Panda escape
An evening pause: Freedom: even this panda thinks it’s a good idea.
Year: 2012
The child suicide bombers of Islam
The child suicide bombers of Islam.
Yeah, this religion and the culture it spawns is exactly the same as all the others. Yeah, right.
Obama asks for more power to consolidate government agencies
President Obama today asked Congress for additional power to consolidate six government agencies.
While this at first sounds like a very good idea, I must admit that it is difficult for me to trust this man with more power, at any time. In addition, how serious can we take his claim of desiring to save money when his administration is on a pace to increase the federal debt by more than $6 trillion, exceeding the debt accumulated by all Presidents from George Washington to Bill Clinton?
A totally drug-resistant tuberculosis strain has emerged in India.
Not good: A totally drug-resistant tuberculosis strain has emerged in India.
The discovery makes India the third country in which a completely drug-resistant form of the disease has emerged, following cases documented in Italy in 2007 and Iran in 2009.
The computer system of the Japanese space agency has been attacked by hackers.
The computer system of the Japanese space agency has been attacked successfully by hackers.
Engineers have gone to a back up radio system on Cassini after a primary unit did not respond as expected in late December.
Engineers have gone to a back up radio system on Cassini after a primary unit did not respond as expected in late December.
The cause is still under investigation, but age may be a factor. The spacecraft launched in 1997 and has orbited Saturn since 2004. Cassini completed its prime mission in 2008 and has had two additional mission extensions. This is the first time its ultra-stable oscillator has had an issue.
I Know Him So Well – Judy Kuhn & Sissel
An evening pause: From the musical Chess, a concert version from 1989, sung by Judy Kuhn & Sissel.
Fishing under ice
An evening pause: See if you can figure out what’s going on here, before the end.
So how peripheral was Dipak Das’ work on the health benefits of wine?
So how central was the research of Dipak Das on the health benefits of wine, now that it is under investigation for fraud? Retraction Watch wants to know!
LightSquared seeks an investigation into one of the GPS advisory board members that said their system interferes with GPS
LightSquared has announced that it is seeking an investigation into the GPS advisory board which said its system interferes with GPS.
On Thursday, the mobile broadband startup petitioned the Inspector General of NASA to investigate Bradford Parkinson, the vice chairman of a board that advises the government on GPS. Parkinson should be removed from discussions about potential interference between GPS and LightSquared’s proposed LTE (Long Term Evolution) network because he is also a director of GPS vendor Trimble Navigation, LightSquared said in its petition.
As lawyers say, when you’ve got the facts, pound the facts. When the facts are against you, pound the law. And when the law is against you, pound the table. Right now, LightSquared is pounding the law, as the technical results of the GPS investigation were quite clear: their system will interfere with most commercial and military GPS units.
That they went to the NASA Inspector General is instructive, since NASA has nothing to do with this issue.
Note that the law is also against LightSquared. I expect them to soon start pounding the table.
The Obama State Department has rejected the European code of conduct for space
The Obama State Department made it known today that it has rejected the European code of conduct for space.
“Too restrictive,” Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said of the 12-page document that seeks to promote the peaceful, safe and “transparent” use of outer space. Tauscher, speaking to a gathering of Washington, D.C.-based defense reporters on Jan. 12, let slip at the end of her talk that the State Department had rejected the document as it was written. While answering an unrelated question, she mentioned that, “we’re not going to be joining with the Europeans on their [space] treaty.” She did not share any further details as to what parts of the code were “too restrictive.”
Though I applaud the decision of the Obama administration to say no now, the article notes that Tauscher later admitted that the administration is still willing to negotiate this thing.
Why has Western civilization decided in recent decades that the solution to all problems is to lay down restrictions on what people can do? This authoritarianism goes against every ideal and principle that made our culture a success. Worse, it never works. Like gun control, the only people the rules harm are those who follow the rules.
X-Prize offers $10 million prize for anyone who can build McCoy’s tricorder
Life imitates art: The X-Prize announced today a $10 million prize for anyone who can build McCoy’s tricorder from Star Trek.
The X PRIZE Foundation and Qualcomm Foundation said the prize, announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will go to the team that “develops a mobile platform that most accurately diagnoses a set of 15 diseases across 30 consumers in three days,” a release from the the two foundations said. The device must be light enough to be portable, weighing no more than 5 pounds.
New Hampshire’s attorney general has opened an investigation of voter fraud, prompted by the O’Keefe videos showing how easy it is there for dead people to vote
New Hampshire’s attorney general has opened an investigation, prompted by the O’Keefe videos showing how easy it is there for dead people to vote.
The EPA punishes refineries for not using a non-existent fuel
Touching our lives every day: More on the EPA’s decision to punish refineries for not using a non-existent fuel.
25 Cats Who Sleep Funny
The day’s most important news: Twenty-five cats who sleep funny. With pictures.
The University of Connecticut has found the chief of its biology lab — an expert on the health benefits of drinking wine — guilty of falsifying and fabricating data on more than two dozen papers and grant applications.
More science fraud: The University of Connecticut has found the chief of its biology lab — an expert on the health benefits of drinking wine — guilty of falsifying and fabricating data on more than two dozen papers and grant applications.
A 60,000-page report issued yesterday (you can read a 49-page summary here) by [University of Connecticut Health Center] (UCHC) found [Dipak] Das guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data, involving at least 23 papers and 3 grant applications. … UCHC has frozen externally funded research in Das’ lab, and it turned away $890,000 in federal grants while the investigation was underway. The university has also begun proceedings to fire Das.
Just as in the Stapel case in the Netherlands, we have here another example of the science community responding correctly to scientific fraud. Both examples stand in stark contrast to how the climate science community whitewashed the fraud and malfeasance in its own community.
Phobos-Grunt’s reentry this weekend
Watch your head this weekend: The re-entry of Phobos-Grunt has been refined, and is expected to come down sometime between 5 pm (Eastern), Saturday January 14 and 9 am (Eastern), Monday January 16.
As you can see by the image on the right, there is as yet no way to predict where it will land, though it appears that — except for the tip of Florida — North America is in the clear. The blue lines show its orbital path during the first half of this window, while the yellow lines show its path during the window’s second half.
Looking for Beagle 2
SpaceX outlines its new design goals for Falcon 9
What competition brings: SpaceX outlines its new design goals for Falcon 9 and its Merlin rocket engine.
[U]pcoming upgrades to the engine (Merlin 1D) will provide a vast improvement in performance, reliability and manufacturability – all of which could provide a timely boost to aiding the potential for success for the fully reusable Falcon 9.
Increased reliability: Simplified design by eliminating components and sub-assemblies. Increased fatigue life. Increased chamber and nozzle thermal margins,” noted SpaceX in listing the improvements in work.
Improved Performance: Thrust increased from 95,000 lbf (sea level) to 140,000 lbf (sea level). Added throttle capability for range from 70-100 percent. Currently, it is necessary to shut off two engines during ascent. The Merlin 1D will make it possible to throttle all engines. Structure was removed from the engine to make it lighter.
Improved Manufacturability: Simplified design to use lower cost manufacturing techniques. Reduced touch labor and parts count. Increased in-house production at SpaceX.
That’s just the engine. Most of the article however talks about the company’s effort to make as much of Falcon 9 reusable as possible. Hat tip to Clark Lindsey.
“I’d hoped for something different.”
“I’d hoped for something different.”
Me too. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. And this is all the more reason to vote more conservatives into power. And to not be afraid of new faces whom we’ve never heard of. The familiar names surely aren’t doing what is necessary.