Astronomers discover an exoplanet that their theories say shouldn’t exist.
The uncertainty of science: Astronomers discover an exoplanet that their theories say shouldn’t exist.
Year: 2013
Obamacare threatens to destroy volunteer fire departments.
Finding out what’s in it: Obamacare threatens to destroy volunteer fire departments.
It seems the law requires that volunteers be considered employees who must be covered by their organization. The money quote that sums up the entire law: “Welcome to federal regulations.”
The lawsuit by a doctor against Obamacare.
The lawsuit by a doctor against Obamacare.
Though the law has harmed him and his business directly, what is interesting and important about his lawsuit is that it is demanding that Obama enforce the law as written.
Obama tells Chris Matthews what he really thinks of the IRS harassment of conservatives.
Obama tells Chris Matthews what he really thinks of the IRS harassment of conservatives.
[Y]ou’ve got an office in Cincinnati, in the IRS office that — I think, for bureaucratic reasons, is trying to streamline what is a difficult law to interpret about whether a nonprofit is actually a political organization deserves a tax exempt agency. And they’ve got a list, and suddenly everybody’s outraged.
I seem to remember Obama himself expressing outrage to the press soon after the scandal broke and promising an investigation. Obviously, he lied about his outrage. He also lied about the investigation, since it is now more than six months later and the so-called investigation has yet to contact any of the victims of the IRS harassment.
Gee, he seems to lie a lot, doesn’t he? I also wonder if he has any outrage over the IRS’s auditing of that cancer patient and his insurance agent soon after the patient appeared on Fox criticizing Obamacare. I suspect not.
No alcoholic beverages for the Russian astronauts to drink on ISS on New Year’s Eve.
Sacrilege! No alcoholic beverages for the Russian astronauts to drink on ISS on New Year’s Eve.
Here’s another report on the planetary sciences/NASA dispute this week over funding and grant scheduling.
Here’s another report on the planetary sciences/NASA dispute this week over funding and grant scheduling.
From this report it appears that the complaints by the planetary science community might have been a bit overstated. It doesn’t appear that NASA is cutting the planetary sciences grant program in any significant way.
I suspect that the reason the planetary scientists are so touchy is because they do not trust the Obama administration, based on its previous efforts to eliminate the planetary program entirely. (It is also possible that they are right.)
When a man denied the police entry into his house because they didn’t have a warrant, one officer threatened to come back with a warrant and “shoot and kill” the man’s dogs.
Does this make you feel safer? When a man denied the police entry into his house because they didn’t have a warrant, one officer threatened to come back with a warrant and “shoot and kill” the man’s dogs.
[When the] police asked to search his house, Crinnian refused multiple times. He said they needed a warrant. Then he said one police officer started threatening him saying, “If we have to get a warrant, we’re going to come back when you’re not expecting it, we’re going to park in front of your house, where all your neighbors can see, we’re gonna bust in your door with a battering ram, we’re gonna shoot and kill your dogs, who are my family, and then we’re going to ransack your house looking for these people.”
How nice.
Google X-Prize competitor Moon Express has unveiled its lunar lander, scheduled to soft land on the Moon in 2015.
Google Lunar X-Prize competitor Moon Express has unveiled its lunar lander, scheduled to soft land on the Moon in 2015.
Moon Express is generally considered the leader in this lunar landing X-Prize competition, and this story adds weight to that consensus.
A map of Opportunity’s journey on Mars as it approaches its tenth anniversary since landing on January 25, 2004.
A map of Opportunity’s journey on Mars as it approaches its tenth anniversary since landing on January 25, 2004.
The map gives some nice perspective of just how far the rover has traveled in the past decade, as well as the increasing scale of the geological features it has observed. Opportunity began inside tiny Eagle Crater, moved on to larger Endurance Crater, then to the even bigger Victoria Crater, and now to the truly massive Endeavour Crator, 14 miles in diameter.
A new poll shows Democrats as out-of-touch extremists.
A new poll shows Democrats as out-of-touch extremists. Hat tip to Doug Ross.
The public overwhelmingly believes the country is headed in the wrong direction, that current economic policies aren’t working, that President Obama is doing a bad job, that government should be smaller and that ObamaCare should be repealed. But not Democrats.
On issue after issue, in fact, Democrats are the outliers by wide margins, according to an analysis of the December IBD/TIPP survey. They are, by and large, Pollyanna-ish about the economy, they can see no evil when it comes to Obama or ObamaCare, and they are extremists when it comes to the size and role of the federal government.
This close-mindedness is increasingly disturbing. How can we fix our problems if one significant portion of the population refuses to consider that they might be wrong?
Let the space price war begin.
Let the space price war begin.
Two money quotes:
This latest launch is bad news for Russia, Europe, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. SES paid $55 million to SpaceX for the launch; rivals typically charge $100 million to $200 million. SpaceX has a backlog of about $4 billion worth of launches, many for commercial customers that it can now begin to serve.
and this:
We’ll really get a sense of SpaceX’s abilities over the next year. The company plans to launch rockets at a much more ferocious clip, to refine their reusability and to prepare for sending humans to the International Space Station. You can also expect to see SpaceX tormented by politicians with ties to existing launch contractors and military suppliers. May we live in interesting times.
Some more details about the impending takeover and overhaul of the Russian space industry by the Russian government.
Some more details about the impending takeover and overhaul of the Russian space industry by the Russian government.
Sadly, Russian culture is strongly top-down and authoritarian. After two decades of wild freedom — when they claimed a large share of the launch market and made a lot of money — they are now returning to their centralized ways. It will not work.