Weekend Updates and Moon Landing Anniversary

As a child growing up in the 60's, I wanted to be an astronaut and was absolutely fascinated with every detail available about the space program. For those who can't imagine life without the internet, news in the 60's was limited to the daily newspaper, radio and three network television channels.

I have been reliving my early teen years the last couple of days by having the "We chose the moon" web site running continuously on my computer that offers every audio transmission for the entire moon mission as it happened 40 years ago along with an animation of each event.

In the middle of the 40th anniversary weekend, Walter Cronkite passed away yesterday. One of the stories that I remember him for was the Apollo 11 moon landing. This is how Walter handled it on July 20, 1969. The really hokey animation and graphics makes it even more amazing that we were able to go to the moon and back with that type of 'cutting edge technology."


In Pred Nation...

Potential owner Brett Wilson is still in the mix to pick up 5% of the Preds but the league has been distracted by the Phoenix situation according to this John Glennon piece. Still no word on the Boots DelBiaggio stake that is still tied up in the courts.

Jeremy at Section 303 makes a case for the Preds picking up Sergei Zubov to bring a little experience to the group of young defensemen. I personally like the player that everyone loves to hare, Chris Chelios. After the shock wore off, he would become a fan facorite for $750,000 or less. If he and Barry Trotz could get on the same page it would be an incredible pick up for the team. Think how much it would add to the Chicago and Detroit rivalries.

After they posted several interviews from the developmental camp, Hockey's Future accesses the Predators 2009 draft. The more I read, the happier I am with our choices.

Dirk has a Saturday update at On The Forecheck and is linking to stuff in French. He has really gotten a lot of good press the last few days on his analysis of the schedule, most of it in English.

Paul McCann talks about the Pred's recent "depth" signings and invite you to be the GM.

Gopher Sports has an interview with the Pred's second pick, Zack Budish. Most is about Minnesota hockey and his transition from high school but he does discuss his week at the Pred's camp.

Around the NHL...

Chris Johnson broke a story yesterday that potential Olympians have been advised by the NHLPA to skip the on ice part of the training camps due to "insurance concerns".

In the desert, more details have been released on the second set of bidders that want to keep the team in Phoenix. The group describes their proposal as being "out of the box" and they would want Wayne Gretzky as a "cornerstone".

From The Deal comes an article that includes a mention of the Preds and discusses that sports teams would find money tight if Citi Financial is allowed to bankrupt. Here's the link to the original story from Reuters with hockey being the main point of discussion.

Stan Fischler asks "is Roberto Luongo the Edsel of Hockey?" I see where he is going with the argument but it seems a little harsh at this point.

Eklund apoligizes for his "false positive E-5" on the Tanguay signing on Thursday. He's still mentioning Nashville as an outside chance (like when hell freezes over, I would add).

The Knoxville Ice Bears new head coach, Marc Rodgers, is pulling a few shifts at the fire hall in the off season as this WBIR video report shows.

Off topic, but a huge story to anyone living in Nashville in 1975 was the murder/rape of Marcia Trimble. Nashville's innocence was forever changed by the act and the news coverage that followed. Gail Kerr has a good article explaining the closure that today's conviction of Jerome Barrett as the perpetrator. Here's more detail on the case for those who are not from here.

I found this link from a post on Kukla's. Is it possible for anyone to be as stupid as Kelly Pickler? Why in the world did Jordin Tootoo give her the time of day. Watch this video to see what I mean.

Stunning wisdom from @TheYotesDiva: "Life would be easier if you could mark people as spam." Kelly Pickler would be high on the list of spam after watching the above video link.

More later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

The lunar orbiter that ASU is in charge of has generated pictures of the stuff left on the moon as discussed in this AZCentral story. Cool video and slideshow also.

Here's a commentary by Charles Krauthammer on the country's lack of vision with the future of the space program.