Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
More on that Sacramento-area pilot who is being threatened by the TSA for posting a video showing airport security flaws.
Urban caving in Berlin’s underground bunkers.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) experienced a disk controller failure on December 21, preventing it from sending near-real-time images. Unfortunately, the SDO website provides little additional information, so I can’t tell you the extent or seriousness of the problem.
Update: The problem appears to be with ground equipment. See this screen capture:
Recent monitoring of the Sun’s brightness as it went from maximum to minimum in its solar cycle has found that, surprisingly, the changes in brightness across different wavelengths do not necessarily vary in lockstep. Key quote:
SIM suggests that ultraviolet irradiance fell far more than expected between 2004 and 2007 — by ten times as much as the total irradiance did — while irradiance in certain visible and infrared wavelengths surprisingly increased, even as solar activity wound down overall. The steep decrease in the ultraviolet, coupled with the increase in the visible and infrared, does even out to about the same total irradiance change as measured by the TIM during that period, according to the SIM measurements.
The stratosphere absorbs most of the shorter wavelengths of ultraviolet light, but some of the longest ultraviolet rays (UV-A), as well as much of the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum, directly heat Earth’s lower atmosphere and can have a significant impact on the climate. [emphasis mine]
Alabama town’s failed pension is a warning.
A pilot videotapes what he thinks are serious airport security flaws and immediately gets threatened by the TSA for doing it. Key quote:
Three days after the pilot posted his airport security tour on YouTube, four federal air marshals and two sheriff’s deputies arrived at the pilot’s house, which he also recorded. They were there to confiscate his federally-issued handgun. A letter later arrived saying, “An FFDO [Federal Flight Deck Officer] must not engage in… conduct that impairs the efficiency of TSA… or causes the loss of public confidence in TSA…”
The pilot’s attorney believes the feds sent six people to the pilot’s house to send a message. “And the message was you’ve angered us by telling the truth and by showing America that there are major security problems despite the fact that we’ve spent billions of dollars allegedly to improve airline safety,” says Don Werno, the airline pilot’s attorney.
When will the left learn? A big tax hike in Oregon results instead in substantially less revenue for the state.
The uncertainty of science: Did the Martian methane signal come from Earth?
So you think NASA’s gonna get some money, eh? According the Treasury Department, the government’s debt rose by $2 trillion last year alone.
The glide tests of SpaceShipTwo have exceeded expectations, and are ahead of schedule.
Scientists have completed the IceCube neutrino observatory in Antarctica, a cubic kilometer in size and situated a mile deep in the ice.
Another scheme to stop a dangerous asteroid: Use a flotilla of solar sails to divert Apophis.
How close to the Sun could we get?
The space war will continue until March: Unable to pass a real budget, Congress has instead passed a continuing resolution that, among everything else, freezes NASA’s budget at 2010 numbers through the spring.
More evidence that the American government manned spaceflight program is dying: NASA is considering a merger of its Exploration and Operations directorates. Without a shuttle, there really is no need for Operations.
According to a statistical analysis, scientists predict the discovery of Earth’s twin in 2011.
Note that I reported this story three months ago, on September 13!
So what happens when California goes bankrupt?
Alan Stern, project scientist of NASA’s mission to Pluto, New Horizons, gives his perspective ten years after the start of the project.
Repeal the damn bill! How Obamacare is hastening the bankruptcy of state governments. Key quote:
If state Medicaid spending increases by 41 percent as projected by [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services], then by next year Medicaid could end up consuming nearly 30 percent of the average state budget. Medicaid would greatly exceed all other state priorities, including education, which tops state budgets at about 22 percent. In fact, state spending on education would experience certain cuts next year. [emphasis mine]
The first flight to test the taste of beer in microgravity has been delayed until February due to poor weather.
Resisting the power grab: Automakers sue the EPA over its new ethanol regulations allowing the sale of gasoline with 15% ethanol.
Power grab! FCC votes 3-2 to regulate the internet via net neutrality.
There’s a mini ice age coming, says a man whose predictions the last few winters have been better than the British weather service.
Who says the healthcare bill didn’t nationalize the healthcare industry? Under the new law, the Obama administration will be reviewing all health insurance rate increases next year, approving only those it agrees with.
Repeal the damn bill!
Power grab! Eight former park superintendents are pressing the U.S. and Canadian governments to expand government control over lands adjacent to Glacier National Park in Montana and Waterton Lakes National Park.
Your tax dollars at work: Twenty idiotic things the U.S. government is spending money on. My favorite, #8, also happens to be one of the most expensive:
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.
Ho! Ho! Ho! The members of an informal high school “Christmas Sweater Club” have been punished by their school for spreading Christmas cheer. Key quote:
Mother Kathleen Flannery said an administrator called her and explained “not everyone wants Christmas cheer. That suicide rates are up over Christmas, and that they should keep their cheer to themselves, perhaps.”
A TSA worker gets probation after being convicted of using TSA surveillance equipment to steal travelers’ laptops.
Want to trim the federal debt? Here’s a place to start: Federal paychecks in the San Diego area are one third higher than private pay, according to census numbers. The pay raises were also more than three times higher.
