Thank you, CNN, for carrying the shuttle mission live

[question everything]

It was amazing, especially when warned ahead of time that there may be a "black hole" for transmission of pictures.

While the other networks were babbling about - I don't know - he and her and in between - CNN stuck with the camera and with commentary by a woman astronaut (I am embarrassed not to recall her name, not Sally Ride).

And then, just a simple pull on that piece of material and it was done.

I won't be able to open a door with such heavy glove and he just pulled it..

Wonderful pictures.

[DeepModem Mom]

1. Don't know what has happened, but I've been able to have CNN on...

lately, even with the sound on, after avoiding it for a long time. Not that its choice of big news stories is responsible, or its political coverage fair -- but, IMO, it's improved.

[KharmaTrain]

3. Improved?

Yesterday, I saw Mrs. Limbaugh interviewing a "contractor" (mercenary)...a former Navy commander who now is working for one of those "reconstruction companies"...who went on for at least 5 minutes spilling bile about how the Iraqis really love what we're doing and how the "private sector" is following up on what the military has done (don't know if he realize how that sounded). Mrs. Limbaugh kept identifying him by his former rank and it was easy to confuse that he wasn't a private citizen but speaking for the military. Shameless.

[question everything]

5. I think that this is a hit or miss

Like you, I've stopped watching CNN when, first, it never let go of the Teri Schivao case, then it was the Pope dying and a new Pope being elected. Then they practically eulogized Peter Jennings when he announced his lung cancer and I just lost interest in any of them. Except for Lou Dobbs, though.

And I liked Jack Cafferty in the morning. Also Bill Hemmer, even though he moved to Faux but, I suppose, there are not that many jobs for TV anchoring these days..

[ochazuke]

2. Why was the insulation sticking out anyway?

How did that happen? Has anyone heard any ideas or theories?

[question everything]

4. I think that the question should be: was this the first time

that the insulation was sticking while in flight?

It was reported that the insulation parts were sticking previously after the shuttle would complete the mission and landed, but in this case they were not taking any chances.

And add this to the question of why can't the insulation pad stay in one place. As some people wrote to the local newspaper - can't it be encased in some kind of a mesh?

[ochazuke]

6. So many questions

That just a casual consumer of news like me can come up with so many questions about shuttle safety is worrisome.

Back in the mid-eighties, I remember hearing a news story that one of the solid rocket boosters was recovered and found to have been seconds away from burning though the rocket casing.

Yet they did nothing about it.

Then a few missions later came the Challenger disaster.

[question everything]

7. Scary! n/t