The supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way is about to get a snack.
Update: The recently launched NuStar telescope in July detected its first flare from the central black hole (which by the way is called Sagittarius A* and is pronounced Sagittarius A-star). If the gas cloud produces any fireworks as it whips past the black hole in the coming year then NuStar should see it.
The competition heats up: On Friday Blue Origin successfully tested the launch abort system for its New Shepard manned capsule.
An evening pause: I especially like the harp.
Freedom of religion for me but not for thee: A Christian group has been banned at Tufts University for demanding its members believe in Christianity.
An Italian court has convicted seven earthquake scientists of manslaughter for their failure to properly warn the public prior to the L’Aquila earthquake.
The court also sentenced the men to six years in prison, which is two years more than the prosecutor recommended.
The more I have read about this case, the less I have been in sympathy with the scientists. While it is absurd to expect any scientist to be able to precise predict the occurrence of an earthquake, in this case some of the individuals convicted had issued statements that actually go against basic earthquake science in order to give the public a false sense of safety. They claimed that the increased level of seismic activity suggested a reduction in the risk of an earthquake, when all research actually indicates the exact opposite.
Some additional details here.
Freedom of speech is so 20th century: The filmmaker who made the anti-Islamic movie falsely blamed by the Obama administration for the Libya attack has now been in jail for a month.
The movie had nothing to do with the Libya attack. And even if it caused the riots in Egypt, who cares? I thought there was something called the First Amendment, a law to protect the speech rights of U.S. citizens. Yet, Barack Obama and his entire administration have done everything they can to blame the movie, not their own foreign policies, while going out of their way to squelch this man’s freedom.
But remember those binders!
The unreality of the past four years.
For me, this unreality began during the Clinton years, continued during George Bush’s administration, and reached its height at the 2008 election. The country chose to be delusional, making its choices not based on facts but solely on emotion and good intentions.
The first piece of a meteor that fell over San Francisco on Wednesday has been found.
The 2.2-ounce meteorite hit the roof of Rev. Kent and Lisa Webber on St. Francis Avenue on Thursday night, but they didn’t realize at the time what it was, according to Novato Patch.
The competition heats up: Virgin Galactic has begun the installation of SpaceShipTwo’s engine in preparation for its first powered test flights.
The article also provides some details about the status of XCOR’s Lynx suborbital craft.
An evening pause: In honor of Martin Gardner’s birthday today. To find out the connection, make sure you also watch part 2.
An evening pause:
An evening pause: The right way to carve a pumpkin for Halloween!
York’s assessment of the Obama campaign is fair and detailed. I would add that any campaign that thinks voters care more about a puppet and binders then they do about a failing economy and a bankrupt federal government should have no expectation of winning on November 6.
Engine problems on a Delta 4 rocket launch two weeks ago could delay the launch of the Atlas 5 rocket scheduled to lift the X-37B on its next mission.
Don’t ask me why the military would delay an Atlas 5 launch because of problems on a Delta 4. It seems to be left over caution from the 1960s, when no rocket was reliable and they were trying to figure out how to do it. Now, it simply seems silly.
The first analysis of the water from Lake Vostok, buried deep under the Antarctic icecap, has shown no evidence of life.
Bulat and his colleagues counted the microbes present in the ice sample and checked their genetic makeup to figure out the phylotypes. They counted fewer than 10 microbes/ml — about the same magnitude they would expect to find in the background in their clean room. And three of the four phylotypes they identified matched contaminants from the drilling oil, with the fourth unknown but also most likely from the lubricant.
The scientists note that this is a preliminary result. Further drilling for new deeper samples will take place in 2013.
Orbital Sciences has delayed the first demo launch of its Cygnus cargo capsule until March 2013 at the earliest.
The schedule for Antares itself has not been delayed. Launchpad tests are still scheduled to begin next week, with the first engine test set for early November, and the first launch of Antares set for December.
They don’t explain the reason for the Cygnus delay. I suspect they simply decided to be realistic. It was always unlikely that the first Cygnus launch would follow only a month after the first Antares launch, especially if there are any kinks in that launch.
An evening pause:
“This is the election where black folk sit down and say ‘NO MORE!’ and we stay home.”
Read the whole article. It is detailed, and I think gives an accurate portrayal of the present political attitude of the black community. And this is in Chicago. Blacks might not be ready to vote Republican, but they apparently are finally beginning to realize that the Democrats aren’t their saviors.
The mysterious shiny particles uncovered by Curiosity’s scoop are from Mars, not the rover.
After last week’s plastic encounter, Curiosity’s science team worried the new particles might be man-made. Since they turned up in scoop holes, however, the granules must have been buried in the subsurface. They likely came from larger minerals that broke down. They might also represent the product of some geological soil process that generates a bright but unknown mineral.
These are not the same mysterious objects first seen when the rover began science operations. Those particles were on the surface, and looked like bits of plastic that might have come off the rover or its descent stage.
Ahmadinejad: “How long can a government with a $16 trillion foreign debt remain a world power?”
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. Though even here, Ahmadinejad isn’t quite right, as the debt of the U.S. is not all foreign.
