Dawn captures its first image of the asteroid Vesta as it closes in on a rendezvous set for July 16.
Did a fungal infection kill forty percent of the world’s amphibians?
The above article outlines an intriguing solution to this mysterious die-off. Sadly, the article also makes a silly effort to link everything to climate change, without justification. Pay attention to the former and ignore the latter.
Want more evidence that government spending is out of control? In one California city lifeguards earn $100K to $200K per year. They also retire with 90 percent of their salary, after only 30 years of work at as early as the age of 50.
After 100 orbits, an overview of Messenger’s survey of Mercury.
A State Department report on religious freedom in Afghanistan: deteriorating. Two quotes from the report:
Respect for religious freedom deteriorated during the reporting period, particularly for Christian groups and individuals. Residual effects of years of jihad against the USSR, civil strife, Taliban rule, popular suspicion regarding outside influence and the motivations of foreigners, and still weak democratic institutions remained serious obstacles. There were cases of harassment, occasional violence, and inflammatory public statements made by members of parliament and television programming against religious minorities, particularly Christians, and Muslims who were perceived as not respecting Islamic strictures. Negative societal opinion and suspicion of Christian activities led to targeting of Christian groups and individuals, including Afghan converts to Christianity. The lack of government responsiveness and protection for these groups and individuals contributed to the deterioration of religious freedom.
and
The right to change one’s religion was not respected either in law or in practice. Muslims who converted to Christianity risked losing their marriage, rejection from their family and village, and loss of jobs. Following the May 2010 suspension of two NGOs on suspicion of proselytizing, some parliamentarians advocated violent responses toward the alleged apostates, including public execution. [emphasis mine]
This report actually came out in November, 2010, but I hadn’t known of it until now. It is worth reading. Though there are clearly some positive signs, overall the state of religious freedom in Afghanistan appears abysmal.
A judge has ordered the Obama administration to act on six offshore drilling permits within 30 days.
An evening pause: Part of an Italian show (unfortunately without subtitles), this clip shows a video of the taping session where Denver and Domingo recorded their stunning duet.
Pop! Analysis of the images that Stardust took of Comet Tempel 1 strongly suggest that when Deep Impact hit the comet’s surface it broke open several underground cavities that then burst like balloons.
No surprise here: The White House takes a dim view of Boehner’s speech yesterday.
So my question here is there: Who is more serious about controlling spending, Obama and the Democrats or the Republicans in the House? Though it is very easy to find lots of reasons to criticize the various Republican proposals, at the moment they are the only proposals that are willing, even on a tiny level, to consider entitlement reform.
The first Soyuz launch from the European spaceport in French Guiana is now scheduled for October.
Recent data leaks from particle hunters is now raising questions among physicists about the question of controlling scientific secrecy. To me, the most significant quote from the article was this:
“Should leakers or bloggers be punished for making early findings public?
That this question is even asked by someone in the science field is disturbing. Though the leaks might be annoying and counter to the agreements the scientists signed when they joined these various projects, I wonder how the author expects such punishment to be administrated. And who would do it? And should such punishment apply to everyone, or just to the participating scientists?
Pakistan has cut off nine foreign satellite news channels, including the BBC, Voice of America, CNN, Fox,, NBC, CNS, IBN, Sky News, and Al Jazeera.
[Information Minister Firdous Aashiq Awan] said that certain violations had been observed in the past week’s coverage of the Abbottabad operation to kill al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. “They were spitting venom against Pakistan,” said the information minister.
The delays in launching Endeavour has pushed back the last shuttle mission to mid-July.
An inconvenient truth: New data now shows that since 2003, the rate of sea level rise has stablized, and since 2007, the rate of increase has actually slowed.
The real disaster in Japan: Towns now flood at high tide.
I like the sound of this: “Without significant spending cuts and reforms to reduce our debt, there will be no debt-limit increase.”
Also this: “We should be talking about cuts of trillions, not just billions. They should be actual cuts and program reforms, not broad deficit or debt targets that punt the tough questions to the future.”
And this: “And to those who contend that the economy is too weak to take on the challenge of entitlement reform — I would simply say, you’ve got it backwards. The truth is that making fundamental reforms to these programs would be good for the economy — and good for the next generation.”
The FAA: slow to ramp up in its role of regulating human space travel.
This ain’t good. It also is not a surprise. The only real question is whether the government bureaucrats at the FAA will get out of the way of those who are really trying to do the work.
NASA management appears ready to approve combining SpaceX’s next two test flights of the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket into one test flight. This despite Russian opposition.
Websites run by NASA, JPL, and Stanford University were hacked by search engine scammers today.
Endeavour’s last launch is now set for May 16 at 8:56 am.
Were Neandertals and modern humans just ships passing in the night? Some scientists are now making this claim.
Islamic tolerance: In a fourteen hour attack on Sunday, Egyptian Muslims killed 12 Christians and wounded 232.
The Soyuz launchsite in French Guiana has been declared ready for its first flight.
A Soviet-era spacesuit has sold for $242,000 in a NY auction.
