Wes Skiles dies during dive
Well known cave diver and photographer Wes Skiles has died during a dive in Florida.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
White House investigates those making FOIA requests
For the last year Homeland Security and the White House have been investigating the background, political affliations, and motives of anyone making requests for information under the Freedom of Information Act, despite the fact that the law forbids such behavior.
Robbery at Russian space center
The wild west — in Russia! Bandits broke into Khrunichev space center in Moscow yesterday, stealing money and jewelry worth 300,000 rubles.
More Journolist material: Palin
Another damning report from the Daily Caller on the now defunct Journolist listserv, showing how high-powered so-called objective journalists teamed up to attack Sarah Palin during the 2008 election campaign.
Runaway star from the galaxy’s center
Astronomers have discovered a runaway star flying away from the Milky Way galaxy at about 450 miles per second. What makes this star even more interesting is that its flight path suggests that it was thrown from the very center of our galaxy by the 4 billion solar mass black hole that sits there.
The British sign space deal with Russians
The British are coming! Today the recently formed UK Space Agency signed deals of cooperation with both the Russians and NASA.
Senate moves towards House NASA plan
In a blunt rejection of the Obama proposals for NASA, the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee today reworked the NASA plan — handed to them last week by the committee that authorizes NASA’s budget — so that it more closely matched the House version. These changes cut in half the money for private commercial space while adding $3 billion to continue the development of the Orion capsule and the heavy lift version of the Ares rocket.
Bigelow’s plans
Enjoyspace.com has a very detailed and nice write-up of Robert Bigelow’s plans to build the first private space hotels.
Journolist, part 2
Freedom of speech alert. And the danger comes not from the government but from reporters of all things! Leaked emails from a now closed leftwing listserv for journalists reveal an incredible and almost frightening hatred for the right as well as an astonishing willingness by these journalists to use the government to silence opposing opinions. Key quote:
Jonathan Zasloff, a law professor at UCLA, suggested that the federal government simply yank Fox off the air. “I hate to open this can of worms,” he wrote, “but is there any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?”
The article is astonishing. Read the whole thing.
Mars Odyssey in safe mode
Mars Odyssey, in orbit around Mars, went into safe mode on July 14, due to problems with “an electronic encoder.” The spacecraft switched to a backup, and engineers have since been able to bring it back to life slowly. They hope to have everything working normally again by the end of this week.
Supercheap satellites
Want to build and launch your very own satellite? You can, for as little as $8,000!
very big stars
Using the Very Large Telescope in Chile, astronomers have identifed a number of stars with masses thought to range from 150 to as much as 300 times the mass of our Sun. Fun quote from the press release:
Within [star cluster] R136, only four stars weighed more than 150 solar masses at birth, yet they account for nearly half of the wind and radiation power of the entire cluster, comprising approximately 100 000 stars in total.
Stars this gigantic are believed to end their life in an explosion so intense it destroys the star entirely, leaving nothing behind but an expanding debris cloud, from which other stars and planets (and even life) can form.
Russia to build new spaceport
Russia is planning a new spaceport, in its far eastern Amur region near the border with China, to supplement the Baikonur spaceport located in Kazakhstan.
SpaceShipTwo’s first glide flight by the fall
Space.com reports that the first drop flight of SpaceShipTwo, where it is released from WhiteKnightTwo to land on its own, could come as soon as this fall.
NAACP leader arrested trying to attend school board meeting
Freedom of speech alert: the head of a local North Carolina NAACP chapter was arrested when he tried to attend a local school board meeting to protest its actions. He had been arrested for trespassing at a previous board meeting, and it is unclear if his attempted appearance this time was a trespass as well.
RICO lawsuits against BP
Want to guarantee that oil companies will stop drilling in the U.S., and therefore reduce the supply and raise the price? File lots of lawsuits!
Journolist evidence, part 1
More evidence has been uncovered showing that many journalists cared less about reporting the news during the 2008 Presidential campaign than helping Barak Obama get elected. Worse, these reporters were willing to smear their opponents in the worst possible manner, without evidence. Key quote:
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with [Reverend] Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
The space war heats up
It appears the space war is heating up again. This analysis of the NASA authorization legislation issued by the House yesterday notes that it has serious differences with the Senate bill. The article notes that the House bill does not fund an additional shuttle mission while insisting that the government continue the construction of some variation of the Orion capsule and Ares rockets. See also this article from the Orlando Sentinel.
More climategate whitewash
Meanwhile, it turns out that the climategate investigation of Phil Jones at the University of East Anglia allowed Jones himself to review and approve the evidence that the investigation would look at!
U.S. government suspends funding to East Anglia University
The U.S. Department of Energy has temporarily suspended all research funding to the University of East Anglia, pending its review of the climategate controversy.