'Burn Notice's' Matt Nix Discusses 'Into the Storm' Episode

Mike Griffin, back when NASA did space exploration and not so much Muslim outreach, has dared to say the obvious about Obamaspace at a meeting of the Mars Society. Rand Simberg gets very caustic.

Addendum: So does Clark Lindsey, who also misses the point. The use of Orion as a ISS resupply vehicle was always contingent on the commercial companies not stepping up. Orion is primarily a deep space exploration spaceship. It may be expensive, but even more expensive would be not having a way to get to ISS if SpaceX, Boeing, et al run into problems.

Addendum 2: More from Jeff Foust.

The fundamental issue of the ongoing debate, he said, is this: “Does this nation want to have a real space program or not?” (“Yes!” at least one person in the audience shouted.) “A real space program goes somewhere, goes somewhere worthy, it does something worthy when it gets there. It does it in a timeframe that is of interest to normal human beings.” And, he added later, “we’re going to pay for it. We don’t decide that we’re going to do it on half of what people tell you is needed.”

British engineers create car that runs on human waste

Denzel Washington's 'Unstoppable' Trailer Now Out (Video)

Portland Authorities Shut Down Julia Murphy's (Age 7) Lemonade Stand

Running a lemonade stand is often a child's first introduction into the vagaries of business and commerce. But 7-year-old Julia Murphy of Oregon City, Oregon, also got a scar introduction to government regulation of business.

Addendum: Julie Murphy Gets an Apology for Lemonade Stand Shut Down (Video)

'Futurama' Season 6 Episode 8 'That Darn Katz'

In "Futurama" Season 6 Episode 8 "That Darn Katz," we discover what many people have suspected for centuries: Cats are really a super-intelligent race of aliens who have come to Earth and are up to no good.

'Burn Notice' Season 3 Episode 9 'Center of the Storm'

In "Burn Notice" Season 3 Episode 9 "Center of the Storm," the fore-mentioned storm arrives in Miami in the form of a hurricane. Of course, none of our intrepid heroes, not even Madeline, flees. They have and will brave even worse storms.

Christina Romer to Retire as Obama Chair of Council of Economic Advisers

Christina Romer will shortly be resigning from her position as the chair of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers to return to her old job as a Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkley.

2011 NASA authorization bill passed by full Senate

The Captain and Crew of the Federation Star Ship USS Firefly.

I agree with one of the comments. Gina Torres looks pretty good in Classic Trek uniform.

SpaceX has announced plans for a new family of "heavy lift" and "super heavy lift" launchers. These include Falcon X which could lift 38,000 Kgs to Low Earth Orbit, a Falcon X Heavy that can lift 125,000 kgms to LEO and, finally, a Falcon XX that can lift 140,000 Kgms to LEO.

By contrast and oddly enough an Ares 1 could lift 25,400 kgms to LEO and an Ares V could lift 160,000 Kgms to LEO.

It looks like SpaceX is bowing to the inevitable that heavy lift is going to be used for deep space exploration and wants to get in on it. The architecture envisions a Mars mission with a nuclear rocket to carry people and a solar electric craft for transporting supplies. Of course unsaid is that such is also adaptable for lunar and asteroid missions.

Michael Wolff thinks that Sarah Palin might just become President. The difference is that where it fills me with a kind of anticipation and glee, it fills him with dread.

Many things could, of course, derail her. Not least of all if the opposition comes up with a way to effectively characterize her distance from political norms. So far this has been a problem, though, because part of her attractiveness is that distance, and, too, she is distant in ways that are themselves not normal and hard to characterize. Her extremism is not so much fanatical as it is kooky—or even comical. The worst thing that can be said about her, so far, is that she is not too smart—wily, but dumb. In a nation that, arguably, has become progressively dumber (or, at least, less interested in what used to be considered smart), this isn’t much of a liability. The real annoyance, even perhaps more than her inchoate conservatism (arguably, no more inchoate than George Bush’s), is her tastelessness. That, too, is hard for the opposition to express—other than in a fumfering way.

Wolff makes the same mistake about Sarah Palin as people like him made about Reagan. A dumb person does not become the political force that Palin has become, not to mention become President. Running for national office successfully takes all sorts of skills that a ditz (which is essentially what Wolff is calling Palin) can muster. Someone who is out of the political mainstream can become President, if the stars align properly (just look at the current occupant.) But more likely such people become Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, or Walter Mondale. If Sarah Palin gets elected, it will be because enough voters will conclude that she is plenty mainstream enough for them.

For readers in the UK, Kindle editions of my books are now available at the Kindle store at Amazon.UK.

I think this yammering by Ahmadinejad about Iran putting a man in space is all bluster. However, if I'm wrong, and the Iranians do put someone in space, the reaction here will make Sputnik seem like a mild anxiety attack considering the wreck Obama is leaving our space program.

Is Michelle Obama Marie Antoinette?

A recent story in the New York Daily News is comparing First Lady Michelle Obama, incredibly, to Queen Marie Antoinette of France. The story is illustrative of a growing discontent people fee toward the political class

Cordoba House '9/11 Mosque' Causes Controversy and Opens Wounds

Plans to construct Cordoba House, a 14-story facility that is planned to include an Islamic community center and a mosque, within walking distance from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan has opened festering wounds from 9/11.

Neil Armstrong Turns 80 Years Old (Video)

Federal Judge Strikes Down Proposition 8, Same Sex Marriage Ban in California

Judge Vaughn Walter of a US District Court in San Francisco has struck down Proposition 8, a controversial California law approved by a popular referendum that forbids same sex marriage in the state of California.

Darryl Cunningham demolishes the moon landing hoax conspiracy myth in comic strip form.

Katie Couric Ridicules Sarah Palin (Video)