Category: Behind The Black

Want to watch some astronomers blow up the top of a mountain? You can!

11:14 am

Want to watch some astronomers blow up the top of a mountain? You can!

Seriously, construction crews will in June begin blasting to prepare this mountain top in Chile for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), a gigantic optical telescope that will have a primary mirror 39 meters or 128 feet across and is scheduled for completion sometime in the next decade. To mark the event they will be providing a live stream for everyone worldwide to watch.

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Students shout down a speaker at Portland State University.

10:21 am

Fascists: Students shout down a speaker at Portland State University.

And why did they do this?

Kristian Williams, the panelist who was interrupted, was shouted at because of an essay he wrote last year in which he criticized what he saw as a pattern where those who are survivors of sexual violence are presumed to be the only ones who can talk about any conflict over a given incident.

His piece did not deny that sexual violence is real, but he questioned the way some people have been attacked as perpetrators. “Under this theory, the survivor, and the survivor alone, has the right to make demands, while the rest of us are duty-bound to enact sanctions without question,” he wrote.

He didn’t disagree with the students, only expressed the opinion that everyone should have the right to speak on the subject. For this sin he was violently silenced. Even worse, he was silenced with this shouted madness: “We will not be silenced in the face of your violence.” The protestors will not be silenced? It appears that they are the only ones being permitted to speak. Video below the fold. It is truly horrifying.
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After losing an HBO television show because of their conservative views, Benham Brothers has now had its bank partner suddenly cut all ties from their business.

10:05 am

Fascists: After losing an HBO television show because of their conservative views, Benham Brothers has now had its bank suddenly cut all ties from their business.

SunTrust Banks is cutting ties with would-be reality stars David and Jason Benham after liberal activists attacked them for their conservative views on abortion and gay marriage, The Daily Caller has learned. In a statement provided first to TheDC on Friday, the Benham brothers confirmed that SunTrust Banks has pulled all of its listed properties with the Benham brothers’ bank-owned property business, which includes several franchisees across four states. The move comes just a week after HGTV announced it was canceling a planned home renovation show hosted by the brothers.

“If our faith costs us our HGTV show and our business, then so be it,” said Jason Benham on Friday. “We were caught off-guard with this one,” David Benham said of SunTrust’s actions. “Keeping us off television wasn’t enough, now this agenda to silence wants us out of the marketplace.” [emphasis mine]

It must be emphasized that the only reason for blacklisting these men is because of their personal beliefs, which happen to also be completely irrelevant to how they run their business.

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According to a prominent climate scientist, a research paper he co-authored suggesting the threat of global warming from carbon dioxide is exaggerated was rejected for publication for political reasons.

9:37 am

According to a prominent climate scientist, a research paper he co-authored suggesting the threat of global warming from carbon dioxide is exaggerated was rejected for publication for political reasons.

The five contributing scientists submitted the paper to Environmental Research Letters – a highly regarded journal – but were told it had been rejected. A scientist asked by the journal to assess the paper under the peer review process reportedly wrote: ‘It is harmful as it opens the door for oversimplified claims of “errors” and worse from the climate skeptics media side.’

Prof Bengtsson, 79, said it was ‘utterly unacceptable’ to advise against publishing a paper on the political grounds. He said: ‘It is an indication of how science is gradually being influenced by political views. The reality hasn’t been keeping up with the [computer] models.

Bengtsson is also the same climate scientist who was forced to resign last week from a skeptical global warming think tank because of threats of blacklisting if he did not.

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The IRS appears to be stonewalling a Freedom of Information request for all documents relating to communications between that agency and thirteen Democratic elected officials from 2009 to 2013.

9:15 am

Working for the Democratic Party: The IRS appears to be stonewalling a Freedom of Information request for all documents relating to communications between that agency and thirteen Democratic elected officials from 2009 to 2013.

Those officials include former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, former Commissioner Steven Miller, senior IRS official Joseph Grant and former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner. Members of Congress named in the request include Sen. Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Reid (D-NV), DSCC Chair Sen. Bennet (D-CO), Sen. Landrieu (D-LA), Sen. Pryor (D-AR), Sen. Hagan (D-NC), Sen. Begich (D-AK), Sen. Shaheen (D-NH), Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO), Sen. Franken (D-MN), Sen. Warner (D-VA), Rep. Braley and Rep. Peters (D-MI).

Since that request was received by the IRS nearly one year ago, IRS Tax Law Specialists Robert Thomas and Denise Higley have asked for more time to fulfill the request six times.

As has been said many times before, it ain’t the crime but the coverup that does the most damage. I suspect the requested documents will be very damaging to these Democrats, as the material will likely show that they colluded with the IRS to use the tax agency to harass conservatives. Delaying their release, however, only means that we will likely get to see these documents closer to the 2014 election.

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In a sweeping election victory on Friday India voted a new pro-business party and prime minister into power.

9:05 am

India goes capitalist: In a sweeping election victory on Friday India voted a new pro-business prime minister into power.

The victory was a landslide, including a major sweep in parliament.

The long entrenched but now defeated Congress Party had begun moving away from socialism back in 1991, which produced a booming economy for India.

Prime Minister Singh launched reforms in 1991 as finance minister that opened India’s socialist economy to global capital, but his spell in the top job ended marred by corruption and a floundering economy amid mounting policy paralysis. He has already bid farewell to his staff after ten years in office.

The new leader, Narendra Modi, is expected to accelerate this effort.

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Debris from the Proton launch failure yesterday has been found in China.

8:20 am

Debris from the Proton launch failure yesterday has been found in China.

The vagueness of yesterday’s Russia reports suggested to me the possibility that the rocket might have fallen into another country’s territory, something the Russians would normally not like to advertise. It appears, however, that most of the satellite and rocket has burned up before hitting the ground.

This report clarifies some details about the failure. It was the Proton’s third stage that failed, not the Briz-M stage that has caused failures in the past. This is also the 6th failure of a Proton since December 2010, a poor launch record that strongly indicates serious quality control problems in the manufacture of this rocket.

Update: Inmarsat, one of the Proton rocket’s biggest customers, is considering dumping the Proton for future launches. To do so will be expensive and will likely delay the launch of their next two satellites, both of which were scheduled for launch on a Proton in 2014. Nonetheless, it appears they are considering it.

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Two California residents have filed a class action suit against their health insurance company for misrepresenting the doctors and hospitals that their plan would include.

8:05 pm

Finding out what’s not in it: Two California residents have filed a class action suit against their health insurance company for misrepresenting the doctors and hospitals that their plan would include.

The lawsuit accuses Blue Shield of advertising “one of the largest networks in the state” – with more than 60,000 physicians and 351 hospitals – and of failing to disclose that the networks for certain plans were substantially smaller. After receiving medical treatment numerous times between January and March, Harrington and Talon later discovered that their providers were not covered, forcing them to pay the charges out-of-pocket, the complaint said. The lawsuit alleged claims of false advertising, unfair business practices and breach of contract under California law.

We must remember that though Obamacare itself is not the subject of this suit, the law is still the root cause of the problem. It forced these individuals to buy insurance they might not have wanted, and it forced the insurance companies to restructure and narrow their insurance plans to meet the dictates of the law.

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A Russian Proton rocket crashed today nine minutes after launch.

6:19 pm

When it rains it pours: A Russian Proton rocket crashed today nine minutes after launch.

Considering the tensions between the U.S. and Russia over space, combined with the increasing competition for the launch market created by SpaceX’s lower prices, another Proton failure now is something the Russians could do without. Moreover, the Russians were planning a lot of Proton launches in the next few months to catch up from last year’s launch failure. Many of these scheduled launches were commercial and were going to earn them hard cash. This failure definitely hurts, and will certainly be used as justification by their government in increase its control over that country’s aging aerospace industry.

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Amid its political kerfuffle with the U.S., Russia has significantly increased the government budget of its space industry.

10:38 am

The competition heats up: Amid its political kerfuffle with the U.S., Russia has significantly increased the government budget of its space industry.

The new space policy, which pledges 1.8 trillion rubles toward modernization and development efforts throughout the Russian space industry, appears to be a step toward ensuring Russia is free to pursue its own interests in space after its ISS obligations are fulfilled in 2020. Rogozin tweeted that Russia will discuss cooperative space projects with China at a summit meeting in Beijing on May 19. [emphasis mine]

A space station partnership with China would make enormous sense, as China’s station designs are based on Russian space station engineering. The two would likely would work together quite well. Moreover, both systems were designed intelligently as prototype interplanetary spaceships, something that was not done for the U.S. part of ISS. Thus, ISS does not function well for testing the engineering for future space projects, something that the Russians are very conscious of.

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In an effort to reassure its ticketholders, Virgin Galactic sent them email on May 10 disputing the story that they have discovered cracks in WhiteKnightTwo.

10:29 am

In an effort to reassure its ticketholders, Virgin Galactic sent them an email on May 10 disputing the article that said there are cracks in WhiteKnightTwo’s wings.

The email was interestingly sent before the article was published, which of course meant that it could not directly address any of its findings.

The story above also has a link to an article detailing the many predictions by Virgin Galactic about when they will begin commercial flights, going back to 1999. To put it mildly, their track record has not been good.

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The woman whose pistol was seized by the local government in Colorado will finally have it returned next week.

8:57 am

The woman whose pistol was seized by the local government in Colorado will finally have it returned next week.

Happily, involving the press made an immediate difference. After Warren contacted the Loveland Reporter, a journalist named James Garcia called the city attorney’s office to ask what was going on. He was told that the gun had been scheduled for return on May 21. “I think that they immediately realized that they needed to find a date . . . so they made one up.” She laughs: “They realized that they needed to get this woman to shut up!” Despite this, the attitude remained. After Garcia’s piece was published, Warren called the office to confirm that the information the reporter had received was accurate. Petulantly, the CA continued to refuse to talk to her. When she pressed, the date was acknowledged but details remained thin on the ground.

Basically, the stupid gun law that Colorado passed last year has created a situation where petty bureaucrats can confiscate your gun on a whim and require you to make a media stink to get them to give it back.

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Rosetta photographs its target comet as it comes to life.

6:25 am

Rosetta photographs its target comet as it comes to life.

The comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, target of ESA’s Rosetta mission, has begun to develop a dust coma. This can be seen in a series of images taken by OSIRIS, the spacecraft’s scientific imaging system, between March 27th and May 4th. In the images from the end of April, the dust that the comet is already emitting is clearly visible as an evolving coma and reaches approximately 1300 kilometers into space.

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How the Peoria mayor used the power of his position to try to destroy someone who was making fun of him.

2:29 pm

How the Peoria mayor used the power of his position to try to destroy someone who was making fun of him on Twitter.

Could your town’s mayor spark a police investigation into your activities that ends with town cops rifling through your mobile phone, your laptop, and the full contents of your Gmail account—all over an alleged misdemeanor based on something you wrote on social media? Not in America, you say? But you’d be wrong.

The interesting thing about this story is not so much the abuse of power by the mayor and the police in Peoria but the reaction to their actions. Watch especially the Peoria Council meeting on April 22, 2014. The response is uniformly horrified and disgusted and in opposition to this abuse.

That the public and most politicians get it and realize how inappropriate these actions were gives me hope for our country.

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Newly released IRS emails show that the harassment of conservatives was directed by higher management in Washington and elsewhere, not confined to low level employees in Cincinnati.

10:13 am

Working for the Democratic Party: Newly released IRS emails show that the harassment of conservatives was directed by higher management in Washington and elsewhere, not confined to low level employees in Cincinnati.

The key fact here is that these emails prove that Lois Lerner and other officials in the Obama administration lied when they made the claim that the harassment was the work of low level employees.

But then, lying by this administration is par for the course.

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A climate scientist who joined the board of a skeptical think tank was forced to resign from that think tank after only three weeks due to intense outside pressure and harassment from the global warming community.

9:06 am

McCarthyism of the left: A climate scientist who joined the board of a skeptical think tank was forced to resign from that think tank after only three weeks due to intense outside pressure and harassment from the global warming community.

I have been put under such an enormous group pressure in recent days from all over the world that has become virtually unbearable to me. If this is going to continue I will be unable to conduct my normal work and will even start to worry about my health and safety. I see therefore no other way out therefore than resigning from [the Global Warming Policy Foundation] (GWPF). I had not expecting such an enormous world-wide pressure put at me from a community that I have been close to all my active life. Colleagues are withdrawing their support, other colleagues are withdrawing from joint authorship etc. I see no limit and end to what will happen.

It is a situation that reminds me about the time of McCarthy. I would never have expecting anything similar in such an original peaceful community as meteorology. Apparently it has been transformed in recent years. Under these situation I will be unable to contribute positively to the work of GWPF and consequently therefore I believe it is the best for me to reverse my decision to join its Board at the earliest possible time. [emphasis mine]

The emphasized language illustrates once again the blacklisting methods now being used by the left to destroy anyone who dares to disagree with them.

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Read the full transcript of Tuesday’s briefing in Russia on the subject of the U.S./Russian cooperation in space.

8:39 am

Read the full transcript of Tuesday’s briefing in Russia on the subject of the U.S./Russian cooperation in space.

It is very worthwhile reading the entire thing. The text makes it very clear that Russia is not kicking us out of ISS, as has been wrongly reported by several news agencies. It also makes clear that the Russians consider the Obama administration’s actions childish, thoughtless, and unproductive. They also emphasize how the U.S. government is generally an “unreliable” partner in these matters, something that I have noted before when our government has broken space agreements with Europe.

The text also clarifies the GPS situation. The stations we have in Russia are in connection with scientific research, something they wish to do also in the U.S. If an agreement isn’t reached, that research will cease. Actual use of GPS for navigational purposes will not be effected.

Side note: NASA says that they have not yet received any official notice from Russia concerning the briefing above. This might be because Rogozin’s briefing was meant merely as a shot across the bow, or it could be that the Russians have not yet gotten around to doing it. We shall see.

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On Tuesday Virgin Galactic rolled WhiteKnightTwo out of its hanger “as part of a gearing up process.”.

8:23 am

Is it cracked or not? On Tuesday Virgin Galactic rolled WhiteKnightTwo out of its hanger “as part of a gearing up process.”.

Though the above article is very vague about what is being done, this article explains that they are doing taxi tests of new landing gear. The timing, however, makes me suspect that this is also a public relations ploy to counter yesterday’s reports about cracks in the vehicle’s wings.

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Though they really don’t need it, a private effort to reactivate a 1970s spacecraft has now gotten NASA’s okay.

10:34 am

Though they really don’t need it, a private effort to reactivate a 1970s spacecraft has now gotten NASA’s okay.

This piece of paper from NASA is a definite nice-to-have, given that “a private entity cannot legally salvage U.S. government property in space,” according to Mike Gold, a space law expert and attorney who works full time as the head of Washington operations for Bigelow Aerospace, the North Las Vegas, Nevada, company developing inflatable space habitats with technology licensed from NASA.

But practically speaking, it appears NASA could have done little to stop the ISEE-3 Reboot project from moving ahead with its plan to take over the old spacecraft — an Earth-Sun observatory that launched to the gravitationally stable Earth-Sun Lagrange point 1 in 1978 and is now swinging back toward the home planet in the heliocentric orbit NASA nudged it into in 1982 to chase comets.

What is really more important is that their effort to raise the necessary private funds for this project has largely succeeded.

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NASA has chosen the four shuttle engines that will be used to launch SLS on its first mission in 2021.

10:26 am

What a waste: NASA has chosen the four shuttle engines that will be used to launch SLS on its first mission in 2021.

All four engines were used multiple times on many shuttle missions. They will fly once on SLS, at a cost of many billions, and then end up destroyed when that giant rocket’s first stage falls into the ocean. Worse, no one has really defined what the goal of that first launch will be. It might merely be a test launch, with no humans on board.

To me, it would be wiser to put the engines into storage and wait until we have a new reusable capability that could take advantage of the reusable engineering of these engines. Throwing them away on a pork-barrel boondoggle like SLS seems so stupid.

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