I very much dislike the use of the term “deniers”, no matter who it is applied to, since it lowers the civility of the discussion. Nonetheless, the article is a nice thumbnail summary of the climate field, both in terms of the players as well as the areas of uncertainty and confusion. It also provides a clear illustration of the contrast between the two sides and how they tend to discuss these issues, best summarized by this quote:

It is also telling that in a radio debate between Harris [the skeptic] and Rhynas [the global warming advocate] that took place following Rhynas’s initial presentation, the former agreed to take questions from the public but the latter refused.

The kids took to their social media of choice, Facebook, condemning the teacher’s union with harsh, sometimes obscene, language. On the afternoon they were supposed to report to the school library instead of the band room, they staged a mass sit-in on the concrete steps that led to the band room. The local newspaper went wild with letters of complaint from parents and community members.

The union reps went on damage control. Their goal, they insisted, was not to hurt the kids. They told the local volunteer choir director, whose class they had also forced into cancellation, that they did it “for the good of the kids,” arguing that only credentialed teachers should be allowed to teach children.

But here’s where this sad saga turns more sensible. [emphasis mine]

I want to note the anger the teenagers felt toward the union. Seems the union kinda shot itself in the foot. These kids will think badly of unions for the rest of their lives.

Though the article headline focuses on the addition of space weather instruments to this solar sail, the article says very little about those instruments. One, Swan, is described as a “wind instrument”, which probably means it would study the solar wind. The other instrument would study the Earth’s magnetic field. Both instruments are needed to track the effect of the Sun on local space weather, since the one satellite we have to do this, Ace, is now more than a decade past its expiration date.

Detected in 1977, this short signal has puzzled SETI investigators for decades. The article gives a good overview of the mystery.

As the article notes, this process is only being accelerated by the implementation of Obamacare, and is the result of third-parties interfering in the relationship of doctors and patients. Obamacare, however, will finish the process, condemning most Americans to bureaucratic medicine. slow, inefficient, and badly done.

These dreams
Go on when I close my eyes.
Every second of the night
I live another life.
These dreams
That sleep when it’s cold outside.
Every moment I’m awake
the further I’m away

Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, a member of Ways and Means, confirmed to The Washington Examiner on Thursday that the evidence being sent to the committee includes secret recordings with IRS officials. This information comports with legal sources who have clients who believe they were targeted by the IRS because they are politically active conservatives who opposed President Obama’s re-election.

The Solar Impulse has broken its own record for the longest distance flight of a solar-powered aircraft following the second leg of its journey across the USA. Solar Impulse touched down in Texas at 1:08 a.m. local time after a flight of 18 hours 21 minutes having covered at least 868 miles (1,397 km). Two different distances have been reported for the flight. The Solar Impulse website says the flight “amounted” to 868 miles (1,397 km). However, according to a Phys.org report, Solar Impulse covered a distance of 1,541 km (which it rounds to 950 miles, though this is not the precise conversion).

It is thought the two distances exist because the plane actually lost ground during part of its flight due to headwinds.

Like SpaceX’s Grassshopper, the goal here is to make the first stage completely reusable, thereby reducing the cost of launch significantly.

He also said that they want to name the new town they are building at the site after Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

The article gives a nice thumbnail summary of the history of the company, including the launch failures that put it into bankruptcy and forced Boeing, the U.S. partner, to get out, leaving the company mostly in the hands of the Russian company Energia.

I want to make one point that I haven’t read anywhere about this scandal. The problem here really isn’t that the IRS was investigating the legitimacy of giving these conservative organizations tax exempt status. The problem is that they specifically chose to only investigate conservative organizations. Leftwing organizations got a pass.

Either investigate all, or none. I prefer none. But either way, playing favorites for the sake of politics is a partisan corruption of the tax code, and a misuse of the power of government.

It is unclear yet how much damage was caused.

At the moment the data is anecdotal, but it appears that Coburn’s office might be accumulating some interesting information.

The issue here is not sexual orientation, but the government forcing a certain set of beliefs on its employees.

Key quote: “Epsilon replaces the M-V, a larger solid-fuel rocket that failed to attract sufficient customers to remain in production. M-V’s last launch was in 2002.” Competition rules!

I note this to give some context to what SpaceX will do with Falcon 9 this year. SpaceX has just updated its launch manifest schedule, and if the American company does what it says, it should have at least six more Falcon 9 flights this year, for a total of seven.

Should these predicted launches all take place, it will clearly demonstrate that SpaceX has grabbed a significant share of the launch market, but that the Russians are also holding their own.

Note also that the updated launch manifest still includes the first test flight of Falcon Heavy in 2013. Very interesting.

Update: The Russians are also preparing to launch their new Angara rocket family, which will replace their older rockets and allow them to launch from their new spaceport.