Impact crater in Egypt
Using Google Earth, a curator at an Italian museum has discovered a previously unknown, very young, and almost pristine impact crater hidden in the deserts of Egypt.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Space war update
This Orlando Sentinel analysis of the various Congressional NASA budget proposals working their way through the House and Senate right now concludes, as I have been saying for months, that the future for NASA is not good. Key quote:
The plan orders NASA to build a heavy-lift rocket and capsule capable of reaching the International Space Station by 2016. But it budgets less money for the new spacecraft — about $11 billion during three years, with $3 billion next year — than what the troubled Constellation program would have received. That — plus the short deadline — has set off alarms.
Swallowing a planet
A star with an appetite: Astronomers have used the Chandra X-Ray Observatory to take a closer look at an engimatic star in the constellation Pisces and found that the dust cloud that surrounds it as well as the unusual and enormous jets that shoot from it probably originated when the star evolved, expanded, and swallowed an orbiting companion, either a giant planet or companion star.
Journolist scandal-Tucker Carlson editorial
Tucker Carlson, the editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller, has written a lengthy essay on his organization’s series on the scandal surrounding the defunct liberbal Journolist listserv. Key quote:
We’re not contesting the right of anyone, journalist or not, to have political opinions. (I, for one, have made a pretty good living expressing mine.) What we object to is partisanship, which is by its nature dishonest, a species of intellectual corruption. Again and again, we discovered members of Journolist working to coordinate talking points on behalf of Democratic politicians, principally Barack Obama. That is not journalism, and those who engage in it are not journalists. They should stop pretending to be. The news organizations they work for should stop pretending, too.
Read it all.
House committee adds extra shuttle flight
The space war continues. The House Committee of Science and Technology has amended its budget proposal to include an extra shuttle flight, making its proposal match the Senate’s proposal in at least this one way.
Russians reveal new spacecraft
The Russians unveiled today a new proposed replacement for their Soyuz capsule, capable of carrying six astronauts into orbit. Interestingly, the design does not use parachutes to land, but solid rocket engines.
Update on teacher fired for Catholic beliefs
Wes Skiles dies during dive
Well known cave diver and photographer Wes Skiles has died during a dive in Florida.
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.