Friday, 16th January

Today, on the 16th January, 2003...

"Space shuttle Columbia was launched on what would be its final mission"

Space shuttle Columbia at launch

Final mission? Yes, the final mission. Look at the front of the shuttle on the picture above, near the nose. See those struts? Holding the shuttle to the rocket? Well, the one nearest the camera broke off, making a hole in the wing behind it. Holes in spaceships are bad things, and although this one didn't actually expose the interior of the ship to space (which would have killed the crew in space), it did seriously damage the thermal insulation on the wing, intended to protect the ship from heat on re-entry to the earth's atmosphere. When it came to the time, on the 1st February, the shuttle broke up over Texas. All crew members disintegrating with their ship.

Strangely, there were survivors, of sorts. Wikipedia entry? Yes please!!

A group of small (1 mm adult) Caenorhabditis elegans worms, living in petri dishes enclosed in aluminium canisters, survived re-entry and impact with the ground and were recovered weeks after the disaster. The culture was verified as still alive on April 28, 2003. They were part of a Biological Research in Canisters experiment designed to study the effect of weightlessness on physiology.

Caenorhabditis elegans

Today's Irritating Quote:

"There are substitutes for almost everything except work and sleep"

No attribution available for this one, I'm afraid. Anonymous. However, when searching the phrase in quotes on google, there are three sites which have used it (and who, I suspect, used a similar desk calendar). They are:

• Castlebar town's local website archived from 2004. Castlebar is in the West of Ireland, and looks very nice.
• On the discussion board for Yorkshire Divers, a scuba diving forum for people in Yorkshire.
  
• In a posting on a forum for Abertillery Town Cricket Club, author "36 D", again in 2004. The 'fact' on this guy's calendar is different (no doubt an earlier version - after all, 2004 is only one year after the Columbia mission) is "1943 - British bombers flew on the Dambusters Mission"... "36D" is moved to comment:

  "God Bless them all, for that is why we are allowed the freedom use this wonderful site, to run around naked on minibuses, and to watch the likes of Bling, DC, Wes, AAAAAAAAAAALI, Nashie, Fly, Nowy, Rossie and Rawlie Podge frollocking in the Eden that is ATCC Park. CLASS"

God bless cricketers, Every one! Bless their freedom to homoeroticize their fellow man... Nashie, Rossie, Wossy, Flossy, Fucknut, Poundstretcher, Nazi, Big-end, Harold, Tiger, Manny, Ganny, QG, OP, NYP, Wanger, Stumpy and Shitknees! I'm weeping with pride! Weeping!!

CLASS!!!!