Five truths about climate change
Five truths about climate change. I like #2:
Regardless of whether it’s getting hotter or colder—or both—we are going to need to produce a lot more energy in order to remain productive and comfortable.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Fighting forest fires, with water balloons
Fighting forest fires, with water balloons.
If all goes well, 2012 will be a busy year at ISS for both Dragon and Cygnus
If all goes well, 2012 will be a busy year at ISS for both Dragon and Cygnus.
The article outlines the preliminary cargo schedule for both ferries next year, assuming their initial test flights succeed (a big assumption).
Russia drops plans to build a replacement for Soyuz rocket
Russia has dropped its plans to build a replacement for its Soyuz rocket.
This is not the first time that the Russians have abandoned plans to come up with a new rocket, which suggests once again that — as successful as their space effort has been — they lack the ability to come up with new product. This in turn makes vulnerable the Russians’ market share in commercial space.
The moon contains a vast resource of titanium
There’s gold in them hills! Actually, it’s titanium, and it’s on the Moon.
The highest titanium abundances on Earth are around 1 percent or less. The new map shows that in the [Moon’s] mare, titanium abundances range from about one percent to a little more than ten percent. In the highlands, everywhere TiO2 is less than one percent. The new titanium values match those measured in the ground samples to about one percent.
Pat Condell: The great Palestinian lie
Some honest and blunt thoughts from Pat Condell:
The first “basic essential health package,” as determined by the federal government under Obamacare, were released today.
We’re to help you: The first recommendations for a “basic essential health package,” as determined by the federal government under Obamacare, were released today.
Until now, designing benefits has been the job of insurers, employers and state officials. But the new health care law requires insurance companies to provide at least the federally approved package if they want to sell to small businesses, families and individuals through new state markets set to open in 2014.
Isn’t it nice that a handful of Washington apparatchiks are going to dictate the health plans that all of us must have? Doesn’t this feature of Obamacare make you feel happy and secure?
NOT. Repeal the damn thing, and throw as many of the bums who voted for it out of office, as fast as possible.
A shutdown of a satellite today cut communications in Canada for thousands
A shutdown of a satellite today cut communications in Canada for thousands.
Astronauts on ISS conduct eye exams in connection with recent eye problems caused by long term weightlessness
Astronauts on ISS have been conducting regular eye exams in an effort to understand the eye problems caused by long term weightlessness.
More on making the X-37B an ISS supply and crew ferry
More on making the X-37B an ISS supply and crew ferry.
Venus has an ozone layer too
Tracing the Canals of Mars
1.6 million hand-signed petitions handed to Congress demanding Obamacare be repealed before it can be fully implemented
Right on! On Wednesday a petition with more than 1.6 million signatures was delivered to Congress, demanding Obamacare be repealed before it can be fully implemented.
“A good scientist is a humble and listening scientist and not one that is sure 100 percent in what he read in the textbooks.”
Steve Jobs has passed away
Steve Jobs has passed away.
Water from comets
New results using the Herschel Space Telescope suggest that Earth’s water was brought here by comets.
Astronomers have found a dozen supernovae taking place closer to the Big Bang than ever detected.
Astronomers have found a dozen supernovae taking place only a few billion years after the Big Bang.
[The results suggest that these types of supernovae] were exploding about five times more frequently 10 billion years ago than they are today. These supernovas are a major source of iron in the universe, the main component of the Earth’s core and an essential ingredient of the blood in our bodies.
Want to become an astronaut? NASA insists you speak Russian
Want to become an astronaut? NASA requires you to speak Russian.
Aden Meinel, astronomer and innovator, has passed away
Aden Meinel, astronomer and innovator, has passed away.
Meinel, first director of the Kitt Peak Observatory, was the also first to conceive and try to build robotic telescopes that could be operated remotely. Many of his ideas were later incorporated both on the ground and in space.
A summary of Messenger’s first six months in orbit around Mercury
A summary of Messenger’s first six months in orbit around Mercury.
Though packed with lots of results, this strikes me as the most interesting discovery so far:
Orbital data reveal that Mercury’s magnetic field is offset far to the north of the planet’s center, by nearly 20% of Mercury’s radius. Relative to the planet’s size, this offset is much more than in any other planet, and accounting for it will pose a challenge to theoretical explanations of the field. . . . This finding has several implications for other aspects of Mercury, says Anderson, who co-authored several of the presentations in the MESSENGER session. “This means that the magnetic field in the southern hemisphere should be a lot weaker than it is in the north. At the north geographic pole, the magnetic field should be about 3.5 times stronger than it is at the south geographic pole.