The Martian oceans may yet prove to be a mirage. Scientists analyzing the Martian data may have had a case of mistaken hematite identity:
Although the NASA rover Opportunity has found other evidence that the plain was likely to have been a shallow sea, it has yet to find a single flake of the grey hematite.
“It’s not panned out so far in the images we’re seeing,” said U.S. geochemist Professor Donald Burt of Arizona State University.
Opportunity may be finding the same old red hematite that gives the planet its nickname, eats away at our cars here on Earth and doesn’t require nearly as much water to form.
There’s been speculation about this for the past few months, but if this story is true, Senator Kerry’s war record and medals may be a little… less potent a weapon…in the campaign than many Democrats had hoped.
If they’re smart, though, they won’t release this stuff too soon. Better to hold it until after the convention.
Anne Applebaum may not know much about space, but her new Pulitzer is well deserved. As Andrew Stuttaford says, you could probably generate a few kilowatts if you hooked up Walter Duranty’s corpse to a generator right now.
Instapundit points out an article in which a police union says that police officers and their families should be above the law, at least when it comes to traffic infractions, including speeding.
While this is outrageous in itself, it would seemingly put the lie to the notion that the purpose of such laws is for public safety, since it’s no “safer” for a police officer’s wife to speed than it is for anyone else. It’s a tacit admission that it’s all about revenue generation, and just as government workers shouldn’t necessarily have to pay taxes (since they’re paid from taxes), they shouldn’t be subject to this revenue de-vice either. Remember this the next time you hear a lecture from a cop about how dangerous it is to exceed the speed limit.