Earl Scruggs & Men with Banjos – Foggy Mountain Breakdown
An evening pause: And yes, that is Steve Martin playing on the left.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Year: 2015
Republican revolt over Iran deal vote
The House Republican leadership is facing a revolt from its membership of their plan to vote on the Iran deal.
Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders got an earful Wednesday morning from lawmakers who say President Barack Obama has not disclosed so-called “side deals” between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran, and therefore is crosswise with the law that gives Congress review power over the accord.
GOP leaders are likely to change their approach Wednesday, and are now considering a vote on Rep. Peter Roskam’s (R-Ill.) resolution that would delay a disapproval vote because they believe Obama has not disclosed some elements of the deal.
The article correctly notes that, because of the Corker-Cardin bill pushed through several months ago by this same Republican leadership, it is almost impossible to block the Iran deal and that this revolt will likely change nothing. However, it also notes that Roskam was once part of that same Republican leadership and was pushed out last year. His actions here suggest to me that he might be maneuvering to position himself as a likely Boehner replacement.
More details here. The story above is from a Democratic-leaning news source. This second link is from a conservative site. This story also notes that the Republican leadership is actually so stupid they are planning the vote on the Iran deal on take place on September 11. I wonder what happened that day 14 years ago?
Closing in on Ceres’s bright spots
Cool image time! The Dawn science team has released a new close-up of Ceres’s Double Bright Spot.
The new up-close view of Occator crater from Dawn’s current vantage point reveals better-defined shapes of the brightest, central spot and features on the crater floor. Because these spots are so much brighter than the rest of Ceres’ surface, the Dawn team combined two different images into a single composite view — one properly exposed for the bright spots, and one for the surrounding surface.
They have also released a detailed topographic map of the crater as well as a fly-around video, which I have posted below the fold. The interesting take-away from this new data is that, while the bright spots look at first glance remarkably like the snow-cap on a mountain-top, they are actually at the low spots in the crater. This suggests that they are instead material that has either bubbled up from below, or flowed downward to the crater bottom.
Be sure you click on the link and look at the full resolution image.
» Read more
Spaceport head says Lynx to launch in early 2016
The competition heats up: The president of the spaceport in Midland, Texas, said today that XCOR’s Lynx suborbital spacecraft will complete its first test launch in the second quarter of 2016.
My readers know that I have been very skeptical of XCOR. They also know, if they have read closely, that I would be thrilled if they proved me wrong and succeeded. I think we shall find out one way or the other next year.
China lunar lander to be aimed at the Moon’s far side.
The competition heats up: China’s next lunar lander will likely be the first to land on the Moon’s far side.
They aim to launch in 2020, after their next orbiter, which would act as a communications relay station, enters orbit in 2017.
Venus probe about to rise from the dead
Five years after it failed to enter Venus orbit as planned, the Japanese probe Akatsuki is about to try again, in December.
The article provides an interesting and detailed explanation of what had gone wrong in 2010, and then describes the amazing things engineers have done to make this second attempt even possible. If they succeed it will be one of the most brilliant achievements in the history of space exploration.
Al Stewart – Year of the Cat
An evening pause: A very nice performance. Hat tip Danae.
Another political story today says John Boehner’s position as House Speaker is under threat
Link here.here. I have seen about three stories on this subject today alone, from a wide spectrum of news sources. This only confirms what was indicated before the recess, that Boehner no longer has the votes among Republicans, and that we will likely see a change in September.
Posted from the airport in Spokane, on the way home.
How a scuba tank is made
An evening pause: The complex engineering that goes into the things we use and take for granted is sometimes astonishing and breath-taking. It is important to remind ourselves of this sometimes.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
The push at SpaceX to resume flights is accelerating
The competition heats up: An update on SpaceX’s effort to resume flight after its June Falcon 9 launch failure.
Lots of interesting details not only about the failure investigation but on upgrade plans for Falcon 9.
Russia testing upgraded Soyuz capsule
The competition heats up: Russian engineers have begun testing new equipment to be installed in an upgraded version of their manned Soyuz capsule.
The plan to test fly the new avionics on a Progress freighter before installing them in upgraded manned Soyuz, which they hope to fly in about six months.
New Horizons data dump about to begin
The download of the majority of the data obtained by New Horizons during its fly-by of Pluto in July will begin on Sept 5.
They will begin releasing unprocessed images at their website each Friday beginning Sept 11.