Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, currently running for president, has revived another story she has previously told about herself about trying to join the Marines, according to a Wednesday story on CNN. She first related the tale of having been turned away at a Marine recruiting office in 1994 when she was the first lady for being too old and having poor eyesight. The story has met with some skepticism.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Ben Carson would not kill baby Hitler but Jeb Bush would
One of the oddest questions in recent political history is being put to some of the presidential candidates. If you could go back in time, would you kill the infant Hitler and thus prevent World War II from happening? CNN reported on Wednesday that Dr. Ben Carson was asked a variant of the question, would he perform an abortion on Hitler’s mom, thus sparing the spectacle of throttling a baby in his crib? Carson, ever the pro-lifer, said that he would not. Previously, Jeb Bush had said he would kill baby Hitler, but with the caveat that some unintended consequences might ensue.
Donald Trump tramples on 10-year old boy's NASA space dreams
The Washington Post reported on Wednesday about a remarkable exchange that presidential candidate Donald Trump had with a ten-year-old boy named Adam at a townhall in New Hampshire. The lad, a recent spelling bee champ, asked the mercurial real estate tycoon his opinion of NASA. After a brief exchange about whether the young man had meant “NAFTA,” Trump offered a less than satisfying answer that showed that he is still rough around the edges where it comes to dealing with future voters.
The Value of the Moon: How to Explore, Live, and Prosper in Space Using the Moon's Resources
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?
The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
NASA announces that Mars' moon Phobos is doomed
NASA announced on Tuesday that the days of Phobos, one of the moons of Mars, are numbered. Recent images of the moon show long, shallow grooves in its surface that show the early signs of structural failure. In about 30 million to 50 million years, Phobos will be pulled apart by Mars’ gravity.
Bill confirming property rights for asteroid miners passes the Senate
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee announced on Tuesday the passage of a bill H.R.2262 - SPACE Act of 2015 designed to facilitate commercial space. The bill has a number of provisions for that purpose, including extending the “learning period” during which the government would be restricted from imposing regulations on the commercial launch industry to September 2023. The most interesting and potentially far-reaching provision concerned property rights for companies proposing to mine asteroids for their resources. In essence, the bill confirms that private companies own what they mine. The bill is a compromise between previous Senate and House versions.
Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets (Helix Book)
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Two great space races you never heard of that are happening now
Observers of the current state of the space program like to maintain that a space race, such as occurred in the 1960s, will never happen again. They cannot be farther from the truth, since not just one, but two space races are going on. The Google Lunar X Prize is managing a race for the first private group to land a rover on the lunar surface and perform a number of tasks for glory and prize money. Tuesday, Eric Berger at Ars Technica pointed out that another prize space race, with the goal of performing the first private crewed space mission in low Earth orbit, is ongoing thanks to NASA’s commercial crew program.
John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology)
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Hillary Clinton was for charter schools before she turned against them
As Politico noted on Monday, Hillary Clinton has proven that she was for charter schools before she was against them. In an apparent gambit to appease the teachers unions, Clinton spoke in South Carolina and accused charter schools of “cherry picking” students, choosing only the best performing and leaving those with trouble learning behind. The speech constituted another flip-flop on the part of Ms. Clinton, who has been taking a decidedly leftward tack is an attempt not to be outflanked by her main opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, an avowed socialist. Clinton used to be a warm supporter of charter schools during her husband’s administration.
On the Rocketship: How Top Charter Schools Are Pushing the Envelope
Monday, November 09, 2015
NASA's New Horizons finds ice volcanoes, big craters, & spinning moons at Pluto
As NASA’s New Horizons heads deeper into the Kuiper Belt, having completed its course corrections for its next target, the space probe is still returning awe inspiring data from Pluto and her moons. The space agency announced on Monday that New Horizons has spotted what may well be ice volcanoes on the former ninth planet from the sun. Some areas of Pluto have craters and some do not. Those craters that exist tend to be large. Meanwhile, some of Pluto’s moons are twirling about like tops.
Pluto: New Horizons for a Lost Horizon: Astronomy, Astrology, and Mythology
After taking our SUVs, the global warmists are coming for our hamburgers
The criminalization of dissent of the theory of global warming proceeds apace, with the National Review noting in Saturday now Exxon Mobil, the oil and gas giant, is facing demands that it cough up financial records related to alleged bankrolling climate change skeptics. Exxon Mobil has even been accused to knowing that global warming existed since the 1970s and covering it up. The idea is being compared to the tobacco companies knowing that cigarettes kill people. Get ready for the law suits and the shakedown to follow. But Big Oil is just the first target. Big Beef is next.
Even more of my wisdom from The Hill. Why NASA could be vital for the European ‘moon village’ concept
SETI fails to detect signals coming from KIC 8462852
Rare excitement spread through the scientific community and the media when data from the Kepler Space Telescope indicated something strange going on around a star 1,500 light years away called KIC 8462852. An analysis of the pattern of light coming from the star suggested that a swarm of smaller objects was orbiting the planet. Scientists narrowed down the possible explanations for the data to either a swarm of comets or a group of alien megastructures. According to a Monday story in Space Daily, an examination of KIC 8462852 by SETI, using the Allen Telescope Array, has failed to find any evidence that ET exists around that particular star.
The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence
Sunday, November 08, 2015
Chantal, my beloved wife and my talented coauthor of Nocturne: A Novel of Suspense
has just got an advanced copy of an anthology she has a story in. It comes out in April but she is, naturally, excited now. It is called One Thousand Words for War
.
has just got an advanced copy of an anthology she has a story in. It comes out in April but she is, naturally, excited now. It is called One Thousand Words for War.
Report highlights political & public outreach aspects of NASA's Journey to Mars
Sunday, space policy analyst Leonard David pointed to a new report by Explore Mars that highlighted some of the challenges and opportunities surrounding NASA’s Journey to Mars. While much of the report covered the technical challenges, the more interesting parts of the report suggested that political hurdles and public outreach are just as important. In a way, this portion of the report parallels the analysis of this author in “Why is it so Hard to Go Back to the Moon?”
How We'll Live on Mars (TED Books)
Media strikes at Ben Carson, he rises again more powerful than ever
According to the Hill, Dr. Ben Carson on Saturday thanked the media for inspiring a $3.5 million haul to his campaign war chest, mainly from 10,000 small donors. Thus ended an extraordinary couple of days for the presidential campaign of the retired neurosurgeon and author. A Hot Air recounted, a Politico story that ran Friday stated that Carson had “admitted” that he had “fabricated” a story about his being accepted to West Point in 1969 with a “full scholarship.” Carson’s campaign was declared dead with speculation that Ted Cruz would have the most to gain.
A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties
Saturday, November 07, 2015
British spaceplane Skylon could revolutionize space travel
The problem of lowering the cost of sending people and cargo into low Earth orbit has vexed engineers since the dawn of the space age. Currently, the only way to go into space is on top of multistage rockets which toss off pieces of themselves as they ascend higher into the heavens. Friday, the Conversation touted a British project, called Skylon, which many believe will help to address the problem of costly space travel. According to IEEE Spectrum, both BAE Systems and the British government have infused Skylon with $120 million in investment.
The Space Shuttle: Celebrating Thirty Years of NASA's First Space Plane
Obama's Keystone XL pipeline decision will hurt Democrats in 2016
As the New York Times reported on Friday, President Obama formally rejected the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, even though he acknowledged that it would not be the environmental catastrophe that many critics believed it to be. He stated that the pipeline would not create many jobs or affect the price of gasoline. The Washington Free Beacon suggested that the decision would affect the fortunes of Democrats, including the nominee for president, in 2016. The president has just handed Republicans a potent issue for the upcoming election.
Friday, November 06, 2015
Hillary Clinton pledges her support for Israel and her friendship with Netanyahu
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and current presidential candidate, has written a Wednesday oped in the Forward, an American Jewish newspaper. She pledges her friendship to the State of Israel, not unusual for an American, who wants to be president and is on the hunt for Jewish votes. But she also pledged her friendship to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which is eyebrow-raising considering that she was President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.
Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists
PLO attacks Ted Cruz for holdiing anti-terrorism Senate hearings
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a candidate for president of the United States, got a backhanded compliment according to a Thursday story in the Washington Post when the PLO attacked him for holding a hearing featuring victims of Palestinian and Iranian terror attacks. The PLO delegation to the United Nations claimed that the hearings constitute an effort to “dehumanize” Palestinians. The hearings conducted by the Senate Judiciary Committee took place against a backdrop of savage knife attacks by Palestinians youths on civilians in Israel. Also, Iran has been held responsible for as many as 1,000 American combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Plo: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Private Russian lunar mission seeks to prove man really did land on the moon
Russia Beyond the Headlines reported on Friday that a group of Russian space enthusiasts are trying to crowdfund an effort to prove once and for all that men went to the moon during the Apollo program. The effort, if it became funded, would send a satellite into lunar orbit to image the Apollo landing sites at a ground resolution of 10 centimeters per pixel. The mission would, however, simply repeat a series of pictures taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the six areas of the moon where astronauts explored between 1969 and 1972. The problem, it is said, is that many Russians do not believe that the LRO photos are authentic.
Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax"
Thursday, November 05, 2015
NASA's MAVEN discovers where Mars' atmosphere went
Scientists have long known that billions of years ago Mars was a warm, wet world with a thick atmosphere. Probes such as the Mars Curiosity rover have noted, by examining the rocks and soil, where water used to flow on the Martian surface. Currently, Mars is a cold, arid world with a thin atmosphere that cannot support any life or, with some exceptions, even surface water. The question arose, where did the Martian atmosphere go to? Thanks to the observations of the MAVEN probe, now orbiting Mars, NASA was able to announce the answer on Thursday.
NFL declines to pull 2017 Superbowl from Houston as part of HERO boycott
LGBT activists are casting about for a way to punish Houston for declining to pass the HERO proposition, which would have barred discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations on the basis of a number of conditions, including sexual orientation and gender identity. They have hit upon the idea of pressuring the National Football League to pull the 2017 Super Bowl from Houston. According to a Wednesday story in the Washington Examiner, the NFL is thus far resisting that pressure.
Sports Illustrated Super Bowl Gold: 50 Years of the Big Game
Wednesday, November 04, 2015
NASA's Cassini discovers hydrocarbon dunes on Titan
Monday, NASA made an announcement that Titan, a moon of Saturn and the largest moon in the solar system, has hydrocarbon dunes. The discovery has highlighted the entirely alien nature of Titan, which has seas, lakes and rains of liquid methane and ethane and a surface comprised on water ice. The fact that it has dunes made of frozen hydrocarbon that acts like sand, blown by the wind, on Earth is yet another piece of data that has scientists interested in studying Titan further.
Defeat of HERO law in Houston spurs calls for an economic boycott
As the Houston Chronicle noted on Tuesday, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance or HERO went down to defeat in the 2015 election. HERO would have prohibited discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations on the basis of a variety of protected classes similar to that already covered by federal law. The ordinance added sexual preference and gender identity to the standard lists of protected classes. Opponents maintained that HERO would have permitted male sexual predators who would claim to identify as women to enter women’s bathrooms to commit mayhem. Supporters of HERO did not have a good answer to the objection except to deny that was the case.
Results of Election 2015, from Kentucky to San Francisco, heralds rightward turn
Election 2015, which took place on Tuesday and included the election of a Republican, tea party governor in Kentucky and the defeat of a pro-sanctuary city sheriff in San Francisco, constituted a revolt of conservatives in the United States. The defeats of an anti-discrimination ordinance in Houston and two marijuana legalization propositions in Ohio also suggest that America is starting to take a hard turn to the right. The development has implications for the 2016 presidential elections, with Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee to face a Republican yet to be determined.
The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQ Activism
Marijuana Grower's Handbook: Your Complete Guide for Medical and Personal Marijuana Cultivation
Tuesday, November 03, 2015
It looks like President Ted Cruz would reopen investigation of IRS abuses
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas will have a lot on his plate should he be elected president. It looks like one of those items will be to order his Justice Department to reopen the investigation of the IRS’s harassment of tea party and conservative groups. Monday, Cruz sent a letter to the current Attorney General Loretta Lynch to preserve all documents and other materials related to the scandal. The Justice Department recently closed its investigation and had declined to prosecute any of the tax agency officials, even Lois Lerner, who weaponized the IRS and turned it against President Obama’s political opponents.
A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America
Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS
NASA's Eagleworks tests 2nd generation EM drive which still exerts thrust
Digital Trends reported on Monday that NASA’s Eagleworks lab at the Johnson Spaceflight Center south of Houston, Texas has tested a new, improved test article for the EM drive. The bottom line is that the device, thought by most scientists to be impossible, is still putting out thrust that cannot be explained by experimental error. Indeed, some errors from previous tests have been eliminated in the new experiment.
NASA celebrates 15 years of people living and working on the ISS
Monday, NASA celebrated 15 continuous years of human occupation of the International Space Station. When the first expedition boarded the then uncompleted orbiting space lab on November 2, 2000, Bill Clinton was still president. The controversial 2000 election, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya still lay in the future. Children now entering high school have never lived in a world where people have not lived and worked in space.
You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station
Monday, November 02, 2015
European lunar village idea places NASA in an awkward position
The Space Review reported Monday on an awkward situation that developed at the International Astronautical Conference that recently took place in Jerusalem, Israel. The European Space Agency’s new director-general, Johann-Dietrich Wörner gave a presentation during a panel discussion on his “lunar village” concept, which envisions an international lunar base in which each participant maintains a certain degree of autonomy. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who was sitting next to Wörner on the panel, was forced due to President Obama’s dictate that the moon would be off limits to the American space agency, to declare his disinterest in leading such an effort or even, as a practical matter, participating.
Bill Gates says capitalism won't fix climate change, demands government action
Bill Gates is causing a lot of consternation thanks to the suggestion, made in an interview in the Atlantic that came out on Monday, that capitalism will not save the planet from climate change. Hot Air accused Gates, one of the richest men on Earth, of advocating mercantilism, defined as, “Domestically, governments would provide capital to new industries, exempt new industries from guild rules and taxes, establish monopolies over local and colonial markets, and grant titles and pensions to successful producers.” Jim Geraghty at the National Review went further and accused Gates of having achieved “super villain status.”
Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy
Sunday, November 01, 2015
With the two year budget deal passed, how much extra money will NASA get?
The recent two-year budget deal, passed by Congress and agreed to by President Obama, is undoubtedly, as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a candidate for president stated, an example of the Washington “cartel in all of its glory.” On the other hand, as Space Ref suggested on Friday, NASA and some other science agencies may get its share of the extra money. It all depends on what Congress, run by Republicans, agree to.
Is Hillary Clinton 'too big to jail?'
While former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, currently a candidate for president of the United States, thinks she has dodged the Benghazi bullet (opinions still vary on that one) she is still under investigation for burbling classified information on her email server, states a Friday story in the McClatchy DC. As the Weekly Standard notes, at least one recently released email did contain classified data because part of it was redacted due to its being classified. But one national security attorney named Edward McMahon Jr, claims flatly that Clinton is “too big to jail” regardless of her guilt or innocence in the matter.
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