Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Feel the hate: Virginia Democrat supporters rip up Repulican signs on private property while screaming curses at conservative demonstrators.
Another Iceland volcano eruption pending? Iceland’s largest glacier, which sits atop the island’s largest volcano, Grimsvotn, began releasing large amounts of melt water on Thursday, October 25, indicating the volcano underneath might be heating up.
Anti-American propaganda from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Key quote:
In my thirty years as a professor in upper education, I have never witnessed nor participated in a more extremist, agenda-driven, revisionist conference, nearly devoid of rhetorical balance and historical context for the arguments presented.
And the Democrats wonder why they are losing this election? Fifty-eight percent of the population favors repeal of Obamacare, with a whopping 70 percent of independents wanting repeal.
The religion of “peace” strikes again! Islamic terrorists seized a Christian church in Baghdad during services. In the violence that followed, 58 people were killed and 78 wounded.
A poll warden, since dismissed, denied the right to vote on Friday to a policeman in full uniform because he refused to surrender his gun.
Gallup poll numbers suggest tomorrow’s Republican victory could be the largest in generations, and could exceed all predictions. Key quote:
It should be noted, however, that this year’s 15-point gap in favor of the Republican candidates among likely voters is unprecedented in Gallup polling and could result in the largest Republican margin in House voting in several generations. This means that seat projections have moved into uncharted territory, in which past relationships between the national two-party vote and the number of seats won may not be maintained. [emphasis mine]
The last launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been moved to Wednesday afternoon in order to give engineers time to test their repairs.
The commercial suborbital industry responds to the recent science paper that said that the soot from their rocket engines might cause to global warming.
The telescope that ate astronomy. My just finished Sky & Telescope article (expected out early next year) covers some of the same ground, describing how the cost overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope has badly damaged much of NASA’s space astronomy budget, for this and possibly the next two decades.
A “man-caused disaster” averted! Two packages from Yemen containing explosives and addressed to Chicago-area synagogues have been intercepted in transit.
Don’t you dare preach to me! It is reported that while Al Gore gave an hourlong environment speech in Sweden he left the engine on his rental car idling.
Yesterday SpaceShipTwo completed its second successful free flight (via Clark Lindsey at www.rlvnews.com). The results:
Flew to more aggressive stall indication. Evaluated handling and stability through several maneuvers. Expanded envelope to 230 KTAS and 3g’s. Roll evaluation. Full stop landing.
Some good news for freedom of speech: the University of Virginia has elminated all of its speech codes.
Scientists have discovered in China the first complete skeleton of an early ancestor of the gigantic sauropod dinosaurs.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the likely budget cuts expected from the next Congress are almost certainly going to threaten the extra shuttle flight that Congress authorized several weeks ago.
On October 22, the International Space Station passed Mir’s record for the longest continuous occupancy, just short of 10 years.
Evidence of subsurface water has been found by the Mars rover Spirit at the location where the rover remains stuck.
Our government at work! The FAA has given SpaceX a license to launch the Dragon capsule, scheduled for a November 18 launch on the Falcon 9 rocket, but not yet given them a license to land.
The rocket launch company Sea Launch has exited bankruptcy under Russian ownership.
Another moderator from the League of Women Voters resists saying the pledge of allegiance, forcing the audience to overrule her.
Is this a great country or what? The company that is performing the zero gravity beer test on November 19 is selling advertising space on the astronaut’s flight suit to anyone with a few thousand dollars cash.
Astronomers have discovered the most massive neutron star ever, twice the mass of the Sun and far heavier than any theory had ever predicted.
Buckyballs, or carbon molecules called fullerenes, have been discovered all throughout the Milky Way as well as in another galaxy.
If victorious on November 2, will the Republicans actually cut spending? This article outlines the issues.
Our government doing the really important work! Health officials in Baltimore have handed out their first ticket to a restaurant for not using the proper cooking recipe, as determined by the government. Key quote:
“They originally had a margarine that was above 3 grams, actually, which is very high compared to the .5 that is allowed. Then when we came back and they had replaced it, they replaced it with one that was 2 grams, so it still was too high,” [Health Department agent Juan] Gutierrez said.
And then there’s this: Fake health inspectors at restaurants on the rise.
China today announced plans to complete its first space station by 2020.
Bigelow is expanding its factory, and here’s a gallery of images showing the work’s progress.
NASA is begging money from billionaires for an interstellar travel project. Sounds cool I know, but wouldn’t it be more worthwhile right now for those billionaires to invest their money in developing low cost rockets so we can simply get into space cheaply?
Deadly monkey virus jumps from monkey to scientist.
