Year: 2014
Awaiting contact from China’s rover as lunar day arrives.
Awaiting contact from China’s rover as lunar day arrives.
The sun started coming up over the weekend, so if Yutu is to come back to life, it must do it soon.
Richard Branson today claimed that Virgin Galactic will fly its first space tourists this year.
Did you ever get the feeling of deja-vu? On Monday Richard Branson claimed that Virgin Galactic will fly its first space tourists this year.
I am all for his success, but I must admit I am becoming skeptical. Branson said exactly the same thing in May 2013, except then he was claiming that the first tourist flight would occur before the end of 2013. It didn’t happen.
There are too many rumors about the engine troubles with SpaceShipTwo to allow me to accept Branson’s claims any longer at face value.
The Obama administration unilaterally delayed the employer mandate for medium sized businesses today.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: The Obama administration unilaterally delayed the employer mandate for medium sized businesses today.
The government will now exempt companies employing between 50 and 100 full-time workers from complying with the mandate that they offer employees affordable health insurance by another year, until 2016. Companies that have 100 or more full-time workers, defined as employees who work more than 30 hours per week, still will have to begin complying with the mandate to offer such coverage in 2015 or face financial penalties of up to $3,000 per worker.
Gee, didn’t the Democrats and Obama shut the government down only three months ago, calling the Republicans terrorists for suggesting Obamacare be delayed and screaming that it was “the law of the land!”?
The oldest known star in the Milky Way?
Scientists have found 800,000 year old footprints of a family on Britain’s eastern coast.
Scientists have found 800,000 year old footprints of a family on Britain’s eastern coast.
The prints could be as old as one million years, and are significant in that they show that humans had spread from Africa with remarkable quickness once the species took hold.
Want to know why Arianespace has never made a profit? Read this story.
Want to know why Arianespace has never made a profit? Read this story.
The story itself is not about Arianespace, but about the agencies that run it.
Engineers have finally pinpointed the problem, a damaged seal assembly, that has been stalling the giant drilling machine Bertha in Seattle.
Engineers have finally pinpointed the problem, a damaged seal assembly, that has been stalling the giant drilling machine Bertha in Seattle.
The drill machine is still under warranty, and engineers from its manufacturer are on the way to deal with the problem.
A message in a bottle, tossed into the ocean at Cape Cod by a scientist in 1956, was just found in Nova Scotia.
A message in a bottle, tossed into the ocean at Cape Cod by a scientist in 1956, was just found in Nova Scotia.
The drift bottle was among thousands dumped in the Atlantic Ocean between 1956 and 1972 as part of Bumpus’ study of surface and bottom currents. About 10 percent of the 300,000 bottles have been found over the years.
Curiosity has successfully crossed its first sand dune.
Curiosity has successfully crossed its first sand dune.
A new study has found that healthcare costs for small businesses have doubled since Obama became President.
A new study has found that healthcare costs for small businesses have doubled since Obama became President.
The study’s research period begins in 2009, before Obamacare went into effect, but even then I guarantee that the early cost increases were in anticipation of the law that was coming and that no one wanted. Since then, the law has only made things worse.
In a related story, AOL cuts employee benefits, citing Obamacare as the cause.
At House hearings this week witness after witness recounted how the IRS harassment of conservatives continues.
Working for the Democratic Party: At House hearings this week witness after witness have recounted how the IRS harassment of conservatives continues.
“I want to make three primary points here today,” said Mitchell. ”First, the IRS scandal is real. It’s not pretend, it’s real. Number two, the IRS scandal is not just a bone-headed bunch of bureaucrats in some remote office contrary to what the President of the United States told the American People on Sunday. And, number 3, the IRS scandal is not over. It is continuing to this day. And the Department of Justice Investigation is a sham. It is a nonexistent investigation.”
The article also notes that Obama’s claim that there is not a “smidgen of corruption” about this scandal is a lie, especially since the IRS began this story by admitting it had acted improperly in targeting conservatives, and had made this admission after the then IRS head had told Congress that no improper targeting had taken place. (In other words, he lied in sworn testimony to Congress.)
More information about this week’s on-going IRS hearing in the House can be found here. I have also posted below the fold some of the testimony of Cleta Mitchell and Catherine Engelbrecht. Watch it. Their description of the government attacks on conservatives is quite horrifying.
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How the tea party cornered John Boehner on immigration.
How the tea party cornered John Boehner on immigration.
The issue here for me isn’t immigration reform, but how this story describes the changing of the guard in the Republican Party. The present leadership is out of touch with its membership, on a number of issues, including Obamacare, government regulation, the budget, and the federal debt. It is only a matter of time before that leadership goes away, and from this article, it will likely be sooner rather than later.
The voters in bankrupt San Bernardino this week elected tea party-type individuals as their mayor and city council.
The voters in bankrupt San Bernardino this week elected tea party-type individuals as their mayor and city council, firing the pro-union old guard that had put the city in debt.
Tuesday’s results follow elections in November, when the balance of power in San Bernardino’s seven-member council shifted dramatically away from an old guard reluctant to take on unions and reduce pension obligations. After Tuesday night, six of seven council members are now on record as saying they want to explore reducing San Bernardino’s pensions, along with Davis, the new mayor, and a new city attorney, Gary Saenz.
This is good news, as it is further proof that elections matter and that the citizenry can make a difference, if it simply pays attention and votes accordingly.
An FBI agent mistakenly fills out the wrong box so that an innocent person is put on the no-fly list, she sues, and the federal government fights her for almost a decade in court proceedings that the government demands must be held in secret.
An FBI agent mistakenly fills out the wrong box so that an innocent person is put on the no-fly list, she sues, and the federal government fights her for almost a decade in court proceedings that the government demands must be held in secret.
To translate, the FBI and the federal government did everything it could to cover up its bureaucratic bungle, not caring that it might destroy an innocent person.
Obviously, it therefore makes perfect sense to give the federal government as much power as we can, to regulate our lives in every way possible. They would never do this kind of idiocy in other areas, would they?
Cosmologists, using new data, are now reconsidering their theories on the manner in which the universe began organizing itself after the Big Bang.
The uncertainty of science: Cosmologists, using new data, are now reconsidering their theories on the manner in which the universe began organizing itself after the Big Bang.
Scientists call it the epoch of reionization, the period in which a newborn universe went from darkness to light as the first stars, galaxies and black holes began forming and radiating energy.
In a paper published Thursday in Nature, researchers are challenging one long-held conception about how quickly the universe began warming during this transition period. Based on observations of X-ray emissions from binary star systems, as well as new mathematical models, cosmologists at Tel Aviv University and Harvard say that heating of the universe progressed much more slowly, and uniformly, than previously thought.
Russia considers building a heavy-lift rocket, even as it completes the design and construction of its new Angara commercial rocket family.
The competition heats up: Russia considers building a heavy-lift rocket, even as it completes the design and construction of its new Angara commercial rocket family.
The headline of the article focuses on the heavy-lift rocket, but the meat of the article is its details on Angara, which is expected to make its first launch in 2014.
More red tape in space.
Another look at this week’s hearings on space regulation: More red tape in space.
“As the prospects for a greater number of commercial-transportation vehicles in space increase, it is time to consider closing the current regulatory and safety gap between launch and re-entry,” said George Nield, the FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, in remarks this week before Congress.
Yeah, that “gap” is an area where freedom exists, where federal regulators like Nield can’t get their grubby paws on what people do and tell them how to do it. Gotta close that gap, can’t have people doing what they want, can we?
Update: Here’s another report, indicating the same eagerness of the FAA to impose its will on private space.
Curiosity takes its first image of the Earth/Moon system from Mars.
Curiosity takes its first image of the Earth/Moon system from Mars.
“I will not retreat. I will not surrender. I will not be intimidated, and I will not ask for permission to exercise my constitutional rights.”
“I will not retreat. I will not surrender. I will not be intimidated, and I will not ask for permission to exercise my constitutional rights.”
The words of one conservative who was harassed by the IRS and the Obama administration merely because she opposed them politically. Her most recent action? She is filing a formal complaint against Democrat Congressman Elijah Cummings for joining in on that harassment.