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NASA: How We’re Going to the Moon (Again)

Neil Armstrong and Moon Lander

Before the holidays, NASA put out an announcement for plans to go back to the moon. The plan is pretty extensive:

With the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. We will collaborate with our commercial and international partners and establish sustainable exploration by 2028. Then, we will use what we learn on and around the Moon to take the next giant leap — sending astronauts to Mars.

Instead of the way previous missions were completed, with one rocket taking up a single lander, NASA plans to setup infrastructure in the form of a small space station orbiting the Moon which can dock with incoming ships and guide them a gentle landing just about anywhere on the surface. This will make travelling to the moon much cheaper and sets the stage for how it will be done if (when?) mankind starts going to Mars. More details about the Artemis Mission on NASA’s website.

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What you need to know about the Wildfires in Australia

For anyone you know that thinks global warming isn’t real (okay boomer) this isn’t meant to convince them. For anyone that thinks, “ok the world is warming but what difference does it make?” See this primer on the Australian wildfires from The Verge (link below):

Dozens of fires erupted in New South Wales, Australia in November and rapidly spread across the entire continent to become some of the most devastating on record. An area about twice the size of Belgium, roughly 15 million acres, has burned. At least 18 people are dead, including at least three volunteer firefighters, and more are missing. More than 1,000 houses have been destroyed, hundreds more damaged. As blazes intensified in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, thousands of people who were forced to evacuate sought shelter on beaches across New South Wales and Victoria. Over 100 fires are still burning.

And then it gets worse from there.

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One Second Everyday 2019

With the new year comes another episode of my One Second Everyday series.

Some highlights in 2019 include: a trip to Hawaii, teaching at a new school, many trips to Medicine Hat for work, traveling for the ATA, weekends at the lake with friends, the birth of our son, attending a speech by Barrack Obama, water park outings, a new iPhone 11 Pro, our trip to Palm Springs, and visiting with family and friends over the Christmas holidays.

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The Bad Review Revue

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil: “An example of the most soul-sucking viewing that I’m forced to endure.” — Charles Koplinski, Illinois Times

Charles Angels “[F]orget heaven, these angels will take you to purgatory.” — Howell Davies, The Sun (UK)

21 Bridges: “21 Bridges is a movie that will almost immediately disappear, falling through the cracks as prestige pictures and holiday blockbusters fill up local screens…this is a bridge that likely won’t be crossed again.” — Allen Adams, The Maine Edge

Midway: “One of the best things Roland Emmerich has ever touched. This is not, as compliments go, a very good one.” — Tim Brayton, Alternate Ending

Last Christmas: “Leads have no chemistry. Jokes lame. Twist painful. Ho-ho-no.” — James Verniere, Boston Herald

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Goodwin Knight

After dabbling into my family’s genealogy, I learned that my Grandpa Marshall Milner was first cousins with former Governor of California, Goodwin Knight.(Which means he and I are first cousins 2 times removed.))

Goodwin is the grandson of John Brewitt Milner and Ester Elizabeth Yardley Thurman. (John B. Milner was the first Milner in my family to immigrate to the American continent.) his parents were Lillie (Milner) Knight and Jesse Knight. Jesse was the nephew of the mining magnate Jesse Knight who founded the town of Raymond, Ab.

My dad told me a story about how one time his parents, Marshall and Sarah travelled to California to visit their daughter Joyce who was on a church mission. It was at this time that Goodwin was the governor of California. They found themselves not far from the governor’s mansion and Marshall having never met Goodwin, wanted to knock on his cousin’s door. However, my grandma insisted that the governor was too busy and that it would be a bother to disturb him. They never did meet and everyone agrees, it’s really too bad.

Here is Goodwin at the opening of Disneyland in 1955.

Here he is again speaking after Walt just gave his opening speech. He has a look that reminds me of my Grandpa Marshall:

When it comes to Goodwin Knight, however, possibly more interesting to most is the fact that he was closely involved in the Warren Commission, officially titled The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. The Commission took its unofficial name—the Warren Commission—from its chairman, Chief Justice Earl Warren, whom Goodwin served under as the 35th Lieutenant Governor of California in the years before he became the Governor himself.

Goodwin died in 1970. See his New York Times obituary after the jump.
Continue reading “Goodwin Knight”

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John Gruber Reviews Apple’s New Air Pods Pro

My old AirPods no longer keep a charge making listening for more than a few minutes (especially from the left “pod”) quite a challenge. As expensive as AirPods are for them to just wear out after a couple of years makes me hesitant to buy another pair, however, going wireless and the convenience of charging in the case still makes them a very compelling purchase.

Apple, of course, just released the newest iteration of the AirPods (Pro!) and while I don’t have any professional use for wireless headphones, I’m intrigued by their noise cancelling ability and again, that small charging case is awesome. I had been considering other options for my next pair of earphones because noise cancelling is a game changer for the annoying engine noise on long flights.

From Daring Fireball:

Noise cancellation worked really well for me. I own a pair of Bose over-the-ear noise canceling wireless headphones, but almost exclusively wear them only on airplanes and trains. Wearing noise-canceling earbuds on the subway and walking through the city is going to take some getting used to. It’s so good you really do lose sense of your surrounding aural environment.

I was a dummy and didn’t take my Bose headphones on my trip today, so I can’t say how they compare side-by-side on the train, but there’s no question how AirPods Pro compare to regular AirPods. The difference is like night and day. Amtrak trains are pretty noisy—especially at what we in the U.S. so adorably consider “high speeds”—but with AirPods Pro the clackety-clack rumble was effectively blocked out.

Apple AirPods Pro in the hands of a customer.

I’m 90% certain I’ll pick up a pair from the Apple Store at El Paseo Village when I’m in California next week.

Update: I got some new AirPod Pros of my own and although at times I feel they are uncomfortable after using them for a long time — (which earbuds aren’t?) — I love the noise cancellation and would recommend them to anyone looking for a new set of headphones.

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California Dreamin’

We’re off for a family trip to California next week and a couple of days ago realized that not only are we losing an hour from the change in timezone, but we’ll also lose an hour because next week is the time change.

It occurred to us that this abrupt two hour change might be hard on our daughter, The Little NessMonster, so we’ve started advancing her bedtimes by 15 minutes per day. Her usual bedtime is at 7:00 and by the time we leave she’ll be going to bed at about 9:00pm which seems crazy but at the same time, it will make it easier for Halloween since we won’t have to worry about her being woken up by trick-or-treaters.

We’re very excited for California and despite widespread black-outs due to high winds, fires, and the dangers of fires from downed power lines… Palm Springs area isn’t supposed to be affected.

(via poweroutage.us)

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Meet the Next Generation CRISPR

There’s a new version of CRISPR, the gene editing tool that cuts swaths out of DNA and replaces them with new DNA that, for example, doesn’t contain the code for vulnerabilities to genetically inherited diseases. This version, however, radically improves on the old technology because it can rewrite DNA without actually cutting the DNA (which can damage and introduce errors into the genome). It’s called “prime editing”.

From MIT Technology Review’s article by Antonio Regalado:

Today, in the latest — and possibly most important — of recent improvements to CRISPR technology, Liu is introducing “prime editing,” a molecular gadget he says can rewrite any type of genetic error without actually severing the DNA strand, as CRISPR does.

The new technology uses an engineered protein that, according to a report by Liu and 10 others today in the journal Nature, can transform any single DNA letter into any other, as well as add or delete longer stretches. In fact, Liu claims it’s capable of repairing nearly any of the 75,000 known mutations that cause inherited disease in humans.

From the abstract of the report:

Prime editing substantially expands the scope and capabilities of genome editing, and in principle could correct about 89% of known pathogenic human genetic variants.

Wired, Scientific American, and Nature all have more on this story.

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100 Days of SwiftUI

I’ve been dabbling in the Swift programming language lately and after joining the /r/SwiftUI subreddit I discovered a fantastic free online course by Paul Hudson for learning the SwiftUI framework. The basic idea is, spend about an hour a day for 100 days learning about Swift and SwiftUI and then post about it. Slow and steady wins the race.

I’ve been reluctant to write about it because I wanted to try the course out before locking myself into the commitment device of publicly posting about my plan for the next 100 days, however, I just finished Day 6, I love it, and I plan on doing it every day for the next 94 days.

Details of my learning so far after the jump (posted here mostly for learning and review purposes):

Continue reading “100 Days of SwiftUI”

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