Cassini has taken some spectacular new images of the gigantic hexagon-shaped vortex on Saturn’s north pole.
I am off to Ames, Iowa, today where I will be giving a lecture tomorrow at Iowa State University to the Iowa section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The subject: Predicting the future of space travel based on the past.
The biggest black hole yet found, 17 billion times the mass of our sun.
The unusual black hole makes up 14 percent of its galaxy’s mass, rather than the usual 0.1 percent. … NGC 1277 [the galaxy] lies 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus. The galaxy is only ten percent the size and mass of our own Milky Way. Despite NGC 1277’s diminutive size, the black hole at its heart is more than 11 times as wide as Neptune’s orbit around the Sun.
Based on these measurements, it appears that this black hole is literally eating this galaxy whole.
Intellectual bankruptcy: 52 Nobel Peace Prize winners, artists, and activists have called for the boycott of Israel for its recent attacks in Gaza.
And where were these so-called intellectuals when Hamas was lobbing rockets into Israel? For them, I guess it is all right to kill Jews. And God forbid the Jews decide to defend themselves.
The day of reckoning looms: The federal government’s debt ceiling will be reached no later than the end of February, and possibly sooner.
Space tourism — in a balloon.
A newly successful test of a balloon could allow paying human customers to enjoy stunning Earth views and the weightless astronaut experience by 2014. The test balloon carried a humanoid robot up to an altitude of almost 20 miles (32 kilometers) on Nov. 12 — just a few miles shy of where skydiver Felix Baumgartner leaped from during his “space dive” in October. Startup Zero 2 Infinity wants to eventually offer hours of flight time for space tourists to do whatever they want in a near-space environment.
Ticket prices are $143K. And they have a list of customers who have already plunked down deposits.
Twenty places that you should try to visit before you die.
Photo Op meets red tape. Red tape wins.
I find quite disturbing how people still have faith in the empty promises made by politicians at a disaster scene. The politician is there for only one reason: to look good for the cameras. Rarely if ever does that appearance mean a damn thing. If anything, it will only hinder relief efforts, as local authorities have to scramble to deal with the politician’s entourage rather than deal with disaster victims and their problems.
I actually have far more respect for politicians who stay away during these times of crisis, rare as they are. They show common sense and good judgment.
SpaceX and Stratolaunch have parted ways.
In the original plan, Stratolaunch would build the first stage, the biggest airplane every built, which would lift the second stage, SpaceX’s Falcon 9, into the air. It appears, however, that the modifications required to make the Falcon 9 work in this configuration were not in SpaceX’s interest, so the company backed out and Stratolaunch has instead made a deal with Orbital Sciences to provide the second stage rocket.
NASA is soliciting ideas on how to use the two Cold War era telescopes given to the space agency by the military.
Both telescopes are comparable in size to the Hubble Space Telescope.
In response to my condemnation of the insane requirement by Obamacare that restaurants and take-out pizza delivery services publicly post on their menus the calorie count for every item, including a calorie count for each of the literally thousands of topping variations for pizzas, regular reader Patrick Ritchie asked me, “What level of super market labeling would you support?”
I replied, “I think the federal government has no business requiring any labeling at all. This is a state matter, pure and simple, both for practical and Constitutional reasons.”
He responded, “Which practical reasons? I’m genuinely curious. What makes a state regulation inherently better than a federal one?”
My response to this last question was quite long, and after reading it Patrick suggested I elevate the comment into a full headlined post. I have decided to do so. Here is what I wrote, edited slightly for clarity:
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The Russians today announced a reorganization of their space industry.
An obvious attempt to deal with their increasing production and quality control problems, this proposal has both good and bad parts to it.
» Read more
Los Alamos engineers have successfully tested a simple fission nuclear reactor for generating electricity in space.
The competition heats up: Echostar signs a multi-satellite deal using the Ariane 5 rocket.
Several points:
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Impressive radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2007 PA8 were taken during its recent fly-by of Earth.
The images … reveal possible craters, boulders, an irregular, asymmetric shape, and very slow rotation. The asteroid measures approximately one mile wide (about 1.6 kilometers).
The asteroid poses no threat to Earth. The resolution of the images, however, is astonishing, especially considering it was done by radar.
An honest actor reviews the show he stars in: “Please stop watching it … Please stop filling your head with filth.”
Real progress: Russia and the U.S. have named the two astronauts who will spend a year in space beginning in 2015.
This mission will also make room for a Russian tourist flight during that same time period.
Finding out what’s in it: The requirement in Obamacare that restaurants list calories on their menus will cost billions.
President Obama’s own Office of Management and Budget listed the menu display imposition as the third most burdensome statutory requirement enacted that year, forcing retail outlets to expend 14,536,183 work hours every year just to keep Uncle Sam happy. Instead of applying the menu rule just to restaurants, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided on its own initiative to sweep certain convenience stores and pizza delivery storefronts under the calorie-count requirements. FDA bureaucrats are even micromanaging compliance, down to determining the sizes of fonts that can be used on menu signs.
This regulation does nothing to lower the cost of healthcare, and in fact increases costs in more ways than can be counted. Moreover, it is less than useless in improving the public’s health.
However, it does do a lot for federal bureaucrats, giving them more power over businesses and our lives. Hooray!
The day of reckoning looms: The willingness of a small union to bankrupt Hostess will help do the same to many other companies.
And guess what? It is because of another ill-conceived federal law.
A Russian Proton rocket, scheduled for launch in late December, is being replaced because of damage sustained during transport from its factory.
This is not the first time this has happened. In 2010 a Soyuz capsule had to be replaced for the same reason. Modern television journalism (if one can call it that) would immediately ask “Is this a trend?” I instead wonder what the details are in both cases, which unfortunately are not available.
Finding out what’s in it: When you go for your annual physical — free under Obamace — the doctor cannot treat you for, or even answer questions about, any new ailments.
We are obligated by law to code specifically for the reason of the visit. An annual exam is one specific code; you can not mix this with another code, say, for rectal bleeding. This annual visit covers the exam and “discussion about the status of previously diagnosed stable conditions.” That’s the exact wording under that code — insurance will not cover any new ailment under that code. If you are here for that annual exam, you will not be covered if you want to discuss any new ailment or unstable condition. I cannot bait and switch to another code — that’s illegal. We, the physicians, are audited all the time and can lose our license for insurance fraud.
You, the patient, will then have to make a decision. Do you want your “free” yearly exam, or do you want to pay for a visit which is coded for a particular, new problem? You can have my “free” exam if you only discuss what Obamacare wants me to discuss.
In other words, this so-called “free annual physical” is a fraud. In fact, in order for it to be free, both the doctor and the patient have to purposely ignore any new problems that might have come up since the last physical. Or the doctor has to cheat and do work for which he will not be paid.
None of this should be surprising. You allow the government to stick its hands into everything you do, those hands are going to go places you never expected or would have permitted. Just ask anyone who has had to go through airport security.
Good news: Boeing indicated today that it is considering increasing its investment in its CST-100 manned capsule in order to accelerate its development.
I suspect that, after Boeing in September let leak the idea that they might shelve CST-100 if the space agency didn’t give them more money, NASA management instead told them in no uncertain terms that if they didn’t show a more serious commitment to building CST-100, they might lose the contract altogether.
The day of reckoning looms: Don’t you dare call it default!
The government you deserve: The arrival of the legal dictator.
The real problem here is not that the state government in Michigan is trying to impose on Detroit an appointed manager with great powers, but that for generations the voters refused to fire the incompetent and corrupt elected officials (all Democrats as is usual in the big urban cities). The result is a city in ruins.
