Legos to Jupiter

Because we know what's important.

From Cops to Corn Syrup

Why cops don't often believe a rape victim.

The Republicans self-made straitjacket.

Rep. Issa is sad.  Aww.

The world's vegetation.

Moving into a new neighborhood?

Asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon sailed within 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers) of Earth on May 31, making their closest approach to our planet for at least the next two centuries. New radar images captured by the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico are revealing just how unique this binary asteroid is, researchers say. 

“Asteroid QE2 is dark, red, and primitive — that is, it hasn’t been heated or melted as much as other asteroids," Arecibo's Ellen Howell said in a statement. "QE2 is nothing like any asteroid we've visited with a spacecraft, or plan to, or that we have meteorites from. It's an entirely new beast in the menagerie of asteroids near Earth."

And NASA finds “unprecedented” black hole cluster near Andromeda’s central bulge. Sounds faintly pregnant?

Male/Female is no longer a binary selection....

Sneaking High Fructose Corn Syrup into our food.

Curiosity killed the cat...

But satisfaction brought it back

 


Fantastic graphics of Curiosity on Mars

(Post title from a joke by Mahakal)

Mars!!

Can you believe it?   Mars!!

update:  xkcd's take.

And more on the landing process.

A bunch of happy scientists celebrating some very expensive blurry black and white photos :)



Some still photos of  the same happy group.

Art to Mars to ruined library

Master forger comes clean about tricks that fooled art world for four decades

Mars crater image beamed back by Nasa rover Opportunity

Nasa scientists say crater, formed by an impact billions of years ago, is the largest yet encountered

Dads Reveal How Having Daughters Has Changed Their View Of Women

Sales of plug-in cars

Finding beauty in neglect.

Around the world

How astonishing and unexpected!! Pipeline spill sends 22,000 barrels of oil mix into Alberta muskeg

Whether she will see any of this money is another thing... Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated By Citigroup Wins $31 Million

Oklahoma Rape Victim Denied Emergency Contraceptives. Doctor Cites Religious Objection As Reason. I think suing the doctor (and the nurse who also refused to help) for 18 years of child support might get her attention.

Building tiny houses.. or should I say minimalist housing.

Big corporate fat cat thinks big corporations shouldn't pay taxes like real people.

A WWII Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk is found preserved in the Sahara.

Know your rights if you photograph police.

Because the poor women need to be told what they think? In media reports on women’s issues—abortion, birth control, Planned Parenthood—men are quoted around five times more than women, a new study shows.

Oh NOES!! We're gonna crash! NASA's Hubble Shows Milky Way is Destined for Head-on Collision with Andromeda Galaxy

Compare and contrast: Republican spokesman: ‘Let’s hurl some acid’ at female Democratic senators to these articles about real acid attacks.  Really?  You want to carefully think about what you said, sir?  Are you aware of what you have actually suggested?

What getting rid of Obamacare would really mean to the Republicans:

All of which exposes how problematic the GOP’s two-year-long posture of total repeal always was. As a short-term political posture, it has served them well. But now that the Supreme Court might give them what they want, they’re forced to deal with the reality of what it would mean. And that’s a huge wake-up call for the party, especially one without a clear leader to herd the cats as they figure out their next move. As one Republican health care aide put it to TPM, “I do think some Republicans are finally starting to realize they could be the dog that caught the car.”

Be careful what you wish for... you may get it.

Fireflies and star trails

Click to embiggen.

From WWI to Keith....

WWI mines and miners and the battle that cost them their lives.

Archaeologists are beginning the most detailed ever study of a Western Front battlefield, an untouched site where 28 British tunnellers lie entombed after dying during brutal underground warfare. For WWI historians, it's the "holy grail".

When military historian Jeremy Banning stepped on to a patch of rough scrubland in northern France four months ago, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

The privately owned land in the sleepy rural village of La Boisselle had been practically untouched since fighting ceased in 1918, remaining one of the most poignant sites of the Battle of the Somme.

In his hand was a selection of grainy photographs of some of the British tunnellers killed in bloody subterranean battles there, and who lay permanently entombed directly under his feet.

Um... run away? Massive Plasma Waves Sweep the Sun --NASA: "We're seeing things we've never seen before"

Go the Fuck to Sleep. A children's story.

Fukushima suffered a melt-through. Worse than anyone thought. And the mutations begin.

Alabama steps on women's rights. And passes the most draconian immigration law. Alabama, the black hole of compassion and empathy.

The utter stupidity of some criminals.

Keith Olbermann to Talking Points Memo consumers:

2012 in 2013!!11! OMG!11/

Space Storm!!! Starring Bruce Willis and Will Smith ....

Dr Fisher, 69, said the storm, which will cause Sun to reach temperatures of more than 10,000 F (5500C), occurred only a few times over a person’s life.

Every 22 years the Sun’s magnetic energy cycle peaks while the number of sun spots – or flares – hits a maximum level every 11 years.

Dr Fisher, a Nasa scientist for 20 years, said these two events would combine in 2013 to produce huge levels of radiation.

He said large swathes of the world could face being without power for several months, although he admitted that was unlikely.

A more likely scenario was that large areas, including northern Europe and Britain which have “fragile” power grids, would be without power and access to electronic devices for hours, possibly even days.

He said preparations were similar to those in a hurricane season, where authorities knew a problem was imminent but did not know how serious it would be.

Well, rats.

Six years, huh? Whaddya expect for 400 million dollars, anyway?

After six highly successful years of exploring the red sands of Mars, NASA's rover Spirit will rove no more.

With its six wheels stuck in powdery sand and two wheels no longer working, the resilient little explorer will become a fixed, immobile scientific observatory -- if it can survive the harsh temperatures of the upcoming winter.

"Its driving days are likely over," Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, said in a telephone news conference Tuesday. "Its contributions will continue" if it can be re-awakened after what could be a six-month hibernation during the Martian winter.

If Spirit can be resuscitated, researchers will use it to attempt to answer one of their most pressing questions: whether the planet has a solid iron core or a liquid one.

Swear not by the moon...

the inconstant moon, that monthly changes in her circled orb...



Click for fantastic detail.

Green tea and mushrooms

Sounds like the start of a joke.... but apparently it helps in fending off breast cancer.

And deep space is messy:

ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2009) — A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope offers a rare view of an imminent collision between the cores of two merging galaxies, each powered by a black hole with millions of times the mass of the sun.

The galactic cores are in a single, tangled galaxy called NGC 6240, located 400-million light years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Millions of years ago, each core was the dense center of its own galaxy before the two galaxies collided and ripped each other apart. Now, these cores are approaching each other at tremendous speeds and preparing for the final cataclysmic collision. They will crash into each other in a few million years, a relatively short period on a galactic timescale.

What big teeth you have, Grandma:

A marine monster described as the most fearsome animal ever to swim in the oceans boasted a bite up to 11 times as strong as that of Tyrannosaurus rex.

The fossil remains of the huge pliosaur were dug up last summer from the permafrost on Svalbard, a Norwegian island close to the North Pole.

Analysis revealed that it was a turbo-charged swimmer. Its front flippers allowed the creature, dubbed Predator X, to cruise along comfortably but when prey came into range the power of its hind flippers kicked in to provide extra acceleration.

Measurements of its jaw and the killing power of its dagger-like teeth have shown that it could bite down with a force of 33,000lb per square inch compared with T. rex’s 3,000lb per square inch. Alligators have the strongest bite today with about 2,500lb per square inch.

And I doubt we're talking about crunching on coconuts, either.

It's gone rogue!

That, or the Martians got tired of it driving all over their yards....

On the 1,800th Martian day of its mission, NASA’s Spirit rover blanked out, and it remains a bit disoriented.

Mission managers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported Wednesday that the Spirit had behaved oddly on Sunday — the 1,800th Sol, or Martian day, since Spirit’s landing on Mars in January 2004.

[snip]

On that day, the Spirit acknowledged receiving its driving directions from Earth, but it did not move.

More strangely, the Spirit had no memory of what it had done for that part of Sol 1800. The rover did not record actions, as it otherwise always does, to the part of its computer memory that retains information even when power is turned off, the so-called nonvolatile memory. “It’s almost as if the rover had a bout of amnesia,” said John Callas, the project manager for the rovers.

[snip]

On Monday, mission controllers told the Spirit to orient itself by locating the Sun in the sky with its camera, and it reported that it had been unable to do so. Dr. Callas said the camera did actually photograph the Sun, but it was not quite in the position the rover expected.

One hypothesis is that a cosmic ray hit the electronics and scrambled the rover’s memory. On Tuesday, the rover’s nonvolatile memory worked properly.

The Spirit now reports to be in good health and responds to commands from Earth.

Right. Just watch what kind of messages it starts sending back from now on out: Mars is a really awful place, and: No, there aren't any life forms about, and: Humans should never travel there....

We can still build some things to work well

(CNN) -- NASA's Mars rovers are celebrating their fifth birthday on the Red Planet -- exceeding their original life span by four years and nine months -- with no end yet in sight to their history-making work.

The rover Spirit landed on January 3, 2004, with Opportunity touching down 21 days later.

NASA said the rovers had made important discoveries about the wet and violent conditions on ancient Mars.

They had returned 250,000 images, covered more than 21km (13 miles), climbed a mountain, descended into craters, struggled with sand traps and ageing hardware and survived dust storms, NASA said.

"These rovers are incredibly resilient considering the extreme environment the hardware experiences every day," said John Callas, Jet Propulsion Laboratory project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.

"We realize that a major rover component on either vehicle could fail at any time and end a mission with no advance notice but on the other hand, we could accomplish the equivalent duration of four more prime missions on each rover in the year ahead."

Will we be able to find our 'Can Do' spirit after eight years of rewarding incompetence and avarice? The spirit that got us to the moon?

Yes. We can.

That's not what came to mind when I read the header...

Depressed astronauts to find high-tech comfort:

Clinical tests on the four-year, $1.74 million project for NASA, called the Virtual Space Station, are expected to begin in the Boston area by next month.

The new program is nothing like science fiction's infamous HAL, the onboard artificial intelligence that goes awry in "2001: A Space Odyssey." The Virtual Space Station's interaction between astronaut and computer is far less sophisticated and far more benevolent.

In the project, sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, a recorded video therapist guides astronauts through a widely used depression therapy called "problem-solving treatment."

I was thinking more on these lines...

US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.

Pierre Kohler, a respected French scientific writer, says in The Final Mission: Mir, The Human Adventure that the subject is taboo both at Nasa and at mission control in Moscow, but that cosmic couplings have taken place.

"The issue of sex in space is a serious one," he says. "The experiments carried out so far relate to missions planned for married couples on the future International Space Station, the successor to Mir. Scientists need to know how far sexual relations are possible without gravity."

People have wondered about it for a long time. Greatest therapy of them all....

If you aren't underwater, watch out for meteorites

And something about grabbing your ankles and kissing something...

WASHINGTON - An already relentless melting of the Arctic greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed an ominous tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.

Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end was half what it was just four years earlier, according to new NASA satellite data obtained by The Associated Press.

"The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the government's snow and ice data center in Boulder, Colo.

Just last year, two top scientists surprised their colleagues by projecting that the Arctic sea ice was melting so rapidly that it could disappear entirely by the summer of 2040.

This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions."

And while you're treading water, enjoy the light show:

What could be the best meteor display of the year will reach its peak on the night of Dec.13-14.

Here is what astronomers David Levy and Stephen Edberg have written of the annual Geminid Meteor Shower: "If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor."

The Geminids get their name from the constellation of Gemini, the Twins, because the meteors appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini.

Sorghum Crow of Sorghum Crow's General Store (from whom I hijacked the link) reminds us to think of the Wooly Mammoths ... and to use an umbrella!

What global warming?

I don't see no global warming!:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.

A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago.

This is easy! I can do this too!

What drought? I don't see any drought! Anyway, just think of the tan you'll get!



What flood? Now you won't have to wash your cars!



What dust storm that is blowing off all the top soil and ruining farming? It's fertilizing other areas!



What refugees that used to live on the coastline that is now under water? These are just happy tourists!



Think I'm getting the hang of this....

Update: NASA has learned the Bush language well too:

Last week, NPR asked NASA administrator Michael Griffin said that while he was “aware that global warming exists,” he wasn’t sure whether it “is a longterm concern or not.” Griffin said he is “not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.”

Griffin subsequently clarified his remarks, stating that protecting the earth against global warming is not in the agency’s mission statement:

The agency is responsible for collecting data that is used by the science community and policy makers as part of an ongoing discussion regarding our planet’s evolving systems. It is NASA’s responsibility to collect, analyze and release information. It is not NASA’s mission to make policy regarding possible climate change mitigation strategies.”

But from 2002-2006, it was. Part of NASA’s mission was to “protect our home planet“:

To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers … as only NASA can.

In Feb. 2006, the mission statement was “quietly altered” to remove the phrase “to understand and protect our home planet.”

What does it feel like, Mr. Griffin, to gain a pal in the White House but help lose a planet?

Are we sure these are what the White House says they are?

Robots to actually fix satellites?

The branch of the U.S. military that created the internet has launched into orbit a pair of prototype robots designed to repair and service satellites in space.

The Orbital Express system was launched on an Atlas V rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 10:10 p.m. ET Thursday.

The Orbital Express is being developed by the research arm of the U.S. military, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), along with the country's space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to extend the capabilities and lives of spy satellites.

NASA hopes to one day use the technology to maintain weather and commercial satellites, and eventually use it for routine supply, mining and exploration missions to the moon and beyond.

Currently, only satellites designed to be repaired by astronauts, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, can be fixed if they malfunction. Most satellites are sealed packages that are rendered useless once they develop a problem.

If you have the ability to fix stuff...you have the ability to take things apart.

Update:

Aside from the satellites, which have become key to the Pentagon's battle plans, most of the other technology is in the research and development stage or awaiting deployment decisions from the White House that are complicated by political complexities.

The George W Bush administration - especially the Defense Department and particularly the US Air Force (USAF) - is anxious to launch a full-scale militarization of space, regardless of its enormous expense and the fact that it will inspire worldwide condemnation, generate a dangerous arms race in outer space, and undoubtedly enhance prospects for major wars in this century.

The rightists and neo-conservatives are not unaware of these potential consequences but they are confident the US will prevail because of its overwhelming power. In effect, "It's worth the price."
But that mindset is not shared so far by most Americans outside the hard right, particularly in the absence of any other country that could come near to threatening the United States for global primacy. In addition, virtually every other nation in the world, including Washington's close allies in Canada and the European Union, opposes the weaponization of space, as is evident from repeated votes at the United Nations.

Remember April 13, 2036

And start building those spaceships!

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036 and the United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission to deflect it, a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said on Saturday.

Astronomers are monitoring an asteroid named Apophis, which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2036.

Although the odds of an impact by this particular asteroid are low, a recent congressional mandate for NASA to upgrade its tracking of near-Earth asteroids is expected to uncover hundreds, if not thousands of threatening space rocks in the near future, former astronaut Rusty Schweickart said.

Sex in spaaaaaaaaaace

iamcoyote (update: wrong writer, sorry! idiosynchronic wrote the post) exposes the idiocy of the pearl-clutching Puritans. (Do Puritans have pearls?):

...Slate attempted to deal with this in an article from Wednesday, "Do Astronauts Have Sex?" and guess what - it was all about the oh, pearl-grasping naughtiness factor.

And if its not about the titillation factor that irresistible to print editors, it's about the outrage it engenders in the fundies that someone, somewhere, is fucking and enjoying every minute of it. And they're almost certain the fornicators are those Godless French. It's almost a fricking disease - the media loves this shit, and we seem to eat it up in one form of emotional state or another.

NASA is really screwed. They can't seriously admit sexual relations in the astronaut corps because of the Puritanical streak in this hypocritical country. Even if they did manage it as an "experiment" between a married couple that would be acceptable to the pro-marriage idiots, the idiots would almost certainly would have a fit that NASA wastes taxpayer dollars on it.

Of course astronauts will need sex. How will NASA address this? How can we even think about attacking Mars if we don't address every single aspect of the human experience? Must we reduce it to a titillating snigger and a nudge nudge wink wink or can we have an intelligent study on how to deal with such needs? Because NOT addressing it will destroy any space mission of any length.