NASA Tweetup Gives Public Birds-Eye View Of Space Shuttle Mission

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For the first time, NASA Twitter followers can personally go inside the heart of a space shuttle mission at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA is hosting a unique Tweetup on Wednesday, Feb. 17 during Endeavour's STS-130 mission to the International Space Station. Endeavour is targeted to launch on Sunday, Feb. 7.

"We're excited to be hosting NASA's seventh Tweetup," said NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who also is known as @astro_Mike. "This is the home of all of the astronauts and the historic Mission Control Center. It's an outstanding location to provide our Twitter community with an insider's view of human spaceflight. I'll be on one of the two mission control teams working at that time to keep Endeavour and space station operating safely. Hopefully a few of my Twitter followers can participate in this exciting event."

NASA will randomly select 100 individuals on Twitter from a pool of registrants who sign up on the Web. An additional 50 registrants will be added to a waitlist. Registration opens at noon EST on Tuesday, Jan. 26, and closes at noon EST Wednesday, Jan. 27. For more information about the Tweetup and to sign up, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup

The event will provide NASA Twitter followers with the opportunity to take a tour of Johnson; view mission control and astronauts' training facilities; and speak with flight directors, trainers, astronauts and managers. The Tweetup will include a "meet and greet" session to allow participants to mingle with fellow Tweeps and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA.

To follow NASA programs and astronauts on Twitter visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/collaborate

For more information about space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

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Blankenship of Big Coal Debates Robert Kennedy Jr.

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photo by Chance Lane - RFK, Jr. and Big Coal CEO Don Blankenship debated at the University of Charleston.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is a passionate environmentalist and attorney, who has been arguing for years that coal is destroying Appalachia and the climate. Don Blankenship is the head of the biggest coal company in the south, Massey Energy, responsible for coal mining mountaintop removal and the mining of much of the coal that is polluting the country. Kennedy has been publicly speaking out against Massey and Blankenship for years, and the two finally debated on January 22nd at the University of Charleston. It’s a fascinating and maddening debate,  and I am in awe of people who can debate polluters like Blankenship, who is a climate criminal, and keep their cool. Kennedy remains logical and puts forth his case very well and very passionately. He has 100X the facts that Blankenship has.

Download or Listen to the whole debate here. (81.5 MB)

Blankenship puts forth what’s best for his business: Spin and BS about national security.  Coal has nothing to do with our national security and it certainly does not improve quality of life when its waste is so toxic and poisonous (even radioactive) and the use of it is destroying the climate.  Blankenship is also under the impression that we need to use coal and that he’s doing some type of public service.  Quite the opposite!  Kennedy does a good job of describing the damage that mountaintop removal does.

More information from West Virginia’s public radio:

“While Administration officials work to determine new policies to oversee mountaintop removal permits, a much more public debate on the subject was held Thursday in Charleston.  Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship and environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr. faced off on coal, climate change and the nation’s energy future.

Thousands packed the auditorium and tuned in on television and radio for the debate at the University of Charleston.  Much of the debate was predictable, as Blankenship and Kennedy stuck to talking points.  Kennedy argued that the controversial practice of mountaintop removal is not only bad for the environment, but is so efficient that it’s eliminated most of West Virginia’s mining jobs.

“Don often talks about his concern for the workers of this state,” Kennedy said. “But this is an industry that through the ruthless pursuit of total efficiency has eliminated 90,000 jobs.”

Read more here.

The Nook and Barnes & Noble’s Super-Polite, Absolutely Awful Customer Service [Nook]

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The Consumerist, as always, is right on top of Barnes & Noble's recent Nook-related failings. Yes, people are still without their Nook, and yes, customer service woes are still running rampant at the fledgling book retailer.

You see, the $100 gift cards promised to customers if their Nook did not arrive by Christmas? That's good customer service. However, those $100 cards have yet to arrive in many cases. That's bad customer service.

Worse still, blogger Jesse Vincent has been writing dutifully about the cards and more since the holidays, and things haven't gotten any better. Broken promises, vanishing orders—all there, and all indicative of a retailer that grossly underestimated demand for its savvy e-reader and overestimated its ability to sell them.

The silver lining? B&N customer service is super polite when they tell you your order has been canceled or disappeared or whatever. So there's that, although I'm pretty much with Kat when she says these thing will never truly hit the mainstream. [Consumerist]


Allons-me? | Bad Astronomy

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tombakerApparently, I am Tom Baker. I had guessed I’d be David Tennant, but thinking on it carefully, Baker’s a closer fit to who I am; Tennant (at least up until the last episode, feh) was who — I mean, Who — I wanted to be.

Which Doctor Who are you?

Tip o’ the big floppy hat to regular BABloggee IVAN3MAN.


Motorola MOTOROI Might Be Headed to the U.S. After All, Courtesy T-Mobile [Cellphones]

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The tumorific Motorola MOTOROI, first spotted heading to Korean shores earlier this month, could be coming Stateside soon (via T-Mobile), if a filing with the FCC is to be believed.

We brought you the details earlier this month, but for those averse to clicking here's a recap:

Running on Android 2.0, it's got native apps multitouch on that 3.7-inch WVGA screen, takes photos with an 8-megapixel camera, records video in 720p, and has an HDMI out and a T-DMB TV tuner for watching 24 of South Korea's channels. 8GB of storage and a microSD card slot are pretty decent for storage options, and just like with its older brother the Droid, it comes with a docking station.

The smoking guns, if you will, that say this is the same Korea-only MOTOROI we spied earlier are: The FCC filing does not make mention of a slider. It also uses the Sholes codename for this phone. Then there's the "T-Mobile friendly 1700 / 2100MHz HSPA," says Engadget. Triple word score.

These bits of evidence, taken together, all but confirm T-Mobile will be the carrier that brings the phone to the U.S., possibly by March. [FCC via Cell Phone Signal via Engadget]


Dreading the end of the Space Shuttle Program

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Note: The intent of this post is not to express an opinion on the path that should be taken by NASA or its future programs. It is simply an observation from someone experiencing the end of an era.

Have you ever had the feeling of grieving even before a loss?  You see it coming and know there’s nothing you can do. Your senses are heightened to every little intricacy and you want to preserve all the details before it is too late. That is the way I feel about the Space Shuttle Program. I’ve worked at the Kennedy Space Center in various areas for roughly the past eight years. That makes me practically a newbie to most of my co-workers, but it feels like a long time to me. Long enough for KSC to feel like home. It is strange and sad to think that it will all be over in a matter of months.

Many people have never experienced anything like working at KSC. The center is sprawling; it has its own gas stations, banking, barber shops, and even a US Post Office on site. People out there speak a different language. When you first start working there, it takes several months before you have any idea what everyone is talking about. They speak in acronyms and in some cases the acronyms have become the words, because hardly anyone remembers what the letters stand for. KSC is similar to a small town, where gossip travels at speeds that far exceed a launching shuttle.

With the Space Shuttle Program, there is much more to it than the end of a contract. It is the end of an era. Most of us have become accustomed to spending the better part of our waking lives there and it is coming to a close. Everything we have come to know as so familiar will be gone, never to be seen again. This will be different than leaving a typical job. When we’re gone, we can never return to the site, never visit to see how things have changed, never set foot on the property again. It is not only a loss of the program for us, but a personal loss. We will no longer see the buildings we spent so much of our lives in, working at all odd hours of the day or night, often on weekends and holidays. The orbiters & ground support equipment we shed blood, sweat, and tears over will become distant memories only to be viewed in museums behind ropes and glass. We will seldom cross paths with many of the people who have become almost like family to us; the co-workers who will be forced to leave the area to find jobs. For us, it is a tremendous loss.

Even though I feel that I am ready to move on and pursue a career in space education and outreach, I can’t help feeling a bit melancholy about the end of the program. There are so many memories, good and bad. There is so much knowledge, expertise, and familiarity. Most of it would sound silly to anyone else, but the things I will miss include long days in the test cells working on welding jobs while listening to my co-workers tell stories from the early days of the program. I’ll miss riding in convoys to deliver Orbital Maneuvering System pods after our work is complete. I will even miss driving past the Gator Lake at the end of the road where we once saw forty-eight of the giant lizards laying up on the banks- as though it was an alligator parking lot.

There are other memories as well. Memories of working on Columbia and getting to sit in the commander’s seat the summer before she was lost. Standing in the shadow of the massive Vehicle Assembly Building to view the launch. Waiting outside with binoculars ready for her to return and the horror of the silence that should have been filled with two telltale sonic booms. Attending a surreal memorial service on the Shuttle Landing Facility runway on a grey day, in a light drizzle with the missing man formation roaring overhead. Examining the wreckage, in awe of the forces that acted upon it. These are moments I’ll always remember.

Now, as we near the end, I find myself looking around a little more, noticing and trying to take everything in. I’ll miss it all: the people, the hardware, the facilities, and the wildlife. It probably seems trite, but I don’t want to forget any of it, not even the little things. Not the chip in the floor at the bottom of the stairs in the test cell that I’ve always thought looks like a dragonfly, or the sound of thrusters when I test “fire” them on the bench, or the pain of AC motor valves jabbing me in the back as I squeeze into places never designed for human occupation. Okay, maybe I could forget that last one. Heh.

Whether you are a fan of the shuttle or not, you must admit that it is iconic. It is instantly recognizable, a beautiful machine and a work of art. It is tough to come to the realization that after this year, we’ll never again see a shuttle stack rolling out to the launch pad or leaving it in a hurry atop a billowing plume. For those of us who have lived and breathed it for years, please forgive us if it makes us a little sad to see the end. To us the shuttle is so much more than the sum of its parts and we’ll truly feel the sting of losing it and the community we’ve become a part of. It is going to be very hard to say goodbye.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Apple Defense [Lawsuits]

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Microsoft and Apple, already strange bedfellows if we're to believe Apple's seriously considering Bing over Google on future iPhones, are at it again, albeit indirectly. This time it's Microsoft's turn, as they present counterarguments in an Xbox 360 antitrust case.

The disgruntled player is a company called Datel Design & Development, which dubiously argues that Microsoft is monopolizing the market for "Multiplayer Online Dedicated Gaming Systems." With their supposed monopoly, Microsoft is allegedly controlling the related market for accessories by using software-related barriers that bar 3rd party devices from competing with Microsoft Xbox 360 accessories. In a nutshell, this means Datel's unlicensed Game Genie-type cheats device is barred from being sold for use on the Xbox 360 platform.

Now, I say dubious because Datel conveniently leaves out any mention of market leader Nintendo Wii, as well as the PS2, PSP and DS handhelds in its argument. If one only considers the Xbox 360 and PS3 in the dominant market, as Datel does, the argument has some merit, maybe. Add in those pesky "other consoles"—the ones Datel says don't count because their owners aren't really gamers, or something—and poof, a little bit less believable.

Nevertheless, the Datel complaint led Microsoft to cite Apple's legal battle with Psystar, and hence the strange bedfellows comment above. From the Microsoft motion, transcribed by TechFlash *deep breath*:

[Psystar responded with antitrust claims] "much like those alleged by Datel, alleging that Apple had sought to monopolize a primary market for the Mac OS as well as the aftermarket for hardware that could be used with the Mac OS and had tied the Mac OS to its own hardware. [Much like Apple owners agreeing to the OS X EULA] Xbox 360 purchasers knowingly and voluntarily gave Microsoft the right to prohibit the use of unauthorized accessories...each Xbox 360 comes packaged with a software license requiring consumers to agree that the Xbox 360 software can be used only with Microsoft authorized accessories."

The one thing I'll give to Datel is their accessories really expose how Microsoft gouges us all with their accessory pricing. For $30 MS gives us 512MB memory cards. For $40, Datel sells us 2GB. The case goes to court March 1. [TechFlash, Datel's Motion (pdf)]


Pair of New Pentax Optio Cameras Spotted Online, Promptly Removed [Cameras]

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Camera rumor site Photorumors snagged a pair of images today that purportedly show two new Pentax cameras, yet to be released. Seen here is the Pentax Optio L10. Below is the Optio H90:

The images were obtained with the help of Google cache, as they were almost immediately removed from the retailer site where Photorumors found them in the first place. Little else is known other than what we see here, but Pentax sure loves its whited out cameras these days, no?

A third, nameless camera was also spotted, but there was an issue with the image download, and it was lost. Lost until we know more, anyway. [Photorumors]


ADE-651 Magic Wand Bomb Detector Is a Fraud, Probably Killed Hundreds [Fraud]

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Jim McCormick promised his ADE-651 wand could identify anything, including bombs, simply by waving it around with the right RFID card inside. Yeah, totally fake, and now he's in prison. Too bad Iraq already spent £85 million on them. Updated.

Literally, the $40,000 (apiece) devices did absolutely nothing. Nada. Zilch. Experts think the insides contained nothing more than a dumb RFID card. Powered by nothing. Nope, not even a power supply. Just some snake oil, if that. $85 million!

Even worse, "inventor" McCormick was a firm, open believer in dowsing (as in, finding water with a stick), and that's what the device was based on. Dowsing!

The BBC ran an investigative report on the device, during which McCormick claimed, without breaking his stride, that the device could detect explosives up to one kilometer away. Video below (money shot at 7:30 when the insides are shown to be empty):

Now the money lost is bad, but the loss of life is worse. Immeasurable. Security personnel and Iraqi soldiers were using these powerless dowsing rod devices in the field to detect bombs at security checkpoints and who knows where else. Scores died with this murderous thing gripped tightly in their hands. Hundreds more when the security checkpoints, armed with these devices, failed to protect them.

Update: We ran the US's doubts on this device in November. This story confirms without a doubt that devices were fake, probably resulted in hundreds of deaths, and that McCormick, thankfully for the human race, has been arrested and is awaiting trial (although he's currently out on bail). [BBC, CrunchGear]


Social Darwinist Republican? SC Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer makes some stunningly libertarian statements against Society’s Moochers

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He could have just secured the GOP nomination

by Eric Dondero

In the race to succeed libertarian Republican Governor Mark Sanford, most libertarian Republicans and libertarian-conservatives have been firmly in the Nikki Halley camp. The state representative, an American of Indian descent, has been viewed as a Bobby Jindal-style budget-cutting fiscal hawk, which has won her great support from this blog and other libertarian media outlets.

But now sitting Lt. Governor Andre Bauer has expressed some stunningly hardline libertarian sentiments in a recent speech regarding welfare and treatment of the poor. His remarks have been garnering universal condemnation in the leftwing blogosphere and mainstream media. But ironically, his statements may have just gained him the nomination, given the importance of the hard right and libertarian vote, in the State's GOP. And since SC is the Reddest of Red States, in an otherwise good Republican year, the likelyhood of him being the next Governor of South Carolina, after securing the nomination, is now extremely high.

Truly Survival of the Fittest

From the Greenville Times:

GREENVILLE - Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has compared giving people government assistance to "feeding stray animals."

Bauer, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, made his remarks during a town hall meeting in Fountain Inn that included state lawmakers and about 115 residents.

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better," Bauer said. "You see, for the first time in the history of this country, we've got more people voting for a living than we do working for a living."

Later in his speech, Bauer said, "I can show you a bar graph where free and reduced lunch has the worst test scores in the state of South Carolina," adding, "You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I'll show you the worst test scores, folks. It's there, period.

"So how do you fix it? Well you say, 'Look, if you receive goods or services from the government, then you owe something back.'"

Bauer said there are no "repercussions" from accepting government assistance.

Bauer's past troubles with the Right

The Lt. Governor has not previously been high on the libertarian radar screen. If anything he was held in a bit of contempt by libertarians for having ruffled libertarian darling Mark Sanford's feathers during his Argentine mistress troubles. Bauer let it be known that he would be happy to replace his boss if he decided to step down, which won him great condemnation even from Sanford critics.

Not too mention, Bauer has been held under suspicion by social conservatives for suspected support for agenda items of the gay rights movement.

But with such hardcore anti-moocher sentiments, seemingly straight out of an Ayn Rand novel, Bauer may instantly become the same sort of hero as Sanford has been, at least to libertarians on the hard right. One has to wonder, even if they weren't pals, if at some point Bauer was influenced by his boss's hardline libertarian beliefs.

Will Ms. Halley now have to on-up her opponent to gain back critical libertarian support?

Solar Energy News

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China Secures Major Foothold in California’s Growing Solar Market. . . . Chinese manufacturers of photovoltaic solar panels have secured an increasing hold in California, the United States’ largest solar market, doubling their market share in the last year alone, according to a new report. In the last three years, China’s share of the market increased from 2 percent to 46 percent, says Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research and consulting firm. The share of U.S. manufacturers in the California market dropped from 43 percent to 16 percent during that same period. “The ascendancy of Chinese manufacturers would be noteworthy regardless of market conditions, but is particularly telling in a time when purse-strings are still tight,” the report said. One Chinese company, Yingli Solar, now claims 27 percent of the California solar market. California accounts for about 40 percent of the U.S.’s total solar power business. The lower manufacturing costs of Chinese companies have given them a strong competitive advantage and have contributed to a sharp drop in solar module prices in the past year. Source

Residential solar leases offer a no-money-down, low-monthly plan that makes solar electricity cheaper than the stuff we get by wire–and you don’t have to buy the panels.

Say hello to the thing that could save our sun-splashed suburban lifestyle: affordable residential solar power that puts roof-top solar panels within reach of the most cash-strapped America consumer. This breakthrough is not a result of technological innovation, but a new financing scheme cooked up on Wall Street called a “residential solar lease,” a no-money-down, low-monthly plan that has made solar electricity cheaper than the stuff we get by wire. It’s an old approach to a new source of energy, and it is taking California by storm.  

Is National Certification Helpful?

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National certification of machining skills is good for everyone. Employees can go anywhere and prove they have the right skills for the job. Employers can be confident that the individuals they hire can do what they say they can do. So what schemes exist and how do they operate? In the U.S., the Nat

Recycle Your Brakes?

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There are some engineers who would design braking systems, but would never change the brakes on their own car by themselves. And then there are those who won't let anyone touch their machines. Whichever you might be, what do you think about using 'used' brakes? Recent articles detail a joint researc

R&D, Despite Hard Times

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Long-time Machine Design editor, Ken Korane, recently provided food for thought with an editorial about engineering companies making gains despite hard times. One key to success: partnering with companies that provide innovation, cost-effective production, and energy-efficient design. Working with p

Jury Nullification: A Case Study

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This story was written by a staff writer for the Washington Post who ended up on jury duty:

Last week I was a juror in the trial of a man accused of selling a $10 bag of heroin to an undercover police officer. At the end of the two days of testimony, I concluded that the defendant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I also concluded that he should be acquitted.

You can read the whole story here; the bottom line is that police fabricated evidence to make their case stronger, and the jury acquited.   The writer's key insight:

I believe they had the right guy, too. But the willingness to cheat, I think, is a poisonous corruption of a system designed to protect the innocent at the risk of occasionally letting the guilty walk free. It's a good system, fundamental to freedom. I think a police officer willing to cheat is more dangerous than a two-bit drug peddler.

Andrew Breitbart: A "Rightwinger libertarian, Barry Goldwater, Western conservative"

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Andrew Breitbart, former assistant to Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report, co-developer of the Huffington Post, and now CEO of Breitbart.com, BigHollywood.com, BigGovernment.com and now BigJournalism.com, spoke to a gathering of Right bloggers yesteday in Austin, Texas at the invite of Governor Rick Perry. At the beginning of his remarks, Breitbart introduced himself to Gov. Perry and the assembled audience of about 90:

"I'm very rightwing with a bit of a libertarian thing going on... a Barry Goldwater Western conservative..."