…isn’t just that he is clueless about space policy. After all, he’s clueless about most everything other than 9-9-9. The real problem is that none of the candidates, with one exception, are any better.
Are The Martians Messing With Us?
Phobos-Grunt’s orbit appears to be rising.
The Dynamics Of Closed-Loop Systems
…otherwise known as drinking their own bathwater.
Their Leader’s A Bitch
Seriously, is it possible to parody people who literally elect a border collie as their leader? Who had that in the betting pool?
Then again, beats Nancy Pelosi.
Matter
…and anti-matter:
There’s like 15 Denver Occupy people in the hallway screaming, surround by 30 bloggers mocking them & taking pics/video. #blogcon #blogcon11
I think they can take care of themselves. You don’t mess with conservative bloggers. You can follow the action here.
[Updated tweets a couple minutes later]
@Beregond: #BlogCon11 members have surrounded #OccupyDenver folks & are chanting “We want the dog!” (They elected a dog as thier leader.)
After a round of chanting “Breitbart!”, #blogcon11 is singing “Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye” to #OccupyDenver while waiting for police to arrive.
Several #occupyDenver protestors being arrested and escorted out of #blogcon11 now. Thank you Denver PD.
Dear God, somebody PLEASE tell me there’s video rolling of #OccupyDenver trying to crash #BlogCon11 @EdMorrissey
Dear #blogcon11 I hope you all have had your TB vaccinations.
#OccupyDenver just made their appearance. The smell got noticeably worse in a hurry. #BlogCon11
First videos of #OccupyDenver invading #BlogCon11 up in minutes.
@pinkelephantpun [Tabitha Hale, organizer] says hotel will ask #BlogCon11 to leave if there’s another lobby confrontation with #OccupyDenver people. #PANIC [Jeez, it’s not their fault.]
We and the rest of the #blogcon11 crowd just fought off #occupydenver like they were gnats. Well done all!
@diggrbiii I think basically #blogcon11 people are being asked to stay in conf room & not go out & confront #OccupyDenver if they come back.
I HAD ONE BY THE ANKLE, AND I KINDA FEEL LIKE I NEED TO SHOWER NOW. #BlogCon11
[Update a few minutes later]
Aaaaannnnnddd…here’s the first video.
[Update]
“Who would have thought a movement with a clenched fist logo could turn violent? #OccupyDenver #BlogCon11”
“Overall, it looks like the occupy people at #blogcon11 were less annoying than the Paulbots at CPAC.”
“Everyone filming each other at #BlogCon11 is surreal ”
“Per @pinkelephantpun, #BlogCon11 folks advised to wear our nametags so hotel can tell us from occupiers (“go by the smell!” someone yelled)”
[Update a while later]
Here’s another account with more video.
[Update a few minutes later]
This is the 99%?
[Update a few minutes later]
“Police are the army of the rich!”
They’ll have to fumigate the back seats of the patrol cars.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s a roundup from Hot Air.
The Phobos Mission
Can anything be salved from it, scientifically? Some thoughts from one of the scientists. If we were really a spacefaring nation, we’d have someone on their way to it right now, or soon, to retrieve or fix it.
[Update a while later]
The latest from Emily Lakdawalla. As she says, unless there’s a change in the situation, not much more to report until it comes down, either on its own or with assistance from the ground. I also agree with her that it’s strange that anyone thinks they can predict an entry date at this point.
[Update a few minutes later]
Alan Boyle: “NASA’s Nicholas Johnson tells me @PhobosGrunt isn’t projected to re-enter till next month; too early to be more specific right now.”
That’s right.
The Penn State Cover-Ups
It wasn’t just child molestation:
Although State Senator Piccola had written to Penn State President Spanier asking him to ensure that “the university must deploy its fullest resources to conduct an investigation of this case”, the Inquiry Committee decided that the investigation committee should not investigate three of the four charges “synthesized” by the inquiry committee and, as a result, despite the request of Piccola and others, no investigation was ever carried out Penn State on any of the key issues e.g the “trick… to hide the decline”, Mann’s role in the email deletion enterprise organised by Phil Jones or the failure to report adverse data which the House Energy and Commerce Committee had asked about (but not investigated by the NAS panel, whose terms of reference were sabotaged by Ralph Cicerone, President of NAS).
This latest malfeasance in Not-So-Happy Valley makes the whitewash of Michael Mann look even less credible.
The Occupy Mob’s Penchant For Creating Collateral Damage
…isn’t winning it many friends. You don’t say.
Every Day
…is a good day to remember those who fought (and the many who gave their lives) so that we could remain free. Sadly, too many today want to squander what they gave us at such great sacrifice.
[Update a while later]
More Veterans Day thoughts from Bill Whittle.
From my V-Day post four years ago:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian ArmyNote that the number of WW I vets has dwindled down to a tiny few (my paternal grandfather was one, who died in the early sixties). Barring some miracle medical breakthroughs, in another decade they will all lie (at least metaphorically) in Flanders fields. Honor today the few who are still with us, and their compatriots who no longer are. And thank, silently or otherwise, those in harm’s way today overseas.
[Note: this is a repost from four years ago. You can now count the number of remaining on a single hand, and in fact, the last one might be gone now.]
[Afternoon update]
A nice photo gallery of those who have served.
The Spirit Of Apollo
…is alive and well. Just not at NASA:
…the legacy of Apollo, at its core, isn’t about big rockets; it’s the boldness of new, game-changing ideas. It’s John Houbolt’s proposal for lunar orbit rendezvous in 1962, an idea that flew so wildly in the face of accepted wisdom that NASA’s uber-engineer Max Faget protested, “Your figures lie!” — before realizing it was the right way to go.
It’s Office of Manned Space Flight chief George Mueller pushing for all-up testing of the Saturn 5, because he knew testing one stage at a time would require too much hardware and too much time, and most important, wouldn’t reduce the risk of failure. All-up testing so horrified members of Wernher von Braun’s rocket team that Mueller basically had to tell them they had no choice.
And it’s George Low’s summer of ’68 realization that with the lunar module seriously delayed, the only chance of staying on schedule was to fly Apollo 8 around the Moon, without a lander. Once again, some resisted; NASA Administrator Jim Webb yelled at his deputy over a transatlantic phone line, “Are you out of your mind?” But once again, the wisdom of the idea won out. Like all of Apollo’s bold moves, it looked from the outside like a Hail Mary pass, but in reality it was a stroke of genius.
Four decades later the challenge is not just to follow Apollo’s trail into deep space, but to do it affordably and sustainably. That’s not going to happen if NASA continues to be run as a jobs program as much as a space program.
As I’ve noted before, today’s NASA would never be able to do Apollo 8. It’s far too risk averse. Of course, back then, space was actually important.