Saving Constellation

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Lawmakers will try to force NASA to fund Constellation program

"U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Alabama, is leading a group of lawmakers that will try to force NASA to continue funding the Constellation rocket program for the rest of the fiscal year. Aderholt will introduce a bill in the House later today titled the "Protecting Human Space Flight Act of 2010." It would require NASA to spend 90 percent of the remaining funds on the program in this last quarter of the fiscal year. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden would also be barred from terminating or shrinking any Constellation contract."

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt Tries To Stop Constellation Cuts, WHNT

"At least four other Congressman have co-sponsored the bill, including Rep. Lincoln Davis, Rep. Spencer Bachus, Rep. Parker Griffith, Rep. Jo Bonner and Rep. Mike Rogers. Aderholt says he sees support for Constellation on both sides of the aisle. "I would say 90% or more of Congress right now believes that Constellation is a good program, it's a program that Congress should be investing in, or we don't see a sign of letting up," said Aderholt."

Houston region continues national fight to urge leaders to save NASA's Human Space Flight Capabilities

"The Greater Houston Partnership and the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership today urged the Obama administration to reconsider the retirement of the space shuttle and cancel its plan in the FY2011 NASA budget to eliminate the Constellation program - in favor of "hoped for" commercially developed capabilities that are still up to seven years away, assuming there are no further setbacks. Continuing the prevision plan to retire the Space Shuttle while also terminating the Constellation program in the face of such a long gap before the commercial industry can carry U.S. astronauts safely into low earth orbit would deal a severe blow to Houston and the nation, and compromise America's leadership in space."

Space Policy Reaction

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Obama seeks international cooperation in space, AP

"Saying the U.S. is no longer "racing against an adversary," President Barack Obama called Monday for greater international cooperation in exploring space. Obama said in a statement that the U.S. seeks peaceful collaboration with other countries that will ward off conflict and make it easier to expand exploration. The United States must do more to address debris and other hazards in space, he said, and called for a "burgeoning commercial space industry."

Obama Focuses Revised Space Policy on International Cooperation

"President Barack Obama called for greater international cooperation for space exploration and bolstering U.S. companies that build spacecraft. Obama vowed to maintain the U.S. competitive edge in space exploration and in systems that support national security operations. At the same time, the president said, U.S. policy must recognize that the world has changed since the end of the Cold War."

Obama calls for international cooperation in space, Orlando Sentinel

"President Barack Obama on Monday underscored his desire to turn space into a place for peace on Monday, releasing a policy paper that advocated international science missions and opened the door for future treaties that could limit space junk and weapons above Earth. But administration officials said the push for international cooperation does not mean the U.S. necessarily would ask its allies to join Obama's proposed mission to send NASA astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, which he outlined during a visit to Kennedy Space Center in April, or immediately seek a treaty that would ban space-based weapons."

Joker Turned Senator Al Franken Bored to Tears over Elena Kagan

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kagan

by the Left Coast Rebel

Why was Al Franken so bored at Elena Kagan's testimony today? Perhaps it's because Al Franken knows what is bouncing around in Elena Kagan's skull and considers the 'hearings' even less than a moot point. Does liberalism cause narcolepsy?:

Or does narcolepsy cause liberalism?

Narcolepsy of the brain, if I were to surmise from Elena Kagan's empty, flowery, worthless speechifying today.

Exit question - Does, "I've learned that we make progress by listening to each other across every apparent political or ideological divide..."

Substitute, 'I do solemnly swear to faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States under the Constitution and laws of the Unites States, so help me God?'

If so, then perhaps the 'redistribution of wealth to it's rightful owners' really has replaced 'the pursuit of happiness.'

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL)did a pretty good job today at the Kagan hearings and even dropped the 's' word. Does Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) sum up precisely that which I did above?:

Cross-posted to Left Coast Rebel, Proof Positive.

HLV BAA Due Out Soon

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NASA MSFC Internal Email: Procurement Sensitivity for Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) NNM10ZDA001K

"The BAA NNM10ZDA001K will be released to industry in the near future for the Heavy Lift and Propulsion Technology Systems Analysis and Trade Study acquisition at NASA/MSFC. Effective immediately, all MSFC employees will cease communications with industry concerning this procurement. This 'blackout' period of communication with industry will continue until proposals have been received and evaluated, the contract is awarded, and the BAA Evaluation Team is released from its responsibilities."

NCBI ROFL: World Cup Week: Can watching World Cup football kill you? | Discoblog

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186600314_f87703416fAdmissions for myocardial infarction and World Cup football: database survey.

“OBJECTIVES: To examine hospital admissions for a range of diagnoses on days surrounding England’s 1998 World Cup football matches. DESIGN: Analysis of hospital admissions obtained from English hospital episode statistics. SETTING: England. PARTICIPANTS: Population aged 15-64 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Ratio of number of admissions for acute myocardial infarction, stroke, deliberate self harm, and road traffic injuries on the day of and five days after England’s World Cup matches, compared with admissions at the same time in previous and following years and in the month preceding the tournament. RESULTS: Risk of admission for acute myocardial infarction [heart attack] increased by 25% on 30 June 1998 (the day England lost to Argentina in a penalty shoot-out) and the following two days. No excess admissions occurred for other diagnoses or on the days of the other England matches. The effect was the same when only the two days after the match were treated as the exposed condition. Individual analyses of the day of and the two days after the Argentina match showed 55 extra admissions for myocardial infarctions compared with the number expected. CONCLUSION: The increase in admissions suggests that myocardial infarction can be triggered by emotional upset, such as watching your football team lose an important match.”

heart attacks world cup

Another study found similar results in Swiss fans:

Increase of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the male population of the French speaking provinces of Switzerland during the 1998 FIFA World Cup

And it’s not just World Cup games–watching local professional football is also associated with increased heart attack rates:

A matter of life and death: population mortality and football results.

“OBJECTIVES: To determine whether football results are associated with mortality from circulatory disease. DESIGN: Retrospective study, comparing mortality on days of football matches between 18 August 1994 and 28 December 1999 with the results of the football matches. SETTING: Newcastle and North Tyneside, Sunderland, Tees, and Leeds Health Authority areas of England…. …MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mortality attributable to acute myocardial infarction and stroke. RESULTS: On days when the local professional football team lost at home, mortality attributable to acute myocardial infarction and stroke increased significantly in men (relative risk 1.28, 95% confidence intervals 1.11 to 1.47). No increase was observed in women. CONCLUSIONS: Results achieved by the local professional football team are associated systematically with circulatory disease death rates over a five year period in men, but not women.”

population mortality and football

Image: flickr/Giorgio Montersino

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UPVC Pipes Surrounding Material

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we are using upvc pipes in our project for gravity sewage system . at some areas we face groundwater .

can we use coarse aggregate as bedding and initial and final backfilling material in groundwater areas . Or

we have to used sand only for bedding and initial and final beckfilling materia

Is Natural Gas the Way to a Greener Energy Future? | 80beats

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burnerWhen it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, any fossil fuel looks bad compared to wind, solar, and even nuclear power sources. But how do fossil fuels stack up against one another? Natural gas is a lot better emissions-wise compared to coal, according to a new report, and may serve as a temporary coal stand-in over the coming decades, until the cost of alternative energy sources comes down.

The MIT Energy Initiative drafted an 83-page report that looked both at the United States’ natural gas supply and the fuel’s possibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past two years, the MIT group discussed natural gas use with industry leaders, environmental groups, and government officials. They presented their findings and recommendations to legislators and senior administration officials in Washington last week.

“Much has been said about natural gas as a bridge to a low-carbon future, with little underlying analysis to back up this contention. The analysis in this study provides the confirmation—natural gas truly is a bridge to a low-carbon future,” said MITEI Director Ernest J. Moniz in introducing the report. [MIT News]

The report’s main points:

Emissions Compared to Coal

Currently, the United States gets almost half of its power from coal, but the team expects this to change as cap and trade schemes or other regulations make traditional coal plants’ emissions too costly. Regulations and increasing fuel costs, the report forecasts, will lead to a 30 percent increase in electricity prices by 2030 and 45 percent increase by 2050.

Imagining a future where carbon emission rules require industrialized nations to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050, the report’s authors say that natural gas will become preferable to coal use and mostly displace it.

“Because national energy use is substantially reduced [given the team's carbon emissions pricing-scheme], the share represented by gas is projected to rise from about 20 percent of the current national total to around 40 percent in 2040,” said the MIT researchers. When used to fire a power plant, gas emits about half of the carbon dioxide emissions as conventional coal plants. [New York Times]

Total Natural Gas Supply

The report estimates the United States’ natural gas deposits at about 2,000 trillion cubic feet (15,000 trillion gallons), including “unconventional sources” such as natural gas produced from shale. Given current domestic consumption rates, the researchers expect that this could last the country for 92 years.

The report also looked at the total amount of natural gas available beyond North America. They estimate this supply at 16,200 trillion cubic feet (121,000 trillion gallons), excluding the US and Canada and unconventional sources. The report’s authors believe the global supply could last for 160 years given current global consumption.

Natural Gas Risks?

The report acknowledges that there are risks to increasing natural gas use–in particular, there are risks associated with the “unconventional” gas reserves in shale deposits. To extract this natural gas requires drilling that can lead to problems such as shallow freshwater aquifer contamination, surface water contamination, and community disturbance, due to drilling and fracturing activities.

As reported by Treehugger, filmmaker Josh Fox has portrayed some of the dangers of hydraulic fracturing–called “fracking”–in his new documentary, Gasland. In one scene from his film, an affected resident sets his tap water on fire (see trailer below).

Some publications have also zeroed in on the risks of unconventional gas reserves; a Vanity Fair article looks at a Pennsylvania town transformed by fracking, while the investigative journalists of ProPublica have published a series of articles on the environmental hazards of gas drilling. But the MIT report maintains that regulations should be sufficient to manage the risks.

Cautious Optimism

The report’s authors also reiterate that natural gas is not a solution, but could help the nation transition to greener energy sources.

“Though gas frequently is touted as a ‘bridge’ to the future, continuing effort is needed to prepare for that future, lest the gift of greater domestic gas resources turn out to be a bridge with no landing point on the far bank,” the report says. [Scientific American via ClimateWire]

As the price of solar and wind power decrease and regulation increases, the report’s authors suspect that even natural gas will be too costly by 2050, forcing the move to a low-carbon future.

“In the very long run, very tight carbon constraints will likely phase out natural gas power generation in favor of zero-carbon or extremely low-carbon energy sources such as renewables, nuclear power or natural gas and coal with carbon capture and storage. For the next several decades, however, natural gas will play a crucial role in enabling very substantial reductions in carbon emissions.” [MIT News]

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Image: flickr / AZAdam


Meet Oscar, the Bionic Cat | Discoblog

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It’s a happy ending for Oscar. While lazing in the sun, the British cat lost his two hind paws in a tragic combine harvester accident. But after receiving two bionic paws from Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinary surgeon based in Surrey, the lucky black cat can now continue crossing many paths.

Oscar really is a bionic cat, as these aren’t just any prosthetic paws. They’re called “intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics” (ITAP)–which means that the skin from Oscar’s amputated legs can actually grow into the prostheses, like a deer’s skin grows into its antlers. This skintight solution reduces the chance of infection.

As Fitzpatrick told the BBC, which will feature Oscar on a show called The Bionic Vet (see video excerpt):

“The real revolution with Oscar is [that] we have put a piece of metal and a flange into which skin grows into an extremely tight bone.”

Though it’s the first surgery of its kind on a cat, Popular Science notes that these special legs may soon help human amputees as well. Researchers are currently testing ITAP technology on humans, including a victim of the 2005 London bombings.

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Core Loss, Copper Loss, Inductive Loss?

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hey thank you guys for teaching me how to calculate the efficiency of a transformer as

efficiency = (power out)/(power in) = (power out)/((power out) + (copper loss) +(core loss))

which totally makes sense, but now im looking at a text book thats having me involve the self inductance and m

Weekend at Byrdie’s

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From Cliff Thies:

Robert Byrd passed away five days short of the 2 1/2 year mark, which would have clearly allowed the Governor's replacement to fill out his unexpired term. (The Governor is a Democrat).

Five days! Do you think, maybe, the Democrats could have just kept his death quiet for five days?

From the Editor: Obvious photoshop of Byrd. Sorry, we couldn't resist.

UPDATE: "Flipping Racial Minorities The Byrd," an Op Ed by Wes Messamore.

Helping out | Bad Astronomy

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skepticallibrarianWhile poking around the interwebz, I happened on this lovely blog post by Liza, The Skeptical Librarian. It’s about helping others, and it’s really quite nice. I agree with her; being able to give someone a helping hand on the odd occasion is a great way to encourage a little more friendliness. Being nice is contagious, too. Maybe not quite as virulent as snark, which is why a lot of us have to work harder at it, but the reward is for real and for sure a nicer world with nicer people.

I’m where I am today because a few people in the right place and at the right moment extended their hand to me. I’ve tried to do that when I can as well.

I do disagree with Liza on at least one point though: she’s a good writer. And her message rings true to me, as I hope it does with you, too.


Immersible Low Temp Heater

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I am looking for an immersible 110V heating element to keep a low% alcohol solution at 40C. It has to be able to run dry as solution will evaporate (glass won't do). I have tried hot water tank heating elements but the ones I have been able to obtain do not have enough temp control i.e. too hot. Any