Monthly Archives: October 2010

Those Crazy Libertarians

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By Dennis Beatty I hear it a lot, being a Libertarian running for office, those Libertarians and their ‘crazy’ ideas.  Letting people choose to live their lives as they see fit, not as the government forces you to?  How would we all survive?  How would that work?  Isn’t that something that only works in small [...]

The Rutherford Report: Mike Wherry for Secretary of State Radio Commercials

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Here is the list of stations in which Libertarian Mike Wherry for Indiana Secretary of State radio commercials are running from now until Tuesday: WHON – Richmond/Wayne County WQLK – Richmond/Wayne County WLEG – Elkhart/Michiana WRAY – Princeton/Evansville WCOE – La Porte/NW Indiana WIOU – Kokomo/Central WIFE – Rushville/East Central WXNT – Indianapolis/Central WOWO – [...]

LPIN Podcast: Ed Coleman Transparency Proposal Passes Unanimously

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If the thought is that one Libertarian on a legislative body has no value, think again. Besides being a coveted vote on any fairly evenly split council, being outside the usual “bi-partisan” bickering can mean easy passage of an ordinance or bill on “tri-partisan” lines. This is exactly what happened when Indianapolis City-County Councilor introduced [...]

6th District Choice: True Representation Or More Campaigning?

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On November 2nd, Hoosiers in Indiana’s 6th District have an important choice to make: True representation, or 2 more years of campaigning. Mike Pence appears to be blatantly laying groundwork for higher office.. He has logged thousands of miles in his travels around the nation stumping for congressional candidates, most likely expecting their votes for [...]

LP of Marion County: Republican Budget Does Not Go Far Enough

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Tonight the City-County Council will vote on a variety of budget measures for 2011 including the operating budget for the city of Indianapolis and Marion County. While the introduced budget makes strides towards fiscal responsibility, the Libertarian Party of Marion County believes that the budget stops short of truly effective budget reductions. [...]

Drugs Winning the War on Drugs

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Drugs are absolutely pwning the war on drugs. Recently, Mexico had a 20 year old woman become police chief of a border town because nobody else wanted the job, and now we have this:

The entire police force in a small Mexican town abruptly resigned Tuesday after its new headquarters was viciously attacked by suspected drug cartel gunmen.

All 14 police officers in Los Ramones, a rural town in northern Mexico, fled the force in terror after gunmen fired more than 1,000 bullets and flung six grenades at their headquarters on Monday night.

No one was injured in the attack. Mayor Santos Salinas Garza told local media that the officers resigned because of the incident.

The gunmen’s 20-minute shooting spree destroyed six police vehicles and left the white and orange police station pocked with bullet holes, the Financial Times reported.

The station had been inaugurated just three days earlier.

The attack was the second in less than a week against police forces in Nuevo Leon. Last week, thugs threw two grenades at police in Sabinas Hidalgo, according to newspaper Noroeste.

Los Ramones is in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, which has been a war zone of turf violence between two of the country’s fiercest drug gangs, the Zetas and the Gulf cartel.

Police have blamed members of both cartels for attacks on several police stations throughout the area. Several mayors in the region have been assassinated.

Mexico’s municipal police forces often quit out of fear after being attacked by cartels.

About 90% of forces have less than 100 officers, and 61% of cops earn less than $322 a month, according to the Finanical Times.

Mexico’s intelligence chief said this summer that nearly 30,000 people have died in drug related crimes since 2006.

Chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge as traced by microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars*

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Authors: T. Bensby, M. Asplund, J. A. Johnson, S. Feltzing, J. Meléndez, S. Dong, A. Gould, C. Han, D. Adén, S. Lucatello and A. Gal-Yam.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 521 , page L57<br />Published online: 19/10/2010<br />
Keywords:
gravitational lensing: micro ; Galaxy: bulge ; Galaxy: formation ; Galaxy: evolution ; stars: abundances.

Two planets orbiting the recently formed post-common envelope binary NN Serpentis*

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Authors: K. Beuermann, F. V. Hessman, S. Dreizler, T. R. Marsh, S. G. Parsons, D. E. Winget, G. F. Miller, M. R. Schreiber, W. Kley, V. S. Dhillon, S. P. Littlefair, C. M. Copperwheat and J. J. Hermes.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 521 , page L60<br />Published online: 21/10/2010<br />
Keywords:
binaries: eclipsing ; planetary systems ; stars: individual: NN Ser ; novae ; cataclysmic variables ; planets and satellites: formation ; stars: evolution.

Heavy water around the L1448-mm protostar

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Authors: C. Codella, C. Ceccarelli, B. Nisini, R. Bachiller, J. Cernicharo, F. Gueth, A. Fuente and B. Lefloch.<br />Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 522 , page L1<br />Published online: 26/10/2010<br />
Keywords:
ISM: individual objects: L1448 ; ISM: molecules ; stars:
formation .

Discovery’s Finale

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Discovery on March 11, 2009. Click for larger. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalis.

Unless things politically change and there is no reason to believe they will.  The shuttle Discovery will be making its last trip to space on Tuesday. This is a little bit of a delay from the original schedule.  Right now the launch is scheduled for November 2nd (Tuesday) at 16:17 EDT (that’s 4:17 pm EDT).

There are a few issues namely helium and nitrogen leaks in the right hand Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) pod before launch, but the delay should enable the problems to be fixed.

Here are some of the interesting statistics from a very nice retrospective on the NASA site — Discovery:

  • Took four years to build
  • Has been to space 38 times
  • Was the first spacecraft to retrieve and return a satellite to Earth
  • Has carried 246 crew members, more than any other space vehicle
  • Has spent 352 days in orbit
  • Has circled the Earth 5,623 times
  • And traveled 143 million miles.


Get wallpaper sized versions of the image at the top of the post at NASA.