House Panel to Take Second Bite Out of Science Budgets
The revolt of the freshman Republicans is working: The House science panel is going to revisit its budget cut proposals for science from yesterday and find ways to cut more.
Freshman GOP to leadership: Business as usual is over
This is truly hopeful news: Freshman GOP to leadership: Business as usual is over.
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
How to make long distance calls to aliens
More details on Ares/Ariane hybrid rocket
More details on Liberty, the Ares/Ariane hybrid rocket proposed by ATK and Alliant to provide crew/cargo capabilities to ISS. Key quote:
[Liberty] would be able to lift 44,500 lb. of payload to the International Space Station, enough for any of the commercial crew capsules under development as potential space shuttle replacements.
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.
Trees from space
We need to find them! Trees from space, planted here on Earth. You can see the known list here.
NASA Checks Shuttle Discovery for Damage From Dropped Tool
Oy. A metal tool came apart last night and its scattered pieces fell on the shuttle Discovery. Fortunately, careful inspection of the orbiter has found no damage.
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 budgetary haircut ahead for NASA?
Bryn Terfel sings two classic folk songs
An evening pause: Bryn Terfel sings two classic folk songs, The Turtle Dove and Loch Lomond.
Cutting the military budget
Now for some squeals from the right: Why we must never, ever cut the military budget!
Concealed carry grows as critics’ fears of ‘bloodbath’ proven wrong
More proof that guns make society safer: The “bloodbath” feared by gun-ban advocates due to the increase in concealed carry permits never happened.
The administration has now clarified its position on Egypt
More humor: The Obama administration has now clarified its position on Egypt.
Low-income groups challenge California climate law
The law of unintended consequences: Low-income groups are challenging California’s cap-and-trade climate law.
An Anomalous SETI Signal
Biden Vows to Jump Canyon by Amtrak
Iowahawk: Biden Vows to Jump Canyon by Amtrak. Key quote:
Biden said the jump was only the first phase in a comprehensive multi-decade federal plan to cement US global leadership in light rail, subways, high speed land trains, airborne trains, undersea trains, and intergalactic trains.
Read the whole thing.
Great Moments In Government “Investment”
Great moments in government “investment”. Key quote:
To turn wood chips into ethanol fuel, George W. Bush’s Department of Energy in February 2007 announced a $76 million grant to Range Fuels for a cutting-edge refinery. A few months later, the refinery opened in the piney woods of Treutlen County, Ga., as the taxpayers of Georgia piled on another $6 million. In 2008, the ethanol plant was the first beneficiary of the Biorefinery Assistance Program, pocketing a loan for $80 million guaranteed by the U.S. taxpayers.
Last month, the refinery closed down, having failed to squeeze even a drop of ethanol out of its pine chips.
That’s $164 million of tax dollars to a company that produced nothing.
Susan Rice warns GOP against U.N. cuts
The diplomats are squealing! The UN ambassador warns Republicans against cutting funds to the U.N.
Giant Ring of Black Holes
House Spending Plan cuts billions from federal research agencies
Stand by for oinks! The House spending plan would cut billions from federal research agencies such as NIH, NSF, NOAA, NASA, and a host of Department of Energy programs. Specifics at the link.
Ten Pro-ObamaCare Senators in trouble In 2012
They should have repealed the damn bill! Ten Democratic Senators who voted for Obamacare face serious election challenges in 2012.
The Sun’s continuing wimpiness
Get those winter coats out of storage! Yesterday NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center published its monthly update of the Sun’s sunspot cycle. I’ve posted the newest graph below, showing the continuing slow rise in sunspots (blue/black lines) in comparison with the consensis prediction made by the solar science community in May 2009 (red line).
Though the sunspot count made a slight recovery in January, it was not enough to make up for the plunge in December. Essentially, the Sun continues to act like a sleepy kitten that really doesn’t want to wake up. This suggests that even the newest and wimpiest prediction for the next solar maximum, from solar scientists at the Marshall Space Flight Center, is still overstating the Sun’s upcoming sunspot activity.
In the past a wimpy Sun has been linked to cold weather, for reasons that scientists as yet don’t quiet understand. And this next solar maximum continues to look like the wimpiest in more than 200 years (see the graph on this page)!
