dramatically different. John Glenn, riding in Friendship 7, was going to be the first American to orbit the earth, circling it three times in approximately 4 hours before splashing down. Not to minimize the United States earlier flights, but this was a major step forward for JFK’s vision of reaching the moon. Sub-orbital flight amazed, but actually orbiting the earth and returning safely was almost beyond belief.

America’s march to the moon progressed through the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs, and ended on December 19, 1972 when Apollo 17, our last manned flight beyond earth orbit, splashed down. Astronaut Gene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon. Little did we know it then that now, almost 40 years later, we would not yet have returned.

And now today, Thursday, February 24, 2011 we watched the sun setting on the United States manned space program. At 4:50 PM Eastern Standard Time space shuttle discovery, the first of the shuttle fleet, launched from Cape Canaveral for the last time.

Sure, there will be a couple more shuttle launches, but this, the final launch of the workhorse of the shuttle fleet, brings into stark relief the fact that the United States days of commanding the heavens are over, at least for the foreseeable future. After this and a couple more launches, culminating with a June 28 launch of space shuttle Atlantis, the United States will once again be earthbound for the first time since Alan Sheppard was launched in Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961 in a suborbital flight that lasted just 15 minutes.

When Atlantis lands at the end of its final flight, the United States will be hitchhikers to the international space station, a space station mostly built, and paid for, by the United States. Regarding manned space travel we will once again be at the mercy of the Russians.

When was the last time we were in that position? Before launch time on February 20, 1962. How’s that for progress?

Ralph got a bit agitated over the space program too.

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness. He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.