Tempus Fugit

Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies

Category: Travel

  • News Photographer with NowPublic

    Out of the blue I got an email from NowPublic. According to their “about us page”

    NowPublic is a participatory news network which mobilizes an army of reporters to cover the events that define our world. In twelve short months, the company has become one of the fastest growing news organizations with over 15,000 reporters in 130 countries. During Hurricane Katrina, NowPublic had more reporters in the affected area than most news organizations have on their entire staff.

    NowPublic Technologies, Inc. is a Vancouver-based company. The company owns and operates NowPublic.com, which showcases its platform for citizen journalism. Learn more about the site, our management team, our advisors or contact us with your comments or questions.

    They requested the use of three of my Flickr pictures from a recent trip to the Kennedy Space Center where I had taken some photographs of the shuttle Discovery on the launch pad. They wanted to use the pictures in conjunction with the story about the foam coating coming off the external fuel tank. Since the trip to KSC and getting high speed Internet at the lake I’ve been following the shuttle launch with a little more interest than usual.

    So, does this make me a published news photographer? – The photo credit is as Big Dadoo, my Flickr name.

    After two scrubs it would be great if they could launch on July 4th and mark the day as the Return to Space Flight.

  • Rational Rain Storm

    Well the preconfernece day has ended with the traditional poolside reception. I arrived for the opening at 6pm, had something to eat and drink and then is started to rain. and not just a little bit, but a full out thunderstorm with heavy rain. I think the late comers will be out of luck and who knows how they will move the party for a couple of thousand people to another venue. I’d say the food would be soaked before they could put it away.

     Right now I’m hanging around a kiosk waiting for it to let up before I head out to the car. At least I’m not hungry. 🙂

    Speaking of food, bad marks for the fodd so far. Hotdogs & Hamburgers for a fancy party reception really doesn’t cut it. It seems that the conference glory days of the 2000 era are gone and cutbacks are in effect. Funny, they didn’t make the conference any less expensive.

  • Kennedy Space Center

    I spent Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center and enjoyed the day. I thought I’d get up rarely early an hit Cocoa Beach first, but I slept in a bit too much so I went straight to KSC and got there shortly after 9am and caught the first tour.  


    Kennedy Space Center
    Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

    What a great day! The tour was very informative and it’s amazing to see where the space program has come over the last 30 years. We take everything so much for granted now that we don’t even notice when a shuttle goes up any more, only when things go very wrong do we pay attention. I was amazed to learn that the International Space Station has been continuously manned and worked on for over 3 years. And, as the shuttle returns to space on July 1 to continue building the ISS. If you’re interested, have a look at my Flickr photos

    Two of the many attractions were the IMAX 3D movies, Magnificent Desolation with Tom Hanks and Space Station with Tom Cruise. Wow, 3D has come a long way and even though you still need the glasses, the effect is great. Of the two films, by far the Space station one was incredible. I saw it late in the day and was a little tired and had closed my eyes a couple of times in Magnificent Desolation but not so with this one. The footage was exceptional and riveting. It’s totally amazing what is being built high above the earth and it was especially interesting after touring the clean room area where the next 3 actual  modules were being prepped for delivery to the station. I think I’ll be tracking the launch and progress of STS-121 Discovery for sure.

    The KSC was worth the trip and deserves the entire day is you at all interested in the space program and it’s history.

    NASA – Kennedy Space Center – America’s Spaceport

    Where else in the world do history and the future, nature and technology, young and old meet for an unforgettable and inspirational journey through space and time? The Kennedy Space Center has hosted millions of guests from around the world for more than 30 years — telling the story of how the United States built a space program that launched men to the Moon, orbited satellites that have improved our lives, and sent probes into distant space to solve the mysteries of the cosmos.

  • Exploring Florida

    After getting settled at the hotel, I decided to do a little exploring, something other that the typical theme park stuff. I picked up a brochure on Kissimmee that made it seem quite interesting, wrong! It was quite a let down. The couple of attractions I went to were quite disappointing. The “historic train station” turned out to be just a run down old train station with nothing of interest for a visitor. Today, it’s just another Amtrak stop. The Bull Creek Wildlife Management Area sounded better with an “interpretive loop” 8.6 mile driving tour. There were 3-4 spots that looked like this, and the rest was just a road through the low level brush. I saw 3 deer and two different kinds of birds and not much else. The brochure for the self-guiding tour was a simple map with all the hunting and camping regulations. No explanation of the area or why it’s a wildlife management area. It seemed to be more about the hunting. Oh yeah, I did see one other van driving slowly with the side door open. I didn’t get a close look, but I’d bet there was some fire power pointing out that door.