Category: Points of Information

Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.

New research has now documented the widespread bigotry of liberals in the academic community against conservatives.

12:29 pm

Leftwing tolerance: New research has now documented the widespread bigotry of liberals in the academic community against conservatives.

Hostility toward and willingness to discriminate against conservatives is widespread. One in six respondents said that she or he would be somewhat (or more) inclined to discriminate against conservatives in inviting them for symposia or reviewing their work. One in four would discriminate in reviewing their grant applications. More than one in three would discriminate against them when making hiring decisions. Thus, willingness to discriminate is not limited to small decisions. In fact, it is strongest when it comes to the most important decisions, such as grant applications and hiring.

This behavior is hateful, prejudiced, intolerant, and close-minded. And it is occurring against individuals merely because they disagree with the accepted orthodoxy of liberal academia. Worse, it is occurring in our universities among the educated elites of our society. Such close-mindedness among the educated cannot bode well for our society’s future.

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Using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope astronomers have narrowed the universe’s rate of expansion to about 74.3 kilometers per second per megaparsec.

11:22 am

The uncertainty of science: Using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope astronomers have narrowed the universe’s rate of expansion to about 74.3 kilometers per second per megaparsec.

The importance of this number, also called the Hubble Constant, is that it allows astronomers to extrapolate more precisely backward to when they believe the Big Bang occurred, about 13.7 billion years ago. It also is a crucial data point in their effort to understand dark energy, in which this expansion rate is actually accelerating on vast scales.

Back in 1995 a team led by Wendy Freedman, the same scientist leading the work above, announced that they had used the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the expansion rate as 80 kilometers per second per megaparsec. Then, the margin of error was plus or minus 17 kilometers. Now the margin of error has been narrowed to plus or minus 2.1 kilometers.

Do I believe these new numbers? No, not really. Science has nothing to do with belief. I do think this is good science, however, and that this new estimate of the Hubble constant is probably the best yet. I would also not be surprised if in the future new data eventually proves this estimate wrong.

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True the Vote has found more examples of voters voting in more than one state, this time in New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Florida.Vote early and often! True the Vote has found more examples of voters voting in more than one state, this time in New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Florida.

6:43 pm

Vote early and often! True the Vote has found more examples of voters voting in more than one state, this time in New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Florida.

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Light posting

9:10 am

Just a note to explain the light posting yesterday and possibly today. I am reviewing the proof for the new ebook edition of my first book, Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8. Because the book is now out of print in both hardback and paperback, I want to have this new edition published and available for sale before the end of this month, which is why I must focus on getting that done quickly.

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The rollout to the launchpad of the first stage of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket has been delayed until Saturday.

11:21 pm

The competition heats up: The rollout to the launchpad of the first stage of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket has been delayed until Saturday.

The rollout had been scheduled for today, but had to be scrubbed due to a battery problem in the transporter for moving the rocket. Once on the pad, they will then spend the next 4 to 6 weeks preparing for a hold down firing test. And if that test goes well, they will follow it up with the first launch of Antares before the end of the year.

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James Hansen’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies has once again been caught changing its past climate temperature data without explanation.

3:21 pm

James Hansen’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies has once again been caught changing its past climate temperature data without explanation.

Surprise of surprise, the change had the effect of making the long-term temperature record support conclusions of faster warming. The biggest changes were mostly pre-1963 temperatures; they were generally adjusted down. That would make the warming trend steeper, since post-1963 temperatures were adjusted slightly upward, on average. Generally, the older the data, the more adjustment.

Hat tip to reader jwing who alerted me to this story. As I commented to him, this “also is old news, to my mind, even though this is a new discovery of corruption. This kind of fraud has now been on-going for the past decade, with no signs of any effort to fix it. Worse, the climate science field even denies that it has a problem. Thus, I don’t trust anything they tell me. I check everything twice, and then have doubts besides. Which is why I remain entirely skeptical of any claims these climate scientists make.”

And in this case, the climate scientist in question is James Hansen.

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It appears that Curiosity is traveling across an ancient streambed on Mars.

2:46 pm

It appears that Curiosity is traveling across an ancient streambed on Mars.

“From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep,” said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. “Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we’re actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it.”

This discovery also confirms the wisdom of Gale Crater as a target. Satellite data and images had suggested the crater had once been water filled. Now this suggestion appears confirmed.

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It now appears that Democratic Senator candidate Elizabeth Warren practiced law in Massachusetts without a Massachusetts license.

9:45 am

The law is such an inconvenient thing: It now appears that Democratic Senator candidate Elizabeth Warren illegally practiced law in Massachusetts without a Massachusetts’ license.

I reserved reporting this at first because, though she never had a Massachusetts’ license, she did have one from New Jersey. Since all her legal work appeared to be federal in natural, she had broken no laws. Now it appears otherwise.

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A new federal law has now confirmed the ownership by astronauts of their souvenirs.

9:26 am

A new federal law has now confirmed the ownership by 1960s astronauts of the equipment they saved as souvenirs from their missions.

Sadly, the law excludes moon rocks given as gifts by NASA to astronauts and NASA employees, as well as any material given to astronauts in the post Apollo era, which means we should continue to see midnight raids by NASA bureaucrats of the homes of retired NASA employees to confiscate objects they thought they owned.

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The solar maximum has already occurred in the Sun’s northern hemisphere, according to new observations.

9:16 am

The solar maximum has already occurred in the Sun’s northern hemisphere, according to one scientist’s research.

Moreover, the data also suggests that the maximum in the Sun’s southern hemisphere will not occur until early in 2014. This asymmetry between the hemispheres also suggests the strong possibility of a Grand Minimum to follow.

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The federal government spent $1.4 billion on the Obama family last year.

9:44 pm

It’s good work if you can get it: The federal government spent $1.4 billion on the Obama family last year.

This included entertainment, housing, travel, and staff. It was also more than 24 times what the British spend on their royal family.

In related news, Agriculture Department employees spent more time visiting foreign countries then they did the farmlands of the U.S.

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More films about Mohammad in the works.

2:37 pm

Good for them: More films about Mohammad in the works.

Not surprisingly, both filmmakers fear violence from the religion of peace.

Both filmmakers are closely guarding details of their productions due to security concerns. They decry “Innocence of Muslims” as historically inaccurate, offensive and of poor quality. In the wake of its release, Yousef has been scrambling to meet with his investors — whom he describes as a mix of Egyptians and Americans — and ensure that they’re still on board.

Sina, for his part, said he had been exploring ways to hide the identities of the producers and actors in his movie and said he would not reveal the planned location for the movie shoot. He described his investors as a handful of Persian atheists who live in Los Angeles. “I’ve become more secretive,” said Sina, who insists that his goal is not to incite Muslims but to persuade them.

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