Year: 2014
Republican leadership begins an effort to back off from repealing Obamacare.
Cowards in action! The Republican leadership begins an effort to back off from repealing Obamacare.
While the Democrats always push for their ideology, no matter how unreasonable (see previous post), too many Republicans are always cowards, chickening out and giving in, even when faced with unreasonable Democratic demands.
A Democrat wins election in Virginia and a push for more gun control follows.
Elections have consequences: A Democrat wins election in Virginia and a push for more gun control follows.
Democrats always put on a fake halo and say their regulations are “reasonable,” even as the regulations they demand become increasingly unreasonable year by year.
NASA’s first test flight of both the Orion capsule and the heavy-lift SLS rocket in 2017 might be delayed because of design problems with the European-built service module.
I am shocked, shocked! NASA’s first test flight of both the Orion capsule and the heavy-lift SLS rocket in 2017 might be delayed because of design problems with the European-built service module.
Overweight and struggling with design delays, the European-built service module for the Orion crew exploration vehicle may not be ready for a much-anticipated test flight by the end of 2017. The preliminary design review for the Orion spacecraft’s critical engine and power element is now on track for May after a six-month delay to contend with weight issues, according to Thomas Reiter, director of the European Space Agency’s human spaceflight and operations programs.
I am willing to bet that SpaceX will put astronauts in space on Dragonrider before this unmanned SLS flight occurs.
Astronomers have discovered the first exoplanets orbiting a star almost identical to the Sun.
Astronomers have discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a star almost identical to the Sun.
Astronomers have used ESO’s HARPS planet hunter in Chile, along with other telescopes around the world, to discover three planets orbiting stars in the cluster Messier 67. Although more than one thousand planets outside the Solar System are now confirmed, only a handful have been found in star clusters. Remarkably one of these new exoplanets is orbiting a star that is a rare solar twin — a star that is almost identical to the Sun in all respects.
This discovery is interesting in that some astronomers have proposed that our Sun itself was born in M67, the open galactic star cluster where these exoplanets were found. My March 2012 cover story for Sky & Telescope was on this very subject.
A scuba mask that allows you to breath underwater as if you were a fish.
Cool: A scuba mask that allows you to breath underwater as if you were a fish.
The Obama administration now harasses the military chaplain who sued them because of their actions during the government shutdown.
The Obama administration now harasses the military chaplain who sued them because of their actions during the government shutdown.
Father Ray Leonard, the Catholic Navy Chaplain who sued the Department of Defense and the Navy after he was barred from celebrating Mass at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia during the recent the Government shutdown, is now the target of Government retaliation even though the Department of Justice indicated the day after the lawsuit was filed that he could resume his duties as a Navy Chaplain.
The retaliation involves repeated Government assertions that the employment contract under which Father Leonard was working is no longer “valid”, demands that he must sign a new contract containing several pages of onerous new terms if he wants to be paid and refusals to pay for services he had already performed.
I probably have posted an example of this kind of harassment by the Obama administration against innocent citizens about once per day for the past year. And as I said earlier today, the abuse of power by this Democratic administration makes Chris Christie look like a amateur.
Jimmy Kimmel savages Obamacare and ignorant young who support it.
Jimmy Kimmel savages Obamacare and ignorant young who support it.
Read and watch it all. Quite entertaining, in a painful sort of way.
The article also notes that while young people should surely be criticized for their blind faith in Obama and the Democrats, the media is as much to blame.
Without question, if America’s media had behaved responsibly in 2009 and 2010, the calls and emails to Congress opposing this legislation would have been so voluminous it never would have passed.
But instead, with the exception of the conservative outlets, America’s media were 100 percent behind this legislation, aiding and abetting the President and his Party to enact something that virtually all late night comics agree is a total joke.
Why the sequester had to die.
It worked.
It did not work perfectly, and it did not balance the budget or put us on course for a balanced budget. But it did play a critical role in nudging the deficit away from “catastrophic existential threat” territory and toward “terrifying money-suck.” It did this in part by forcing Republicans to accept cuts in military spending, which they are not normally much inclined to do. (It goes without saying that the Democrats are categorically hostile to spending reductions.) Because we cannot rely for very long upon the better angels of congressional nature, these statutory limits are always destined to be short-lived, which should be of some concern to us: Experience shows that when Congress agrees to a budget-control deal, the first thing it does is begin looking for opportunities to undermine that deal.
Orbital Sciences outlines the upgrades it plans for Cygnus and Antares.
Orbital Sciences outlines the upgrades it plans for Cygnus and Antares.
Replacing Antares’ Russian engines is their biggest problem, but along the way they are installing a number of improvements to Cygnus that will up its cargo capacity.
A detailed look at how the budget deal effects the NASA budget.
A detailed look at how the budget deal effects the NASA budget.
As Messier notes, the budget is generally flat, with little significant change either up or down.
A House investigation has found that the Obama administration acted to make the sequestration cuts as “painful as possible” for rural schools.
A House investigation has found that the Obama administration acted to make the sequestration cuts as “painful as possible” for rural schools.
I have made no excuses for Chris Christie and the abuse his underlings heaped out in New Jersey against innocent citizens. It was wrong, and it makes me much less likely to support Christie in future campaigns. At the same time, it is also important to note that this one event pales in comparison to the number of similar abuse-of-power stories I’ve noted coming from the Obama administration. When it comes to improperly using the power of government to hurt innocent citizens, Obama and his underlings make Christie look like an amateur.
After drilling four shafts and sending in one man to look, engineers still don’t know what is blocking the giant tunnel drill Bertha in Seattle.
After drilling four shafts and sending in one man to look, engineers still don’t know what is blocking the giant tunnel drill Bertha in Seattle.
The next step, not simple, is to send workers to inspect the drill face itself.
The House is about to vote on a trillion dollar spending bill that no one has really read.
This sums it up: The House is about to vote on a trillion dollar spending bill that no one has really read.
It might include some specific cuts, but in general this budget plan is a surrender to more spending.
The only real solution to this madness, however, really rests with the voters. The spenders in both parties have to be fired, and the only way to do that is to fire them. Sadly, I see no sign of that happening in the hardcore Democratic states such as New York, California, and Illinois, to name just a few. There, the voters are so partisan that they’d rather die than vote for a Republican. And die they will.
Among Republican voters at least there is pressure from the right to spend less. To make it effective, however, the voters still have to do some firing, as far too many Republicans elected officials are willing to go along to get along.
On the air tonight
I will be appearing with David Livingston on the Space Show tonight, beginning at 7 pm (Pacific). The show is webcast live as well as podcast. Feel free to call in and ask questions or make comments.
Should be fun, especially considering the good start private space has had in 2014.
The sound of pi
An evening pause: The sound of pi.
A federal court has thrown out the net neutrality rules imposed by Obama’s FCC appointees, stating that the commission had overstepped its authority.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: A federal court has thrown out the net neutrality rules imposed by Obama’s FCC appointees, stating that the commission had overstepped its authority.
Have you noticed how the left always comes up for these meaningless terms — “net neutrality”, “single payer”, etc — any time they want to expand their power over our lives?
Twenty fascinating photos from history.
Another innocent patient, having lost his insurance due to Obamacare, is now threatened with death.
Finding out what’s not in it: Another innocent patient, having lost his insurance due to Obamacare, is now threatened with death.
I cannot be more accurate. Read the story. The man is not getting treated because his policy was cancelled because of Obamacare.
Thank you Obama and the Democrats. I am so glad you care.
And there’s this horrible story of a disabled family now out of luck: “We did not put ourselves in this situation,” she told The Daily Caller. “The government put us in this situation.”
And we have only just begun. Stay tuned from more horror stories as Obamacare spreads its wings over the entire healthcare industry this year.
Astronomers have identified a star they expect to go supernova very soon.
Astronomers have identified a star they expect to go supernova very soon.
[SBW2007] 1 (or SBW1) is located 20,000 light-years from Earth and features an enigmatic double-ringed planetary nebula. The rings are gases that have been blasted from the outermost layers of the blue supergiant star in the nebula’s core. The star, which was estimated to be 20 times the mass of the sun before it became unstable, is going through its final death throes before a supernova is initiated. But don’t worry, the supernova would be a safe distance from us, although it will put on an exciting light show.
There is no way to predict when the supernova will occur. On the timescales of stellar evolution, it could happen tomorrow, or in a thousand years. For the full Hubble image go here.
This story is significant in that it shows how much knowledge has been gained in astronomy since Hubble’s launch. In 1987, when Supernova 1987a exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud, astronomers had not identified even one progenitor of any supernova, and did not have any clear idea what kinds of stars produced these gigantic explosions. Today, they have identified more than a handful, and are even beginning to pinpoint candidates, such as the star above, that could be the next stars to go boom.