There's nothing like a long holiday weekend to make you feel happy to be alive!  Every now and then it’s nice to spend a little time just relaxing.  It's somehow nice when someone asks you what you did over the weekend to be able to honestly say "NOTHING".   And watching the shuttle Discovery launch on the 4th was like getting to see the best fireworks display in the country, but it does lead me to a mini rant.   What has happened to technological advancement?  In the early 1960's we had no space program to speak of and by the end of that decade we were on the moon!  It seems as though our space program has been stalled for 20 years.  Why has there not been a "next generation" space shuttle developed?  Instead our aging and shrinking shuttle fleet has become obsolete and will soon be retired without a clearly better vehicle in place.