Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Freedom of speech alert: As Egypt goes offline some members of the US Congress are getting their own internet ‘kill switch’ bill ready.
Indiana teenager has built a “Solar death-ray” that can literally burn through almost anything!
The chimp that took America into space.
Bring on those private space stations! Bigelow Aerospace has signed an agreement with Dubai and United Arab Emirates.
Repeal the damn bill! And even the White House agrees as it quietly exempts its political friends from Obamacare. Key quote:
How can you get your own free pass from Obamacare? Maybe you can just donate $27 million to President Obama‘s campaign efforts. That’s what Andy Stern did as president of SEIU in 2008. He has been the most frequent guest at Mr. Obama‘s White House.
Another freighter, this time from Russia, docks with ISS.
It’s all about power and control: The TSA has announced that it will no longer approve private airport screeners.
Using skateboards to test a prototype lunar lander.
Another 2nd amendment battle: A student is suing the University of Idaho for banning firearms from his university-owned apartment.
Here we go again: NASA’s already overbudget Mars Science Laboratory rover is in need of even more cash.
Reality meets feel-good politics: Electric cars and their cold-weather shortcomings. Key quote:
“If you live in an area where the winters get extremely cold an all-electric vehicle will have to be garaged and equipped with some kind of plug-in battery warmer for it to be effective in the coldest months of the year. Keep these thoughts in mind if you’re planning an electric car purchase; we don’t want you finding out the range of your car has been halved when it’s five below zero and you’re fifteen miles from home.”
The triumph of freedom: Protests spread to Egypt and Jordan.
We should recognize that though the overthrow of these Middle East dictatorships is certainly not a bad thing, the regimes that replace them are very likely not going to be much better, and could very well be worse. However, the free flow of information in the Arab world can only be a good thing, and in the long run can only lead to freedom and peace between nations.
Today’s Dilbert strip says it all about the stupidity of the TSA.
Japan is on alert today after the biggest volcanic eruption in 50 years took place on the nation’s southernmost main island, Kyushu. The pictures at the link are truly incredible!
The truimph of freedom: The Arab world, shaken by the power of the internet. Key quote:
On Dec. 17, in Sidi Bouzid, deep in the interior, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself aflame in front of a government building, in protest after police confiscated his produce stand. Horrible images of his act circulated lightning-fast on the Internet. Protests followed.
“Thanks to Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, images of those first protests went around the world instantly, and everyone knew about it,” says Tlili. “Even 20 years ago, you could have had those uprisings in the interior and few would have known.”
A fizzy ocean on Enceladus? Key quote:
[Scientists believe] that gasses dissolved in water deep below the surface [of Enceladus] form bubbles. Since the density of the resulting “sparkling water” is less than that of the ice, the liquid ascends quickly up through the ice to the surface. “Most of the water spreads out sideways and ‘warms’ a thin surface ice lid, which is about 300 feet thick,” explains Matson. “But some of it collects in subsurface chambers, builds up pressure, and then blasts out through small holes in the ground, like soda spewing out of that can you opened.”
For reasons unknown, for the past thirty years high altitude noctilucent clouds have been getting brighter.
New research finds that the Himalayan glaciers are not melting. Key quote:
The new study by scientists at the Universities of California and Potsdam has found that half of the glaciers in the Karakoram range, in the northwestern Himlaya, are in fact advancing and that global warming is not the deciding factor in whether a glacier survives or melts.
The last part of the above quote, on global warming, is almost certainly an overstatement of what we do or don’t know. Warming will cause glaciers to melt, but how much and when are factors that are still not understood. Moreover, we are still not sure how much warming has even occurred.
Meanwhile, here’s another reason why everyone should be disgusted with the government we presently have: The former state official who illegally searched “Joe the Plumber’s” private records has now gotten another government job, working for the Montgomery County Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services Board in Ohio.
Freedom wins! A man who was arrested for refusing to give his ID to TSA agents and videotaping his arrest has been acquitted of all charges. You can watch the videotape at the link. Also, more here.
Another Japanese space success today: Its second robot cargo vehicle has successfully docked at ISS.
Ikaros takes a picture of Venus.
Repeal the damn bill! The number of companies who have received waivers from ObamaCare has jumped from 222 to 729, and now exempts over two million employees.
If the bill was so great, why are more and more companies trying to get out of participating?
More government foolishness: A New York city lawmaker wants to ban the use of cell phones or any electronic devices while walking on the street.
And you still think NASA (or any other federal program) is going to get a lot of money? The Congressional Budget office (CBO) admitted today that Social Security is now officially broke. Key quote:
The CBO’s revenue/expenditure estimates now place the program in permanent deficit. There had been some hope that payroll taxes would recover sufficiently post-recession to put the program back into the black (the theoretical black) for at least a few more years, putting off the day of reckoning for an election cycle or more. No more: The new CBO estimates put Social Security in the red for as far as the eye can see. [emphasis mine]
Hubble detects what may be oldest, most distant object ever seen.
Private space marches on! NASA is in negotiations with Bigelow Aerospace to buy one of their inflatable space station modules and attach it to ISS.
More solar sail news: Japan’s solar sail mission, IKAROS, has been extended for a year. Key quote:
With the extended lease on life, the team will try new navigational tricks, such as varying the sail’s angle toward the sun and changing the craft’s trajectory. Mori called these “risky” maneuvers because they are not sure if the sail will remain fully extended. They intend to model the sail’s behavior and the craft’s response to plan future solar sail missions.
How giants conquered the Earth.
