Final shuttle mission unlikely to fly until mid-July
The delays in launching Endeavour has pushed back the last shuttle mission to mid-July.
Year: 2011
Since 2003, the sea level ceased rising
An inconvenient truth: New data now shows that since 2003, the rate of sea level rise has stablized, and since 2007, the rate of increase has actually slowed.
Quake shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide
The real disaster in Japan: Towns now flood at high tide.
“Without significant spending cuts and reforms to reduce our debt, there will be no debt-limit increase.”
I like the sound of this: “Without significant spending cuts and reforms to reduce our debt, there will be no debt-limit increase.”
Also this: “We should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions. They should be actual cuts and program reforms, not broad deficit or debt targets that punt the tough questions to the future.”
And this: “And to those who contend that the economy is too weak to take on the challenge of entitlement reform — I would simply say, you’ve got it backwards. The truth is that making fundamental reforms to these programs would be good for the economy — and good for the next generation.”
FAA slow to ramp up its role in regulating human space travel
The FAA: slow to ramp up in its role of regulating human space travel.
This ain’t good. It also is not a surprise. The only real question is whether the government bureaucrats at the FAA will get out of the way of those who are really trying to do the work.
NASA management moves to combine SpaceX’s next two test flights of Dragon
NASA management appears ready to approve combining SpaceX’s next two test flights of the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket into one test flight. This despite Russian opposition.
NASA, Stanford websites hit by search engine scammers
Websites run by NASA, JPL, and Stanford University were hacked by search engine scammers today.
The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger
An evening pause:
Endeavour’s launch now set for 8:56 am May 16
Endeavour’s last launch is now set for May 16 at 8:56 am.
New craters on Mars.
Were Neandertals and Modern Humans Just Ships in the Night?
Were Neandertals and modern humans just ships passing in the night? Some scientists are now making this claim.
Muslim rampage against Christians in Egypt continues, now 12 dead, 232 wounded
Islamic tolerance: In a fourteen hour attack on Sunday, Egyptian Muslims killed 12 Christians and wounded 232.
Gentaro Takada – Concierto De Aranjuez
An evening pause: The adagio from Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.
The Soyuz launchsite in French Guiana has been declared ready for its first flight
The Soyuz launchsite in French Guiana has been declared ready for its first flight.
Soviet Spacesuit sold for $242,000 in NY auction
A Soviet-era spacesuit has sold for $242,000 in a NY auction.
Shuttle launch slips to at least May 16
The last launch of Endeavour has now slipped to at least May 16.
Julia Sweeney – “Sex Ed” monologue
An evening pause:
Duo Minasov – Quick Change
An evening pause: How about some magic?
Mars Express sees deep fractures on Mars
Deep fractures on Mars, some more than 1500 feet deep.
Dark matter mysteries
Every year, as part of its educational and research mission, the Space Telescope and Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland holds a science symposium that focuses one of the big questions of astronomy, inviting over a hundred scientists to come and give their individual perspectives on the state of the field.
This year’s symposium ended yesterday, and the subject was the mysteries of dark matter. Though I wasn’t able to attend the symposium itself, they held a workshop for journalists yesterday, which I did attend. (You can watch the webcast here.)
So, what is dark matter?
First of all, it isn’t dark energy. Dark energy is that mysterious unknown phenomenon that is causing — on vast scales of many billions of light years — the expansion of the universe to accelerate rather than decelerate. It has nothing to do with the question of dark matter.
Second, no one knows. All that scientists do know is that objects in the outer regions of galaxies as well as the galaxies themselves don’t move at the speeds and directions expected if their known mass and gravity were the only forces influencing them. In order to successfully plot their orbits and motions, astronomers have to add a gigantic halo of extra mass, which they have dubbed “dark matter” because it is unseen, undetected, and completely invisible.
» Read more