A victory for free speech: The Supreme Court today ruled that federal limits on how much individuals can spend yearly on politics are unconstitutional.
Climate scientists think the first major El Niño since 1997-1998 is beginning to brew in the Pacific.
The first sign of a brewing El Niño weather pattern came in January, as trade winds that normally blow from the east reversed course near Papua New Guinea. Barrelling back across the tropical Pacific Ocean, they began to push warm water towards South America. Now climate scientists and forecasters are on high alert.
A major El Niño event — a periodic warming of waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific — could boost temperatures and scramble weather worldwide. The most recent major event, in 1997–98, was linked to thousands of deaths and tens of billions of dollars in damage from droughts, fires and floods across several continents. Yet more than 15 years later, forecasting the timing and intensity of El Niño remains tricky, with incremental improvements in climate models threatened by the partial collapse of an ocean-monitoring system that delivers the data to feed those models.
Note the date of the last event, 1997-1998. This was also the last time the world’s global temperature saw an increase. At the time global warming scientists were saying that global warming would increase the number and severity of El Niño events, which in turn would raise havoc with the climate. Instead, we have gone more than a decade and a half without any significant El Niño event, and the global temperature rise has ceased.
Note also that the article focuses on the difficulty scientists have had in predicting El Niño. These are the same global warming scientists who are also certain they can predict the exact temperature rise for the next two hundred years.
Scientists from the joint European/Russian ExoMars rover mission have narrowed their candidate landing sites to four.
Last week, 60 scientists met at ESA’s European Space Astronomy Centre near Madrid to discuss eight potential sites. On 27 March, they cast an informal vote, and four sites emerged as favourites: Mawrth Vallis, Oxia Planum, Hypanis Vallis and Oxia Palus. An expert working group tasked with recommending a final landing site will now consider the proposals, before announcing a formal shortlist of three or four sites in June. Following detailed studies of the shortlisted sites, the panel will make a single recommendation to ESA and Roscosmos in late 2016.
This is maybe the most risky mission to Mars in decades, as the landing design is coming from the Russians, who have not had a successful interplanetary mission since the era of the Soviet Union, and even then had a 100% failure rate for their missions to Mars. (On a more optimistic note, the European Mars Express mission used a Russian rocket to take off, making it the first Mars mission with Russians participation that actually succeeded.)
One of the factors that has made this mission more risky is the fact that the U.S. was once a participant and backed out very late in the game. The Russians are our replacement, and have had to scramble to catch up.
The German-built comet lander Philae has been successfully reactivated on Rosetta.
Philae will be ejected from the Rosetta mothership in November to latch itself onto the comet’s icy surface with harpoons and screws. The lander has its own suite of science instrumentation to take the first-ever photos and measurements from a comet’s surface. Engineers plan a four-week commissioning phase for Philae to check on its health and activate the lander’s 10 instruments.
The competition heats up: China’s new spaceport and the giant rocket it is being built for.
The combination of the planned rocket, called the Long March 5 — and its derivatives — matched with the Wenchang Launch Center, China’s new sprawling spaceport, underscores the country’s shifting space gears. It enables China’s space station ambitions, while also boosting the nation’s plans for interplanetary exploration, as well as accomplishing human treks to the moon.
Obama declares that “The debate about repealing Obamacare is over.”
Why does the left always want to shut down debate (“The science is settled!” “The debate is over.” “Deniers should be put in prison!”)?
Meanwhile, there is this story: Obamacare takes a life.
The story is heart-rending, and describes how the regulations imposed by Obamacare literally caused this man’s death. As his doctor said, “You can thank Mr. Obama for this.”
But the debates over! What business is it of this doctor or this dead man’s children to complain? The President has spoken. The discussion must now end!
Scientists have developed a bacterium that can brew high energy rocket fuel.
There are issues still that need to be solved before these bugs will be creating fuel for astronauts in space, but the process is promising, especially since it could significantly lower the cost of rocket fuel if they get it to work.
NASA has extended its commercial cargo contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences until 2017.
Since the notice says that “the modifications would be made ‘at no cost’ to the agency, and that they would be “executed one year at a time,” the extension is probably just designed to give the two companies sufficient time to launch all their cargo missions in the present contracts.
Nonetheless, the posting also said that other companies could compete for NASA’s business during this extension, which leaves the door open for more competition.
