Author: Robert Zimmerman

Chinese physicists have discovered a key measurement that helps explain why and how can neutrinos magically oscillate between three different states.

9:12 am

Chinese physicists have discovered a key measurement that helps explain why and how neutrinos can magically oscillate between three different states. Moreover, the data

implies that there could be a slight asymmetry between neutrinos and antineutrinos—called CP violation—a slight asymmetry that might help explain why the universe evolved to contain so much matter and so little antimatter.

Leave a comment

Robotic refueling demo begins today on ISS

1:06 pm

A robotic refueling demo. designed and built by the same people who ran the Hubble Space Telescope repair missions, begins today on ISS, using Dextre.

This demo is designed to prove that a robot, operated from the ground, can refuel a satellite not designed for refueling. The demo satellite on ISS was built to match the design of several climate satellites already in orbit that will end up defunct in a few years if they can’t be refueled.

One comment

The Utah legislature is about to pass a law demanding the federal government release to the state almost fifty percent of the state’s federal land.

8:51 pm

Another state vs federal battle: The Utah legislature is about to pass a law demanding the federal government release to the state almost fifty percent of the state’s federal land.

The context here is that, for most western states, the federal government controls almost all of the real estate, and has in recent years increasingly restricted its use to the detriment of local residents. The legal maneuvering here is a push back by the state.

Leave a comment

Explaining the limits of the Congressionally mandated Space Launch System

8:36 pm

Explaining the limits of the Congressionally mandated Space Launch System.

In trying to explain why SLS can never function as a crew ferry for ISS, I think Muncy also illustrates why the whole system makes no sense and is really a complete waste of money. Consider this:

SLS’s first uncrewed test flight would be in December 2017, with the first crewed mission nearly four years later, in late 2021. Even worse, NASA’s plan showed that Orion and SLS would be able to fly only one exploration mission every two (or more) years.

We are spending a lot of money for very little results.

3 comments

Play offense

10:25 am

Play offense.

Instead of bowing and scraping to the Islamic supremacists and feebly protesting that we’re not really racists and hatemongers and all the other calumnies and canards they throw at us, we should be taking the fight to them, and standing up and saying, “You are fronting for the most oppressive ideology on the face of the earth. You are fronting for evil. You are carrying water and running interference for the denial of free speech, the denial of the freedom of conscience, the institutionalized oppression of women, the subjugation of non-Muslims, and worse. You’re fronting for stonings, amputations, the murder of apostates, the treatment of women as possessions of men, the madness and senseless violence that we see in this furor over the Quran-burnings, and more. You shout us down on campuses and do everything you can to make sure we are not heard in the public square. And you call us fascists? You are the quintessence of fascism.”

3 comments

Boycotting the boycotters.

9:16 am

Boycotting the boycotters.

I’ve said little about the Rush Limbaugh kerfuffle this week, mostly because I consider the whole thing to be a manufactured scandal created by the Democrats to distract everyone from their effort to squelch religious liberty. However, this fake scandal has now morphed into a campaign to destroy Rush Limbaugh, which when you consider it is quite consistent with the Democratic Party’s general lack of respect for freedom and personal liberty. First they came after the church, now they are going after one of the more important commentators in the conservative movement.

It doesn’t matter whether you agree with Limbaugh. What matters is that this effort to destroy him is really an effort to silence any criticism of Obama and the liberal/leftwing agenda. Such attacks cannot be supported under any condition. These cowardly businesses that are fleeing Limbaugh, and thus are supporting a leftwing form of McCarthyism, should be made to suffer for this cowardice.

10 comments
1 … 897 898 899 900 901 … 1,076