North Korea has completed preparations for a mid-range rocket launch tomorrow.
North Korea has completed preparations for a mid-range rocket launch tomorrow.
If I was in South Korea or Japan, I would be very very worried.
Year: 2013
A Catholic university has banned a Catholic group because it is Catholic.
You can’t make this stuff up: A Catholic university has banned a Catholic group because it is Catholic.
Margaret Thatcher’s nineteen most badass moments.
Margaret Thatcher’s nineteen most badass moments.
She was a politician who was unafraid to stand for freedom and was willing to bluntly speak the truth. What a concept!
India is looking to privatize its commercial launch vehicles.
The competition heats up: India is looking to privatize its commercial launch vehicles.
Boeing is about to begin wind tunnel tests of its CST-100 manned capsule.
The competition heats up: Boeing is about to begin wind tunnel tests of its CST-100 manned capsule.
This is good, but there is something about the pace of development of the CST-100 that seems mighty slow to me. Last September there were indications that Boeing might shelve the project, which were countered in November by word that they were instead considering increasing their investment.
The slow pace suggests to me that management has rejected the latter. It also suggests that while they haven’t shelved the project, they are not pushing it hard, which means that eventually it will die because it will fail to compete with other more ambitious and competitive efforts.
On the air
Tonight I will be doing the first hour with George Noory on Coast to Coast. Should be fun, as I will be reviewing the present state of the American space industry and how it is steadily pushing NASA out of the way as we learn how to get into space, without the government.
Global warming: time to rein back on doom and gloom?
From a global warming advocate: Global warming: time to rein back on doom and gloom?
Prediction, as they say, is tough, especially when it’s about the future – and that’s especially true when it comes to the climate, whose complexity we only partially understand. It is, as we all know, naturally immensely variable. And the effect of human intervention is subject to long timelags: it will be decades, even centuries, before the full consequences of today’s emissions of carbon dioxide become clear.
As a result, scientists and policymakers draw on the past to predict the future. Until now, they have therefore placed much weight on the rapid temperature increases in the Eighties and Nineties. But for at least a decade, these have dramatically slowed, even as carbon dioxide emissions have continued to increase. [emphasis mine]
Or as I like to say, every climate model proposed by every global warming scientist has been proven wrong. They all predicted the climate would warm in lockstep with the increase in CO2. It hasn’t.
This is not to say the climate hasn’t warmed in the past five centuries (though some of the data used in for the past 150 years is sadly suspect). What isn’t clear is why. It might be the rise in carbon dioxide. It might also simply be the lingering warming the Earth is experiencing as the last ice age ends. Or it might be because of the Sun.
The field of climate science is very complex, confusing, and in its infancy. We just don’t know yet, and anyone who says they do is not a good scientist.
The words of NASA’s chief: “NASA is not going to the Moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime.”
The words of NASA’s chief: “NASA is not going to the Moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime.”
He’s right. Instead, others will do it. And the ones who do it from the United States, privately financed for profit, will do it quickly, efficiently, and often, three things NASA has not been able to do at all since the 1960s.
Doctors driven to bankruptcy
What is amazing about this article about the recent spike in doctors filing for bankruptcy is how it somehow never mentions Obamacare at all. The closest the author comes is a mention of “changing regulations.” How informative!
If the author was a good journalist, which he isn’t, it should have been self evident that the advent and effects of Obamacare has to be included in this story, if only to give it the proper context.
The weak solar maximum continues
Late last night NOAA released its monthly update of the Sun’s sunspot cycle, covering the period of March 2013. As I have done every month for the past three years, I am posting this latest graph, with annotations to give it context, below the fold.
While the Sun’s output of sunspots increased in March, it did not do so with much vigor, with the numbers still far below all predictions while also showing an overall decline since a single strong peak in October 2011.
R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013).
R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013).
One of the giants of the 20th century. As she said in her final speech as Prime Minister in 1990,
» Read more
New data from Curiosity has further confirmed that the atmosphere of Mars was once much thicker, and that the remaining atmosphere is still dynamic.
New data from Curiosity has further confirmed that the atmosphere of Mars was once much thicker, and that the remaining atmosphere is still dynamic.
The two most interesting bits of data is that the temperature has been steadily climbing in Gale Crater, and that the humidity has shown significant shifts, depending on the rover’s location as it has traveled through the crater.