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Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
As NASA's New Horizons approaches, Neil deGrasse Tyson is still dissing Pluto
The Houston Chronicle’s Eric Berger caught up with Neil deGrasse Tyson, the celebrity astrophysicist and media personality recently. Tyson ruminated on a number of subjects, including pizza, Star Wars, and the inability of people to understand the scientific truth behind evolution, GMO foods and, especially, global warming, which he calls “climate change.” But Tyson was quite eloquent about the one thing he is best known for, the downgrading of Pluto from a planet to a “dwarf planet,” which is to say a second-class planet.
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet
Pluto and Charon: Ice Worlds on the Ragged Edge of the Solar System
The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference
In 'Independence Day: Resurgence' we'll have a moon base in 2016
A Monday piece in IO9 contained some revelations about the upcoming sequel to 1996’s “Independence Day,” which is entitled “Independence Day: Resurgence.” 20 years after the great alien invasion flattened many of Earth’s largest cities and killed untold millions of people, the world is still united in building up its defenses against a return engagement. These defenses apparently include a moon base.
Is Vladimir Putin plotting to split Texas from the Union?
Is there a Russian plot to split Texas from the Union, thus facilitating the breakup of the United States in revenge for the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union? Casey Michel, writing for Political on Monday, seems to think that might be the case. However, while a Texas Nationalist Movement exists, the chances of such a plot succeeding would seem to be dubious at best. In any case, if Vladimir Putin is secretly encouraging the restoration of the Texas Republic he is careful to keep his fingerprints off of the effort.
Monday, June 22, 2015
As NASA's Dawn orbits Ceres, scientists ask what are those white dots?
According to a Monday post on the NASA/JPL site, scientists are still scratching their heads about the mysterious white dots that have been imaged in the middle of one of the craters on the surface of Ceres. The Dawn space probe had been orbiting the Dwarf planet since early match, taking images and spectral analysis of the surface of Ceres to ascertain what its mineral makeup is.
Gov. Nikki Haley calls for the removal of the Confederate battle flag
South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, flanked by that state’s two Republican senators, Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham, officially called upon the state legislature to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capitol, according to a Monday story in Time Magazine. The flag, which until 2000 flew from the statehouse dome, is currently flying over a Confederate war memorial. Political observers note that the legislature is likely to accede to Haley’s request and vote to remove the flag, likely consigning it to a museum.
Barack Obama exercises his privilege by uttering the unutterable 'N Word'
Apparently President Barack Obama did not get the memo from Richard Pryor, offered in a routine over 30 years ago, that saying the “N word” is no longer acceptable. Pryor, who earlier uttered the word that should never be said ever as part of his standup routine, concluded, after a life-changing trip to Africa, that it was a label for the oppression and degradation of African Americans and that therefore he would no longer participate. CNN reported on Monday that the president of the United States, in a dialogue about racism, threw the word out as casually as Dylann Roof did as he was contemplating death and mayhem.
Richard Pryor Here and Now / Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip - Set
Sunday, June 21, 2015
With 'The Sixth Extinction' Paul Ehlrich says we're all doomed -- again
A recent piece in the journal Science Advances, with the frightening title “Accelerated modern human–induced species losses: Entering the sixth mass extinction,” is causing considerable media exposure and debate. Wesley J. Smith, writing Saturday in the National Review, noticed that one of the authors of the piece is Paul Ehrlich. This factoid has set off alarm bells and has cast doubt on the credibility of the paper in question. The fifth extinction, by the way, apparently happened when the asteroid killed the dinosaurs.
Paul Ehrlich: The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment
How the Confederate battle flag became an issue in the wake of Dylann Roof
The political reaction to Dylann Roof’s atrocity at the Mother Emanuel AME Church took a bizarre twist as people from diverse backgrounds began to direct their ire against the Confederate battle flag, which, as CNN pointed out, still flies on the grounds of the South Carolina state capitol. The president of the NAACP demanded that the Stars and Bars be taken down as a symbol of racism. The New York Times noted on Saturday that even prominent Republicans have been forced to weigh in.
Confederate Rebel Nylon Embroidered 3x5 ft flag
The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem
Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Let's put Ayn Rand on the $10 bill
Now that Alexander Hamilton has been slated for downgrading on the $10 bill to make way for a woman, the search is on for which woman should have the honor of being on money. Friday Time Magazine threw in a new candidate into the mix, Ayn Rand, the author and philosopher who coined the term “objectivism” to define a way of thinking that combined reason and freedom. The choice is so obvious that one is at a loss to understand why no one else thought of it.
In the wake of minimum wage increases, robot convenience stores are coming
While various groups campaign to raise the minimum wage, advances in robotics are starting to eliminate the sort of jobs that pay that level of income. Fox News reported on Friday about a new type of convenience store concept that looks more like giant vending machine than it does a store but seems to offer everything that a 7/11 or a Corner Store does. What the concept does not offer is human service.
Robotics: DISCOVER THE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF THE FUTURE with 20 PROJECTS (Build It Yourself)
Friday, June 19, 2015
Former NASA officials defend the heavy lift Space Launch System
Rand Simberg, a space blogger and self-described recovering aerospace engineer, has raised enough money in his recent Kickstarter campaign to begin a great project to prove, at least in his mind, the case for canceling the Space Launch System. In his view, the heavy lift launch vehicle is an impediment rather than a facilitator for deep space exploration of Mars and other destinations. But two gentleman with some familiarity with aerospace engineering, former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, and former NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Daniel Dumbacher, beg to disagree in a Friday piece in the Hill.
Does Dylann Roof and Lena Dunham define millennials?
Poor millennials. They constitute the latest “younger generation” upon which every sin and pathology had been heaped. When they are not voting for Barack Obama in droves, acting as one book suggested like “zombies,” they are slipping into a church and shooting as many African Americans as they can. The Washington Post claimed on Thursday that Dylann Roof illustrates the millennials, contrary to conventional wisdom, are just as racist as their parents.
Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation
Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"
Gizmodo article accuses America of space imperialism during Apollo program
Gizmodo, as part of a series of stories about space, ran a piece on Thursday called ‘What is Stopping Us from Building Cities in Space? No, it’s not Tech.” The article attempts to examine some of the political impediments that have stymied the settlement of the high frontier. Unfortunately, the piece would have been more convincing had it not been for one rather glaring error.
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
Children of Apollo: The Space Race Gambit
Rumor suggests a new Indiana Jones movie for 2018
Aintitcool, the film and TV news site, reported on Thursday that, based on an internal source at Lucasfilm, we can expect a new Indiana Jones film for the holidays in 2018. The last film featuring the man with the whip was “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” that had Indy fighting commies led by a sword wielding Cate Blanchett, post McCarthy-era red-baiters and interdimensional beings. Assuming that the rumors are true, one has to speculate what the details of such a film would be.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Obama used church massacre to call for gun control
The CBS New affiliate in Atlanta reported on yet another mass shooting that took place Wednesday night in Charleston, South Carolina. The alleged perpetrator, named Dylann Storm Roof, was caught by law enforcement within hours from the scene of the massacre. In the meantime, as Hot Air reported, President Obama seized the opportunity of the tragedy to call for more gun control.
Martin O'Malley will get rid of all fossil fuels by 2050 if he becomes president
Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland and current presidential candidate, has not been in the news recently. Between the outrage over the various Hillary Clinton scandals and the liberal excitement over Bernie Sanders, O’Malley has been pretty much ignored by the media. He is seeking to change this situation with an op-ed in USA Today on Thursday in which he advocates ending fossil fuel energy by the year 2050. This, in his view, is the only way the Earth can address global warming, which many prefer to call climate change.
Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future
Rand Paul wants to blow up the tax code, enact a 14.5 percent flat tax
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, a candidate for president of the United States, has thrown down the gauntlet where the tax code is concerned. Paul, in a Wednesday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, proposes to not so much reform the tax code as to “blow it up.” The 70,000-page tax code would be replaced by a 14.5 percent flat tax on all incomes. The first $50.000 of income would be exempt. All deductions except for home mortgage and charitable contributions would be eliminated.
Taking a Stand: Moving Beyond Partisan Politics to Unite America
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