Daily Archives: December 17, 2006

Nasa Google Space Research Project

Posted on by
5

Nasa and Google are embarking on a major space information project called the “Space Act Agreement”.

Details are HERE and this looks like annother innovation coup by the Big G:
Google and Ames will focus on making the most useful of NASA’s information available on the Internet. Real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars, real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle will be explored in the future.

“This agreement between NASA and Google will soon allow every American to experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons of Mars,” said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin

Thanks to Glenn for the tip!

Missing at sea in Oregon

Posted on by
17

Today (Sunday) a fishing boat has sunk off the Oregon Coast and a few days ago a Catamaran washed ashore with nobody aboard. I’m looking for more detail now and I’m getting a bit paranoid as it seems Oregon is rapidly becoming the US capital of missing people.

The Coast Guard is asking that anyone who may have seen the Catamaran in transit from San Francisco please contact Coast Guard District 13 Command Center at (800) 982-8813.From Oregonlive:

On Rogue River, rescuers find boat owner’s survival suit
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and rescue boat renewed their search today for three crew members from a 43-foot fishing vessel that sank Saturday at the entrance of the Rogue River.

The commercial vessel’s crew, which included owner Robert James Ashdown, 44, of Port Orford sent a distress message about 3:40 p.m. Coast Guard Air Station North Bend picked up the signal and initiated an air and sea search.

A life raft, spotted near the river’s entrance by a crew member who apparently did not go out with the others Saturday, contained no members of the crew, said Shawn Eggert, a public affairs specialist with the Coast Guard’s District 13 public affairs office in Seattle. The life raft is in the custody of the Curry County Sheriff’s office, he said.

Debris from the boat, including some survival suits identified by Ashdown’s family as belonging to him, also were found.

The vessel capsized as it attempted to cross the Rogue River bar in Gold Beach, where it encountered extremely high waves and a strong surf, according to the Curry County sheriff’s office. Witnesses said the boat had just crossed the bar when it was slammed first by a wave that knocked it sideways and then by another, which turned the craft over.

The sheriff’s office said it was not yet releasing the names of the other two crew members.

[Note that about 70 miles upriver from the mouth of the Rogue River lies Big Windy Creek Canyon where James Kim died last week, only about a half mile from this same Rogue River.]