Incendiary blowhard

After several days with very little to say, Sarah Palin pulled her head out of her ass for a few minutes this morning and sputtered indignantly about “reprehensible” journalists who have suggested her violent propaganda may stir some people to actual violence.

First rule of an incendiary blowhard: never admit you’re an incendiary blowhard.

NASA's launch test of Orion's crew escape capability, May 6, 2010, in New Mexico.

Three days ago, NASA performed a full-scale launch test of a new crew escape system for the Orion crew capsule that was designed as part of the United States’ next generation Constellation human space launch system. The test seems to have been very successful, with a 6-second long burn catapulting the capsule to a maximum height of around 6,000 feet. Attitude control was flawless, separation from the motor occurred just as planned, the three ‘chutes deployed properly, and 2 minutes and 14 seconds after launch the capsule was back on the ground. It landed almost 7,000 feet away from the launch pad, and the touchdown impact speed of 16 miles per hour was 6 mph slower than the designed speed. The system is designed to be usable from launch up to altitudes of 55 miles.

Artist's rendering of the stages in the launch abort procedure. The test on May 6 reached a maximum altitude of only about 6,000 feet above ground.

Pretty cool! But the problem is, there’s already a more successful launch abort system in place: the complete cessation of human space launches by the United States. Only 3 more Space Shuttle launches are scheduled (and a decision is due next month on the unlikely possibility of a 4th) before the United States resigns from human space exploration. President Obama wants to cancel the manned Constellation program, and offers nothing in replacement except a vague schedule that might result in a vague plan several years down the road, and possibly some actual hardware a few decades after that. The only Americans going into space for many years will be whatever hired help Russia decides to allow onto the International Space Station via their Soyuz human launch system.

But hey, if we were a space-faring nation, we’d have a pretty snazzy emergency crew escape system in place should a launch crisis occur. Instead, maybe we’ll just give this system to some country that actually has a need for it, like Russia or China.

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Lift-off of the Atlas rocket delivering the X-37B to orbit.

Last evening the first launch of a Boeing X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle took place, apparently with no problems. At 7:52 p.m. EDT, right on schedule, an United Alliance Launch Atlas V rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral. At 8:09 the main engine cut off, and three minutes later the orbital vehicle separated from the rocket.

The final boost of the launch was provided by our old buddy the Centaur rocket, in this case the single engine variant. In a previous post I detailed the great service Centaur rockets have provided over their four decades of service.

Continued burn of the 1st stage. This launch employed a 501-configured Atlas rocket (5-meter payload fairing, zero additional boosters, 1 engine on the upper Centaur stage).

The X-37B is an experimental Air Force space plane, an unmanned small space transport that can be launched into low orbit, perform one or more automated missions, and then return to the surface for a runway landing, all under remote or automatic control. If the current mission continues to go well, the orbiter that launched today will itself be returning for a landing in California, although the Air Force is mum on how long this mission will last, saying only that the X-37B is designed to operate in orbit for up to nine months, and the duration of this flight will depend on the outcomes of various tests and procedures during the mission. Given the narrow 9-minute-wide launch window, it seems likely that on this mission the X-37B is intended to rendezvous with something already in orbit; the Space Shuttle generally has only a 10-minute launch window on missions when it meets up with the ISS.

The X-37B and its launching Atlas V rocket.

Gary Payton, the Air Force Deputy Under Secretary for Space Programs, describes the X-37B as “an updated version of the Space Shuttle”.  That’s absolute hogwash, of course. Or maybe Payton hasn’t noticed that today’s X-37B didn’t carry any human crew, and no future launches of this vehicle or its design descendents will either. They can’t. And at less than one-fourth the length of a Space Shuttle orbiter, the X-37B’s payload bay size is described as comparable to the bed of a pickup truck, with a payload weight limit one source estimated at only 500 pounds, approximately 1% of the payload weight the Space Shuttle can deliver to low earth orbit. This vehicle may be more advanced in many ways, but it’s only legitimate comparison to the Space Shuttle is it’s intended use as a landable, reusable vehicle. In terms of mission capability and versatility, the two vehicles are worlds apart.

I had to think for a minute about which categories apply for this post. NASA has their own version of the X-37, but is not involved in the X-37B—it appears to be entirely an Air Force baby. The Space Exploration category is no good, as the X-37B is strictly an automated small-payload workhorse, handy to be sure, but not a player in space exploration. If it remains an Air Force program, it will most likely never be available for any purposes other than military. That leaves the News and Technology categories for this item.

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“We’ve been there before,” President Barack Obama quipped today, referring to the moon as he discussed his justifications for dismantling America’s human spaceflight program.

With that one statement, Obama revealed the full extent of his scientific ignorance, his lack of vision, and his unsuitability as the designer of the future of human space exploration.

Obama’s speech today at Kennedy Space Center was a sham—a poorly disguised attempt to portray his platitudes, arm-waving, and uncertain timetables as a coherent space exploration program.

Consider some of Obama’s major points:

Obama promises human explorers to Mars, but he canceled ongoing development of their space vehicle and offers nothing as a replacement.

Why doesn’t NASA need a human launch vehicle?
Well, at some unknown time in the future, some as yet undetermined private companies might decide they have a reason to want to build a launch vehicle, of a currently unknown design and ability, and whenever that happens, we’ll use their vehicle. That’s Obama’s grand vision for the future of U.S. human space exploration. Meanwhile, for a decade or two we’ll hitchhike on the Russians’ portable closet called Soyuz when we want to get someone into low orbit, as long as the Russians don’t get mad at us over something or other. And we won’t go anywhere else, because low orbit is the only place Soyuz can go.

Never mind that if some company actually does decide to pursue development of a human launch vehicle, they’ll be doing it for commercial purposes, and it may well be some other country that outbids us for their services. We already know what would constitute a winning bid: the original proposed budget for the Constellation program that Obama deemed too expensive.

What kind of timetable can we expect for a return to human exploration of the moon?
Are you kidding? Obama practically rolls his eyes in disgust at the prospect. The moon is soooo last century. We’ve been there before, remember? There can’t possibly be anything left to learn on the moon. Don’t listen to those so-called experts at NASA who cite economic expansion, development of global partnerships for peaceful purposes, scientific knowledge, and exploration preparation for other targets (such as Mars) as sound reasons for returning to the moon. Obama says been there, done that. Leave the moon to China.

OK, then what kind of timetable can we expect for human exploration of Mars?
Well, uh, how does somewhere around 2030 or 2035 sound? That seems like a sufficiently vague answer, considering such programs take a decade or more to design and put into place, and we currently have zero progress toward such a goal. Against the advice of his own appointed investigative committee, Obama is throwing out several years of research, planning, and development that had already taken place on the Ares I and Ares V rockets that were to be the workhorses in the Constellation program.

With no specific plan to offer, what else can Obama say besides dangling some arbitrary date two or three decades down the road? By that time one or more intervening Presidents will have changed NASA’s long-range plans and timetable to something else, and Obama will be off the hook. No one will bother to look back a quarter century and declare that Obama’s grand vision for space exploration was smoke and mirrors because it included no launch vehicle plan and no time table.

Pointing to Mars and declaring “Somehow! Someday!” is not a space exploration plan. It’s an embarrassment and a shame.

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The December issue of the Google Earth monthly SightSeer newsletter introduced a new layer for Google Earth that contains placemarkers for World Heritage Sites. I’m not sure if the layer includes all current sites on the list, but it has hundreds and hundreds. The KML file in English is whc-en.kml, and it can be downloaded directly.

Google Earth display of 4 World Heritage Sites in the Philippines and Malaysia.

Example information window for an individual World Heritage Site.

The individual site locations are indicated in Google Earth with distinctive markers accompanied by labels. Sites that the World Heritage Committee considers endangered have red markers. Clicking once on a label brings up a window with a picture, some basic information, and a link to additional information. One caveat—this additional information link is to the site’s page on the World Heritage website, and the additional information seems to be more in the nature of the status and history of the location’s World Heritage designation, rather than information about the actual geographical site.  You’ll have to do some simple Googling for additional material on the site itself.

World Heritage Sites are locations of cultural or physical significance, selected and designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee. There are currently 890 designated World Heritage Sites (689 cultural, 176 natural, and 25 mixed), located in 148 countries.  For example, Mesa Verde National Park (cultural), the Statue of Liberty (cultural), Grand Canyon National Park (natural), and Mammoth Cave National Park (natural) are 4 of the 20 World Heritage Sites within the United States. The Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu in Peru, an incredible ancient city at about 8,000 feet elevation (2400m) constructed at the peak of the Incan Empire, is an example of a “mixed” (both cultural and natural) site.

Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, an Incan Empire city in Peru.

You’re sure to find lots of amazing places you’ve never heard of and would love to see in person. One new discovery for me was Sewell Mining Town, in Chile. Constructed more than 100 years ago, the town was necessary to support El Teniente, the world’s largest underground Copper mine. The problem was, the location was mountainous and completely unsuited for roads. So they built the whole city clinging to the side of a mountain, and included half a zillion steps. Now completely abandoned (since the 1970s), Sewell Mining Town peaked at some 15,000 residents before 1920. By the way, although the town is abandoned, the mine continues production, now in its 190th year!

Sewell Mining Town, Chile. Now abandoned, it supported El Teniente, the world's largest underground Copper mine, which is still producing ore.

Here’s a list of all World Heritage Sites arranged by country.

You can still access past issues of the Google Earth SightSeer, and they’re worth a look. Most items discussed are new features for Google Earth, which would be in effect from that date onward. In every issue you’re almost sure to learn of some neat tricks and sites that are new to you. It’s easy to subscribe to the newsletter and have the latest issue delivered via email each month. I’m running a month behind, but I’m just about to look at the January issue, so if I see something worthy, you may see another Google Earth post right away!

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This is cool! Here’s a digital clock in which the digits are displayed by positioning the hands of 24 analogue clocks. I’m giving two links here: the clock was created last year by Humans Since 1982, which seems to be a duo of Swedish artists. Sorry to say, I didn’t find their website to be particularly informative. There’s a good set of photos of this clock in a post on a My Modern Met blog, including a video of the clock showing the transitions between numbers. Make sure you watch that!

Watch this for too long and your eyes could start spinning.

The blogs on MyModernMet.com are from various people posting photos and links of interesting and artistic devices, designs, and photographs. The whole My Modern Met clan seems pretty full of themselves (their self-description on their About page is “hip, intelligent, and cool trendsetters”), but you can enjoy the images without having to put up with the people. All of the posts I saw were reporting materials found elsewhere, and not the work of the posters themselves.

I’m adding the blogs sublink on the My Modern Met website link to my blogroll. There’s some fun material there, such as a surreal photo series combining Star Wars elements with the Dubai cityscape, and artsy furniture.

The enemy is among us . . .

You'd have to own some weird books to do full justice to this bookcase.

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It’s late on New Year’s Eve, and what’s at the top of a lot of people’s thoughts as the year ends?

Whether they will be able to watch Cincinnati vs. Florida in tomorrow’s Sugar Bowl on their televisions.

News Corp., the Fox Network’s parent company, doesn’t make as much money as they would like from advertising revenue on their shows. So they want to improve another revenue source. They decided to increase the amount they charge Time Warner’s Bright House Networks for the privilege of carrying Fox programming on their various cable outlets, to the tune of $1 for each of Bright House’s cable subscribers. News Corp.’s current arrangement with Bright House expires with the end of the year, at midnight.

News Corp. and Bright House are in a Mexican standoff.

The problem with issuing an ultimatum like that is that the other guy might not blink. If Bright House decides to dump Fox’s programming, not only will Fox not receive the additional blackmail revenue they want, but their advertising revenue will decrease because they will have lost 13 million viewers on Bright House’s cable outlets.

We’ve seen similar head-butting with threats to drop cable channels in past years between other parties, and agreements have always been reached before anyone got hurt. After all, with the loss of Fox’s programming, Bright House would ultimately lose customers and money too. Most companies are more concerned with their own bottom line than they are at retaliating at another company that’s trying to stick it to them, so there’s a good chance a last second deal will be worked out, or at least an agreement for an extended negotiation period. The stakes are high—who wants to lose access to The Simpsons?

If a deal is not reached, all of the Fox network broadcast programming could be dropped as well as the cable channels FX, Speed, FuelTV, Fox Reality, Fox Soccer, and Fox Sports en Espanol, along with some regional sports channels. Unfortunately, Fox News is unrelated and is not affected by this dispute, and will continue to spew its lies at all of its current victims regardless of the outcome of this standoff.

Football fans to the rescue? Two University of Florida alumni tried to make sure tomorrow’s Sugar Bowl game is carried by their cable provider. Not willing to trust the two parties to settle their tiff themselves, Thomas Moore and Richard Anderson hired some legal guns to file a temporary injunction against News Corp. to prevent them from withholding Fox Network programming, even for a short period. The filing claims the Sugar Bowl is “an event of undeniable public interest” and were Moore and Anderson to miss it they “can never be made whole again.” They also “have alleged and will demonstrate that [News Corp.’s] actions are immoral, unethical, oppressive, and unscrupulous.”

That last part sounds like it could be a reworded charge originally targeting Faux News.

Alas, Moore and Anderson saw a Federal judge reject their request to consider the matter just a few hours ago. The judge explained that her court was not the proper place for the dispute, and sent it back to a Florida district court. The Florida court judge had previously ruled that the dispute wasn’t appropriate for that court either. Nobody wants this particular can of worms.

Perhaps Moore and Anderson will discover they enjoy watching legal ping pong more than Florida football.

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Above: Abdulmutallab is detained onboard Flight 253. Below: The remains of the bomb-implanted underwear.

When the PETN device carried on Northwest flight 253 to Detroit did not perform as its courier intended, the primary result was that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab fried his own gonads instead of blowing a jetliner out of the sky. The safe landing of the flight can be attributed to luck as well as perfect responses by some of the intended victims on board. After all, while the device, for whatever reason, did not detonate as intended, it still caused a fire, which is itself a major threat to an airplane. Quick and correct reactions by passengers and crew prevented the situation from escalating into a full-scale catastrophe.

Responses varied after the near-miss. Most citizens of the world shuddered at the thought of how closely a disaster was averted, and breathed a huge collective sigh of relief for this Christmas miracle, before turning to examining how Abdulmutallab was allowed to be in a position to initiate his attack. Some opponents of President Obama, while probably also truly thankful the bombing was unsuccessful, immediately saw and acted on what they perceived as an opportunity to score political points. A few terrorists and their sympathizers were probably outright disappointed at the device’s failure. And then there’s ex-Vice President Richard Cheney.

Would you buy a used car from this Dick?

Cheney, whose parents showed incredible foresight almost 70 years ago when they first called him “Dick”, came very close to receiving the Christmas present of his life this year. While his apologists might react with mock rage and scoff at such an assertion, I have no doubt that Cheney has been down on his knees every night since Obama took office, praying for a major blow of some sort that he could lay at Obama’s feet while dancing around in glee singing “I told you so! I told you so!” Rush Limbaugh only wants Obama to fail at all of his policies. Dick Cheney is looking for something more.

"We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush's term." --Dana Perino, one of Cheney's bootlickers.

For Cheney, the occurrence of a major jet bombing would be the perfect next step in his mission to portray Obama’s policies as dangerous. As a reinforcing tactic, Cheney continues to offer and promote himself as the ultimate defender of the country. Of course, to do so requires rewriting a fair amount of history, but Cheney has sycophants to assist with that, such as when DUHbya’s ex-Press Secretary Dana Perino recently asserted “We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.” Casually mutter a whopper like that two or three times, and the next thing you know it’s part of Sarah Palin’s regular speeches. Once that happens, 26% of the population agrees that Cheney is America’s White Knight in Shining Armor. Emphasis on the “white”.

Today Cheney issued a statement in which he bloviated about, among other things, Obama’s “low key” response to the attempt to blow up Flight 253. This being Cheney, by “low key” he probably means the passing of 5 days since the incident without yet invading Nigeria.

Cheney has another goal besides damaging Obama, and that’s saving his own bacon, or at least his own reputation. Scooter Libby may have taken the fall and protected his boss from any personal legal repercussions, but Dick’s still looking for ways to justify the use of various illegal and unconstitutional practices and policies employed during his tenure as Bush’s henchman. Invoking the logical fallacy of causation vs. correlation before the correlating event has even occurred, Cheney is champing at the bit in anticipation of a chance to be able to claim that overturning some of his most cherished and questionable tactics resulted in an attack that would otherwise have been thwarted.

Let’s hope Cheney continues to be frustrated for a long time.

Updated at 10:11 p.m.: Somehow I missed this when it happened. Dana Perino isn’t the only major Bush administration official trying to help Cheney re-write history. Three days ago Mary Matalin, Dick Cheney’s former advisor, said on CNN that the Bush administration “inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.” Those based in reality will recall that the Twin Towers attacks did not occur shortly before the end of Clinton’s second term, but rather during the 8th month of Bush’s presidency. These are not simple slips of the tongue by the rightwingers, folks. This is a fascinating example of revisionism in action, with repeated statements of blatant lies in the hopes that some small percentage of the populace will eventually accept them as truths.

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The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation released a poll today on Barack Obama’s current popularity. The referring article on CNN.com dealt primarily with the views of black respondents in the poll. In particular, while reporting that more than 90% of black respondents approve of Obama’s job as President, the authors seemed surprised when only 42 percent of blacks said they are thrilled with his job as president, while another 50+ percent said they were happy but not thrilled.

I looked up definitions for “thrill” and “thrilled” and found synonyms and phrases such as

• excite greatly
• delight
• cause to quiver, tremble, or vibrate
• overwhelming emotional effect
• enrapture
• shiver and/or tingle

Thrilled and dazed. How long can one function in this condition?

Pretty powerful stuff. Yet CNN finds it ominous that “only” about half of blacks who are happy with Obama’s performance are actually driven into to such an uncontrolled physical response due to their happiness.

I don’t know that I even have a personal state that could be described as “thrilled”. If I did know I was thrilled about something, I’m not sure I would confess to a pollster what sorts of thoughts it took to drive me into such a condition. I doubt very much the performance of any politician would do so. If the Vikings had managed to win one of their Super Bowl attempts during my teen years in the 1970s I might have been thrilled, for a few hours anyway, but a Super Bowl win now probably wouldn’t do the trick. Still, I wouldn’t mind having the opportunity to find out about that one some day.

From the definitions I found, I would think it would be difficult to maintain a state of thrill for very long. Such fervent excitement is usually tied to a moment, and tapers off once the moment or event has passed. I could see how an Obama fan might have been thrilled the night of the election, or perhaps even still the following morning. To have 42% of any group proclaim themselves as still thrilled almost a year after Obama took office seems to me to be a remarkable feat, despite CNN’s attempts to cast the results in a negative light.

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Ivy-covered buildings aren't what they used to be . . .

CNNMoney.com ranks “college professor” as #3 on their list of the 50 best jobs in America, and cites an expected 23% growth in this “profession” over the next ten years.

Of course, they don’t mention that one reason so many new college professors are being hired is that most of them are adjunct-rate part-time positions to cover axed full-time positions, and that even most new full-time positions no longer offer tenure-track or the suite of benefits that made the job-rankers consider the profession to be such a great deal in the first place!

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