Space
As I’ve posted here before, I grew up with the Space Age and worked at NASA just on the Space Shuttle flight simulators just prior to the first Shuttle launch. I desperately want to see humans back into space — beyond LEO (low Earth orbit) — on a permanent basis. But I also agree with [...]
I have been watching with growing levels of delight as a community of amateur satellite hunters have been tracking one of our nation’s newest space platforms, known as the X-37B. In this age of internet pundits seeking real time vainglory for themselves, there is rampant speculation what this thing is for, with frequent references to [...]
Continue reading about NRO’s X-37B UAV Shuttle Stumps Astronomers
Got up a bit earlier than usual this morning with hopes of dragging out my telescope and seeing the LCROSS lunar impact first-hand. I was encouraged because when I went to bed last night, the sky had mostly cleared after raining and then snowing all day (final accumulation about 1/2″ of snow on the ground). [...]
Somewhere before dawn this morning, I started a long, low-key dream in which I was composing a blog post about one of my favorite books: The CRC Handbook of Astronautics. The book was about the same size as the old classic CRC math tables handbooks (as opposed to one of the massive CRC chemistry & [...]
Continue reading about Last night I had the strangest dream…
A very interesting change has taken place on the Sun. As readers of this blog know, I have been watching the Sun for some time, especially with regards to the deep solar minimum we currently have between sunspot cycle 23 and cycle 24. If you look at the image above, you might not see any [...]
Continue reading about Solar Cycle 24 – Introducing Low Contrast Sun Spots
MORNING LINKS ITEM: Speaking of swine flu hysteria, this may be a good time to invest in pork belly futures – there may be a shortage soon. ITEM: Yet another way in which Western Europeans are looking for the US to help them financially. ITEM: Here’s a slideshow of items from the Michael Jackson Neverland [...]
[Here are Wednesday's links as well] MORNING LINKS ITEM: USA Today has an outstanding article debunking the various myths about the Columbine shooters who killed just over a dozen of their fellow students 10 years ago: They weren’t goths or loners. The two teenagers who killed 13 people and themselves at suburban Denver’s Columbine High [...]
MORNING LINKS BREAKING NEWS: The American crew on that ship hijacked by Somali pirates has retaken control of the ship. A reminder to the world: don’t screw with Americans. ITEM: Two books you really, really should read are Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, both by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. These are outstanding works that [...]
Today the Drudge Report had a rather alarming red faced link, describing that China now had a special “Kill Weapon” that was a threat to US aircraft carriers. The article cited was produced by the US Naval Institute, and outlines this weapon: After years of conjecture, details have begun to emerge of a “kill weapon” [...]
Continue reading about China’s “Kill Weapon” – Don’t Make Me Laugh
OVERNIGHT LINKS ITEM: Hey! Al Gore and I both celebrated Earth Hour with our lights on! We’re buds now! As for Kentucky, heck, they celebrated a whole Earth Week not long ago! ITEM: Creeping socialism/fascism alert: Obama tells GM CEO to hit the road. For firms and organizations still considering taking government money, there’s a [...]