Apollo 10 …

The event was a rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

When Apollo 10 launched on May 18, 1969, it was the fifth launch of the Saturn V. It carried Mission Commander Thomas Stafford, command module pilot John Young and lunar module pilot Eugene Cernan to the Moon. The crew performed the first lunar orbit rendezvous, and the lunar landing mission profile was performed except for powered descent, landing and ascent of the lunar module. The mission objectives were to rehearse all the steps and reproduce all the events of the Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission, with the exception of the lunar touchdown, stay and liftoff.
The mission transmitted the first live color television transmissions to Earth, which began three hours after launch when Apollo 10 was 3,570 miles from Earth.

Image Credit: NASA

nasa.org

SUMA-NW

Safe Utility Meters Alliance Northwest (educating people about so called ‘smart’ meters)

The ACLU of Washington is raising significant concerns about the lack of protections for privacy, as well as lack of transparency, in the implementation of Seattle City Light’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure. The project involves installation of smart meters which gather data that can reveal intimate details about what is going on inside a person’s home. Yet there are no clear and explicit checks and balances to restrict the government or third parties from using or selling smart meter data for purposes unrelated to the provision of electricity, and the City’s Privacy Impact Assessment for the project is unclear and inadequate.

“The new smart meters collect much more detailed data and do so more frequently than City Light’s previous electrical meters. But the project fails to comply with the principles of the Seattle’s Privacy Program, and there is no meaningful opportunity for the individuals to offer informed consent,” said Shankar Narayan, ACLU of Washington Technology and Liberty Director.

In a letter to the Seattle City Council, the ACLU urged the City to adopt clear and binding guidelines around what data smart meters collect, who accesses the data, what the data can and cannot be used for, and what informed consent must be given before the meters are deployed. The ACLU points out that the option to opt-out offered by the City currently is inadequate, meaningless, and expensive. Under the City’s plan, third parties will be accessing this sensitive data, and those third parties should be bound not to sell the data or use it for unrelated purposes.

Opting out will cost an individual $124.43 as a one-time “administrative fee,” plus $15.87 per billing cycle. “Exercising one’s right to opt out shouldn’t mean opting in to excessively costly fees,” said Shankar Narayan.

ACLU-WA website

http://www.safemeters.org