Mission: STS-131
Proposed Launch Date: February 11, 2010
Shuttle: Atlantis, on its final flight
Mission Description: Atlantis will deliver the Docking Cargo Module and the third and fourth EXPRESS Logistics Carriers to the ISS on Assembly Flight ULF5.

This is indeed moved: Launch Target: March 18, 2010

Mission: STS-132
Proposed Launch Date: April 8, 2010
Shuttle: Discovery, its final flight
Mission Description: deliver the Node 3 components to the ISS, which includes advanced life support systems and a Cupola with a robotic workstation. It’s possible that this flight could be the final space shuttle mission if an additional contingency mission is not needed.

This is also moved: Launch Target: May 14, 2010

Mission: STS-133
Proposed Launch Date: May 31, 2010
Shuttle: Endeavour (for sure the final flight!)
Mission Description: This is a contingency flight to finish any remaining construction or bring up any remaining components, and possibly bring the 5th ExPRESS Logistics Carrier. If needed, this will be the final space shuttle mission.

This is also moved: Launch Target: Sept. 16, 2010

You want one of these, you know it.

“Regardless of the vitriol spewed by both sides, this is a pretty simple problem that comes down to one issue:

Humans are not presently acting as good stewards of the global biosphere.

Anyone who chooses to argue otherwise is likely to be smothered in data, like:
-Continued massive input of pollutants into everything we touch: effluent into water, gas emissions, burial of toxic manufacturing byproducts, etc
-No/minimal control on global population, even while facing exponential population growth
-No modern transportation infrastructure that is even moderately ‘future-proof’
-Increasing (and often unchecked) extinction of useful species due to human activity (fishing, hunting, poaching, habitat destruction, etc.)

So, in the context of the global warming/global cooling issue, my response is “Who cares?”. Whether or not the temperature of the Earth is going to go up or down by two degrees isn’t that relevant when compared to the above data. I think that people are asking the wrong questions. How about “What happens when the petroleum reserves start running out and we can’t pump any more?” or “What happens in 2050 when we’re estimated to hit 10 billion people?”

Frankly, it is to our collective advantage to facilitate any activity that reduces or eliminates human impact on the biosphere, whether it be methods of highly efficient food production (not involving agriculture, farming, or fishing), new low-impact power sources (fusion, solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc.), future proof transportation (high speed rail, electric cars with autopilot), population control (incentives for limiting families to 2-3 kids), or pollution control. I don’t care if we do it because God sent an angel down from on high to tell us to, or some crackpot scientist gets a bug up his butt. We need to do it, and the sooner we do it the more likely we are to avoid something on the “Thomas-Malthus-collapse-of-human-society” scale. Anyone who wants to argue with that conclusion needs to be bludgeoned upside the head with facts until their ears ring. Other than that I have no strong feelings on the subject.”

$10 sez within a year we hear about a major security breach or loss of data or credit card scam where somewhere in the story is the beloved phrase, “A vulnerability which was patched by the OpenSSL team 8 months ago, but the company never applied the update…”

Just another iteration in the cycle of “discover security hole -> panic -> patch security hole”. As usual, sysadmins who are paying attention and keep up with current events will know that there is a problem and how they can fix it (or, if they are dependent on renegotiation, redesigning the site). We’ll probably be dealing with this cycle forever. It’s just an unfortunate cost of doing business on the internet: nothing static will survive.