Falcon 9 is now upright on launchpad for tomorrow morning’s 4:55 am (Eastern) launch. For continual updates, go here.
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, any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, 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
We’ve only just begun: A second Catholic University is now considering eliminating their student health plan because of Obamacare and the administration’s contraceptive mandate.
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.
“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.
Pitiful: Only 65% of the political class and only 61% of Democrats are aware that federal spending has gone up in the past ten years.
Interestingly, 85% of the general public knows this basic fact, which might explain why the intellectual elites of our country — from both parties — are continually being blindsided by the rise of the tea party movement and its continued success in elections.
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.
"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
The uncertainty of science: New research suggests that the “good” cholesterol isn’t as good as previously believed.
More information on the annular solar eclipse coming to the southwest U.S. this Sunday.
Actually, the second link above provides better information on where and when to view the eclipse. Definitely click on the map showing the national parks where viewing will be best.
The Soyuz spacecraft with three astronauts has docked successfully with ISS.
Barring weather or another launch scrub, it looks like Saturday will be launch day for Falcon 9 and Dragon
Good news: A judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of the part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that allows for the indefinite military detention of American citizens.
Based on further analysis of the data from WISE, the infrared space telescope, astronomers have now made a better estimate of the population of potentially hazardous asteroids.
Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids. The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth’s, coming within five million miles (about eight million kilometers), and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth’s atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.
The new results come from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, called NEOWISE. The project sampled 107 PHAs to make predictions about the entire population as a whole. Findings indicate there are roughly 4,700 PHAs, plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). So far, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of these objects have been found.
Good news: North Carolina’s State Board of Elections has begun an investigation into the voter fraud exposed in the most recent Project Veritas videotapes.
Rather than attack the messenger, the state is looking into the problem. Kudos to them.
Fiddling away: The Senate today rejected President Obama’s proposed budget 99-0.
Too bad Harry Reid won’t offer up a budget of his own. The only reason this got voted on at all was that the Republicans forced a vote.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government fell another several billion dollars into debt even as the vote was being taken.
Our government in action: An NIH nationwide study to track hundreds of thousands of children from birth to age 21 is wracked with budget and management problems.
All told, this study has already cost the taxpayers almost a billion dollars for the enrollment of only 4,000 children, not the 100,000 envisioned. That’s about $250,000 per child, an amount that seems incredibly high.
In addition to the above problems, it appears there are scientific ones as well:
» Read more
An evening pause: An Irish jig morphs into some wild and spectacular improv.
Antonio Breschi on the piano, Mairtin O’Connor, accordion, Johnny MacCarthy, flute, Jane Cassidy, bazouki, and Steve Cooney, bass. Recorded in Belfast around 1990.
Breschi by the way is probably one of the world’s best improvisational pianists.
What does this tell us? In a poll of one congressional district in Arkansas, Obama receives support from just 45% of Democratic Party voters, and is only seven points ahead of his unknown primary challenger.
More voter fraud, this time in North Carolina, including a professor who applauds it.
Watch the video. The part where the professor applauds voter fraud because it would hurt conservatives is most revealing.
We’ve only just begun: A Catholic University has dropped its health coverage for students due to Obamacare and the contraceptive mandate.
Hitching a ride: The Russians last night launched a new crew to ISS.
Next up: the launch of Falcon 9/Dragon on Saturday.
