(From 2008) I run a small construction company with the help of my brother, my youngest son, and Hank, when he’s not mowing his yard. And Jay when he’s not in school or playing baseball. Or fishing. We try to build a couple of homes a year, sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the size [...]
Monthly Archives: February 2011
Pete the Planner: Are Pensions the Next Bubble to Burst?
(Peter Dunn is an Indianapolis media personality that hosts a radio show titled the “Skeptical Economist.” This is a podcast on his recent show on public pensions, focusing on how Indiana’s pensions operate. With the events taking place in Wisconsin, and Indiana’s own budget discussions, we think the information presented here is timely.) ITunes Description: [...]
2011 Stueben County Annual Convention – Notice of Date and Time
Dear friend of the Libertarian Party of Steuben County, This message is to provide official notice of the 2011 Annual Convention of the LPSC. Our Convention will be held at 4:30 P.M. on Wednesday, March 30. Once again we will meet at the Steuben County Community Foundation building – 1701 N. Wayne Street. (This is [...]
What is Government? The Force Behind the Law
(By Dennis Beatty, Originally Posted at Rhinehold’s Blog) There has been discussion lately about what the government should be doing, can do and is constitutionally allowed to do. But underneath those discussions we need to understand what makes government different from other organizations. Private organizations like the Red Cross, the NAACP, MADD, the Salvation Army, [...]
Ron Paul, CPAC and Loathing by the Ideologically Unprincipled and Intellectually Dishonest
(By Sean Shepard, Originally posted at Shepard on Politics and Policy) Conservatives have a real problem in Texas congressman Ron Paul. Ron Paul doesn’t think the United States should claim to be all about “freedom” and “democracy” while sending billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to foreign dictators. The people of Egypt just rose [...]
“Atlas Shrugged” movie to be release April 15, 2011
Will you go see it? View the trailer here:
Why do Libertarians Dislike the Patriot Act?
(By Jerry Titus, Howard County Chairman. This is Part Two of a series on the Patriot Act. Part 1) Why do Libertarians dislike the Patriot Act? Sound outlandish? It certainly would be unusual, and unlikely to find an agent sitting at your desk. But the reality of the government’s ability to access and search your [...]
Privacy and Property Rights are the Foundation to Freedom
(By Jerry Titus, Part 1 on the Patriot Act deals with the struggle to achieve privacy and property rights. Part 2) Why is the fourth amendment important? Why do we even have it? Why was it important enough for our founders to include this in the Bill of Right? What specific circumstances caused them to [...]
How did the General Assembly Spend its Thursday Afternoon?
(Editor’s Note: Instead of spending time debating (in the public) the budget, redistricting, school reform, or job creation/tax reform, the Indiana House of Representatives worked on restricting freedom and trying to control Indiana’s population. This is a recap of Thursday’s “marriage strengthening” debate.) By Evan McMahon, Executive Director of Atlas Liberty PAC On Thursday the [...]
Libertarians Support School Choice
(By Kenn Gividen, 2004 Libertarian Party of Indiana Gubernatorial Candidate) When a horde of unionists converged on the Indiana state capital to voice their objection to education reform and school choice, many Hoosiers were caught off guard. A few were even shocked. These were, after all, educators carrying picket signs denouncing legislation that promises to [...]
And/Or Subject to Other Police Action
This is worse than 1984. But it is real life, and it happened in Pittsburgh against unarmed, peaceful protesters.
A Virus of the Mind
Aurora?
The sun today. Click for larger. Credit as annotated.
The sunspot cycle isn’t as intense as it was predicted to be but that’s not to say there isn’t any activity.
Northern and southern latitudes could see displays of the aurora for the next three days especially today.
Today’s forecast is for the geomagnetic field to be active and there is a chance for isolated minor storm periods. If we do reach minor storm levels we will see auroral activity. Activity will subside over the following two days.
I did hear some warnings on the tube, yes well you know, end of the world stuff, gah, it gets old. Anyways they did mention power grid and GPS failures. Could those happen? Well sure they could but I’d not lose too much sleep over it with this forecast. Now if the forecast is wrong and activity is more intense, well never say never.
The GPS thing is kind of interesting, who knows? I would think chances of untoward consequences surely increase at polar latitudes but at my 43 north and towards the equator, meh, I’m not so sure.
If you have clear skies go out and see if you can see the northern or southern lights.
Check this graph, if the top graph shows values of 5 or greater (bar will be red) and if you have clear skies go out and see if you can see the northern or southern lights. If that top graph shows values greater than 7 (bar will be purple) then certainly there is a possibility of communications and power disruptions but you will have a glorious display!
Insights from the Hubble Telescope
I wanted to share an opportunity with you if you are around the Hayden Planetarium next Tuesday (the 22nd). I’d love to see it myself as it promises to be a good show.
Insights from the Hubble Telescope with Jackie Faherty
Tuesday, February 22, 6:30 pm
Hayden Planetarium, Space Theater
$15 Adults ($13.50 Members, students, senior citizens)
Ever wonder what astronomers study with the Hubble Space Telescope? In this program, Jackie Faherty will explore some of Hubble’s most exciting results through the 3D datasets available in the Hayden Planetarium’s Digital Universe, the world’s most complete atlas of the cosmos.
New Territory
New Territory on comet Tempel 1. Click for larger. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland/Cornell
The pictures are coming in. This particular one (NASA’s description is below) shows new territory not before seen.
There are images of the impact site although they are a bit fuzzy. They show the impact point to be 150 meters (500 ft) in diameter with (apparently) a little pile in the middle where material fell back in. It’s early in the process so we have to be patient, I have no doubt we will see enhanced images after a while.
In the mean time you can see what pictures are here so far by visiting the Stardust Image Gallery.
About the image above:
This image obtained by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft shows a side of the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 that has never been seen before. In the image, three terraces of different elevations are visible, with dark, banded scarps, or slopes, separating them. The widest of the banded slopes is about 2 kilometers (1 mile). The lowest terrace has two circular features that are about 150 meters (500 feet) in diameter.
An inset on the right shows a closer view.
This image was taken on February 14, 2011, at 8:39:21 p.m. PST. The spatial resolution is about 15 meters (50 feet) per pixel.
NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft visited this same comet in July 2005 and also observed the presence of layers on the other side of the comet.
This image shows at least 90 percent new territory.
A Little Bit Of Magic — Kepler
Are you interested in Earth-like exoplanets? If so, Kepler is for you. The mission was designed to continuously monitor around 145,000 main sequence stars at a time, watching for periodic dips in brightness that indicate a planet in transiting. Transiting is when the planet passes across your line of sight to the star in its orbit. It blocks a bit of the star’s light, causing a tiny, tiny dip in brightness which can be detected and analyzed. Based on information obtained studying the star as the planet transits, scientists can tell a lot about the planet.
NASA/Ames/JPL-CalTech
Kepler is able to zero in on Earth-sized planets, which will dip the parent star’s apparent magnitude by 0.01%. So far, Kepler has found 68 Earth-sized planetary candidates, and 54 candidates in the parent star’s habitable zone. Because of Kepler’s information, scientists estimate that 6% of all stars have Earth-like candidates.
Artists conception of red dwarf star Gliese 581 - NASA/ESO
Six percent. If that doesn’t light your fire, I don’t know what to tell you. Let’s pretend there are only one million stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. We know there are lot more than a million, but let’s stick with that number for now. Okay, one million stars. Six percent of those are Earth-like candidates. That would mean there are 60,000 possible Earths out there. Now, the real Milky Way Galaxy contains between 200 and 400 BILLION stars. The numbers starting to gang up on you?
Isn’t that exciting? Doesn’t that flip your switch?
Working on it! Kepler's first five planets -- NASA/ESA/JPL/David Koch, Alan Gould, Edna DeVore
Kepler is not in orbit around the Earth; it trails the Earth in its orbit around the Sun. That way, the Earth doesn’t get in the way of the stars Kepler is viewing. It was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida March 7, 2009. It was successfully placed in orbit and popped its cover April 7, 2009. Kepler’s first light images were taken the next day.
Painting by Jon Lomberg/NASA
Kepler downloads bout 90 to 100 gigabits of data per month. Remember your computer science terms; a gigabit (Gbit) is 10(9) bits, or 1,000,000,000 bits. A byte is 8 bits, and 1 Gbit is equal to 125 megabytes. A couple of months of that would blow your laptop right out of the water.
You can join Kepler, by the way, and link your computer into the hunt for exoplanets. Don’t worry, they won’t blast your laptop into the ozone. The information they give you is modified for your computer. The site will set you up and show you how to hunt for planets, and you, yes YOU!, can discover an exoplanet.
Getting Close!
It doesn't look like much yet but the comet is still 42 hours out as of this picture. Click for larger, um if you want LOL. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
It really is getting close the StardustNext/Tempel1 encounter. First thing I want to see is how big that hole we blasted into the comet really is with decent pictures that is. I know, be patient Tom. I will put pictures up Wednesday but you can also find links below to watch streaming video.
Hey don’t laugh, this is delightful and I’ve been through a very unexpectedly BAD week. I want to thank Marian for dropping everything to help me out here, Marian you’re the best: MUAAAAH!
Here’s the scoop we have so far from NASA:
PASADENA, Calif. — As of today, Feb. 14, at 9:21 a.m. PST (12:21 p.m. EST), NASA’s Stardust-NExT mission spacecraft is within a quarter-million miles (402,336 kilometers) of its quarry, comet Tempel 1, which it will fly by tonight. The spacecraft is cutting the distance with the comet at a rate of about 10.9 kilometers per second (6.77 miles per second or 24,000 mph).
The flyby of Tempel 1 will give scientists an opportunity to look for changes on the comet’s surface since it was visited by NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft in July 2005. Since then, Tempel 1 has completed one orbit of the sun, and scientists are looking forward to discovering any differences in the comet.
The closest approach is expected tonight at approximately 8:40 p.m. PST (11:40 p.m. EST).
During the encounter phase, the spacecraft will carry out many important milestones in short order and automatically, as the spacecraft is too far away to receive timely updates from Earth. These milestones include turning the spacecraft to point its protective shields between it and the anticipated direction from which cometary particles would approach. Another milestone will occur at about four minutes to closest approach, when the spacecraft will begin science imaging of the comet’s nucleus.
The nominal imaging sequence will run for about eight minutes. The spacecraft’s onboard memory is limited to 72 high-resolution images, so the imaging will be most closely spaced around the time of closest approach for best-resolution coverage of Tempel 1′s nucleus. At the time of closest encounter, the spacecraft is expected to be approximately 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the comet’s nucleus.
The mission team expects to begin receiving images on the ground starting at around midnight PST (3 a.m. on Feb. 15 EST). Transmission of each image will take about 15 minutes. It will take about 10 hours to complete the transmission of all images and science data aboard the spacecraft.
Live coverage on NASA TV and via the Internet begins at 8:30 p.m. PST (11:30 p.m. EST) from mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Coverage also will include segments from the Lockheed Martin Space System’s mission support area in Denver. A post-flyby news conference is planned on Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST).
NCBI ROFL: Can differing levels of sexual experience doom your relationship? | Discoblog
Matching in sexual experience for married, cohabitating, and dating couples.
“The present study examined heterosexual romantic partners’ number of intercourse partners prior to the initiation of their relationship to determine if a significant positive correlation (matching) occurred between partners, and if this matching was associated with their level of love, satisfaction with, and commitment to the relationship. One hundred and six couples who were dating, cohabitating, or married participated in this study. Results indicated that, with the exception of cohabitating couples, romantic partners showed a significant level of matching in the prior number of intercourse partners. Further, among the married couples, a higher discrepancy between men’s and women’s number of previous intercourse partners was related to lower levels of love, satisfaction, and commitment in the relationship.”
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Photo: flickr/egevad
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Coming Soon to a War Near You: Robo-Hummingbird Drones? | 80beats
The next time you enjoy the sight of a hummingbird in a garden, you might want to look twice–because it could be the government’s new avian-inspired drone. Dubbed “Nano Hummingbird,” this camera-toting, remote-controlled surveillance tool is the latest gadget to fly out the doors of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency).
Commissioned by the Pentagon in 2006 and designed by AeroVironment, this bird-drone’s abilities match its $4 million price tag: It flies forward, backward, and sideways, and it can even hover in mid-air. That’s not bad for a battery-powered, 6.5-inch long bundle of communication systems and motors that weighs in at two-thirds of an ounce. “We’ve achieved what our customer asked us to,” AeroVironment Vice President Steve Gitlin told TIME Magazine. But with a maximum speed of 11 miles per hour, natural hummingbirds can fly circles around this robot.
DARPA hopes Nano Hummingbird could eventually be used as an extra eye on the battlefield.
Video shows the drone flying outside and in, successfully maneuvering through a doorway. AeroVironment says it has reached “a technical milestone never before achieved — controlled precision hovering and fast-forward flight of a two-wing, flapping wing aircraft that carries its own energy ...
Illustrations of HIV, Quasars & Fungi Win Science Visualization Challenge | 80beats
And now for some Friday eye candy.
One of the finest visual treats of the year comes when the National Science Foundation and its partners reveal the winners of the International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, as they have this week in the journal Science. The illustration you see above is HIV. Created by Ivan Konstantinov and colleagues, the 3D model of the virus graced the cover of Nature Medicine last year.
The model contains 17 different viral and cellular proteins and the membrane incorporates 160 thousand lipid molecules, of 8 different types, in the same proportions as in an actual HIV particle. It denotes the parts encoded by the virus’s own genome in orange, while grey shades indicate structures taken into the virus when it interacts with a human cell. To create the visualisation, the team consulted over 100 articles on HIV from leading science journals and talked to experts in the field. [New Scientist]
The other winners, which you can check out at Science’s site, include the wide world of fungi, colliding quasars, and (my favorite) the hairs of a ...
