The next Jupiter probe heads to the launchpad
Juno, the U.S.’s next Jupiter probe, headed to the launchpad on Friday for a planned August 5 launch.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Conservative revolt in the House over GOP plan
A conservative revolt in the House over the GOP debt ceiling plan.
Based on the article above, it doesn’t look like any plan has sufficient votes to pass, which means the federal government is going to have to figure out what it’s like to live under a budget. What a concept!
Better constants in science
More precise constants in science.
The numbers include reduced uncertainties for several key constants, which physicists say is encouraging because these will allow for better tests of theory. The more precise figures will also aid plans to redefine familiar units of measurement, such as the kelvin and the kilogram, in terms of unchanging fundamental constants rather than relying on a material object that might not be stable (as for the kilogram standard).
Some background on Rick Perry
Downgrade could come as soon as Friday
The day of reckoning looms even closer: Credit rating downgrade for the U.S. government could come as soon as Friday. Key quote:
It’s not the debt ceiling that’s triggering a potential ratings change — it’s the trajectory of debt generated by the federal government.
And this:
The problem, as [the ratings agencies] see it, is not that America can’t pay its debts next month, but that America has grown its debt to such a degree that we can’t pay them in the long run without serious restructuring of the federal government — and this administration refuses to consider it:
Baby Talk
Then there’s this: “Petulant and Inept”
Conservatives bridle at trillions in ‘phony’ cuts
The devil is in the details,” says a Republican strategist closely involved in the debt fight. “When you’re talking about $1 trillion [over ten years], you’re talking about $100 billion a year, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be evenly distributed among the years.” Does that mean it might be loaded mostly at the end of the decade, when it might not even happen? “That’s where you get into the details,” the strategist says.
Mom faces prison for jaywalking during drunk hit-and-run that killed son while the drunk driver only served 6 months
Travesty of justice: A mother faces three years in prison for jaywalking during drunk hit-and-run that killed son while the drunk driver was only sentenced to six months.
A conservative sensitivity class for liberals.
Enceladus rains water onto Saturn
The Herschel space telescope has discovered that the water expelled from the tiger stripes on Enceladus eventually rains down on Saturn.
Enceladus expels around 250 kg of water vapour every second, through a collection of jets from the south polar region known as the Tiger Stripes because of their distinctive surface markings. These crucial observations reveal that the water creates a doughnut-shaped torus of vapour surrounding the ringed planet. The total width of the torus is more than 10 times the radius of Saturn, yet it is only about one Saturn radius thick. Enceladus orbits the planet at a distance of about four Saturn radii, replenishing the torus with its jets of water.