The Obama administration has pulled back the deployment of 50 Marines to protect its embassy in Khartoum because of objections of the Sudanese government.
In other words, the Obama administration is more willing to obey the orders of the Sudan government than it is willing to protect the lives of U.S. citizens abroad.
For the past three days there has been a very lively debate by readers of Behind the Black, attempting to figure out the actual cost of launching payload to low Earth orbit by various rockets, including SpaceX, the space shuttle, and the NASA-built Space Launch System.
Three stories published today add some new information to this debate.
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R.I.P. Neil Armstrong’s ashes were buried at sea today.
The men who organized this attack knew the ambassador would be at the consulate in Benghazi rather than at the embassy in Tripoli. How did that happen? They knew when he had been moved from the consulate to a “safe house,” and switched their attentions accordingly. How did that happen? The United States government lost track of its ambassador for ten hours. How did that happen? Perhaps, when they’ve investigated Mitt Romney’s press release for another three or four weeks, the court eunuchs of the American media might like to look into some of these fascinating questions, instead of leaving the only interesting reporting on an American story to the foreign press.
For whatever reason, Secretary Clinton chose to double down on misleading the American people. “Libyans carried Chris’s body to the hospital,” said Mrs. Clinton. That’s one way of putting it. The photographs at the Arab TV network al-Mayadeen show Chris Stevens’s body being dragged through the streets, while the locals take souvenir photographs on their cell phones. A man in a red striped shirt photographs the dead-eyed ambassador from above; another immediately behind his head moves the splayed arm and holds his cell-phone camera an inch from the ambassador’s nose. Some years ago, I had occasion to assist in moving the body of a dead man: We did not stop to take photographs en route. Even allowing for cultural differences, this looks less like “carrying Chris’s body to the hospital” and more like barbarians gleefully feasting on the spoils of savagery.
The scientists who took the first image of single molecule in 2009 have improved the resolution of their images.
They not only can see the molecule, they can now detect the differences between the atomic bonds holding the different atoms together.
Planets without end: Astronomers have discovered the first exoplanets to be found inside an open star cluster that are orbiting sun-like stars.
The uncertainty of science: The first results from the two GRAIL space probes have revealed that the Moon has a much thinner crust than previously believed.
These preliminary results have also found that the Moon’s surface topography closely matched the variations in the gravitational field, and that there appears no evidence in the gravitational field of the giant ancient impact basins that scientists have for decades assumed were there, based on surface evidence. This last result is especially surprising, and will force an almost complete rewrite of the Moon’s geological history.
Interestingly, these results are only peripherally related to GRAIL’s main research goal, which was to map the Moon’s deep structure and core. I suspect there are even more surprises coming when this data gets released.
An evening pause: Helmet cam during one of Jeb Corliss‘ wingsuit flights.
The day of reckoning looms: The U.S. government’s credit rating has been downgraded again.
And we’ve only just begun!
The eight dumbest things said about free speech this week.
With one additional bonus update of stupidity from the Obama administration.
This violence in the Middle East is not about what we do, but about the murderous and oppressive culture that rules these forsaken Arab countries. We Americans have nothing to apologize about.
The journal Science today published this detailed look at the cuts that would occur in all the federal government’s various science programs should the automatic budget cuts outlined in the sequestration legislation occur on January 2, 2013.
Not surprising, the article includes a great deal of moaning and groaning about the terrible harm the cuts would have on science research should they occur. From the Obama administration:
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