Music Is Required. Now.

Because, y'see, there's this fine pair o'Irish lads who perform under the name of Men of Worth (though they joke that they have, in fact, become Men of Girth).  And while they're as fine a pair o'lads as ever you'll hear, I must purge teh Eeevul of das Earwürm from mah BRANE.  Because if "Roses of Prince Charlie" runs through my head one more time this morning, I may have to travel across the water mysel', find the grave o' the Pretender frae Oe'r the Water, and PISS ON IT.

I hold the Pretender more or less single-handedly responsible for setting in motion the destruction of the Highland clans and the Scouring of the Glens.  Discuss.

A spot of tea, what?

This morning's selection:  Selimbong estate FTGFOP first-flush Darjeeling.  With cream.  Yum.

The smell of frshly-brewed Darjeeling is wafting pleasantly about the place ... I actually made the first batch of the Selimbong yesterday, but didn't use enough leaves (I remembered three scoops, while experiment shows the correct number is in fact four^[1]), so I figured I should give it a fairer try today instead of sampling the Castleton.

Then I suppose it's time to make some progress on Half-Blood Prince before I become the only person on my friends list who hasn't read it yet.

^[1]  But count thou not five!

It's official ...

...NASA has decided to go ahead with a launch of Columbia at 10:34am on Tuesday, even though they have not ascertained the cause of the fuel sensor problem that scrubbed the last launch.  It was previously reported that NASA "might" go ahead and fly the Shuttle with a known bad sensor, although that report also stated that failure to shut down the engines before fuel is exhausted could cause an explosion.  (This statement was not enlarged upon.)

This seems to me like a really bad idea, especially given that the previous NASA new release included a photo of a NASA engineer with a spare sensor in his hands on a table.  If you have a spare, why not swap out the malfunctioning sensor and replace it with a known-good one?  Then you can tear the malfing one down and find out why it's malfing.

NASA flight protocols require all four sensors to be working for a launch.

Parsons said NASA officials, as a contingency, are preparing for the possibility of waiving the requirement and sending up Discovery with just three working sensors.  However, he said no decision has been made to change the protocol, and he said it wouldn't be done unless engineers are confident they understand the problem, even if they can't isolate it.

The current launch window ends July 31; the next window does not open until September 9.  My call?  Take the extra five weeks, and find and fix the problem.  Fourteen Shuttle astronauts is already fourteen too many.

Scary

According to a book by one of Eric Rudolph's bombing victims, Rudolph was acquitted by juries in three of four mock trials staged by Federal prosecutors while preparing for his trial.  Why?  Insufficient evidence?  Incompetent prosecution?

Nope ... according to author and former clinic nurse Emily Lyons, the jurors apparently felt the victims "got what they deserved" for working at abortion clinics.

U.S. Attorney Alice Martin confirmed Tuesday that at least one mock trial was held but said Lyons "is mistaken in her understanding of the results."

In a statement, Martin said she fully expected Rudolph to be convicted had there been a trial and denied the outcome of a mock proceeding had anything to do with Rudolph's plea.

"The only reason the death penalty was removed was in exchange for pleas in all the Atlanta-area bombings, and disclosure of the location and subsequent rendering safe of over 250 pounds of explosives on public land and rights of way in North Carolina," Martin said.

Personally, I find it scary that in the 21st century, three out of four juries might acquit a home-grown domestic terrorist who bombed Olympic crowds on the basis that murder and terrorism are OK as long as they're done for God.  Seems you can always find someone to pull out the religion card to excuse anything.

Semper Fi

A commemorative US silver dollar has been released bearing an obverse design of the raising of the US flag on Iwo Jima, to commemorate the 230th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps.

Semper Fi.