Newsweek sale summary
Ed Driscoll has an excellent summary outlining the sale of Newsweek to the husband of Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-California). Fun quote from headline: Washington Post Unloads Newsweek for $1; Buyer Clearly Overpaid
Year: 2010
Repair spacewalk scheduled
The first spacewalk to replace the pump module on ISS and thus fix on of the station’s two cooling system is now scheduled for Friday at 6:55 (EDT).
Frog counts flawed?
Scientists have found that the methods used to measure frog populations in the U.S. might be flawed, producing many more false positives than expected and thereby overestimating the populations.
The failure of the past and a hint of the future
The coolant system failure on the International Space Station this weekend and the upcoming spacewalks being planned to fix it is a dramatic and fascinating story, capturing the interest of the general public while causing some news pundits to express fear and dread about science fiction scenerios of disasters in space.
The situation is hardly that death-defying. The station’s cooling systems have a lot of redundancy, all of which are being used to good effect. Moreover, the spacewalk repair to install a replacement pump module, though challenging, is exactly the kind of thing the astronauts have been trained to do. I expect them to do it with few problems. I would be far more surprised if they have serious difficulties and fail to get it done.
What this failure foreshadows, however, is the future on ISS. As the years pass and systems age, » Read more
ABBA performing Dancing Queen
An evening pause: ABBA, performing Dancing Queen in 18th century costumes for King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
NASA shuts down website
Talk about stupid: It seems the legal eagles at NASA have shut down a website that featured a variety of webcams, showing NASA missions.
Met office report
The Met Office in the United Kingdom has issued a report on the state of the climate. In it they state unequivocally that the “world is warming”. Unfortunately, the report fails to address the questions that have been raised about much of the existing climate data, following the climategate scandal.
Largest known Roman canal discovered
Archeologists have discovered the largest Roman canal ever built at the mouth of the Tiber river.
Closing out debate on climate
It appears that McCarthyism and the blacklist are both alive and well, thriving happily in the field of climate research. Key quote:
It is disturbing, to say the least, that organisations and persons who would be quick to claim professional status consider that it is their current duty to disparage, or to refuse to debate with, or to muzzle scientists whose views on climate change they apparently disagree with.
Read the whole article.
ISS cooling system failure
More on that failure of the cooling system on ISS. It appears that NASA is gearing up to send two astronauts out for up to two spacewalks to try to fix the problem.
CME heading to Earth
Duck! The Sun has unleashed a coronal mass ejection towards the Earth.
Farewell song from Davy Crockett
An evening pause: From Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955), a moment of quiet reflection.
A New Colonial Age
Elites vs everyone else
War between the elites of our society and everyone else. Key quote:
If this election has a theme, it’s going to be the rejection of the elites and a return to a form of populism with a long streak in American history — the demand of citizens to their government to get the hell out of their lives.
China launches 5th satellite in its own GPS system
China successfully launches the fifth satellite in its own GPS system.
Cooling system failure on ISS
A failure in the cooling system on the International Space Station yesterday has forced the astronauts to shut down some of their systems while ground control troubleshoots the situation.
Undersea adventure by robots
Undersea adventure by robot. An unmanned probe completed its first dive beneath the Arctic ice this week.
Burt Rutan on future of space
At an airshow on Thursday, July 29, in Oskosh, Wisconsin, Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne, made some interesting remarks about the past and future of private space flight. Key quote:
Rutan said NASA should give 10 to 15 percent of its budget to new space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX without regulating how to spend the money. “That would allow them to not (have to) beg for commercial investment, while still working in an entrepreneurial mode.”
The winds of Titan
Scientists are beginning to unravel the wind patterns on Titan.
Spirit appears dead
After more than six years, it appears that the Mars rover Spirit has finally died. The rover was originally designed to only operate 90 days.