Cracked nozzled was possible cause of Japanese Venus probe failure
Engineers now think that a cracked nozzle caused the Japanese probe Akatsuki to miss Venus.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Republicans showing more earmark restraint than Democrats
Giving credit where credit is due: Ed Morrissey notes that the Republicans have shown significant progress in reducing the number of earmarks requested by their members, while the Democrats have not.
Not only do the Republicans have to continue to improve their numbers, now is the time for Democrats to see the writing on the wall and get with the program. Cut spending!
TSA’s airport security a failure
In a related note: Loaded gun slips past TSA screeners.
Federal examiners Force Oklahoma Bank To Remove Crosses and Bible Verse
Freedom of speech alert: Federal bank examiners have forced an Oklahoma bank to remove all Christian symbols. Key quote:
The examiners . . . deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God With Us.” [as] inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank’s Internet site also had to be taken down.
What these things have to do with auditing the financial practices of a bank I really don’t know.
Tank tests today for cause of cracks in shuttle external tank
NASA will be conducting tank tests today on the Discovery’s external tank in an effort to find the cause of the recently discovered cracks.
The omnibus 2000 page trillion dollar budget bill is dead
Amen! The omnibus 2000 page trillion dollar budget bill is dead.
This is only a start. The spending must come down, by a lot!
Note also that yes, Congress will still be forced to pass a continuing resolution, but that will freeze spending at last year’s level, rather than the gobs of additional spending including in the omnibus bill. Like I said, this is a start.
Kepler data now available for anyone to study
Want to discover an exoplanet? A portion of the data being gathered by Kepler is now available online for anyone to peruse.
‘Human-rating’ document hits the Web with new name
O joy! NASA, in releasing its preliminary regulations for “human-rating” a manned spacecraft., has also given the regulations a new name. They should not be called “human-rated.” This should solve everything! Also:
The five 1100-series documents outline mandatory crew transportation certification requirements, technical, safety and crew health specifications, the roles of NASA and industry and how to achieve government certification, design reference missions and goals for a space station human transportation system, and ground and flight operations processes. While the broad certification document released Dec. 10 only runs 39 pages, the 1100-series specifications reportedly run hundreds of pages each.
Russian mission control loses communications with ISS for three hours
This is more a kerfuffle in the press than a real emergency: for about three hours today Russian mission control had problems communicating with either ISS or the Soyuz spacecraft that is on its way to it. Neither spacecraft was in any danger during the down time.
Scientist makes the first measurements of the magnetic field at the Earth’s core
A scientist has made the first measurements of the strength at the Earth’s core of its magnetic field. What’s most fascinating is that he used the Moon and distant quasars to do it! First he used radio observations of the quasars to get very precise measurements of the Earth’s rotation axis and how the Moon was tugging at that axis and thus affecting its magnetic field. Then,
By calculating the effect of the moon on the spinning inner core, Buffett discovered that the precession makes the slightly out-of-round inner core generate shear waves in the liquid outer core. These waves of molten iron and nickel move within a tight cone only 30 to 40 meters thick, interacting with the magnetic field to produce an electric current that heats the liquid. This serves to damp the precession of the rotation axis. The damping causes the precession to lag behind the moon as it orbits the earth. A measurement of the lag allowed Buffett to calculate the magnitude of the damping and thus of the magnetic field inside the outer core.
EPA Document Shows It Knowingly Allowed Pesticide That Kills Honey Bees
Want to know what’s been killing our honeybees? It appears the EPA has known all along and looked the other way: A leaked EPA document shows that it knowingly allowed use a pesticide, despite warnings from its own scientists that it would kill honeybees.
DC subway police to begin random bag checks
Another violation of the Constitution: The DC subway police are about to begin random searches of passengers.