What happened to Tired Old Man?

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

Apollo 1

Apollo 13

Challenger

Columbia

These disasters were tragedies caused by human nature.

The reason that the Challenger blew up was that Morton Thiokol submitted an inferior design to NASA and even though it was the worst of the 5 designs for the booster rockets, it won the contract because the wife of a big shot in NASA was a member of the same church as the head of Morton Thiokol.

NASA knew that the "O-rings" had problems with low temperature, but under the pressure of meeting schedule, they launched and 7 people paid the ultimate price.

[winner 0]

...But, he is always interesting.

Tom, I often agree with ya, often don't, but always enjoy the vehicle of your expression.

"Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac."

--George Carlin.

Hey you maniac, keep on driving your point home!

And yes, I do mean that as a compliment!

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

I would have provided more details, but I couldn't find any links except to a site that I would have had to pay $$ for the archived article. I remember what happened, but did not want to be too precise, lest my memory set me up for a falling.

[BJean 16]

T_O_M: It's interesting to hear that one woman had the power to bring down the Challenger. You gonna have to show me some proof on that one.

I'm a wife, I talk with other wives and with the men my husband works with. I would like to think that I have that kind of influence over cocktails, but I'm not kidding myself, I do not.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

T_O_M: It's interesting to hear that one woman had the power to bring down the Challenger. You gonna have to show me some proof on that one.

I'm a wife, I talk with other wives and with the men my husband works with. I would like to think that I have that kind of influence over cocktails, but I'm not kidding myself, I do not.

I read the story in the NY Times when it came out. If you want to pay the fee or if you subscribe to the NY Times, here is THE LINK.

[bitteroldhag 0]

Apollo 1

Apollo 13

Challenger

Columbia

These disasters were tragedies caused by human nature.

The reason that the Challenger blew up was that Morton Thiokol submitted an inferior design to NASA and even though it was the worst of the 5 designs for the booster rockets, it won the contract because the wife of a big shot in NASA was a member of the same church as the head of Morton Thiokol.

NASA knew that the "O-rings" had problems with low temperature, but under the pressure of meeting schedule, they launched and 7 people paid the ultimate price.

This is exactly what Landow discusses in the book. He goes into great detail. He's a prof at Berkeley, I think, and he makes his case that they just didn't have time or the balls to save 7 people.

I put this big log in the fireplace and it didn't even start burning until I wanted to go to bed. Now it's burning like crazy. I think I may be up all night. I even sprayed it with Water. It loved that and burned more. Alas!

[DevilMayKare 1]

The O-ring investigation is gone into in great detail in a book by Ralph Leighton about the Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman titled, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character." It's an excellent book as is the first book about Feynman called: "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman."

Richard Feynman was on the government's investigative commission on the shuttle tragedy and silenced a whole auditorium of mucky-mucks debating the cause when from the stage he asked for a glass of ice Water. He proceded to drop an O-ring into it-- then fished the ring out & held it up a few moments later... cracked clear through. True story.

Have any of you read those books? I think they should be required reading for every high school student. There are 3 really good books about Feynman. He, of course, wrote about a dozen books about Physics but I could never understand any of those.

[Tired_Old_Man 1]

The O-ring investigation is gone into in great detail in a book by Ralph Leighton about the Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynman titled, "What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character." It's an excellent book as is the first book about Feynman called: "Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman."

Richard Feynman was on the government's investigative commission on the shuttle tragedy and silenced a whole auditorium of mucky-mucks debating the cause when from the stage he asked for a glass of ice Water. He proceded to drop an O-ring into it-- then fished the ring out & held it up a few moments later... cracked clear through. True story.

Have any of you read those books? I think they should be required reading for every high school student. There are 3 really good books about Feynman. He, of course, wrote about a dozen books about Physics but I could never understand any of those.

It was well known that the "O-rings" were low temperature sensitive. The issue that I raised was "Why was that rocket booster design chosen?" when other designs did not have the "O-ring" problems with their inherent potential for disaster?

As soon as the Challenger crashed, the booster rockets were redesigned to remove the "O-ring" problem. Why couldn't the redesign have been accomplished before the tragedy?

Those are two questions that the NASA administrators, the NASA engineers, the Morton Thiokol corporate hierarchy, the Morton Thiokol engineers and the mystery woman who was at the center of the contract award decision debacle will have to life with forever. I wonder; “How many of them sleep well at night?”

[bitteroldhag 0]

From what I've read, there was a breakdown in ethics in the Challenger disaster. Engineers were telling them that the O rings were bad but they ignored them. NASA knew what the engineers were saying, but I guess they just wanted to get the shuttle into space bad enough that they decided to take a chance. This sort of corporate and governmental sloppiness has been endemic for decades and it's time it was stopped. We not only lost the crew but a couple of billion dollars of equipment. I don't appreciate paying big bucks for NASA to screw it up.

By the way, when I had the equipment rental store some years ago, we got a computer program for rental stores designed by NASA. It was horrible. It was antiquated at that time, but no one had come up with a simple spreadsheet for rental stores then. They charged us a fortune, made us go to Dallas to learn how to use the program, and then charged us for tech support for a program that was incredibly crappy. I don't think I'd want to fly in one of their shuttles.

[green 6]

I miss TOM.

[BJean 16]

I miss Tom too. Where the heck is he?

I wanted to tell him that as skeptical as I was upon hearing that a wife influenced the contract for Morton Thiokol O rings, I asked DH about it and he said that it was definitely a story that made the rounds and that it could have happened. Sometimes DH likes to think what he does is a big secret. After it comes out as a program on TV or something he knows it's fair game to tell his closest blabbermouth.

[green 6]

Very interesting. I sure hope that nothing is seriously wrong with TOM.... I find myself now fretting and because we all exist in cyberspace, there is really nothing that we can do, is there?

[BJean 16]

Mayhaps he is vacationing over the Thanksgiving Holiday and isn't living in cyberspace right now.

Come back, Tom, wherever you are.

[Victoriana 10]

Why dont you PM him?

[BJean 16]

Victoriana: Is that you? I didn't recognize you with that funny artificial nose.

I don't do PMs. Generally speaking, that is. I figure he'll show up when he wants to reveal himself.