Discussion on:

Geek Trivia: Why does the last space shuttle mission have the smallest flight crew in 28 years?

For those few remaining Geek Trivia fans out there, TechRepublic has inexplicably invited me back to the Geekend to hurl oddly educational minutia at your browsers and inboxes, I look forward to your Quibble and criticisms and, above all, the meager paycheck.

I miss your geekend posts.

Minutia as used in your post is not quite correct. Minutiae is the more usual spelling. Quibbles on Friday mornings can be quite minute!

Minutia is the plural of minutiae.

Glad to see you here again. I always enjoyed the Geek Trivia and I'm looking forward to more!

And for a quibble... I think to "slip the surly bonds of Earth" the space shuttle would need to exit the Earth's gravitational field, would it not?

Given that the poem that line comes from is about mere *aerodynamic flight* - that is, good ol' fashioned aeroplanes - I think it's even more applicable to the Shuttle, myself. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gillespie_Magee,_Jr.#High_Flight )

And, if you want to be really quibble-y, the Earth's gravitational field extends to infinity - it's not like there's some limit on it. Of course, outside of, say, the solar system, Earth's individual field is pretty darned small, but strictly speaking it's never *zero*.
/r

It's a fair point that the gravitational field is never technically zero, but it does reach a point where it is effectively zero (an object at a large enough distance would not be attracted to the planet), whereas the orbit obtained by the shuttle is still strongly affected by the gravitational pull of the planet. I think it's still valid.

"Earth's gravitational field extends to infinity". It would be improper to state this as a fact. It can only be stated as a theory since gravity is still not thoroughly understood. It's affect can be felt and measured but no one has been able to define exactly what it is and therefore no one knows the extent of its affect or field. Now that's a fact.

Until the conversation is best served by precise wording, imprecision will serve most purposes. When was the last time you took a healthy bite out of a slice of seedless watermelon and moments later spit out a seed? We consume bottled water emblazoned with catch phrases such as 'Zero calories' and 'No cholesterol' (ya think?!). ' No sodium' is prominently placed on the front label of many foods yet when one reads the list of contents, sodium chloride is still listed before the other ingredients that comprise less than 2% of the finished products compopsition.
Until we are ready to accept a higher degree of precision regarding those materials we ingest, then we ought to be able to deal with inaccuracies such as 'zero G'. Precision has its place - usually about 9 zeros to the right of the decimal point!

Hey we rank above the meager paycheck. Awesome. Nice to have you back man, the trivia's always been a pleasant slice out of my regular TechRepublic diet.

52 minutes to to!

I secretly hope that Atlantis gets scrubbed so I can drive up there tomorrow to watch it go up in person. Jay, I hope your missions are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Glad to have you back, Jay!

Glad to have you back. This is a feature that has been sorely missed.

Glad to have you back, Jay!

Welcome back, G-T warrior! Miss your witticisms and insight, hope you can post regularly again. Gotta go, NASA TV is running the countdown...

Glad you've returned Jay - things haven't been the same without you.

Fridays were not the same without the Geek Trivia page. I am full of joy having you back illustrating us!! From the Republic of Panama, a follower salutes you!!!!

I subbed in time to only receive 2 or 3 Geekend Trivia posts before you went on walkabout, and I've missed it ever since. News of your return is welcome indeed!

Prost!
"Merch"

Welcome back! I always looked forward to the trivia blog. But even then I used to think it's be more satisfying if there were several items mentioned in each column, rather than covering one topic.

Maybe you could find a couple questions that relate to a single topic, or cover a couple topics in the news of the week. For example today there was a report about a satellite having confirmed one of Einstein's counterintuitive predictions: that the spinning earth creates a twisted, warped 4 dimensional space-time field around it.

What a wonderful surprise to see your trivia back!
I did a double take to make sure it wasn't a "re-run" in honor of the Shuttle. Thank you, Tech Republic!

I figured it was simply because they weren't dropping anyone off at the ISS.

Welcome back!

if ever there was one.
I myself had no inkling, so yours was better than mine.

I read it in the paper this morning.

Jay is back! Jay is back! JAY IS BACK! We HOPE (Are you reading this TR management) for a LOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGGG run.

@AmndyM, "Slipped the surly bonds of earth" has long been a catchphrase for the American space program. It actually refers to atmospheric flight, being a line from a poem by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., a British aviator killed during WWII, so I don't think its use for orbital flight is at all incorrect. Having now made my own tiny contribution to geek triviadom, I welcome back the Master of Minutiae. Welcome back, Mr. Garmon!

The complete poem is on Wikipedia's Magee page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gillespie_Magee,_Jr.

It's pretty much been adopted by aviators of all forms. Odd that it should come up in a Shuttle discussion, since it's most famous connection to the program is a tragic one. Reagan quoted parts of it during the Challenger memorial service.

Life on Friday has returned! Jay your return is as good as the last launch.

Glad to be able to read your alliterations once again!

Aprreciate your truth in advertising in your tag line. I signed up for abuse when I went into IT so a little more of this type is welcome...

Makes for a bitter sweet moment, reading this and watching the last shuttle launch.

may they triple the meagerness and change it into a merely small. But the humor you provide has always been gigantic.

Since howstuffworks dropped their Interesting Reading posts (with the exit of Marshall Brain), life has been duller on the net for me. Your return definitely brightens my web day/week/month. Welcome back!

Welcome back Jay. For those who don't want to wait a week for another Geek Trivia fix, I managed to find a link to the 20 all-time favorite columns page that you linked to in your last column. Enjoy.
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/geekend/geek-trivia-the-20-all-time-favorite-columns/2527?pg=2

I can say this before I even read the piece: Good to have you back, man.

Just watched the launch as was thinking about this very topic. Glad you are back. One more thing to look forward to with Fridays!

Thanks, Mr. Garmon. You really made my day

Deja Vu!!! I always enjoyed this - GLAD it is back!!!!

Oh, I already said that!! Oh, I already said th... OKAY, ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

It was Wednesday April 29th 2009, when my geek world lost a little sparkle...

Glad to have it back

when "Space Cowboys" landed! Howdy again!

I haven't actually read anything in Geekend since GT was dropped. Just wasn't worth the effort. Now I have another reason to look forward to Fridays. Welcome back, Jay.

Glad to see you back Jay!! Geekend has not been the same with out you. I look forward to getting my head filled with your offerings!!!

Also glad to see the feature back!!
/rob

Welcome back,
Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back,
To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they're turned around.
Who'd have thought they'd lead ya (Who'd have thought they'd lead ya)
Here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)
Yeah we tease him a lot cause we've hot him on the spot, welcome back,
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Welcome back! I've missed Geek Trivia. It's been FAR too long! I honestly thought it was never coming back this time. Glad to see you resume it again.

Good to have you back Jay. I missed your Trivia!

Jay, I'm glad you're back. I hope you negotiated an excellent deal for yourself and TR. Now, get to work!

Glad to see you're back. Obviously, you were missed.

Geek Trivia was one of the few reasons I ever visited TR. Good to see you back.