India has mounted its first Mars probe on its rocket, readying it for a November 5 launch.
The competition heats up: India has mounted its first Mars probe on its rocket, readying it for a November 5 launch.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Confirmed: Not thousands but millions of people are losing their health insurance due to Obamacare.
Confirmed: Not thousands but millions of people are losing their health insurance due to Obamacare.
I’ve noted this fact previously, but the full magnitude of this horrible law, as well as the lies Barack Obama told to sell it, has to be underlined repeatedly.
Animal lovers discover that Obamacare will cost them money too.
Finding out what’s in it: Animal lovers discover that Obamacare will cost them money too.
It seems the 2.3% medical device tax imposed by Obamacare is the culprit.
Luckily, however, when House Republicans suggested that this Obamacare tax be repealed, Obama and the Democrats stood firm and shut the government down rather than consider any revisions to Obamacare.
The Seattle city council has seized a privately owned parking lot in order to turn it into … a parking lot.
Government marches on! The Seattle city council has seized a privately owned parking lot in order to turn it into … a parking lot.
Planning the first launch abort test of the Dragon capsule.
Planning the first launch abort test of the Dragon capsule.
The in-flight abort test will take place along Florida’s space coast. During the test, a Dragon spacecraft will launch on a standard Falcon 9 rocket and an abort command will be issued approximately 73 seconds into the flight. At that point, the spacecraft will be flying through the area of maximum dynamic pressure, or Max Q, where the combination of air pressure and speed will cause maximal strain on the spacecraft.
Dragon will be outfitted with about 270 special sensors to measure a wide variety of stresses and acceleration effects on the spacecraft. An instrumented mannequin, similar to a crash test dummy, also will be inside. The spacecraft’s parachutes will deploy for a splashdown in the Atlantic, where a ship will be pre-positioned for simulated rescue operations. The test spacecraft will be returned to Port Canaveral by barge so data can be retrieved and incorporated into the system’s design.
The test is presently scheduled for the summer of 2014.
The rise of government-sanctioned home invasions
The rise of government-sanctioned home invasions.
These incidents underscore a dangerous mindset in which civilians (often unarmed and defenseless) not only have less rights than militarized police, but also one in which the safety of civilians is treated as a lower priority than the safety of their police counterparts (who are armed to the hilt with an array of lethal and nonlethal weapons), the privacy of civilians is negligible in the face of the government’s various missions, and the homes of civilians are no longer the refuge from government intrusion that they once were.
Plain and simple, every single one of these SWAT raids is illegal under the Constitution. They are an abuse of power, and are exactly the kind of abuse that helped inspire the American Revolution in the first place.
A new Federal Reserve report links Obamacare to the decline in employment in ten different areas.
Finding out what’s in it: A new Federal Reserve report links Obamacare to the decline in employment in ten different areas.
Thank God the Democrats held firm, even shutting down the government, so that Obamacare could be saved! My gosh, if they hadn’t done that we might actually have seen the possibility of a small jobs recovery.
The White House has now delayed the deadline for signing up for health insurance by six weeks.
The White House has now officially delayed the deadline for signing up for health insurance by six weeks.
Gee, didn’t Obama just force a 16 day government shutdown when some Republicans suggested he delay the Obamacare mandate?
Note that this is only the first delay. Before they are done I predict the Obama administration will do exactly what those evil Republicans suggested: delay the Obamacare mandate for one year. Which will essentially prove that the Republicans were right in the first place.
Obama: Always the victim.
And then there’s this: Obamacare and the project of doom.
An IT guy analyzes the problems and faults of the Obamacare website and concludes they pretty much did everything wrong.
Europe turns off Planck
Europe turns off Planck.
Planck operated four-and-a-half years, three times longer than originally planned. Launched in May 2009 on an Ariane 5 rocket shared with ESA’s Herschel telescope, Planck measured the cosmic fingerprint of the Big Bang, detecting subtle variations in background light originating 380,000 years after the genesis of the universe.
The Mars rover Opportunity is heading up hill.
The Mars rover Opportunity is heading up hill.
Even after a decades, this rover is still functioning and doing real exploration. It is an incredible engineering achievement.
While Comet ISON continues to disappoint, another comet suddenly gets one hundred times brighter.
While Comet ISON continues to disappoint, another comet suddenly gets one hundred times brighter.
Neither is yet visible to the naked eye.
Boeing has finalized its lease for building its manned capsule in one section of the giant Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center.
Boeing has finalized its lease for building its manned capsule in one section of the giant Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center.
Astronomers have discovered a galaxy farther away than any previously seen.
Astronomers have discovered a galaxy farther away than any previously seen. More here.
The first Cygnus capsule has been de-orbited, burning up in the atmosphere.
The first Cygnus capsule has been de-orbited, burning up in the atmosphere.
A 100% success. The U.S. now has two different ways to get cargo to low Earth orbit. Soon, if all goes as it should, we shall have multiple ways to put humans there as well.
The number of health insurance cancellations is snowballing into the millions.
You don’t get to keep your plan: The number of health insurance cancellations is snowballing into the millions.
But hey, Obama’s your friend! He is doing everything he can to make sure Obamacare stays the law, even if his statement that “if you like your plan you can keep it” was a complete lie.
The Obama administration is now considering delaying the Obamacare mandate.
The Obama administration is now considering delaying the Obamacare mandate.
Wasn’t that the evil Republican proposal only a few weeks ago that was so evil the Obama administration shut the government down rather than agree to it?
A new image of Titan’s northern lakes.
A new image of Titan’s northern lakes.
Spring is moving to summer on Titan, and as the season changes scientists are expecting the number of storms in the northern latitudes to increase, thereby filling these lakes.
The definitive guide to how Obamacare is destroying American lives
The definitive guide to how Obamacare is destroying American lives.
The author asked people to write him, describing to him the consequences of Obamacare. This article provides us those stories, and they are not good. In fact, they are routinely horrible. As he says:
This is about people who can no longer afford their health coverage, their mortgages, their lifesaving medication. This is about doctors and nurses leaving medicine behind, driven away by destructive bureaucratic interference. This is about moms and dads losing their jobs so that their employers can compensate for the financial burden of Obamacare. This is about people without insurance because of Obamacare, now being fined for not having insurance because of Obamacare. This is about business owners driven to the edge of bankruptcy. This is real. We heard a lot of fantasies about what Obamacare was “supposed” to accomplish, now it’s time to talk about what it’s actually doing.
So when they say you are “heartless” for opposing Obamacare, show them why it’s heartless to support it.
But don’t worry! Those Democrats will save you all from those evil Republicans who want to delay or repeal Obamacare.
A federal court has ruled that police must have a warrant before attaching a GPS tracker to your car.
Victory for freedom: A federal court has ruled that police must have a warrant before attaching a GPS tracker to your car.
That this ruling took several appeals depresses me. The language of the Constitution on this issue couldn’t be more plain. The government must have probably cause and a warrant before it can do these kinds of things.
What baffles me even more is that the police had probable cause in the specific case above. Why they didn’t bother to simply get a warrant makes no sense.