Penn & Teller – Blast Off
An evening pause: See if you can spot how they do this magic trick, before they show you.
Construction of the world’s largest ground-based telescope has been approved by the European Southern Observatory.
Construction of the world’s largest ground-based telescope has been approved by the European Southern Observatory.
No one should get too excited about this announcement. They still need to raise 90% of their funds to build it, and to do so they have to get agreements from the four member countries of the European Southern Observatory. It will be years, probably at least a decade, before this 40-meter truly gigantic telescope sees the light.
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
On the way home
We are right now driving between Las Vegas and Hoover Dam, and should be home late tonight. Thus, I should be able to resume blogging sometime tomorrow. I will also write up a description of my experiences this past week and post it tomorrow.
Blondie – Dreaming & Heart Of Glass
An evening pause: Two songs, performed live October 5, 1979. Deborah Harry is of course amazing (despite her inserting a silly politically-correct anti-nuke message during the second song), but watch the other musicians, especially the drummer.
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.
20,000 bottle rockets
An evening pause: What happens when you launch 20,000 bottle rockets in less than two minutes?
Caving in Nevada
I finally have an hour free here in Nevada.
For the past three days we have been intensely hiking up mountains over a vast area of Nevada. The goal has been to locate and map caves for the Forest Service in some of the most remote areas of the state. So far we have focused on mapping known caves, putting the possible discoveries aside for later work.
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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
Loudon Wainwright – One-man Guy
An evening pause:
Don McLean – American pie
An evening pause:
First day caving in Nevada
It is late and I have to up at 5 am to head to another cave tomorrow, so there is no time to give a detailed update of what happened today
However, here is a quick summary. Our goal was to find and map a rarely visited and difficult to find cave. After four miles of hiking and a lot of wandering across some pretty spectacular mountainsides, we failed to find the cave. However, we did locate two other small caves, which we surveyed, and then, on the way back to the vehicles, discovered a previously unknown cave of some size with significant formations. This was quite exciting, as the cave was clearly virgin, never seen by humans before.
We hope to return to explore and map it later in the week. Once again, I will get to go where no one has ever gone before!
Tomorrow will probably be as long a day as today, so I probably will not be able to post a more detailed report until Saturday. Stay tuned.
Making diamonds with only an acetylene torch.
An evening pause: Can you make diamonds using only an acetylene torch?
On the road
The image on the left will give you a good idea of what my day was like: Twelve hours of driving across Arizona and Nevada. Tomorrow the cave work begins.
Sammy Davis, Jr. – Mr. Bojangles
An evening pause: From an 1985 performance in Germany, only five years before his death. By this time, Davis was not only performing this song as a tribute to Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, he was performing it as a testament to his own life in entertainment.
Ray Bradbury has died.
R.I.P. Ray Bradbury has died.
Solar Dynamic Observatory successfully imaged Venus’s atmosphere during yesterday’s transit
Solar Dynamic Observatory successfully imaged Venus’s atmosphere during yesterday’s transit. Cool images too.
Off to Nevada
For the next seven days my daytime posting is going to be spotty, as I will be in some remote areas of Nevada working on an on-going Forest Service project to inventory and survey caves in an area in the northeastern area of the state. The project is mostly over, but as I have surveyed, sketched, and done the cartography for many eastern U.S. caves, the guy running the project asked if I would be interested in participating. Interested? I was thrilled.
Though we will be in a somewhat remote area, I still hope to post periodically during the week, not only about the usual topics but also about some of the caves we will have surveyed, some of which are rarely visited. I will also try to post some pictures of the spectacular country we expect to visit. (The photo on the right was provided to me by Tom Gilleland, who is running the project.) Stay tuned.
“I will kill Walker myself.”
Leftwing civility: “I will kill Walker myself.”
I wish this was the only person to say this, but no, it isn’t. The link gives a nice sampling of hate from Democrat/leftwing supporters. Another example here.
Scott Walker wins big in Wisconsin
Scott Walker has won the recall election in Wisconsin by a large margin, 53-46 percent, more than predicted and exceeding his vote total in his 2010 election victory.
Bryn Terfel – Turtle Dove
An evening pause:
Fare you well, my dear, I must be gone
And leave you for awhile.
If I roam away I’ll come back again
Though I roam ten thousand miles, my dear,
Though I roam ten thousand miles.
Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) has backed down and modified the language he had inserted in the NASA budget bill that would have limited the number of commercial space companies NASA could subsidize.
Good news: Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) has backed down and modified the language he had inserted in the NASA budget bill that would have limited the number of commercial space companies NASA could subsidize.
From Clark Lindsey:
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) , who is Chairman on the Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee of the House Appropriations committee, put language into the recent House budget for NASA that requiree NASA to down-select immediately to one primary contractor in the commercial crew program. This would obviously eliminate competition on price and rule out redundancy in case one system is grounded. He has now relented and is willing to allow for “2.5 (two full and one partial) CCiCAP awards”.
As I wrote earlier, the success of Dragon is putting strong political pressure on Congress to support the independent commercial space companies over the NASA-built and very expensive Space Launch System (SLS) that Congress had mandated. Expect to see more elected officials back down in the coming year, with the eventually elimination of SLS from the budget.
Watch the Venus transit live
Watch the Venus transit live:
From space, from Solar Dynamics Observatory.
From Universe Today, on Youtube.