So, this dude, Reid Gower, decided that NASA does a pretty poor job of promoting itself and took it upon himself to school the geeks over there on how to, you know, make space exploration sexy again. Very simple really, take the voice of the late, beloved Carl Sagan from his Cosmos TV series and mash it up with some of the better video of recent decades. Done.

Carl Sagan of course is known universally to Americans of a certain age who were either depending on your outlook at the time forced or allowed to watch Cosmos in school in the early 1980′s. Cosmos is available to watch for free online at Hulu and Netflix. If you have children in the 12-16 year age range do yourself and them a favor and sit down with them – bind them to the couch and prop their eyes open Clockwork Orange style if you must – and watch this with them. It is probably the best eight hours you will ever spend with them in terms of making them smart people.

Gower has since made a second video in the same series. Check them out on Facebook.

A couple of quick things on our domestic space program, ’cause this is a politics and policy blog after all. The entirety of the NASA budget for FY 2009 was $17.3 billion. Yes that sounds like and it IS a lot of money. However, this is sixth-tenths of one percent (.6 %) of the Federal Budget and is less than one tenth of the Defense Department budget and barely one fifth of the amount spent on agricultural crop subsidies. This budget includes the manned space program as well as a goodly amount of support for Department of Defense space operations.

As for manned space exploration, the difficulties of placing and sustaining people in space are huge. It turns out that people, while perfectly suited to walk around naked on most of their home planet, die within seconds above about 45,000 feet unless supported by 10,000 years’ worth of technological progress and millions of dollars worth of equipment. This kind of thing is probably something that should mostly be done away with on the individual nation-state level. We are no longer in any kind of space race and in tough economic times, we can’t really afford that kind of nationalistic chest-thumping. This kind of space program should be shared with like-minded nations (Japan, the Europeans, Russians, Indians and Brazillians to name just a few) in order to spread the cost. It would also be quite beneficial from a brotherhood-of-man, were-all-one-planet standpoint.

As for unmanned exploration, there can be no question that the billions that have been expended on Earth imaging and communications satellites has been money well-spent. And the robotic probes at a few million a pop? Well, I’ll leave you with these and you decide for yourself.

This enhanced color image of Saturn eclipsing the Sun was taken by the Cassini Probe. Earth is visible as a tiny dot between the outer ring and the inner ring in the upper left. Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This scene was recorded on the surfance of Saturn's moon, Titan, by ESA's Huygens probe after a 2 1/2 hour descent through a thick atmosphere of nitrogen laced with methane. Bathed in an eerie orange light at ground level, rocks strewn about the scene could well be composed of water and hydrocarbons frozen solid at an inhospitable temperature of - 179 degrees C (-290 F). Scientists hypothesize that the early Earth had an atmosphere of a similar composition, albeit much warmer. At 832 million miles from Earth, Titan is the most distant object that humans have ever landed upon and imaged. Source: European Space Agency.

A year later we’re all echoing Casey Stengal’s famous lament about his 1962 Mets.

I could write up a long post analyzing the Democrat’s institutional deficiencies and misteps over the last year. But I have work to do. The problem boils down to this: Democratic elected officials do not have the courage of the movement’s convictions with regards to change and reform. Thus, meaningful policy legislation is a tough slog even with super-majorites. Repbulican officals on the other hand have lots of courage of conviction. Their problem is that their convictions are based on fantasy and failed policies.

But the Republicans know what they want and they know how to get it. Democrats know what they want and many know how to get it. But they are scared to be as heavy-handed as they need to be in the face of the know-nothing, never-say-die Republican opposition. I’m sick of it. Politics ain’t beanbag.

You know what’s worse than hopelessness? Hopes dashed. Expectations unfulfilled. Hopeless people are meek, and well, hopeless. People who have seen a glimmer of light that is then snuffed out… Those people are pissed off. That is the stuff revolutions are made of.

But that’s where we are right now because the Democrats in Congress and in the Iowa State House (and Governor’s mansion) have utterly squandered the massive electoral mandates they were handed on a silver platter two years ago for no other reason than lack of courage of their own convictions.

If you want to laugh and cry at the same time, Jon Stewart offered another master class in accurate political commentary thinly disguised and humor last night. Sadly for progressives and mainstream journalism, Stewart calls it as it is better than anyone else can, making the complex simple and highlighting the absurdity of it all.

Breaking down the Massachusetts special election and the potential consequences for health care reform and everything else the Democrats want to do in the next few years, he said in part:

Let me see if I have this straight. You need to replace perhaps the most beloved liberal in the history of the Senate with a candidate that believes Curt Schilling is a Yankee fan. Because if this lady loses, the health care reform bill that the beloved late senator considered his legacy will die. And the reason it will die is because if Coakley loses, Democrats will only have then an 18-vote majority in the Senate. Which is more than George W. Bush ever had in the Senate when he did whenever the fuck he wanted.

The Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurses office because, once again, they have glued their balls to their thighs.

The Flaming Lips have been around since forever. I remember seeing them at the now-gone but legendary Crow’s Nest in Iowa City in the early 1980′s when they were just a moderatly interesting, albeit fun alt-rock band. When I worked at KRUI, they cut a cool faux-rap station ID. They were amusing, but forgettable.

Flash forward to 1990. I had just come back from Eastern Europe and was flopping in a house in De Kalb and somone played In A Priest-Driven Ambulance. It blew my mind and I asked who the band was. When I was told it was the Flaming Lips, I couldn’t believe it.

Since then they have released one trippy album after another. Some have more catchy tunes than others but all are magnificently produced, interesting and often quite tender. One of my favorite bands of all time. “Do You Realize,” is one of my favorite songs. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots came out in 2002, just as my oldest daughter, Molly was getting interested in music and listening to music with Daddy. I used to play this song for her and it remains, “Our Song.”

Today is the 30th anniversary of the best album ever made, The Clash’s, “London Calling.” You beg to differ? You’re probably older than me. I wasn’t really consuming music when these others were released. Besides, even the Beatles were never called, “The Only Band That Matters.”

The “official video” has embedding disabled. So, here is Joe belting out the title track with the Pogues in 1998. I saw him with them that year. Sadly it was the closest I ever came to seeing The Clash live.

Not a whole lot going on in technology and politics…

But I look forward to the way cool future Microsoft has in store for us.