Probably the last for tonight…

I’ve noted a few interesting items as I’ve read through coverage this AM.

1. My first sighting of the media’s second stage reporting: when they start finger pointing and looking for a “whistleblower” or a “smoking gun”. Jackals need a carcass, and they will find one.
2. I was right about some debris making it into the Gulf of Mexico. Coast Guard cutters have been dispatched to search for locations where debris is supposed to have come down off shore.
3. There is an unconfirmed report of something coming off over California and someone suggested it might have been tiles. I’m a bit skeptical a tile would cause a trail visible at a distance of 70 miles or so. Meteor trails come from dust particles, but they are traveling many times faster.
4. The breakup occurred near the point of maximum temperature. It’s hard to imagine a worse time for it. Or perhaps a more likely one for the top scenario.
5. O’Keefe is immediately putting the investigation into an external investigation team’s hands, which is a wise move. During the days after the Challenger, some of the sleazier denizens of Capitol Hill tried to use it for political advantage. In particular I seem to remember Senator Fritz Hollings (D, Disney and sometimes NC) as one who particularly tried to use the 7 deaths to gain media attention for his own political ends.

I think I will be calling it a night very soon as it has now passed 3am here in Belfast and I am starting to hear my mattress’ siren call; “come to me”.

ONE MORE THING: If you can’t sleep and need reading material, you might find it interesting to relive the past. I believe all the discussions about the Challenger accident will be found in this 2.5 megabyte tar.gz file. Right click and download, Look for January 28th, 1986 and start reading from there.

You might even recognize a few names.