Now This Would Make Me Mad

Via Slashdot, AP reports that University of Idaho professor David Atkinson lost 18 years of his work life when human error kicked in and some rocket scientist "forgot to turn on the instrument Atkinson needed to measure the winds on Saturn's largest moon" on Huygens, the European space probe.

In my work environment, people sometimes do things that piss me off. And sometimes my work efforts can seem meaningless. But hey, tomorrow I'll probably be working on something else. I can only imagine what this guy must be going through.

I guess you have to have a Zen quality to be able to wait 18 years for the results of your work to - you hope - be realized.