Friday, June 29, 2018

From the pages of the Hill: NASA needs Janet Kavandi if we’re going to make it back to the moon — then Mars

The White House has not yet filled the key position of NASA’s deputy administrator — but NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has his sight on an incredibly qualified candidate: Janet Kavandi.

Kavandi has a lot of skills and experience that the administrator will find useful for help in running NASA. Her lack of something else will also be an asset.

What if we never stopped going to the Moon?

Meet the Americans Following in the Footsteps of the Knights Templar
Scientists Look Again, Still Don’t Find Cap on Human Lifespan
Wind-Powered Mars Landers Could Really Work

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

The James Webb Space Telescope is delayed -- again Why NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is such a fiscal black hole

The Left in 2018: Unhinged

Supreme Court deals big setback to labor unions or how the union bosses can no longer extract money from workers and give it to Democrats
The Quest to Find a Trillion-Dollar Nuclear Fuel on the Moon
Sarah Sanders gets support from Bill Clinton

Tales of the New Space Age

Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination in Utah’s U.S. Senate race as expected. But does he still oppose the Moon Base?
This Is SpaceX's 1st Crewed Dragon Spaceship Destined for Space
The ACLU Is No Longer a Free Speech Organization

Sunday, June 24, 2018

SIREN: New poll numbers AFTER family separation crisis are a warning for …….. DEMS! In other words proof that the left has vastly overplayed this.

At the 1987 economic summit two ordinary Americans find themselves embroiled in a plot to kill the leaders of the western allies and snatch victory from defeat in the Cold War.

Celebrations, tears as Saudi Arabia overturns ban on women driving
Asian Americans need to wise up and end our blind loyalty to the Democratic Party
From the Hill: "It is time for Trump to start selling space exploration

The Pew Research organization recently released a poll that revealed Americans’ attitudes toward NASA, the emerging commercial space sector and space exploration in general. While the study contained a lot of interesting information, much of the media focused on the fact that more people believe that studying climate (63 percent) and mitigating against asteroid impacts (62 percent) should be a top priority than those who believe in going to Mars (18 percent) or back to the moon (13 percent.)

Friday, June 22, 2018

4 Reasons NASA Projects Miss Deadlines and Blow Budgets
Thinking about how Charles Krauthammer was injured brought me to mind an incident from my childhood that might have placed my in the same situation had things gone differently. It happened a long time ago when my sister was about to be born and, partly to get me out of their hair, partly because my dad thought his oldest socially awkward, bookworm son would benefit from what Teddy Roosevelt called the “strenuous life”, I was packed off to summer camp for a couple of weeks.

It was not the sort of vacation I would have picked, not now or at 11 years old, but for the most part I enjoyed the experience. I especially liked horseback riding, something I had not done before or since.

To make a long story short, I mounted on a horse outside a barn on the campgrounds when, for some reason, it spooked and went off at a full gallop. This enough was disconcerting, but then the saddle gave way and I started to slide down the side of the horse as it was going hell bent for leather across a field. I’m not sure how I did not panic, but during that moment it occurred to me that being dragged across a field by a galloping horse or, worse, being trampled was not a good thing. So I kicked myself free from the stirrups and fell, head first, onto the field. I had seen cartoons in which characters see stars when taking a head shot and I assure you that it is a real thing.

The upshot was that I got up, dusted myself up, and raised my arms yelling that I was alright to the crowd of people who ran toward me. Thinking back I probably concussed and should have been seen by a doctor. However, the incident, while exciting, was not important enough for me to make that big a deal about it, until I learned how Dr. Krauthammer came to become paralyzed.

The then medical student and future sage dove accidentally into the shallow end of the pool and hit his head on the bottom, snapping his neck. It occurs to me that a slightly different angle, a harder surface than a grassy field, and a harder impact might have put me into a wheel chair.

There but for the grace of God doesn’t quite describe it.
Texas Supreme Court strikes down Laredo's plastic bag ban, likely ending others

Why have we not been back to the Moon?

NASA puts out the call for partners to build the first piece of Gateway space station
NASA to study converting centers into FFRDCs

Thursday, June 21, 2018

Charles Krauthammer on Obama's NASA Muslim Outreach Program





The one pity about Charles Krauthammer passing now is that he will not be around to witness Americans returning to the Moon.
Charles Krauthammer is with the ages now. I like to think that he work up in that green field with the sun in his face, feeling and mobility restored for the first time in decades. A giant intellect, he is even now being greeted by the greats of history and is starting, for the first time in almost a year, a panel discussion of current events. He will be missed.
Melania Trump Plays the Role of Medieval Queen

Maybe we can have a remake of 'The Lion in Winter' for the House of Trump.

'Daria' Among Slate of Reboots Being Shopped as MTV Launches Studio
RASMUSSEN: PARENTS TO BLAME FOR BORDER CRISIS, NOT GOVERNMENT

How Trump's Space Force Would Help Protect Earth from Future Asteroid Threats

I guess great minds think alike. What would the mission of the United States Space Force be?

Finally, a United States Space Force could provide the ultimate defense against a threat that could arrive from deep space that could end civilization, if not the human species. Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth in the region of the Yucatan, ending the reign of the dinosaurs and ensuring the rise of mammals as the dominant species on Earth. A similar event would destroy the human race, putting an end in one blow to thousands of years of achievement and progress.

Movies such as Deep Impact depict desperate efforts to ward off such a killer from the heavens. If an organization is in place already that has developed and tested the tools to ward off or destroy a world-killer from the heavens, then the human species would be better prepared to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs. To paraphrase the statement made by the Roman author Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, if we want to continue to live, prepare for our annihilation.

AWKWARD! CNN host asks Dem senator if she spoke out about same detention facilities when Obama was prez
The U.S. Military Has Been in Space From the Beginning

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Democrats’ Border Separation Bill Would Let Nearly All Parents Who Commit Federal Crimes Get Off Scot-Free
From Space News: What would the mission of the United States Space Force be?

President Trump’s recent directive to the Defense Department to create a new branch of the military, a United States Space Force, was not an idle musing. Trump’s proposal derives from a growing debate inside military and political circles about how to best meet the threat posed to American space assets by potential enemies: Russia and China, to be precise.

The last man to walk on the moon mentors the next people to walk on the moon.

SpaceX BFR can be used for massive space development, orbital, lunar and Mars colonization
U.S. eyes robot moon missions as it prepares for astronauts' return

Monday, June 18, 2018

A Robot Just Operated On A Human Eye for the First Time
Study: The States With The Most Psychopaths Seem To Be Blue The question arise, does the political culture of blue states cayse psychopaths or do that psychopaths cause the political culture?

Shot: Trump announces he's directing Pentagon to create 'space force' branch of military

Chaser: The case for a new branch of the military: United States Space Force

And then there is the soon to be former Senator Bill Nelson's take

"The president told a US general to create a new Space Force as 6th branch of military today, which generals tell me they don’t want. Thankfully the president can’t do it without Congress because now is NOT the time to rip the Air Force apart. Too many important missions at stake."
These Harvard kids got the lesson of their life in the Heartland

Why We’d Be Better Off if Napoleon Never Lost at Waterloo

"If Napoleon had remained emperor of France for the six years remaining in his natural life, European civilization would have benefited inestimably. The reactionary Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia and Austria would not have been able to crush liberal constitutionalist movements in Spain, Greece, Eastern Europe and elsewhere; pressure to join France in abolishing slavery in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean would have grown; the benefits of meritocracy over feudalism would have had time to become more widely appreciated; Jews would not have been forced back into their ghettos in the Papal States and made to wear the yellow star again; encouragement of the arts and sciences would have been better understood and copied; and the plans to rebuild Paris would have been implemented, making it the most gorgeous city in the world."
Chicago taps Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build high-speed transit tunnels that would tie Loop with O'Hare

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Hmmm… What If Canada Wants Nuclear Weapons?
In the Hill newspaper: NASA’s unnecessary $504 million lunar orbit project doesn’t help us get back to the Moon

As part of the return to the moon program, NASA is planning to build a human-tended space station in lunar orbit dubbed the Lunar Orbiting Platform-Gateway (LOP-G.) The lunar space station would accommodate crews of four for 60 to 90 days. According to the space agency, the LOP-G crew “will also participate in a variety of deep-space exploration and commercial activities in the vicinity of the Moon, including possible missions to the lunar surface. NASA also wants to leverage the gateway for scientific investigations near and on the Moon.

‘WE DO NOT SEPARATE BABIES FROM ADULTS’: DHS DENIES ALLEGATION IT ‘RIPPED’ BREASTFEEDING BABY FROM MOTHER

Tales of the coming space age.

‘Lucifer’ Saved: Netflix Picks Up Series For Season 4 After Fox Cancellation
In Caves and Monasteries, Clues to Wine’s Startling History
We Just Got More Compelling Evidence That The Moon Is Loaded With Water

Friday, June 15, 2018

Elon Musk turns flamethrower on self-proclaimed 'socialists'
Seattle businesses rejected tax as ‘wrong approach’ to homeless crisis — now what will they do? Amazon is already working in healthcare, so what it proposes to do for affordable housing would be interesting to see.
Why football teams who sing their national anthem with passion are more likely to win or take that Colin Kaepernick

The right rocket for the moon and Mars

Harrison Schmitt makes a spirited defense of the Space Launch System that would have been more persuasive had it come out a few years ago. However, contrary to what the Apollo 17 moonwalker suggests, the BFR especially would be a far better method of taking large payloads to the moon and Mars.
Iranian Feminist Says Western Feminists Make Things Worse for Her Cause at Home
Redeeming Columbia an oldy but goody from Charles Krauthammer
Congressional Subcommittee Grills NASA on Skyrocketing Project Cost Overruns

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

United States - North Korea Singapore Summit Video (English) (Destiny Pi...





I particularly like the famous from space picture of Korea with the north suddenly lighting up as it enters the modern age.
Seattle reverses course on business tax after Amazon pressure. My surprise is that it took only a short time for them to figure out that if you tax employment you get less of it.

In 1975 a woman walks on the Moon.

How blockchain technology can track humanity’s lunar heritage sites
The Earth, space settlement, and the hard drive analogy
NASA's Bridenstine Setting into the new job
Erick Erickson's complaints that Trump is treating with a monster is, one one level, understandable. But American presidents have been meeting with dictators who deserve to end their lives on an end of a rope for a higher good for decades. FDR treating with Stalin to help win the war against Hitler comes to mind. Nixon going to China is another. The proof of Trump's strategy will only be known several years from now if East Asia becomes a safer place with no North Korean nukes and the country itself becomes a better and more prosperous place to live.

Monday, June 11, 2018

It is remarkable how the former president keeps digging that hole. Bill Clinton: Norms of ‘What You Can Do to Someone Against Their Will’ Have Changed Wow. Just wow.
Dinesh D’Souza to Compare President Trump to Abe Lincoln in Upcoming Film: “Death of a Nation” The most delicious part will be watching people melt down at the comparison.
My take on Robert De Niro's obscene rant is not an original one but bears repeating. At a time when the reputation of the entertainment industry is at such a nadir, the last thing people want is a rich, old actor yell profanities against the President of the United States. Trump will benefit beyond evaluation by being the brunt of such hatred.

The expanded Apollo program continues.

47 Bizarre Facts About Unusual Deaths

Scott surges past Nelson with older Florida voters

The irony would be delicious if Bill Nelson, who tried to block Jim Bridenstine from being NASA administrator, would himself be out of a job this November.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

NETANYAHU BYPASSES THE AYATOLLAHS - OFFERS WATER TECH TO IRANIANS

From the Hill newspaper: SpaceX is not a threat to NASA

The piece is in response to an editorial that ran in the Houston Chronicle entitled Musk vs. Bean: Houston’s future as Space City at risk

The irrepressible Keith Cowing at NASA Watch is snarking at a recent piece in Climate Depot which calls Jim Bridenstine a "traitor" for changing his mind on the subject of climate change.

"Hilarious. When Jim Bridenstine was nominated to be NASA Administrator he was derided (mostly by people on the left side of the political spectrum) for having no scientific background i.e. anti-science and of being a climate change denier. As Bridenstine talked to actual climate scientists at NASA he became convinced that the scientific basis of human contributions to climate change was real - and said so. Now the political right derides Bridenstine for having no scientific background because he listened to actual scientists."

However, as a study cited in Forbes suggest, the climate change debate is a bit more nuanced than the binary solution set that both the warmists and skeptics maintain. The alternatives are not "Climate change is real and we're all going to die unless we do something drastic" and "Climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the deep state to seize more power over our lives." A remarkable number of scientists believe that human caused climate change is both real and not a big problem for the planet. Bridenstine is decorously not revealing which part of the spectrum he is on. It is not necessary for him to do so.

Tesla Roadster may offer SpaceX package with actual rockets, This reminds me of the Mythbusters episode in which the guys attached rockets to a car to test an urban myth about a guy who did that and wound up crashing into the side of a mountain.

What could go wrong?

Since I offered some snark about the late Anthony Bourdain earlier, it is only fair and balanced that I also include a story in which he did a good thing. The Critic Whose Olive Garden Review Went Viral Remembers How Anthony Bourdain Spoke Up For Her

Friday, June 08, 2018

Fox News star Charles Krauthammer reveals he has weeks to live in heartbreaking letter

There are no words a this time to express my grief. Perhaps anon.

More: One of the many reasons that we shall miss Charles Krauthammer is that he was a warm supporter of space exploration. Here follows a few of his writings on that subject:

Closing the new frontier

Farewell, the New Frontier

Pluto and us

Space: The visionaries take over

It is too bad that Krauthammer will not live now to see people return to the moon, likely on a commercial spacecraft.

How can you drink Champagne in zero-G? Winemaker builds a bottle to find out

CNN's Anthony Bourdain dead at 61

Despite the fact that man was obnoxious, especially in the episode about the food scene in Houston, this is a sad way to go.

Addendum: What’s up with Anthony Bourdain and his ‘no white people’ decree?

Steal the space ship, capture the asteroid, save the world.
Country Time: If Your Kid Gets Fined For Opening A Lemonade Stand, We’ll Cover It

Monday, June 04, 2018

Saturday, June 02, 2018

MILLENNIALS ANSWER: WOULD YOU RATHER DATE A TRUMP SUPPORTER OR MS-13 GANG MEMBER?

In other words would they rather have a nice night on the town with a Trump supporter or be raped, tortured and murdered by an MS-13 gang member? The answer, I am told, is disturbing.

NASA Releases Logo to Mark Apollo's 50th Anniversary

NASA Releases Logo to Mark Apollo's 50th Anniversary: Created by NASA graphic artist Matthew Skeins, the logo offers a nod to the past with a few elements borrowed from the original program emblem and a glimpse into the future.

What if we never stopped going to the Moon?

Barack Obama's revealing reaction to Donald Trump's victory

"The shock, disgust, confusion, and horror with which Obama and his team greeted the election results exemplified the very attitudes toward democratic procedure and populist conservatism that fueled Trump's rise. The only lesson Barack Obama drew from the election was confirmation of his own moral superiority."