More MRO Magic

The entire MSL delivery system in one photo...

The HiRISE camera on the MRO took a family portrait of the MSL and all the parts it used to pass safely through NASA's Seven Minutes of Terror on its way to the surface of Mars in Gale Crater.  The heat shield protected Curiosity from the friction generated by entering the atmosphere at 3.6 miles per second.  The largest supersonic parachute ever deployed on Mars opened at Mach 1.7.  The Sky Crane lowered the MSL to the ground at 1-3/4 mph. 

I know the Curiosity landing has been done to death across all the usual news media outlets, but I'd much rather marvel at this technological triumph than commiserate about workplace violence, mass murder, and active shooters, so get over it!

Not Exactly Beach Reading

Three textbooks from the summer session...

Strategic Security Management: A Risk Assessment Guide for Decision Makers by Karim Vellani 

This is the text for the SM-402 Security Risk Assessment course I led this summer at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. It's a worthy and more accessible successor to the classic, Risk Analysis and the Security Survey, by James F. Broder.

Introduction to Investigations by John S. Dempsey

There were two texts for SM-403 Private Investigation Principles, I'm teaching at Saint Mary's this summer. It's written at the tech school/undergrad level which is okay but sometimes the author comes across as a Baby Boomer who is trying a little too hard to be hip for the youngsters. I recommend it for instruction with those minor caveats. 

The Art of Investigative Interviewing, Second Edition by Charles L. Yeschke

This is the second text for the SM-403 Private Investigation Principles course. It's written in a very accessible style and is surprisingly strong on the human element. That shouldn't be a surprise but some interview and interrogations systems take an adversarial tone or proceed in a rather scientific fashion. Yeschke endeavors the would be interviewer to indulge his or her human side in the interest of collecting information, evidence, and eventually admissions and confessions in a ethical and effective manner.

HiRISE Spots Curiosity

As if surviving the Seven Minutes of Terror wasn't accomplishment enough...

NASA's HiRISE (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) camera on the MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) snapped a picture - from orbit - as Curiosity descended by parachute to the surface of Mars.  Of course, it's not even the first time HiRISE has clicked the shutter on another NASA Mars probe.  In 2008 it captured an image of the Phoenix lander as it arrived for its stay near the Martian north pole.

Amazing stuff, and we could all use a little amazing these days.

Curiosity Has Landed

It's 12:31 am and the MLS has "wheels on Mars."

Images from the hazard cams are on the flat screens at JPL.  Great job, NASA!  Woo hoo!  Awesome, just awesome!  Bedtime...

UPDATE: NASA is reporting that the tri-lobed smudge visible on the horizon is the dust plume created as the discarded Sky Crane crashes to the surface 2000 feet away from the MSL!

A Pot of Dark Roast, the Internet, and Some Spare Time

Number of worker deaths due to homicide in multiple-fatality incidents...

Some have expressed concern that the death toll in workplace mass murder incidents is on the rise.  I offer the following for your consideration and analysis.  If anyone has the missing numbers (2007, 2000-2003) or more granular detail (1995-1999) please let me know.

2010, 17% of 401 deaths in multiple-fatality incidents = 68 due to homicide

http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0009.pdf

2009, 23% of 355 fatalities = 82 homicides

http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0008.pdf

2008, 14% of 495 = 69  

http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/os/oshs2008_27.pdf

2007 multiple-fatality incidents not charted by the BLS

2006, 14% of 518 = 72  

http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi2006_10.pdf

 

2005, 17% of 466 = 79  

http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi2005_10.pdf

2004, 10% of 518 = 52  

http://bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi2004_chart7.pdf

2000-2003 multiple-fatality incidents not charted by the BLS

1995-1999, 19% of 2,949 = 575* (or ~115 per year over five years)  

*"The category includes 173 multiple-homicide incidents claiming 535 workers’ lives, plus 34 murder-suicides claiming an additional 40 workers’ lives beyond the assailants who committed suicide in these incidents.”  

http://www.bls.gov/mlr/2004/10/art2full.pdf

UPDATE: Here's another article on the same topic by James Allen Fox at his Crime & Punishment blog - No increase in mass shootings.