In the realm of science, when a computer model is contradicted by empirical observation, the model is deemed to have been refuted. Only in the field of global climate do purported scientists refuse to recognize that basic principle.
The real future: “We’re building spacecraft, not bizjets.”
Titan’s ethane lakes in a red haze.
So far, there are no recognisable signs of organic life. That’s not surprising: by terrestrial standards, Titan is a deep freeze with surface temperatures at a chilly -180°C. Yet Titan is very much alive in the sense that its atmosphere and surface are changing before our eyes. Clouds drift through the haze and rain falls from them to erode stream-like channels draining into shallow lakes. Vast dune fields that look as if they were lifted from the Sahara sprawl along Titan’s equator, yet the dark grains resemble ground asphalt rather than sand. It is a bizarrely different world that looks eerily like home. Or as planetary scientist Ralph Lorenz puts it: “our prototype weird-world exoplanet”.
If you have broken no laws, you are not required to show the police your id. Getting them to accept this legal fact is often quite difficult. It is even more difficult if you should approach them with a camera while openly carrying a gun, as this man does. Watch the video below to see he not only refuses to give them his id, he literally walks away in the end, leaving the two cops befuddled.
Some background on the video can be found here.
TSA agents pat down 6-year-old twice.
An evening pause: Kate Bush singing “Running up that hill” from her 1985 album, Hounds of Love.
Giving more power to unelected bureaucrats: A new bill would let federal health researchers unilaterally ban certain chemicals.
Confessions of a moon rock thief.
And in a related story: Fish captain fights to keep long-missing moon rock.
The space shuttle docks with ISS, for the last time.
Senator James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and pilot, sanctioned by the FAA for landing on a closed runway — the closure of which had not been publicly announced by the FAA — has introduced a bill to change how the agency polices pilots.
Mount Etna had its fifth eruption this year Saturday, closing the local airport and causing local clocks to run 15 minutes fast. With lots of good images.
An evening pause: This is about the only way I could catch fish.
