The Times of India is proud of Kalpana Chawla (original), as they should be. While this was her second shuttle flight, she was the first person born in India to go to space. If Ilan Ramon deserves recognition for trailblazing, and he does, she does as well. Here (original) are some notes, written by her husband, about the weeks leading up to this mission. ...

CNN is showing photos that a viewer emailed in. Real time citizen reporting is here. Why did it have to be about this? The picture appears to be the moment of actual explosion; you can see chunks of debris centered on the shuttle. There’s a shot of Mission Control, which is utterly quiet. My god. Addenda: now they’re asking a caller to hold her phone up to her radio scanner. No good news, although she hasn’t heard anything about injuries on the ground. She has heard that a lot of debris has been found. She’s been deputized to relay from the scanners to CNN.

It looks like the space shuttle Columbia has been lost. The Columbia had the first Israeli astronaut on board. I can’t believe this. This week is the anniversary of Challenger. CNN is showing footage of the debris falling. The administration is saying there’s no indication that it was a terrorist attack, since it happened at such a high altitude.

It occurs to me that one of the large obstacles in the way of invading Iraq is the Security Council veto. It further occurs to me that the rationale behind the veto, that being the great power status of the Allied nations after World War II, is somewhat antiquated. I don’t think any pro-war pundit can deny that the veto is tremendously frustrating. As so many have pointed out, it seems ridiculous that France can effectively stand in the way of UN action. That ability — the ability of one nation to unfairly stop debate in its tracks — prevents the UN from being effective. Again, many argue that the UN’s inability to press the issue of Iraq is ruining the UN as we watch. ...

I’m sort of having trouble wrapping my mind around this one. I just got my birthday gifts from my Mom. Among them was something I was actually given thirty-three years ago: a pair of gold diaper pins from Tiffany & Co. with my initials monogrammed on them. Inside the little Tiffany box is a note: “For Bryant, with love from Uncle Alex.” That’s apparently Alex Haley; yeah, the one who wrote Roots. (Not actually my uncle.) ...

Sure; when there are easy ways to send text messages around on little tiny devices, students will cheat (original). I wonder how you keep that from happening in the Steve Mann vision of always-on cyborgs? You’d have to actively jam the devices, since communication inside the classroom is as much a problem as access to the Internet. Or just retool to an open book system, which might be much better.

I think I’ve pinpointed the problem with Bush’s drug addiction treatment voucher proposal (original), and can explain it in fairly unmistakable terms. Here goes. Under Bush’s proposal, federal money for drug treatment could wind up going to Narconon (original). Don’t look at me like that. They’re faith-based.

Elmore Leonard’s [ten rules for writing](http://216.239.53.100/search?q=cache:n86b1euSCw0C:www.elmoreleonard.com/archives/010elrules.htm %22elmore leonard%22 rules writing&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 “Filmfour Sings the Blues with Elmore Leonard”). Plus one. Good stuff. By the way, it’s deucedly cold here, chill battering at my windows like a sly ghost determined to silently invade my home and steal away my precious warmth. Also: cold!!!

I should note that my tentative approval of the current multilateral diplomatic efforts should not be taken as approval of the rumored methods by which the war might be prosecuted. Nor am I unaware of these issues. It is simply necessary that any war plans include a serious, concerted effort to minimize the impact of the war on the Iraqi people, for all kinds of reasons. But if we condemn the possibility of torture on the part of the US — and I do — we must be at least as concerned with Saddam’s practices. That’s not just propaganda. Saddam is well documented as a torturer.

The theme of US policy over the last few days, despite Bush’s tough talk in the State of the Union, has in fact been multilateralism. (Which is driving some people nuts.) I think the most important speech delivered in the last week was by Colin Powell at Davos. That’s the administration speaking for an international audience, not for a US audience, and that’s where we need to look for the administration’s real position. ...