For those interested, my appearance tonight on John Batchelor has been shifted forward to 10:45 pm.
Update: the interview was shifted again, to 10:30 pm.
The Russians have successfully docked their Progress freighter to ISS, using a fast route that took only 6 hours.
The rumors are now official: NASA will announce the winners of the commercial crew contracts on Friday.
Getting to ISS faster: a Progress freighter, launched today, is testing a new rendezvous route that takes only 6 hours to reach the station instead of the normal 48.
How the federal government has persecuted a scientist for whistling at a whale.
On the air tonight: I will be doing a special segment with John Batchelor tonight at 11 pm (Eastern) to discuss the Obama administration’s approval of a deal between China and the same private aerospace company that illegally leaked such technology to China in the past. If you can’t tune in live, the segment will be available here by podcast shortly thereafter, as are all my appearances on Batchelor.
The disappearance of the old-fashioned chemistry set.
Here’s what it used to be like, when we lived in a free society:
By the 1920s and 30s children had access to substances which would raise eyebrows in today’s more safety-conscious times. There were toxic ingredients in pesticides, as well as chemicals now used in bombs or considered likely to increase the risk of cancer. And most parents will not need to be told of the dangers of the sodium cyanide found in the interwar kits or the uranium dust present in the “nuclear” kits of the 1950s.
Living in a dream world: Another set of pro-Obama polls that oversample Democrats.
Why CBS and the New York Times keep doing this mystifies me. It won’t persuade anyone to vote for Obama, and it might even give his supporters the false impression that he is doing better than he is. For example, contrast these results with this new Gallup poll, which found Obama’s popularity below 50 percent in all but 13 states. These are bad numbers for an incumbent, and they are almost certainly more predictive, as Gallup generally samples Democrats and Republicans more accurately, based on recent voting patterns.
The only explanation I can think of for this oversampling is an unwillingness to face the reality that Obama and his leftwing policies are not popular. It is as if CBS and the New York Times are standing there with their fingers in their ears, chanting “la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!” loudly so they don’t have to hear what they don’t like.
Muslim tolerance: “Get the [expletive] Jews out of my pool!”
Note that this happened in Santa Monica, California, not Iran.
A scientific analysis of a database of over a million songs produced since 1955 has found that modern popular music is louder and has less variety or range than the popular music of the past. Key quote:
Lastly, the researchers detected a trend of homogenization of the timbral palette. Timbre is what makes a particular musical sound different from another, even when they have the same pitch and loudness. It is essentially the difference between different instruments playing the same note at the same loudness. They found that, after peaking in the mid 60s, timbral variety has continued to narrow.
This confirms a suspicion of many fans of modern popular music, that it is less interesting and shows far less creativity than the popular music of the 1960s. This result might also explain why 1960s music remains so popular.
The decision on NASA’s manned commercial crew contracts will be made this week, according to new rumors.
A tranquil spiral galaxy, home to supernovae. And a beautiful image too!
The perspective of one man running for President:
[W]hat exactly accounts for prosperity if not culture? In the case of the United States, it is a particular kind of culture that has made us the greatest economic power in the history of the earth. Many significant features come to mind: our work ethic, our appreciation for education, our willingness to take risks, our commitment to honor and oath, our family orientation, our devotion to a purpose greater than ourselves, our patriotism. But one feature of our culture that propels the American economy stands out above all others: freedom. The American economy is fueled by freedom. Free people and their free enterprises are what drive our economic vitality. [emphasis mine]
Sounds good to me, though we should all reserve the right to remain skeptical of anything a politician says. It is what they do that matters. Nonetheless, that Romney is making freedom a central part of his platform is further proof that he recognizes the trends and, like any politician, wants to be on the cusp of that wave. Or to once again repeat the words of Milton Friedman, “The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.”
Another tea party victory: The Republican establishment choice for Texas senator was resoundingly defeated today by the tea party candidate.
2010 was a trend, not a fluke. And this detail from the article should give anyone with an open mind a good hint at what November will bring.
More than 1 million Texans voted in the runoff, a surprisingly strong turnout for balloting that came during the dog days of summer.
Just like in Wisconsin, Republican turnout was high. Come November, it will be higher.
An evening pause: John Williams conducting a performance of his overture to the 1972 movie, The Cowboys.
The connection between a child rapist and climategate.
And that connection is the man who engineered the coverups in both cases, and has now been hired by the Obama administration.
You can’t make this stuff up: A Connecticut man is arrested and has his guns confiscated because he decided to change doctors and demanded that his old doctor provide him copies of all his lab tests.
Read the whole story. It appears that Connecticut officials sided with the doctor, a convicted felon, mostly because the arrested man happened to own a gun.
Happy 100th birthday to Milton Friedman!
Go to the link to watch some wonderful video clips of Friedman clearly and with good humor explaining the benefits of freedom and capitalism. However, for me my favorite Milton Friedman quote is without question this one, on the real way to change Congress:
I do not believe that the solution to our problem is simply to elect the right people. The important thing is to establish a political climate of opinion which will make it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right thing.
Actual video below the fold.
» Read more
A Catholic Cardinal in Chicago asks a pointed question: “Is the City Council going to set up a ‘Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities’ and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it?”
The day of reckoning looms: A new budget report released by the Obama Administration on Friday projects the federal debt to rise to $16.2 trillion by the end of the year and $25.4 trillion by 2022.
For the past week there has been a new spat of articles written about human caused global warming, instigated by an op-ed (subscription required) written by scientist Richard Muller in the New York Times, where he wrote:
Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.
Not surprisingly, the mainstream press has jumped on this op-ed and the public release of new data by Muller’s team as further proof that the debate over global warming is settled and we should all bow to our governmental overlords and agree to any regulations they propose to save the planet.
Not so fast.
» Read more
Back to the Moon: China has announced plans to land an unmanned probe on the Moon next year, the first such planned landing since the 1970s.
And they say they support the 2nd amendment: Two Democrats have introduced legislation to restrict the sale of ammunition to ordinary Americans.
Trying to buy tickets to the London Olympics: A soul-destroying experience.
Repeal it! An Obamacare tax on medical devices has caused one company to cancel plans to build five new factories.
Nor is this the only such medical device company to pull back due to the tax. Read the whole article.
Election fraud, at the NAACP and elsewhere.
An NAACP official is convicted of voting multiple times under many names, many of which were dead, and is now serving five years in prison for the crime. No wonder this organization is against voter id. It would cramp their style!
The most encouraging part of the story is that it was a Democrat who led the prosecution.
