An open letter to Twitter on The @towerbridge Affair

What Adam said:

The first important recognition inscribed in @towerbridge is that we can reconceive of the built environment as a field of available informational resources. The second is that this can be done very simply, and at surprisingly little cost — crucial, when the established technology vendors are heavily invested, and want to invest others, in heroic “smart city” infrastructure.

Tom’s third insight, though, is even more foundational than either of these two. It’s that urban actors like bridges might speak to people on the same terms, and in the same voice, as we use amongst ourselves. Simply, respectfully, usefully…and without any of the obfuscation and mystery that’s, let’s face it, inherent for most people in terms like “networked urban object” and “common messaging bus.” In this sense, @towerbridge as Tom used it clearly established best practice in my field.

STS-134 Space Shuttle Endeavour Post-scrub Briefing

Today’s STS-134 Space Shuttle Endeavour launch was scrubbed due to a malfunction of the heating elements on an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) which controls the hydraulics which controls movement of the main engines (SSME), aero surfaces, basically everything on the orbiter. This was a main system, which had some redundancy, but an ascent and decent it is a critical part of steering the orbiter. So it makes sense that the launch was scrubbed. You can watch a snippet of the press conference above, or watch the whole Post-scrub Briefing (warning, long).
They won’t know until tomorrow how serious the issue is – it will take a bit more time to safe the Shuttle: mainly the ET hydrogen takes 24 hours to fully remove, burn-off then purge the tank with helium to make it safe to work on the Shuttle.
Right now STS-134 is set to launch no earlier than Monday at 2:33 pm, which will undoubtably be adjusted when they can get into the rear avionics bay to repair the heating system. According to Space Flight Now:

NASA managers do not yet know what it will take to resolve the problem, but they are hopeful a faulty thermostat in a heater circuit is to blame. If so, the shuttle could be ready for another launch attempt as early as Monday at 2:33:56 p.m.
But if the problem requires a cockpit fuse panel swap out, or installation of a replacement electrical box in the shuttle’s aft engine compartment, Endeavour’s launch on its 25th and final mission could be delayed until May 9 or 10, after the planned May 6 launch of an Atlas rocket carrying a missile early warning satellite.

Personally this is a disappointment as I had contingencies for both a 24 and 48 hour scrub, but a Monday launch basically is out of the question due to money, but also time: I would be back at work no earlier than Tuesday. And frankly the thought of waking up again at 5am to wait in a series of lines again wasn’t to appealing. Additionally, Monday isn’t a lock and I have other commitments. So I will be watching the ascent on NASA TV (which is pretty awesome, by the way).