The stimulus was not a one time expense, it was built into the baseline
One reason we are going bankrupt: The stimulus was not a one time expense, it was built into the baseline.
Click to see the chart most of all. It will make you sick.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
Tiangong-1 orbiter starts planned cabin checks against toxic gas
China’s Tiangong-1 space station today started its first planned monthly cabin check to test the status of the station’s atmosphere.
Phobos-Grunt: what’s in a name?
Some English commentary from Russia: Phobos-Grunt: what’s in a name?
And this is the part when I point out that Russia’s unmanned Mars missions, which have not been successful so far, have a name problem that goes beyond Phobos-Grunt.
Mars-94? M1 No. 520? Seriously? What is this dour nonsense? Soyuz-Fregat was an improvement, but still, considering the consistent failure rate of the Mars missions, it’s time to get serious about breaking that curse. Take a page out of the Americans’ book, just this once, and inject some optimism into your space program. The Americans give their *successful* spacecraft names like Phoenix! And Spirit! And Opportunity! So name your spacecraft a variation on the word Hope! Throw caution to the wind and name it Kickass! Certainly don’t name it after terror, even if the satellite you plan on exploring is already stuck with that unfortunate name.
UK police seize computers of skeptic blogger in England
Attacking the messenger? The UK police have seized several computers belonging to the first blogger in England to break the story of climategate 2.
The lost decade
At home, the American people are less free, less prosperous, more bitterly divided, and much less hopeful in 2011 than in 2001 because a decade of the War on Terror brought a government ever bigger and more burdensome, as well as “security” measures that impede the innocent rather than focusing on wrongdoers. Our ruling class justified its ever-larger role in America’s domestic life by redefining war as a never-ending struggle against unspecified enemies for abstract objectives, and by asserting expertise far above that of ordinary Americans. After 9/11, far from deliberating on the best course to take, our rulers stayed on autopilot and hit the throttles.
An fascinating and amazing essay. I don’t agree with everything in it, but can’t deny the strength of its general points. For example:
Because the Bush Administration took CIA director George Tenet’s snap judgment that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible “game, set, and match” for 9/11 as a warrant for identifying them with America’s terrorist problem in general, it failed to ask the classic headwaters question: what is the problem? Had it done so, it might have noticed that the 9/11 hijackers were part of a wave of deadly disrespect for America that had been growing throughout the Muslim world—and not just there—for a generation. Had the Bush team focused on the realities that fed growing images of America as “the weak horse” (to use Osama bin Laden’s words), they would have had to consider who were the major contributors to that disrespect, what they and their predecessors had done to incur it, and then to decide what actions would restore it.
That would have pointed to the Middle East’s regimes, and to our ruling class’ relationship with them, as the problem’s ultimate source. The rulers of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Palestinian Authority had run (and continue to run) educational and media systems that demonize America. Under all of them, the Muslim Brotherhood or the Wahhabi sect spread that message in religious terms to Muslims in the West as well as at home. That message indicts America, among other things, for being weak. And indeed, ever since the 1970s U.S. policy had responded to acts of war and terrorism from the Muslim world by absolving the regimes for their subjects’ actions. For example, when Yasser Arafat’s PLO murdered U.S. ambassador Cleo Noel, our government continued building friendly relations with Arafat, and romancing the Saudi regime that was financing him. Since then the U.S. government has given $2.5 billion to the PLO. Part of the reason was unwarranted hope, part was fear, and part was the fact that many influential Americans were making money in the Arab world.
I have always believed that when we went to war after 9/11, we needed to clean out all of the corrupt regimes in the Middle East, much as we did after World War II. Sadly, Bush did not. Had Bush fought World War II like he fought the “War on Terror” he would have stopped at the German border after Normandy and declared victory.
Read the whole thing. There is a lot more there, about freedom, government oppression, the TSA, and much else. The read is definitely worth it.
Johnson Space Center goes to backup power after a truck crashes into utility tower
Johnson Space Center has gone to backup power after a truck crashed into the utility tower that provides the center power.
The IPCC scientist working group has decided that Freedom of Information Act laws do not apply to its work
The law is such an inconvenient thing: The IPCC scientist working group, meeting in San Francisco, has decided that Freedom of Information Act laws do not apply to its work.
Putting aside the absurdity of a bunch of individuals simply declaring they don’t have to obey the law, it is interesting to me that the lead scientists of the IPCC happen to be meeting in San Francisco the same time the UN climate conference was going on in Durban. This seems to me to be further evidence of how irrelevant science was to that Durban conference.
Walking through the new American Amundsen Scott South Pole station
An evening pause: In honor of the 100th anniversary of Roald Amundsen’s arrival at the South Pole on this date, 1911, lets take a tour through the recently completed new Amundsen Scott South Pole station.
At one point right after walking through the cafeteria the cameraman points the camera out a window where you can see several flagpoles. That is where the actual South Pole is located. The camera than looks out a second window at a partly buried dome, which is the old station, no longer in use.
This video astonishes at what humans can accomplish in the most hostile environments.
Climate theatre of the absurd
Climate theater of the absurd.
The key thing to understand about the climate talks is that they’re not really about the climate. They’re about power and money. They are about the desire of fast-growing emitters such as Brazil, South Africa, India and China to extract billions in so-called climate reparations from rich countries, especially the United States. These and other so-called developing countries now account for more than half of greenhouse gas emissions. They want the rich countries to start cutting large amounts of carbon right away, while they do nothing. The rich countries are understandably reluctant. Hence the impasse.
Archaeologists announced yesterday that they have dug to the very core of Mexico’s tallest pyramid and found what may be the original ceremonial offering placed on the site prior to construction
Archaeologists announced yesterday that they have dug to the very core of Mexico’s tallest pyramid and found what may be the original ceremonial offering placed on the site prior to construction.
Climategate: the failure of scientific integrity in climate science
A big sideways slip on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter today released an image of a really spectacular transform fault on Mars, a spot where the ground cracked and two sections moved sideways to each other. In this case, the sideways movement was about 300 feet. The image is posted below the fold.
Compare that with the Japanese magnitude 9 earthquake on March 11, which only shifted the seabed sideways 165 feet while raising it 33 feet. The quake that moved these two pieces of Martian bedrock sideways must have been quite a ride.
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One congressman’s take on climate change and climategate
One congressman’s take on climate change and climategate.
And it ain’t good for science. If anything should convince scientists that they have to clean up their act, it should be this interview. Here is a congressman who seems truly interested in the field, but who has grown skeptical of anything climate scientists say because he simply doesn’t believe them.
Scientists have discovered how hummingbirds manage to fly like insects despite the limitations of their bird skeletons.
A twist of the wrist: Scientists have discovered how hummingbirds manage to fly like insects, despite the limitations of their bird skeletons.
Astronomers have discovered a gas cloud on a collision course with the galaxy’s central black hole
Astronomers have discovered a gas cloud on a collision course with the Milky Way galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, set for impact in the summer of 2013.
Germany’s space chief sees big battles in Europe over funding for ISS and Ariane
Germany’s space chief yesterday said he expected big battles in Europe over future funding for ISS and Ariane.
Ariane is a serious problem, as it is expensive and a money-loser, despite dominating the commercial market in recent years. And worse, it will be difficult to make Ariane competitive in the future:
ESA in 2010 hired an outside auditor to review the current Ariane 5 system to look for ways to save money. Its principal conclusion was that very few savings were possible without scrapping the forced geographic distribution of industrial contracts that preserves the political and financial support needed for the Ariane system.
LightSquared outraged at leaked GPS test report
LightSquared expresses outrage at leaked GPS test report.
It is interesting that they don’t seem to be complaining about the results, which showed that their system interferes badly with GPS. With the facts and the law against them, it appears instead they are now pounding the table.
The supernova of a generation
The supernova of a generation.
There will be a slew of stories about this in the next few days. The important takeaways are as follows:
- After almost a half century, astronomers have finally proven the theory that type Ia supernovae come from the explosion of a white dwarf star, overloaded with material sucked from its binary companion.
- The prediction that the companion would be a red giant star, however, has turned out to be wrong. At the same time, astronomers still do not know what kind of star it was in this particular case.
- With this new knowledge astronomers will have a better chance of identifying type Ia supernovae, before they go boom.
- Finally, type Ia supernovae are used to measure the expansion rate of the universe, and thus were the key to discovering dark energy. By better understanding how these supernovae occur, cosmologists will be better able to constrain what they know about dark energy.
The $600,000 toad statue your tax dollars paid for and you will never see in person
The $600,000 toad statue your tax dollars paid for and you will never see in person.
A University of Denver professor plans to teach the same course next spring that, because of two anonymous complaints, caused him to be suspended for more than 100 days.
Standing up for his rights: A University of Denver professor plans to teach the same course next spring that, because of two anonymous complaints, caused him to be suspended for more than 100 days.
“I did not do anything wrong,” Gilbert said. “If I cave in on this, it would be terrible for academic freedom,” he said, explaining the decision to carry on teaching the class despite the trouble it had caused for him.