Three days of data has confirmed that Messenger is in orbit around Mercury and is doing well.
On March 29, 2011, the Mercury Dual Imaging System will be powered on and will take its first images. The year-long science observation campaign will begin on April 4, 2011.
The war between Texas and the EPA continues: Texas is accusing the EPA of doing bad research about gas drilling.
The real disaster in Japan: Scores of factories (including Sony and Toyota) remain closed due to power shutdowns and the inability to get supplies and power.
An evening pause: Civilizing in the ancient world with cities and engineering.
My idiotic congressman: Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) today called the $100 billion in cuts to the $3.7 trillion federal budget “A meat-axe approach.”
Way to go, Steny! Show us all how you can’t add or subtract. Somehow, to your childish brain, cutting less than three percent of a budget that was doubled (increased by 100 percent) in the years you and your party were in charge in Congress is “reckless.”
What a fool.
You can’t make this stuff up: The socialist leader of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, said today that he thinks capitalism is to blame for the lack of life on Mars.
O horrors! Hamas is protesting the UN’s plans to teach Gazan children about the Holocaust. Key quote:
[UN] officials were hesitating because they feared Hamas would incite loyalists to damage UN schools or harm their teachers if they introduce the materials. He requested anonymity because he was barred from discussing the matter with the media.
Mining and jobs versus radio astronomy.
Repeal the damn bill! The death panel that is part of Obamacare.
The board would cap the total amount of money Medicare recipients could get for care. Roe, a practicing doctor before he entered politics, said that means health care decisions will end up being based solely on cost, instead of what the best possible option is for Medicare patients. . . . Congress can recommend different spending amounts, but has to offset any increase in one area with a decrease in another. If Congress doesn’t change anything in the board’s “recommendations” for how much money should be spent per Medicare recipient, their recommendations become law – even without congressional approval or the president’s signature.
Want to know why that judge in Wisconsin ruled against the anti-union legislation? Well, it wasn’t because she was interpreting the law: Her son is a union activist and her husband is a leftwing environmentalist.
The program-formerly-called-Constellation moves forward: Lockheed Martin yesterday unveiled the Orion spacecraft and the test center to be used to prepare it for space.
Though this press announcement was actually intended to encourage Congress to continue funding, it also illustrated how this portion at least of Constellation had made significant progress before it was undercut by both Obama and Congress.
