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It looks like the Moon may be a useful step on the way to Mars for an unexpected reason — Moon Storms: Researchers Learn New from Old Apollo Experiment
LEAM’s three-decade-old data are so intriguing, they’re now being reexamined by several independent groups of NASA and university scientists. Gary Olhoeft, professor of geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, is one of them:
“To everyone’s surprise,” says Olhoeft, “LEAM saw a large number of particles every morning, mostly coming from the east or west–rather than above or below–and mostly slower than speeds expected for lunar ejecta.”
What could cause this? Stubbs has an idea: “The dayside of the moon is positively charged; the nightside is negatively charged.” At the interface between night and day, he explains, “electrostatically charged dust would be pushed across the terminator sideways,” by horizontal electric fields.
Bitter Cold Continues in Rockies, Midwest
The mercury dropped below zero before sunset in Casper, Wyo., and Gunnison, Colo., was bracing for another frigid night after a low of 24 below zero overnight Monday. Forecasts called for a low of minus 25 in the Colorado ski resort town of Steamboat Springs.
A quick check of the thermometer here shows -6F. At least the gale-force wind has died down…the wind yesterday afternoon tore a 4-foot-wide, five-story-tall strip of heavy aluminum cladding off the building where I work…fortunately, we’re in the lee of a tall ridge, else it might have been the windows (which were groaning and flexing rather ominously).
In Chicago, temperatures Monday dipped to a low of 4 degrees, beating the old record of 6 degrees set in 1895, according to the National Weather Service.
In the Quad Cities of Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Ill., temperatures fell to a frigid minus 4 Monday. The previous record low of minus 2 was set in 1886.
I blame Chimpy and his failure to join Kyoto.
What a condescending and disingenuous pile this is.
And it’s clumsily transparent, at that:
It is therefore disingenuous to describe what was done at the Summit as an ?internet grab?. The US did not have to do an ?internet grab? because it already had the internet in its hands.
Nice try, but the only “internet grab” I’m aware of was the one where the EU and the UN tried to grab control of the top-level domains away from the US.
I’m not sure what to make of this, though:
Only the UN has the credibility as a third-party to be acceptable by Most of the Rest of the World (MRW).
That credibility is reflected in the Internet Governance Forum. In the end, after looking around, MRW decided to park it under the UN Secretary General.
Given the choice?trust the US or trust the UN?unlike Ms Rosett from the USA, MRW chose the latter.
I don’t know whether to laugh at the idea of the UN having credibility, laugh at the proud use of the most cockamamie acronym I’ve seen in a long time, or cry that he (and worse, the MRW!) may actually be that morally obtuse and intellectually bankrupt.
Prof. Peng misreads Americans like a Frenchman. I think this guy just did his noble tranzi cause more harm than he knows.
UPDATE 12/07: Ryan Zelnio provides a lengthy response in Comments.
Over at the Space Review, Ryan Zelnio offers a model for developing the Moon through international cooperation.
The model has some problems.
Continue reading International Moon
Democrats: Science, Tech Innovation Is Key
The federal government must make innovation in science and technology its top priority for economic growth, Rep. George Miller of California said Saturday in the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address. Drawing on President Kennedy’s leadership in the race to send men to the moon, Miller said demonstrated leadership is vital to promote innovation that advances health care, education and technology breakthroughs, as well as maintaining the country’s competitive advantage.
I’m not sure the title of the article is accurate — one Democrat is saying this. There may be others in his party who also say such things, how many of them will actually support innovation-promoting policies and bills when it comes time for action rather than words?
A case in point:
It includes doubling basic research and development funding, graduating 100,000 scientists, engineers and mathematicians in the next four years and achieving energy independence within 10 years. [emphasis added]
That’s great rhetoric (albeit a bit threadbare after nearly forty years of use). But when it actually comes time to, say, support the streamlining of the process for licensing new nuclear power plants, or to fund the waste repository at Yucca Mountain — technology policy actions which will be required if that energy independence goal is to be met at all, let alone in ten years — need anyone wonder how the other members of Mr. Miller’s party will vote?
“Democrats believe that only by making a renewed and sustained commitment to innovation will our nation be able to maintain its global economic leadership, protect our national security and enjoy prosperity at home with good American jobs,” Miller said.
Really? I confess I’m at a loss as to how to reconcile that grand statement with the Democrats I see opposing America’s global economic leadership under the heading “anti-globalization”, undermining our national security by demanding our surrender to terrorism, and regarding the only American jobs worth protecting as those already “protected” by the unions which funnel money to their campaigns.
“Good old American ingenuity can never die_ we all know that,” he said. “But it must be unleashed again.”
This implies that it has been leashed by someone. Wonder who that might be?
In case you wanted the facts about the risks from New Horizons’ RTG, here’s the Final Environmental Impact Statement.
But then, why let facts stand in the way of scaremongering?
ADDENDUM: I spent some time looking through the New Horizons EIS, and it makes for some interesting reading…
Continue reading Pluto/Plutonium
Nuclear power is good – in Finland
The island of Olkiluoto in the Gulf of Bothnia, off the west coast of Finland, is famous for two things. It has a medieval castle, which was once a base for pirates, and it is also home to the first nuclear power station to be built since the disaster at Chernobyl.
The Finns no longer want to rely on gas from neighbouring Russia to heat their 1.5 million saunas, and are laying the foundations for the world’s most powerful plant. They have a neat and well-thought-out plan. Local paper makers and chemical manufacturers, which are desperate for a constant stream of electricity, will pick up the ?2 billion bill. They will then take all the juice the plant produces when it is finished in four years’ time. The nuclear waste will be kept on the island, where there is a 100m-deep repository. The locals are delighted by the idea, and underbid another town for the contract to bury the bright yellow barrels.
Imagine that happening anywhere in the U.S. The mind boggles.
The article continues on to describe the somewhat less favorable situation for nuclear power in the UK.
ADDENDUM: Aha, and this is why it’s in the news: Blair opens nuclear debate, to protest
Blair announced a full review of Britain’s energy policy, including the option of increasing production of nuclear power to fill the looming energy gap.
Britain currently has 13 nuclear power stations, all but one of which will close before 2023 on current lifespan estimates. Blair is said to favor building a new generation of stations, but many politicians and environmental campaigners oppose the move. Speaking to delegates, Blair said: “Nuclear power is of course a difficult and a challenging issue.
“Like most tough issues what we actually need is an open and democratic debate, not one conducted by protests and demonstrations to stop people having the freedom to express their views.”
He said the energy review, headed by the Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks, would report by the middle of next year.
The review would “include specifically the issue of whether we facilitate the development of a new generation of nuclear power stations,” he said.
Though Downing Street insists the prime minister is maintaining an open mind on the issue, press reports have indicated he has all but given the go-ahead to the nuclear plans.
Sources told the Times of London earlier this month Blair believes all the arguments are in favor of nuclear energy and has effectively made his mind up on the issue. He is pushing for planning procedures to be quickened so that construction could be under way by 2010, advisers told the newspaper.
Sweet!
But, you may ask, why would Blair speak of freedom to express views and have an open debate on the issue? Because Greenpeace was having a tantrum in the next room:
Two protesters from Greenpeace scaled the interior walls of the Confederation of British Industry conference center and attached themselves to the ceiling, where they unfurled banners saying “Nuclear — wrong answer” and threw stickers and paper onto the assembled crowd.
Greenpeace representatives said the protesters would disrupt Blair’s address by heckling and throwing missiles unless they were allowed to make a 10-minute speech to delegates beforehand. However organizers rejected the ultimatum and after 48 minutes delay moved the prime minister’s speech to a smaller auditorium.
That’s right, ‘Peas, just keep behaving like spoiled toddlers in a toy store and you’re sure to win the respect of the public. Who needs reasoned argument?
Unfortunately, those in Blair’s own party look likely to be obstacles as well:
Many Labor backbenchers are vigorously opposed to the nuclear option, and believe Blair has abandoned his lofty promises on the environment in favor of political expediency.
But is it political expediency? Or is it simply the recognition that those ridiculously idealistic carbon emissions targets can only be met in the real world if nuclear power is part of the energy mix?
I just went to the grocery store for a few things, totalling $4.88. I handed the clerk a five, and then remembered I had a bunch of small change in my pocket. So, I reached in and pulled out a handful of coins, took out three pennies, and handed them over.
She looked baffled, as if wondering why I would do such a thing.
Then, I realized that I’d better give her another $0.85, so as to avoid getting back yet more coins, and picked out the quarter, the two nickels, and five of the dimes. I handed them over, and she went from baffled to befuddled.
She then proceeded to count the coins three times.
And then tried to add them up with pen and paper.
And then she started looking around, apparently trying to spot her manager she could ask for help.
At this point, I intervened (well aware that the manager was likely to be equally innumerate) and counted through the coins, one by one, giving her a running total.
When I reached $0.88, she looked at me like I had worked some sort of black magic…and yet, she was still skeptical of the total. She was about to try counting again for herself, but finally gave in and gave me back a dollar bill in change. At least it’s a step in the right direction from the last time this kind of thing happened, when it took a clerk, a manager, and an adding machine to tally up a bunch of coins, and I still ended up getting back change on a $20 instead of a $10.
So, as she’s handing me my receipt, she mutters with a apathetic shrug: “I’m not that good at math.” Too bad for her a talent for stating the bleedin’ obvious doesn’t pay as well as basic arithmetic skills.
Van Helsing at Moonbattery takes a well-deserved swipe at former Candian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer, who is warning the world that Chimpy McBushhitlerburton is planning to start an “intergalactic war” with the Space Brothers:
Paul Hellyer…publicly stated: “UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head.” Hellyer warned, “The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning.[“] Mr. Hellyer went on to say, “I’m so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something.”
Never mind that any civilization capable of crossing intergalactic distances would have technology at their disposal that would well outdo even the most destructive technologies we humans might field. It would be like fighting a Tsar Bomba with an atl-atl.
Or would it? Maybe the aliens are above such things. Mr. Hellyer and his friends seem to believe these putative aliens are the Good Guys:
By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth.
“Ethical”? By what standard? By whose standard, for that matter…ours or theirs?
Of course, the answer these folks would give is “theirs”, simply because the aliens aren’t humans…humans are irredeemably evil, so the alien “Other” must be pure and good.
He stated, “The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide.”
Really? And your evidence for this is…what, exactly? The VSE?
Hooo, boy…
Hellyer?s speech ended with a standing ovation.
Well, of course it did…it was
- moonbat fodder
- anti-American, and
- delivered in Canada.
Ultimately, this effort at “consciousness raising” boils down to the same motive as all others, the desire for taxpayer funding of a silly pet project:
The Canadian Exopolitics Initiative, presented by the organizations to a Senate Committee panel hearing in Winnipeg, Canada, on March 10, 2005, proposes that the Government of Canada undertake a Decade of Contact.
The proposed Decade of Contact is “a 10-year process of formal, funded public education, scientific research, educational curricula development and implementation, strategic planning, community activity, and public outreach concerning our terrestrial society?s full cultural, political, social, legal, and governmental communication and public interest diplomacy with advanced, ethical Off-Planet cultures now visiting Earth.”
Translation: give us a bunch of money so we can stage yet more town hall hate-ins and interpretive dance exhibitions. (And did anyone else catch the glaring omission in that laundry list?)
The last few paragraphs give the game away, though…the real aim is to oppose missile defense and the “militarization of space” (sound familiar?), this time on the grounds that “our ethical (not like us) Space Brothers from another galaxy won’t much like it”.
Is it any surprise that they adore both Jimmy Carter and Dennis Kucinich?
ADDENDUM: Peace In Space, aka “Star Dreams Initiative” (SDI — how cute!), is a proponent of “remote viewing”. Maybe that’s how they know the aliens are “ethical”. Whatever that means.
And the comments regarding the press release are priceless…
Apparently stealing his cue from PorkBusters, Bruce Gagnon advocates cancelling New Horizons and the VSE/MMB in favor of Katrina relief…while demonstrating yet again his lack of talent for snark.
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