Paul Brady – The Lakes of Pontchartrain
An evening pause: From a 1977 live performance.
The next launch of the X-37B has been delayed again.
The next launch of the X-37B has been delayed again.
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
Schiller – Miles and miles
An evening pause:
Curiosity has found evidence showing how Mars lost its atmosphere.
Curiosity has found evidence showing how Mars lost its atmosphere.
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.
The most distant supernova ever found.
Meteorite hunters in Poland have found Eastern Europe’s larges meteorite weighing almost 700 pounds.
Meteorite hunters in Poland have found Eastern Europe’s larges meteorite, weighing almost 700 pounds.
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
A New Jersey town tells a volunteer utility crew from Alabama to go home — because they are non-union.
A New Jersey town tells a volunteer utility crew from Alabama to go home — because they are non-union.
“The U.S. is currently in an extended and intense hurricane ‘drought.'”
Rolling in the Deep on a traditional Chinese zither
An evening pause: Not quite how Adele sings it, but striking nonetheless.
A federal judge in Detroit has ruled that a Catholic-owned private business does not have to comply with the Obama administrations contraceptive mandate.
We’ve only just begun: A federal judge in Detroit has ruled that a Catholic-owned private business does not have to comply with the Obama administrations contraceptive mandate.
More evidence of past glaciers on Mars.
More evidence of past glaciers on Mars.
Realtime coverage of today’s spacewalk on ISS.
Realtime coverage of today’s spacewalk on ISS.
Update: It appears the spacewalk was a success. The astronauts installed a bypass radiator to isolate the radiator where it is believed the coolant leak is located.
Nightmare before Christmas – This is Halloween
An evening pause: The opening song from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).
The proposed IRS tax form every American will have to fill out when Obamacare goes into effect.
Finding out what’s in it: A proposed IRS tax form every American will have to fill out when Obamacare goes into effect.
This form is not from the IRS, but it is based on the actual law, and is I think a reasonably good facsimile of the kind of information the IRS will require when the individual mandate goes into effect and the IRS will have to determine whether you have health insurance or need to pay higher taxes because you don’t.
I especially like the section of the form that asks these questions:
- Are you claiming a religious exemption from the individual responsibility mandate?
- Are you an incarcerated criminal and therefore exempt from the personal mandate?
- Are you an illegal immigrant and therefore exempt from the personal mandate?
All three exemptions exist, though the Obama administration has already made it clear that the first will only be available to actual religious organizations, and even there the exemption will be limited. However, if you are a criminal or illegal immigrant (also a lawbreaker) you are exempt from this law, though you receive all its benefits.
As I’ve said, Repeal this turkey! And vote out every idiot that supported it.
Facebook has apologized and reinstated the anti-Obama posts it had previously censored.
Facebook has apologized and reinstated the anti-Obama posts it had previously censored.
The twenty most bizarre scientific experiments of all time.
The twenty most bizarre scientific experiments of all time.
Though bizarre, some of these experiments produced profound results. See especially numbers 2, 7, 13, 18, and 19.
The B612 foundation has signed its first contract for building Sentinel, its private infrared space telescope designed to find asteroids that might impact the Earth.
The B612 foundation has signed its first contract for building Sentinel, its private infrared space telescope designed to find asteroids that might impact the Earth.
One of the major backers has pulled out of a solar energy power plant plan for Africa and the Middle East.
One of the major backers has pulled out of a solar energy power plant plan for Africa and the Middle East.
“We see our part in Dii as done,” says spokesman Torsten Wolf of Siemens, one of 13 founding partners of the consortium, which is also based in Munich. Siemens also said that it will pull out of the solar-energy business altogether. Its decision was made in response to falling government subsidies for solar energy and a collapse in the price of solar equipment. But to DESERTEC’S critics, Siemens’ exit also adds to doubts about the plan, which is expected to cost hundreds of billions of dollars. “DESERTEC is an ambitious attempt to do everything at once,” says Jenny Chase, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in Zurich, Switzerland. “I think it’s something that will be achieved organically, bit by bit, which will probably be cheaper, easier and achieve the same results.” [emphasis mine]
The cited reasons suggest some fundamental problems with this particular project. That Siemens is abandoning the solar energy entirely, citing the lose of government subsidies as one reason, also suggests there is something fundamental wrong with the industry itself.
Then again, it could be just like the new commercial space industry. Some companies are willing to take the risks to make the money even without subsidies, while others are not.
For the second time, a Progress freighter has launched and, after only four orbits, docked with ISS.
For the second time, a Progress freighter has launched and, after only four orbits, docked with ISS.
This was the fourth Progress launched this year, the second to follow an abbreviated four-orbit rendezvous with the space station. Russian flight controllers normally implement two-day rendezvous profiles, but they are perfecting procedures for single-day flights for possible use with manned Soyuz missions to shorten the time crews are forced to spend in the cramped ferry craft.
The Russians have used the leisurely two-day rendezvous path now for almost a half century. So, why are they suddenly trying to shorten the travel time to ISS to six hours? Though there are many good engineering reasons, I also suspect it is because they are now feeling the pressure of competition. The shorter travel time probably lowers their costs at mission control. It also makes using the Soyuz for manned flights more appealing. Dragon for example is presently using the two-day rendezvous path. And Dragon will soon become a direct competitor to Soyuz, when it begins flying humans in the next three to five years.
Weirdness at the edge of the solar system.
Weirdness at the edge of the solar system.