State Department: The Taliban is not a terrorist organization
Talk about having trouble with reality: According to a new State department report listing worldwide terrorist organizations, the Taliban does not qualify.
Category: Behind The Black
We don’t have a deficit problem
In an amazing illustration of what I call the great disconnect, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka blandly claims in this interview that the United States does “not have a deficit crisis.”
Interview with Elon Musk
Spacevidcast has posted on YouTube as well as on their own webpage the first 10 minutes of a 20 minute interview with Elon Musk of SpaceX. You can see the full 20 miutes if you sign up for their Epic service.
For me, the interesting part of the interview is when he discusses the recent story about SpaceX’s plans to build a heavy-lift rocket, dubbed Falcon X. He explained that the proposal was not actually part of the company’s official plans. but the brainstorming ideas of one of the company’s engineers at an engineering conference. He also made it clear that he did not reject the idea. He likes giving his engineers the freedom to talk about such things publicly, even if the company is not yet ready to pursue them.
Democratic official attacks videographer
Watch the reaction of Democrat Bill Skaggs, the Kansas City mayor pro tem (1st district councilman) and former member of the State House of Representatives when he notices that he is being videotaped on this public street, then ask yourself if this is a reasonable reaction for an elected official.
Plane crash in Alaska, Stevens, O’Keefe on board
A plane crash in Alaska with nine passengers included former Alaska senator Ted Stevens and former NASA administrator Sean O’Keefe. Though five deaths are reported, the identities of the dead and suvivors has not yet been releasted.
Historians identify early English scribes
Two University of York researchers have identified the scribes who first made copies of some of English literatures most important early works. Key quote:
The discoveries were the result of painstaking research in the London Metropolitan Archives, where the York scholars matched the handwriting of scribes copying important early English literary manuscripts with the hands of Guildhall clerks copying documents and custumals.
Iridium profits up
Rising from the dead. The satellite phone company Iridium, once bankrupt, reports strong growth in sales and subscribers.
Repair strategy for Wednesday spacewalk
NASA engineers are working out a strategy for the next spacewalk, now tentatively scheduled of Wednesday, to continue repair efforts on the International Space Station. The new plans call for the astronauts to close several valves on the leaking coolant line while ground controllers lower pressure on the line, then drain the excess ammonia from it. This will hopefully allow the astronauts to disconnect the line from the pump without spewing ammonia all over the place, and then proceed with the removal of the failed pump.
Kevin Branagh – Henry V
An evening pause: From Kevin Branagh’s 1989 film of Shakespeare’s Henry V, the battle speech “upon Saint Crispin’s day”.
Why no one trusts the press
This article helps explain why so many people today have little faith in modern journalism.
Griffin’s take on the Obama space plan
On August 6 former NASA administrator Mike Griffin bluntly attacked the Obama proposals for NASA in a speech at the 13th Annual International Mars Society convention in Dayton, Ohio, Key quotes:
We’re not going anywhere and we’re going to spend a lot of money doing it.
The US space program has not accomplished as much in its last 15 years as in its first 15 years, given more money. So, if you like that, you’ll really like the next decade, in which we do almost nothing and spend just as much.
African Space Agency being proposed
Bureaucrats in space! The ministers of the African Union are proposing creating the African Space Agency to “focus on the development of common space policy for the continent .”