June 14, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold. Batchelor was really fascinated by the net gun to catch space junk.
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University in Michigan drops math while requiring four diversity courses
The coming dark age: Wayne State University in Michigan has dropped its requirement that students complete a single math course while requiring students to complete four courses promoting diversity.
In the eyes of the school, mathematics is apparently no longer an essential expertise. But if faculty have their way, the school will soon recognize an appreciation for diversity as an extremely essential expertise. As was first noted by The College Fix, the committee handling WSU’s general education reform has recommended a new framework that, if adopted, would place an extremely strong emphasis on diversity-related courses. Under the framework, the school would create a series of new diversity-themed courses, and all students would have to take at least one.
In addition, students will have to take three “signature” classes, two designed for freshmen and one that will serve as a “capstone” class for upperclassmen. These “signature” classes will be designed to engage with modern-day issues such as “culture, sustainability, health, ethics, and urban development and renewal.” In recognition of the importance of diversity, all signature classes will be required to achieve a diversity-related goal such as “intercultural knowledge and competence” or “global learning.”
The framework justifies the heavy focus on diversity because “diversity is central to the nature of WSU, i.e., ‘Distinctively Wayne State.’”
As far as I can tell, these diversity courses are nothing more than leftwing political propaganda exercises, designed to brainwash students to the Marxist ideology. That will really do the students, and our society, a lot of good in future years. Just ask the people who lived in the Soviet Union.
Note also that Wayne State is a public institution receiving tax money. I wonder if the state legislature, controlled by Republicans, will have anything to say about this.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Opportunity moves on from Marathon Valley
After almost a year exploring Marathon Valley, an east-west cut through the western rim of Endeavour Crater, the Mars rover Opportunity is about to head out and south, following the outside of the crater’s rim.
For a rover that was only supposed to last 90 days, Opportunity has now traveled more than 26.5 miles in its 12 years of operation on the Martian surface.
Niamh McGlinchey – Love You ‘Till The End
An evening pause: Nice cover of a song by The Pogues.
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Direct image of exoplanet
Cool image time! The European Southern Observatory has released a direct image of an exoplanet, taken with its ground-based Very Large Telescope.
The star is a mere 1,200 light years away. The exoplanet, the brown dot to the left of the star, is not yet confirmed, even after this image.
McCain agrees to compromise over Atlas 5 Russian engines
A deal struck today by Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) will allow ULA to buy 18 more Russian engines for its Atlas 5, instead of the limit of nine that McCain had previously demanded.
The deal also includes a deadline of 2022, after which no more Russian engines can be purchased, even if some of the 18 have not yet been bought.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
SpaceX to launch again on Wednesday
The competition heats up: SpaceX will attempt another commercial launch on Wednesday morning, this time putting two satellites into orbit.
They will once again try to land the first stage in what they say are difficult circumstances. They are also picking up the launch pace, with this the second commercial launch in less than three weeks. It will also be their sixth launch of the year, matching what they did in each of the last two years, with more than half the year to go.
Next China lunar lander aimed for farside south pole
The competition heats up: China announced plans today to send its next lunar lander, Chang’e 4, to the Moon’s farside south pole in 2018.
The lander of Chang’e-4 will be equipped with descent and terrain cameras, and the rover will be equipped with a panoramic camera, he said. Like China’s first lunar rover Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, carried by Chang’e-3, the rover of Chang’e-4 will carry subsurface penetrating radar to detect the near surface structure of the moon, and an infrared spectrometer to analyze the chemical composition of lunar samples.
But unlike Chang’e-3, the new lander will be equipped with an important scientific payload especially designed for the far side of the moon: a low-frequency radio spectrometer. “Since the far side of the moon is shielded from electromagnetic interference from the Earth, it’s an ideal place to research the space environment and solar bursts, and the probe can ‘listen’ to the deeper reaches of the cosmos,” Liu said.
The U.S. had been in the lead in the land rush to gain dominance in the possibly water-rich lunar south pole. We apparently have lost this lead with decision of President Obama and Congress to focus elsewhere, either the asteroids or Mars.
Democrats work to abolish 2nd amendment merely because the FBI suspects you
Fascists: Senate Democrats are teaming up with a handful of Republicans to re-introduce a bill that would allow the federal government to instantly suspend the second amendment constitutional rights of anyone the FBI happens to declare a suspect.
If the FBI believes there’s a reasonable chance someone is going to use a gun in a terrorist attack, it should be able to make that determination and block the sale,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told a conference call on Monday.
No due process, no conviction, no actual evidence of wrong-doing is needed. Though the law tries to define what the FBI’s determinations should be based on, all the FBI and the federal government would really have to do is declare you a suspect. In other words, if they don’t like you — for example you happen to be a member of a tea party group that opposes Barack Obama, or you happen to be an Occupy Wall Street protester who opposes Donald Trump — they can cancel your second amendment rights and bar you from owning guns.
Muslim Democratic Congressman reveals his pro-Islam bias toward murder
Fascist: Rather than feel outrage and horror that a madman used Islam as an excuse to commit mass murder, Muslim congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) instead called Donald Trump’s completely reasonable remarks about the Orlando attack “a villainous rampage against other Americans.”
As noted rightly by the author at the link:
Rather than working for justice for the slaughtered innocents and demanding reform in Islam so terrorists can no longer credibly claim their murderous acts are justified by their God, he pretends that a Republican politician is the real problem. Rather than accurately describe the evil acts in Orlando as a “villainous rampage against other Americans,” Ellison believes that Donald Trump’s speech deserves that designation instead.
Ellison is running for re-election this November and his opponent is Frank Drake. You know what to do.
First, Ellison shows us how corrupt Islam is by his unwillingness to address the religion’s murderous track record. Liberal politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton can try to rationalize its repeated links to terrorism, but Ellison proves undeniably that those links are real, and that the religion is corrupt.
Second, as I’ve said repeatedly, it is essential in this upcoming election for the United States to have as many conservatives win as many elections as possible, if only to help insure that whoever ends up as president can do as little harm as possible. Here is another case where the voters could make a big difference.
Curiosity heads south
After four years of southwest travel to skirt a large dune field at the base of Mount Sharp, Curiosity has finally turned due south to aim directly up the mountain.
“Now that we’ve skirted our way around the dunes and crossed the plateau, we’ve turned south to climb the mountain head-on,” said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “Since landing, we’ve been aiming for this gap in the terrain and this left turn. It’s a great moment for the mission.”
Rosetta detects krypton and xenon at Comet 67P/C-G
During Rosetta’s recent close approaches to Comet 67P/C-G scientists were able to confirm the presence of two noble gases, krypton and xenon.
Rosetta had already detected argon, which makes three of the six noble gases.
How Its Made – Train Wheels
<An evening pause: Hat tip Edward Thelen.
Cygnus to depart ISS, then start a fire
A fire in space: Orbital ATK’s Cygnus capsule is scheduled to leave ISS on Tuesday, when shortly thereafter it will begin a controlled fire experiment.
“Saffire-I provides a new way to study a realistic fire on a spacecraft. This hasn’t been possible in the past because the risks for performing such studies on crewed spacecraft are too high. Instruments on the returning Cygnus will measure flame growth, oxygen use and more. Results could determine microgravity flammability limits for several spacecraft materials, help to validate NASA’s material selection criteria, and help scientists understand how microgravity and limited oxygen affect flame size. The investigation is crucial for the safety of current and future space missions. – See more at: http://www.space.com/17933-nasa-television-webcasts-live-space-tv.html#sthash.2DjFjJqY.dpuf
The departure is scheduled for 9 am (eastern), and will aired live by NASA.
Insurance premiums skyrocketing due to Obamacare
Finding out what’s in it: Because of Obamacare health insurance premiums will go up again next year, as much as 60 percent in some cases.
This story isn’t really news. As predicted by every conservative and tea party person before Obamacare was passed in 2010, as Obamacare has kicked in and as it has forced insurance companies to pay for the healthcare of the sick who never paid for health insurance previously, they are forced to raise their rates to cover the costs. These increases are only the start. Worse, they are getting so burdensome that soon no one will be able to afford health insurance at all, which will make it impossible for that insurance to protect anyone.
June 10, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold. This aired on Friday, but weekend activities caused me to forget to post it. Sorry.
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Why I use Linux, part 3
5 Unintended Consequences of Windows 10 Upgradegate
The bottom line: Microsoft’s culture has always been that of an immoral bully who has no ethics, even when they created good software (which was not often). Why anyone would continue to rely on them baffles me completely.
Disturbance in Saturn’s outermost ring
Cool image time! The picture below, taken by Cassini in April, looks down at Saturn’s vast rings and shows a disruption in Saturn’s outermost F ring, likely caused by an interaction of objects within the ring.
The liberal response to terrorism: Disarm the innocent!
They say that insanity is the process where you keep trying to do the same thing over and over again, even though it fails each time.
The liberal, leftwing response to the tragic and horrific mass killing by an insane Islamic terrorist, who found comfort and support from that religion for his murderous ideas, is thus a good illustration of insanity.
- Solemn Obama calls for gun control action and DOESN’T link Orlando nightclub terror attack to Islam in address to nation
- U.S. Senate Democrats discussing new gun control push
- ACLU Lawyers Blame Christians For Orlando Terror Attack
- Hillary Clinton Wants to Reinstate Assault Weapons Ban in Wake of Orlando Attack
That’s just three four examples, but there will be more. [I have added the fourth because it is so expected and must be noted.] The simple fact is that the terrorist in Orlando had gotten his guns legally in a state that has numerous gun control laws specifically designed to prevent such a man from becoming armed. Those laws did nothing to protect innocent people from him.
One decent person armed in that nightclub, however, would have stopped him in his tracks. Unfortunately, according to Florida’s same gun control laws, that nightclub was also a gun free zone. Only criminals and terrorists were allowed to be armed, because they are the only ones who don’t care what the law says.
As Ted Cruz noted in his statement concerning the Orlando attack. “Our nation is at war.” And you can’t win a war by disarming yourself.
Blue Origin will webcast live its next flight of New Shepard
The competition heats up: Blue Origin’s fourth test flight of its New Shepard suborbital spacecraft will take place this Friday, and will be webcast live.
No time announced yet, but the place to see it will be the Blue Origin website.