More please! In special recall election voters oust Miami-Dade mayor for raising taxes.
Three astronauts return safely to Earth in Soyuz capsule.
The strange tale of the Lebanese space program.
A boxing gym, fighting its state’s eminent domain proceedings for being “blighted”, gets its day in court.
The strange link between samurai swords and Japan’s nuclear reactors.
The budget wars: Winning the future three weeks at a time. To me, this says it all:
The Obama White House on Tuesday endorsed the Republican House-passed federal spending extension bill and urged the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass it and avoid a federal government shutdown Friday.
The X-37B – what its first two flights have been about.
An evening pause: On the ides of March, why not watch Marlon Brando at his best, as Mark Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1953).
Violence and unions: It’s in their blood.
The truth at last! The nation was left reeling yesterday by the revelation that the presidential election of 2008 was a hoax. Key quote:
O’Keefe said he also expected the ruse would be unmasked when Obama said that “under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket,” and again when Obama claimed, “I’ve now been in 57 (U.S.) states,” with “one left to go.”
“We modeled the 57-states gaffe on Dan Quayle’s ‘potatoe’ mistake,” said O’Keefe, referring to a 1992 incident at a Trenton, N.J., elementary school in which then-Vice President Dan Quayle added an “e” to “potato.” “We figured Obama would become a national laughingstock like Quayle, (but we) underestimated the tendency of the press and the public to forgive mistakes by people they like.”
Read the whole thing.
Time to stop the nuke hysteria. Key quote:
It’s not bad enough that thousands of people may be dead from Japan’s earthquake and devastating tsunami. No, the media is instead obsessing over a nuclear reactor that has killed no one and probably never will.
A college student who was arrested for stripping down at airport security to reveal the Fourth Amendment written across his chest is now suing the U.S. government.
Two dogs defy the wave. This is the key quote, however:
Mr. Kikuchi and his daughter said they will come back every day to look after the dogs, but they are not going to bring the dogs to the shelter. “There are lots of people dead and it’s too much to ask to bring the dogs,” said Mr. Kikuchi. “It would be inconsiderate to other people’s sadness.”
Intelsat signs MDA to perform in-space refueling of its communications satellites.
The concept of refueling geosynchronous satellites has been lurking about the aerospace industry for years. According to this deal, we should see an actual mission in about five years.
This is beyond belief: The National Labor Relations Board (its members appointed by the Obama administration) has approved the use of physical threats and abuse by unions in union elections.
Those private companies better get cracking! The Russians have raised their ticket price again, from $56 to $63 million per astronaut ride on a Soyuz.
How the White House bullies the press.
First results from the Hayabusa asteroid samples.
A preliminary analysis of asteroid samples returned last year by Japan’s Hayabusa probe show evidence the dust grains have a similar composition to stony meteorites that commonly fall to Earth. . . . The initial research also shows the samples inspected so far contain no organic molecules. Scientists also say the analysis confirms the rocks at Itokawa were formed 4.6 billion years ago at the dawn of the solar system.
Very sad: A space shuttle worker has died from a Fall at the launchpad.
Problems going up and going down: Not only are there issues with the Soyuz capsule that is scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday, a problem in the communications system of the next Soyuz capsule has caused the Russians to delay its launch by at least one week.
More competition! SpaceX has inked a deal to launch its first geosynchronous communications satellite.
The return of a crew from ISS on Wednesday via a new upgraded Soyuz capsule might have problems.
The newest budget continuing resolution and the continuing funding of Obamacare. Key quote:
But Speaker John Boehner, interviewed by The Washington Times, couldn’t even coherently explain why House leaders didn’t remove Obamacare spending just as they did with the 123 other programs.
Check out this detailed engineering explanation of what has happened, is happening, and will happen at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Key quote:
The point is that the nuclear fuel has now been cooled down. Because the chain reaction has been stopped a long time ago, there is only very little residual heat being produced now. The large amount of cooling water that has been used is sufficient to take up that heat. Because it is a lot of water, the core does not produce sufficient heat any more to produce any significant pressure. Also, boric acid has been added to the seawater. Boric acid is “liquid control rod”. Whatever decay is still going on, the Boron will capture the neutrons and further speed up the cooling down of the core.
An evening pause: Part one of a four part documentary about Richard Feynman.
“To know when you know and when you don’t know, and what is it you know, and what is it you don’t know.”
And they call themselves journalists? ABC, CBS, MSNBC, NBC and NPR all ignore the death threats made to Wisconsin Republicans.
