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Michael Weisskopf and Nathan Thornburgh's "Pipeline to Nowhere?" enlightened me on several levels [Oct. 13]. First, although paying her constituency understandably enhances Sarah Palin's popularity, it chafes me a bit. Doesn't Alaska belong to all of us? Why should part of the price I pay at the gas pump go into an Alaskan's pockets just because she lives there? Second, the story demonstrates Palin's worthiness to be McCain's running mate, since they both overstate their accomplishments. Vince Sigman, MALTA, OHIO...
...past decade has been something of a Martian era of space exploration. Since 1996, the U.S. alone has launched no fewer than nine spacecraft Marsward, and seven have arrived in one piece--an extraordinary success rate for a planet that historically had been a bit of a graveyard of failed missions. Currently, six ships--five American and one European--are at work on Mars, and a handful of others sleep peacefully on the surface or orbit silently above, their missions completed and their systems exhausted. While a lot of the work the spacecraft do is the quiet business of spelunking...
...even breakdowns can pay dividends. In May 2007, scientists announced the discovery of white silica beneath the Martian soil--a telltale mineral that usually forms in the presence of water--one more bit of proof that Mars was once a wet place. The silica would never have been discovered if Spirit's balky wheel hadn't dug a trench in the soil...
Riley: It's a little bit easier if you're talking about an 8-week-old child to figure out what temperament is. There are two basic questions: Does she fuss a lot? And how does she sleep at night? ... You could do worse than starting with that if you're talking about a President or a presidential candidate. Does this person fuss a lot? ... Do the demands of the office wear on this person in a way that makes it difficult for him to think straight? Obviously, you don't want a Calvin Coolidge, who reportedly slept 11 hours...
Riley: [I would add] Reagan's survival of [an] assassination attempt, which had a profound effect on budget policy at that time, because Reagan was foundering a little bit during the early phase of his presidency ... He'd come out of an election--he had won an election that was closer than the score indicated ... but his grace literally under fire in that event, joking to the doctors as he was going under, and his recovery, I think, is a very good illustration of how, in an extreme set of circumstances, one's temperament can have an influence on politics...