Cassini has taken a spectacular full color image of Saturn’s hexagon-shaped storm that surrounds its north pole.
Cassini has taken a spectacular full color image of Saturn’s hexagon-shaped storm that surrounds its north pole.
Year: 2013
The next test flight of a version of SpaceX’s Grasshopper could occur in New Mexico in December.
The next test flight of a version of SpaceX’s Grasshopper could occur in New Mexico in December.
The story says this test will be with Grasshopper, but I think that is a mistake. Unless SpaceX is using this name for all its vertical landing test vehicles, the company had said the test vehicle to fly in New Mexico would be a full scale Falcon 9 first stage, with nine Merlin engines, not one as has Grasshopper.
Cygnus will be de-orbited one day early, on October 23.
Cygnus will be de-orbited one day early, on October 23.
At the same time, preparations move forward for the second Cygnus flight in December, which will be the first operational flight. This quote is interesting:
Neither Orbital nor the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority got locked out of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport as a result of the shutdown, meaning that preparations for the tentative December launch continued while more than 95 percent of NASA’s roughly 18,000 civil servants were on furlough.
Suggests again how unessential a good percentage of NASA’s employees really are. They might be great engineers, but they are apparently wasting their talents at NASA doing unnecessary make-work.
Divers working at a Russian lake have recovered a half-ton piece of the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk on February 15.
Divers working at a Russian lake have recovered a half-ton piece of the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk on February 15.
The Senate budget deal that the House will vote on today includes some really nice pork.
The Senate budget deal that the House will vote on today includes some really nice pork.
The bill includes extra funds to fix flooded roads in Colorado, a $3 million appropriation for a civil liberties oversight board and a one-time payment to the widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who died over the summer. It also includes a more than $2 billion increase in funding for construction on the lower Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. Current law authorizes $775 million in spending for related projects, and the bill increases it to $2.918 billion.
The last appears to be a kickback to Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) to get him to buy into this crap.
The bill also has this crap:
The legislation broadly re-opens the government through Jan. 15, and extends the ability of the government to borrow money through Feb. 7. It does so by allowing President Obama to waive the debt ceiling, a move that can be overridden by a resolution of disapproval by Congress that Obama could still veto. [emphasis mine]
In other words, Congress is now ceding this budgetary responsibility and power to the President, who will then rule by decree.
Update: The bill passed both houses of Congress and has now been signed by the President. Note that the only opposition came from Republicans, but even here the opposition was a minority. The Democrats strongly endorsed this bill, and for good reason. It gives them (and the Republicans who supported it) lots of pork and greater power for Obama. Americans meanwhile are screwed. The day of reckoning still looms.
Chase Bank has told its business customers that there is now a limit on the amount that can be withdrawn from an account, while also banning all international wire transfers.
WTF? Chase Bank has told its business customers that they are placing a limit on the amount that can be withdrawn from an account, while also banning all international wire transfers.
If I had a Chase account, I would close it today, immediately, before these restrictions go into place.
The true global warming crisis: The lies underlying the theory.
The true global warming crisis: The lies underlying the theory.
Read it. He details nicely the lies in the most recent IPCC report.
“Let’s don’t confuse nobody with the facts.”
A Democratic Congresswoman speaks her mind: “Let’s don’t confuse nobody with the facts.”
But don’t worry: I guarantee she will be re-elected forever. She is a black representative, in a black district. What matter that she appears to be as stupid as a brick, she’s black!
When your only criteria for voting for someone is their race, then you are the bigot. And sadly, this description appears to apply to too many blacks voters today.
The director of the National Park Service now claims that the barricades around memorials in DC were put there to protect them from terrorists during the shutdown.
The director of the National Park Service now claims that the barricades around memorials in DC were put there to protect them from terrorists during the shutdown.
What kind of fools do they take us for? This is downright insulting.
“I wanted the Affordable Health Care Act. The problem is, is it’s not affordable,”
An Obama supporter finds out what’s in it: “I wanted the Affordable Health Care Act. The problem is, is it’s not affordable.”
I would laugh except that I am crying. Moreover, the article is from a San Francisco media outlet, which is as surprised as this Obama supporter at the cost of Obamacare. Too bad these liberals all considered conservatives and tea party people terrorists, murderers, and hate-filled killers of small children and therefore not worth listening to back in 2009. Had they listened, they would have found out about the unworkable nature of this law then, instead of now, and the law would never have been passed.
They should maybe consider this reality and recognize that this is why there are Republicans putting up a fight now to delay or defund the law.
No budget deal: The Democrats continue to refuse to give in at all, and the bulk of the Republican caucus has shown some spine and refused to cave.
Well hallelujah and amen! No budget deal: The Democrats continue to refuse to give in at all, and the Republicans have shown some spine and refused to cave.
This deadlock has been a team effort, from both sides. To say it is entirely the fault of one party or the other is to reveal your partisanship.
Nonetheless, legislation requires negotiation, and the only ones refusing to negotiate at all have been the Democrats. In the real world outside of government, such pig-headedness always results in no deal at all.
Right now it looks like 17% of the government will remain shut for quite awhile. And with the debt ceiling kicking in, the federal government will find its hands tied even more. The American people are about to find out that life will go on quite successfully without their big daddy to boss them around.
Tennessee and North Carolina have agreed to reopen Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Tennessee and North Carolina have agreed to reopen Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Like other states, they will pay the operating costs of the National Park Service, then get reimbursed when the government shutdown ends.
I wish they weren’t paying anything. They could have made sure the parks were open and available to all using state resources, and let the National Park Service throw a temper tantrum when it discovered it couldn’t control the parks.