FAA starts planning the regulation of private space travel
Oh boy! Doesn’t this sound exciting! The FAA is teaming up with seven universities to lay out the regulation of private space travel.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
Mount St. Helens
Today we hiked almost ten miles around Mt. St. Helens, walking down to the shore of Spirit Lake (see below) as well as tromping about on the debris field just below the crater. I will have a long post on the experience tomorrow.
Fort Hood massacre was “Workplace Violence”?
According to this AP report, the massacre at Fort Hood last November 9, where 13 people were killed by Major Nidal Hasan in the name of Islam, has been designated by the Pentagon as a case of “workplace violence.” If this is true, it is another sad example of the incredible disconnect between fantasy and reality among our society’s leadership.
Cinema Paradiso
An evening pause: A concert performance of Ennio Morricone’s theme from Cinema Paradiso (1988), one of the best films ever made. Even if you don’t speak Italian, see it in Italian with subtitles, rather than the dubbed version.
No sunspots, for the first time in months
Harvard researcher admits to research misconduct
Another scientific scandal, this time in the field of animal and human cognitive research: Harvard scientist Marc Hauser has admitted to eight instances of misconduct. Three key quotes:
The university said in a statement last week that Dr. Hauser or a co-author had been directed to correct three published papers for which the original data could not be found. [emphasis mine]
Harvard itself had faced growing criticism for not releasing more details of the inquiry since The Boston Globe reported on Aug. 10 that the university had found evidence of scientific misconduct in Dr. Hauser’s lab. On Friday, Michael D. Smith, dean of the Harvard faculty of arts and sciences, issued a letter to the faculty confirming the inquiry and saying the eight instances of scientific misconduct involved problems of “data acquisition, data analysis, data retention, and the reporting of research methodologies and results.” No further details were given.
Harvard’s findings against him, if sustained, may cast a shadow over the broad field of scientific research that depended on the particular research technique often used in his experiments.
Gee, this sure sounds a lot like the Phil Jones/East Anglia University climategate scandal, where both the researcher and his university provided cover for each other, thereby leaving a cloud over a vast amount of climate research that depends on Jones’s data.
Paradise Valley and Lakes
The sun was out, the sky was clear, and so today we did a short 6.5 circuit hike below Mt. Rainier, following the Lakes trail.
More details about SpaceX Dragon drop test
More details about the drop test by SpaceX of its Dragon capsule.
Space war breakthrough?
Is the space war over NASA’s future ending? I wonder, reading this report in which NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver confidently announces that a compromise between Congress and the administration is pending. More importantly, she said the following:
Many things are still uncertain, but one thing is not uncertain. Marshall [Space Flight Center] will lead the heavy-lift launch program.
Considering Garver’s previously strong opposition to Constellation, this statement indicates that she and the administration have backed down, and are willing to accept the heavy-lift part of Constellation, once called Ares V, as long as no one uses those Bush-era names.
Commando Daffy
An evening pause: Daffy-the Commando. From World War II.
TSA humilates passenger
Why I drive rather than fly, as much as possible: TSA guards rummage through woman’s purse, inspect her receipts, commandeer her checkbook, and call her husband. Key quote:
“I understand that TSA is tasked with strengthening national security but [it] surely does not need to know what I purchased at Kohl’s or Wal-Mart.”
A cloudy day in Paradise
We were back at Mt. Rainier today, this time doing one short hike and one long one, totaling 8.6 miles. The short hike took us to the Grove of the Patriarchs, a small grove of thousand year old trees. The long hike took us up to 7200 feet elevation on the flanks of Mt. Rainier. Unfortunately, the mountain was shy today, keeping itself hidden behind clouds for most of the day. Near the top of the climb the clouds parted for about 30 seconds, and I was able to get a signal snapshot of it. Otherwise, we spent most of the hike in the mist, which was beautiful in its own way.
Earth and Moon, the double planet
Want to see what the Earth-Moon double planet looks like from 114 million miles away? Take a look at this image taken recently by the Messenger spacecraft on its long journey to Mercury.
Landing gear collapses on WhiteKnightTwo during test flight
Bad news for space tourism! One of WhiteKnightTwo’s landing gears collapsed as the plane landed at the end of a test flight yesterday. Here’s a statement from Scaled Composites, the builder of the suborbital rocket system.
Shrinking moon
Images from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have proven that as the Moon cooled and solidified, it shrunk, leaving behind a network of cliffs, called thrust faults, across its entire face.
Eclipsing a neutron star
Astronomers have discovered the first star/neutron star binary system where the normal star is eclipsing the neutron star several times each week.
Station cooling system up and running
The cooling system on ISS is finally running normally again after the three spacewalks to replace the system’s failed pump.
Stan Rogers — Northwest Passage
An evening pause: Stan Rogers’ classic song, Northwest Passage.
For just one time, I would take the northwest passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea,
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage,
And make a northwest passage to the sea.
Plastic pollution down
Despite increasing use by humans, the plastic pollution floating in the North Atlantic ocean has not increased over the last two decades,and scientists don’t know why. From the Science press notice:
The authors propose a handful of possible explanations for why more discarded plastic is not appearing out in the open Atlantic Ocean. It may break up into pieces too small to be collected by the nets, or it might be sinking beneath the surface. Or, it might be consumed by marine organisms. More research will be necessary to determine the likelihood of each scenario.
Obama bans gun sales
The Obama administration has blocked South Korea from selling over a hundred thousand American-made surplus rifles to American gun collectors.