Why Obamacare is different.
The essay here is focused on what makes Obamacare politically different — and quite deadly for its supporters.
Year: 2013
The longest and most powerful gamma ray burst yet detected apparently does not fit any of the theories that are currently used to explain these events.
The uncertainty of science: The longest and most powerful gamma ray burst yet detected apparently does not fit any of the theories that are currently used to explain these events.
Construction of Russia’s new Vostochny spaceport is essentially back on schedule.
Construction of Russia’s new Vostochny spaceport is essentially back on schedule.
“I think we have reduced the lag and are getting back to the initial schedule,” Spetsstroy Director Alexander Volosov said on Thursday, November 21. While in July 2013, the lag was about three months, now it has been reduced to ten days. “Funding is provided on time and in sufficient volumes,” Volosov said. The first stage of the project – construction of roads at the cosmodrome – has been completed. The second stage is proceeding as scheduled and is to be completed in December 2014.
India’s Mangalyaan Mars probe has returned its first image, a picture of Earth.
India’s Mangalyaan Mars probe has returned its first image, a picture of India on Earth.
Though you can always learn something from any image, what is significant here is that before even leaving Earth orbit engineers have proven that the spacecraft’s camera works.
How not to get to Mars
Yesterday the world’s first space tourist, Dennis Tito, testified before Congress about the plans his organization, Inspiration Mars, has put together to make possible a manned fly-by of Mars by 2018.
The flyby mission would require two launches in quick succession. In the first liftoff, an SLS would loft four payloads to Earth orbit: an SLS upper-stage rocket; a 600-cubic-foot habitat module derived from Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus cargo vessel; a service module that would support the habitat module with power, propulsion and communications systems; and an Earth re-entry pod, which would be based on NASA’s Orion capsule. The second launch — this one likely using a commercial rocket — would deliver the two astronauts to orbit aboard a yet-to-be-selected private spaceship. The crewmembers would then transfer to the habitat module, and the SLS upper stage would propel them on toward Mars.
In making this announcement Tito and his organization challenged Congress and NASA to make it happen. They also admitted that they had initially thought this manned fly-by could be done entirely with private resources, but have looking at it closely realized it needed NASA money and hardware.
What a pipe dream. As much as I support Tito’s effort to accelerate the United States’ space effort, neither Tito’s original ideas as well as this new proposal are realistic. At no time do these dreamers show the slightest understanding of the challenges involved in flying humans in weightlessness for more than a year and as far away as Mars.
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In a launch today a Russian Dnepr rocket sent 32 satellites into orbit, breaking the record of 29 set less than a week ago by a Minotaur rocket.
The competition heats up: In a launch today a Russian Dnepr rocket sent 32 satellites into orbit, breaking the record of 29 set less than a week ago by a Minotaur rocket.
This is the future. Satellites are going to get smaller, and thus cheaper to launch.
In undercover tapes, the communications director of Enroll America, an organization that helps sign people up for Obamacare, is seen agreeing to help get confidential personal data of enrollees for political purposes.
Working for the Democratic Party: In undercover tapes, the communications director of Enroll America, an organization that helps sign people up for Obamacare, is seen agreeing to help get confidential personal data of enrollees so that it can be used for political purposes.
From the beginning I have always thought the most vile aspect of Obamacare was how it made your private and personal medical records available to hordes of government workers in multiple government agencies, a situation that is very vulnerable to corruption and abuse. Not surprisingly, it hasn’t taken long for Project Veritas to uncover such political corruption.
Dennis Tito’s project to launch a manned fly-by of Mars by 2018 has issued its revised plans, and they call for NASA to use SLS to do it.
Dennis Tito’s project to launch a manned fly-by of Mars by 2018 has issued its revised plans, and they call for NASA to use SLS to do it.
I will have more to say about this proposal shortly.
Seismic data now suggests that a volcano is beginning to stir far beneath the Antarctica icecap.
Seismic data now suggests that a volcano is beginning to stir far beneath the Antarctica icecap.
The article can’t resist noting how a really big eruption could melt a lot of ice and change the climate, neither of which is very likely.
And it ain’t your doctor!
Finding out what’s in it: It ain’t your doctor!
As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals. The Obama administration made it a priority to keep down the cost of insurance on the exchanges, the online marketplaces that are central to the Affordable Care Act. But one way that insurers have been able to offer lower rates is by creating networks that are far smaller than what most Americans are accustomed to.
In other words, because of Obamacare, you will either have to pay for your doctor up front and without any help from insurance, or you won’t be able to keep your doctor at all. So much for that promise.
On Sunday Curiosity suffered an electrical problem that has caused a pause in operations while engineers troubleshoot it.
On Sunday Curiosity suffered an electrical problem that has caused a pause in operations while engineers troubleshoot it.
At the moment the rover has ceased its travel. Though they are trying to make this sound as if it isn’t that big a deal, it does not sound good to me.
An update on the arrest of a father for wanting to pick up his kids and walk them home from school.
An update on the arrest of a father for wanting to pick up his kids and walk them home from school.
Key quote from the boss of the thuggish police officer, Avery Aytes, who made the arrest:
Aytes’s boss, Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess is described as saying he “hasn’t seen the video and doesn’t need to, because it won’t tell the whole story. He says Aytes was just doing his job.”
One point I didn’t make yesterday about his story. Exactly what crime was the father committing that justified his arrest? If you watch the video, all he was doing was expressing his disagreement with the school’s policy. And he was doing it quite calmly. Since when is that a crime?