Aerospace History

Let it be known that history was made earlier today. The first privately funded manned space flight, and the pilot, Mike Melville, became the first person certified as a civilian astronaut. Not everyday does a company not associated with a governmental agency accomplish such an important milestone in humankind quest to further themselves, both physically and metaphorically. For several months I have been following this effort of Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who put forth $20M of his own money to fund the project. I couldn't dream of the government accomplishing as much with a fraction of Scaled Composites budget. My hat is truly off to those guys and gals.

The next step is to try for the $10 Million Ansari X-prize. The winning team will send 3 people (or the equivalent weight) above 62 miles and return them safely to earth, then repeat the feat within 2 weeks. Obviously the cost of any such attempt will far exceed the prize sum, but the implications and future earnings of winning this competition would be enormous.

To Mike Melville, Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and all of the staff at Scaled Composites, my hat is off to you. A job well done.

Fun Weekend Ahead

This weekend looks to be a level of fun I haven't had in quite a while. Time was my best friend and brother would throw a good party a couple times a summer, but we have slacked for a few years.

NOT THIS YEAR! We are throwing another Hawaiian themed bash, with an expected 50-75 people. What better way to kick off summer (El Sol better cooperate, but it looks like it might be on the cool side). The pool will be filled with revelers and the BBQ will be blowin' up (well, not literaly, I mean .. you know what I mean). Hopefully it will be incident free, but if it's not you'll find out on Monday.

Oh, you have got to be kidding me. We just got handed here at work instructions for what to do in an earthquake, including safety supplies to keep on hand and what to do if we are in a theater, stadium, shopping mall or driving. Sometimes this safety committee just has WAY too much time on their hands. AND we need to post it next to our phone so that we can review it while we are in an earthquake. Umm ... I will not be reading a piece of paper in an earthquake, that clearly the best way to get hit in the head with a falling light. Any native californian (me) or people who have lived here for more than a year should know what to do in an earthquake anyways.

TTYL!

The End of The World

As most of you know, at least in the San Diego area, we had an earthquake here on Tuesday afternoon.

Now, I have lived in San Diego my entire life and while a 5.3 is a moderate quake ... FOR GOODNESS SAKES PEOPLE, it wasn't that strong! Everyone in my office started freaking out and wondering if the building was going to collapse. I thought it more than absurd that people would actually run towards the windows during the shaking, I know if glass break that's where I would want to be. jeesh.

Earthquakes manifest themselves in a variety of ways. Some are rollers, some are shakers and some are sharp jolts, like this one was. It occurred on a fault just off shore from Imperial Beach. There are a multitude of smaller faults in the San Diego Area, with the Rose Canyon fault the largest known (which by the way is responsible for the Canyon between Clairemont and La Jolla that I-5 runs down). The well know San Andreas fault faults passes well to our east and is capable of 9.0+ quakes. The Rose Canyon fault is estimated to produce a quake of magnitude 7.0 max, which is still an extremely powerful quake. Every 1.0 increase in magnitude is a 10x increase in strength.

A large, damaging quake is going to happen sooner or later, but this wasn't it. So enjoy the momentary excitement, the break in the monotony, and move on. But for goodness sakes stop fretting over this. If I hear one more 'there could be a bigger one coming!' I'm gonna scream. When the 'Big One' hits you aren't going to be able to do a damn thing about it. So pick up the pina colada and make sure the burgers don't burn on the BBQ. Enjoy the summer!