The Great Lakes are not drying up, as predicted by global warming advocates.
Wrong again: The Great Lakes are not drying up, as predicted by global warming advocates.
Month: April 2012
Two weeks of protests are being planned for this summer over the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandates.
Two weeks of protests are being planned by Catholics for this summer over the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandates.
And some pundits still think this election will be close? Hah. Any politician who has made as many enemies as Obama can’t possibly win.
The global warming advocate who invented the concept of “Gaia” now admits he was wrong about global warming.
The global warming advocate who invented the concept of “Gaia” now admits he was wrong about global warming.
“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn’t happened,” Lovelock said. “The climate is doing its usual tricks. There’s nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now,” he said.
“The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time… it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question about that,” he added.
No announcement yet, but of the many stories available this Wired article and this Yahoo article appear to provide the best overview of the asteroid mining plans of Planetary Resources.
No announcement yet, but of the many stories available this Wired article appears to provide the best overview of the asteroid mining plans of Planetary Resources.
The company’s first phase is most interesting:
Within the next 18 to 24 months, Planetary Resources hopes to launch between two and five space-based telescopes at an estimated cost of a few million dollars each that will identify potentially valuable asteroids. Other than their size and orbit, little detailed information is available about the current catalog of near-Earth asteroids. Planetary Resources’ Arkyd-101 Space Telescopes will figure out whether any are worth the trouble of resource extraction.
The actual press conference is scheduled for 10:30 am (Pacific). Stay tuned.
Update: The Planetary Resources website has now been updated. You can read more about their space telescope proposal here.
Scientists studying Cassini images have spotted the trails of objects as they punch through one of Saturn’s rings.
Scientists studying Cassini images have spotted the trails of objects as they punch through one of Saturn’s rings.
SpaceX has delayed the launch of its Dragon test mission to ISS, with the launch now scheduled sometime between May 3 and May 7.
SpaceX has delayed the launch of its Dragon test mission to ISS, with the launch now scheduled sometime between May 3 and May 7.
“After reviewing our recent progress, it was clear that we needed more time to finish hardware-in-the-loop testing and properly review and follow up on all data,” SpaceX spokeswoman Kirstin Brost Grantham wrote in an email. “While it is still possible that we could launch on May 3rd, it would be wise to add a few more days of margin in case things take longer than expected. As a result, our launch is likely to be pushed back by one week, pending coordination with NASA.”
Bob Newhart – air traffic control
An evening pause: When it was a much more innocent world.
The Space Launch System is a threat to JSC, Texas jobs
An op-ed in Houston: “The Space Launch System is a threat to JSC, Texas jobs.”
It appears that even some NASA employees are beginning to see the madness of spending billions on a launch system that will likely only fly one mission almost a decade from now. And it will seem even more mad to more people should Dragon and Cygnus prove successful in the coming year.
To put it bluntly, the long term politics are very much hostile to SLS. It is going to die, if only because the federal government is bankrupt and can’t afford it. I just wish our elected officials had the brains to realize this now rather than three years down the road.
Want to get a jumpstart on tomorrow’s asteroid-mining announcement by Planetary Resources? Read this NASA report, released April 2.
Want to get a jumpstart on Tuesday’s asteroid-mining announcement by Planetary Resources? Read this NASA report [pdf], released April 2.
The world’s worst investor
The Piano Guys – Cello Wars
An evening pause: In honor of the 35th anniversary today of the premiere of Star Wars in 1977, a beautiful and silly rendition by the Piano Guys.
For those who were not alive in the 1960s and 1970s, it is hard to explain the impact of Star Wars. For more than twenty years, science fiction fans had dreamed of seeing a really good space opera science fiction film on the big screen. Sadly, we saw disappointment after disappointment instead. Except for Forbidden Planet (1956) and television’s Star Trek in the 1960s, practically every science fiction film about space exploration told childish stories that made no sense.
And then came Star Wars.
The battle of the bulges, 1940s style
An evening pause: As you giggle at this, be forewarned: seventy years from now what you consider sane will be considered just as absurd.
Henri
An evening pause: “The monkey mocks me with each flip.”
Only those who have explored deeply into the avant-garde French film world will truly understand this classic.
DARPA has released some details about last summer’s HTV-2 hypersonic test flight.
DARPA has released some details about last summer’s HTV-2 hypersonic test flight.
An unmanned hypersonic glider likely aborted its 13,000 mph flight over the Pacific Ocean last summer because unexpectedly large sections of its skin peeled off, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said Friday.
Jon Corzine, whose company MF Global illegally used and lost more than a billion in customer funds, is still listed as a fund-raiser for the Obama campaign.
Birds of a feather: Jon Corzine, whose company MF Global illegally used and lost more than a billion in customer funds, is still listed as a fund-raiser for the Obama campaign.
Data now suggests that the bats are showing signs of recovery in the first caves hit by white nose syndrome in New York.
Good news: Data now suggests that the bats are showing signs of recovery in the first caves hit by white nose syndrome in New York. More here. Plus here’s a link describing some of the research being done on this subject.
Note that the death toll listed in these stories is nothing more than an arbitrary exaggeration by government officials. The National Speleological Society estimates that the numbers are probably far less, and based on my own caving experience, I agree.
Brilliant or dumb?
Interesting inventions. With pictures.
It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law!
Mexico has passed its own very strict climate change law.
The new law contains many sweeping provisions to mitigate climate change, including a mandate to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 30% below business-as-usual levels by 2020, and by 50% below 2000 levels by 2050. Furthermore, it stipulates that 35% of the country’s energy should come from renewable sources by 2024, and requires mandatory emissions reporting by the country’s largest polluters.
Some predictions:
» Read more
A new launch schedule for Cygnus
Orbital Sciences has released an updated launch schedule for its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule.
- Third quarter 2012 – Antares First-Stage Static Fire Test at Wallops
- Third quarter 2012 – Antares Test Flight for COTS
- Fourth quarter 2012 – COTS Demonstration Mission to ISS*
- First quarter 2013 – CRS Mission #1 to ISS
The significance?
» Read more
The death of the double click
The death of the double click.
The story includes some nice history behind the invention of the GUI.
Interestingly, I could probably count on one hand the times I have double-clicked on a computer, since I rarely use the mouse at all. Instead, I have found it is far faster to use the keyboard to access commands, files, programs, etc.