The private space station company Bigelow is beginning the testing of its station life support systems, using human subjects.
Republican senator Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire) suggested Monday that it would be better to restructure the healthcare bill than repeal or defund it.
Idiot. I think he and the rest of the Republican Party are being as clueless as the Democrats if they think this strategy will work. They should instead pay very close attention to what Sarah Palin said on the same day about a third party threat:
“Some in the GOP, it’s their last shot,” Palin said Monday evening on Fox News. “It’s their last chance, and we will lose faith and we will be disappointed and disenchanted from them if they start straying from the bedrock principles that can grow our economy.”
I am also reminded of this prescience Iowahawk post. As he says so eloquently, “Retards.”
It ain’t just the government in financial trouble: With $1 billion in debt, the satellite wireless company TerreStar is rumored to be considering bankruptcy.
The New Horizons space probe has now passed the halfway mark on its journey to Pluto.
Engineers are trouble-shooting a fuel leak on the space shuttle Discovery. At the moment NASA does not expect this to delay the planned November 1 launch.
An evening pause: The commenter Lino already posted a link to this video, but I thought it deserved more prominence. It shows the final stretch of all 19 wins by the race horse Zenyatta. In every case, she hangs back and comes from behind, sometimes at the last second. I don’t really know much about horse racing, but anyone who watches this video will be as amazed as I am by this horse.
She runs her 20th and last race on November 6 at Churchill Downs in Louisville. If she wins, Zenyatta will have had the most spectacular record of any race horse in history, 20 wins out of 20 races.
Swiss engineers broke through the last stretch of rock on Friday to create the world’s longest tunnel, 35.4 miles long!
Here’s some European Union madness: Because the Union banned light bulbs of more than 60 watts, a German entrepreneur is legally marketing his 75 and 100 watt bulbs by having them made in China and then importing them as “small heating devices” dubbed “heatballs.”
This is only the beginning. The political careers of almost all of the bluedog Democrats who voted for Obamacare appear to be ending with this upcoming election.
In a paper published on Saturday in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres of the American Geophysical Union, scientists from the Goddard Institute of Space Studies (where scientists have generally been strong advocates of human-caused global warming) outlined the key atmospheric molecules that contribute to the greenhouse effect. Key quote from the abstract:
We find that water vapor is the dominant contributor (∼50% of the effect), followed by clouds (∼25%) and then CO2 with ∼20%. All other absorbers play only minor roles.
The scientists also noted that even if carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were to double, these percentages would not change significantly.
Does this mean that carbon dioxide is a minor player in creating global warming? This remains unclear. First, the above research is essentially only modeling, not actual data. Second, the scientists themselves note that the interplay of any two of these molecules (such as water and carbon dioxide or water and cloudiness) can have a greater effect than just one molecule alone, which makes these percentages by themselves incomplete.
Nonetheless, these results are important politically. These global warming scientists have placed themselves on record as admitting that cloudiness appears more significant that carbon dioxide in creating the greenhouse effect. And since the combination of water and clouds can have an even greater influence on the climate than either alone, the scientists are also admitting that water is by far the most important greenhouse molecule. Any future climate models as well as political action must take this fact into consideration.
You call this reform? At the just completed annual meeting of the IPCC in South Korea, the panel refused to remove its controversial chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, while recommending a few minor reforms in how the panel writes its reports. This quote indicates just how unserious the IPCC is about reform:
In the past, he said, IPCC reports sometimes projected the likelihood of potential climate-change effects, such as melting glaciers, without enough evidence. “There were some weaknesses in the application,” said [Chris Field, a U.S. scientist and a leader of the panel’s 2014 report].
Freedom of speech alert! Security guards at a campaign appearance for Joe Miller, the Republican Senatorial candidate in Alaska, detained and handcuffed a journalist who was trying to ask Miller questions.
More criticism of NASA administrator Charles Bolden emerges as he heads to China. Key quote:
Since taking charge of NASA in July 2009, the 64-year-old Bolden has visited 14 countries and has been missing at critical moments. Last year, he skipped one of the first shuttle flights under his watch to visit Japan and most recently was on a trip to Europe and the Middle East when the U.S. House nearly defeated the NASA vision endorsed by the Obama administration. “How about saving the manned space program — in America?” said U.S. Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas).
Two German radar mapping satellites, flying in orbital formation, are now about to produce the first three-dimensional radar imagery of Earth. Key quote:
The combined mission’s data will produce gridded maps with a spatial resolution of 12 meters, or 39 feet. The maps will show elevation with a precision of less than 2 meters, or 6 feet.
A paper published on Saturday in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets of the American Geophysical Union, scientists suggest that the polygonal shaped cracks seen in the crater floors on many Martian craters could be evidence of ancient lakes. The evidence also suggests that the lakes were formed by the impact that created the crater. The energy of the impact melted underground ice to form a temporary lake inside the crater, which eventually dries out, leaving behind the polygons. From the abstract:
We propose desiccation to be a dominant mechanism for the formation of Crater Floor Polygons without ruling out thermal contraction as a possible contributor in some cases. This implies that lakes or water-rich sediments occupied the craters in the past. Many such aqueous environments have no apparent external source of water, and thus, hydrothermal processes occurring shortly after the impact event may be viable explanations for the observed evidence.
United States may outsource lightweight satellite launches to India.
Updated and bumped.The police have now issued an arrest warrent against reporter Jay Levin. (This is based on his behavior in the video below. He is the reporter in the red wind breaker, threatening another reporter, William Kelly, who was asking tough questions of Rahm Emanuel.) Key quote:
This morning, I [William Kelly] filed a police report and signed an arrest warrant against Jay Levine for assault. The Chicago police have already reviewed the video and agreed that an assault was committed.
——
Is there no wonder people joke about a “state-run” media? Here, Chicago mainstream reporters threaten a reporter when he tries to ask Rahm Emanuel some tough questions. More here. Best line from CBS reporter Jay Levin:
Let him finish or I’m going to deck you!
Watch the whole video. The good stuff begins at around one minute.
Sorry that much of today’s posts relate to politics and not science or space. I can only follow the news where it takes me.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden is off to China, despite opposition in Congress and new rumors that his future in this administration is shaky.
An evening pause: Who says miracles cannot happen? In 1969, the New York Mets proved that they can. Even if you are not a sports fan, watch this short film (which only covers the World Series and not the entire astonishing season) and you’ll get a glimmer of how miraculous that victory was. Today, October 16, is the anniversary of that victory.
Steny Hoyer must be in trouble. At the Charles County Candidate Forum on Wednesday, he lowered himself to actually debate his opponents for the upcoming Congressional election, the first time I have seen this happen since I moved to his district in 1999. However, his Republican opponent, Charles Lollar, got the last word, and made Hoyer look bad.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken this image of what appears to be a recent landslide on Mars, located on the southeast wall of Zunil crater. When the landslide took place is not known, though the color suggests that it happened so recently that the debris has not yet been covered by wind-blown dust.
Scientists have found that the color a wind turbine is painted will influence the number of bugs it attracts, which in turn will influence the number of bats and birds killed by the turbine. The least attractive color for bugs: purple!
Dutch prosecutors have recommended acquital for Geert Wilders on all charges. Though this is a vindication for Wilders, it is tragic that government officials thought they had the right to put Wilders on trial to begin with, merely because of things he said. Moreover, the trial is still scheduled to go on next week, despite these recommendations.
Freedom of speech alert! Rather than debate their opponents, two Democratic House candidates are trying to shut them up.
In the first case, incumbent Steve Driehaus (D-Ohio) is trying to use election laws to block an anti-abortion group from putting up billboards against him. Ed Morrissey at hotair.com has more details.
In the second case, incumbent Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pennsylvania) is trying to get radio stations to pull the radio ads of another anti-abortion group which attack her for her healthcare vote.
In both cases, the Democratic candidates voted for the Healthcare bill, and seem to want to hide that fact now from the voters. Not only does this illustrate the contempt they have of freedom of speech, it shows us just how toxic the healthcare bill has become politically. I suspect that this law is going to dog the Democrats who voted for it for years to come.
An evening pause: On October 9, 2010, the Boy Scouts set a world record by launching 3200 model rockets — simultaneously.
