Own a piece of NASA history for just $29M! | Bad Astronomy

NASA logoIf you have a few million lying around, and you qualify, you might want to add a Space Shuttle to your collection: NASA is selling off historic artifacts, and the Orbiters are among the lots:

NASA is inviting eligible education institutions, museums and other organizations to examine and request space program artifacts online. The items represent significant human space flight technologies, processes and accomplishments from NASA’s past and present space exploration programs.

This makes perfect sense to me. The Orbiters are large, and expensive to maintain. If NASA keeps them they’d have to find a place to house them, keep them clean, and so on. That would be a huge waste of money! By selling them to a museum or some other institution NASA gets some cash, and a museum gets just about the coolest exhibit ever. I would pay an admission fee to tour through an actual Orbiter! So this is a great idea. If you qualify, go to this page and sign up.

The NASA announcement also mentions Hubble artifacts; I suspect they mean cameras and other equipment removed from the observatory when it was serviced. The Faint Object Spectrograph already sits in the National Air and Space Museum, but several others (WFPC2, GHRS, FOC, COSTAR) may be on the auction block.

I’ll note I already own a piece of Hubble: when I worked on the camera called STIS, all the team members were given a piece of mylar insulation blanket that was removed in a 1999 servicing mission as a souvenir. The snippet is encased in plastic, but it flew on Hubble for nearly ten years.

hubble_blanket

I wonder if it’s legal for NASA to sell them? That would be a nice fundraiser too.


S. Korean Government to Its Employees: Lights Off, Go Home, Make Babies | Discoblog

bunny“Be a bunny!” That was the essence of the message coming from the South Korean Department of Health this week.

Faced with an incredibly low birth rate–lower even than that of Japan–the government has now stepped in to force its employees to make more babies. They hope to do it with a flick of the switch.

The BBC reports:

At 1900 on Wednesday, officials at the Ministry of Health will turn off all the lights in the building. They want to encourage staff to go home to their families and, well, make bigger ones. They plan to repeat the experiment every month.

South Korea’s birth rate (the average number of babies born during a woman’s lifetime) is one of the world’s lowest. In 2008 the rate was 1.19, raising fears that the population will begin shrinking within a decade.

The Ministry of Health, says the BBC, is now sometimes referred to as the Ministry of Matchmaking as it arranges social gatherings to encourage people to find love and potential partners. The government also doles out gift vouchers to encourage people to have more babies–a priority for the country as its society rapidly ages and health care costs spiral upward.

As the government scrambles to get its citizens into their bedrooms, critics say unless childcare and education costs come down, young families won’t be encouraged to have babies. The naysayers argue that it will take more than just turning off the lights to get people to act like bunnies.

Related Content:
Discoblog: Alien Math Shows Why Grad Student Doesn’t Have a Girlfriend
Discoblog: Who Says Being Snowed in Is No Fun? There’s Always Online Adultery
DISCOVER: The Biology of…Baby Talk
DISCOVER: Fetus Fight Club
DISCOVER: Are You Smothering Your Kid With Kindness

Image Credit: iStockphoto

New LPIN Website Set to Launch in Early February: Contributors Wanted

A team of web developers met in early December to begin working on a new magazine-style design for LPIN.org. The new LPIN website will launch with a fresh new look for the online home of the Libertarian Party of Indiana with many new features to help inform those interested in libertarianism. A wide array of new resources will be available to assist grassroots libertarians in their efforts to organize their local communities. The new site will also provide the LPIN.org website visitors with new, original web video content. It will also seek to serve as the main online starting point for Hoosier citizens looking to discover other Indiana libertarian bloggers.

The LPIN is seeking contributors to the new LPIN website.

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Feingold Control Spending Now Act

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Control Spending Now Act: Sacrificing NASA's Long-Term Effectiveness for Political Expediency, Ian Malone for NASA Watch

As the nation looks for ways to cut out-of-control spending, one senator in particular has proposed a measure that will have a negative impact on the future of manned spaceflight. Senator Russ Feingold, (D-Wis.), has proposed the Control Spending Now Act which would cause the plans to return astronauts to the moon to be delayed by some five years.

Feingold has stated that given the current fiscal crisis that it would be fiscally irresponsible to return astronauts to the moon. He has also stated that the astronauts would be endangered by what he called, "unnecessary risk." Feingold is a member of the Senate Budget Committee.

Utilizing the Augustine Commission's report as part of his rationale as well as the recent displays by the American public of their displeasure at the amount of spending that has happened in the past year; Feingold entered the act to cut the current U.S. deficit, which stands at $1.42 trillion.

Ironically, while Feingold takes issue with NASA returning to the job of exploration, he has little issue with supporting Health Care Reform. Although estimates for the current Health Care Reform Bill vary between $1 trillion, $905 and $849 billion dollars - the cost is substantial and will encompass one-sixth of the American economy. NASA's budget by comparison, at its height during the Apollo program was $35 billion. NASA's budget for the 2010 fiscal year is currently estimated at $18 billion dollars.

The estimated savings of delaying the lunar missions is some $24.7 billion. However, the real expense could actually be in delaying the lunar program. By reigning in NASA's efforts, Feingold would in fact be giving a green light for other nations to take the lead. China, Europe, Russia and India are moving ahead with their lunar ambitions despite economic concerns.

The plans of these countries appear more pragmatic than the Apollo Program, based less on prestige and science and more on the future vitality of their respective peoples. With the recent discovery of caches of water on the moon as well as the deposits of metals, minerals and other resources to be found in the lunar regolith, the moon is a tempting target for exploration and possible exploitation. Senator Feingold's attempts to delay NASA's lunar resurgence may allow these others nation's aspirations to reach fruition at the expense of his own constituents.

The Humble Libertarian: Scott Brown’s Victory in Massachusetts

(Editor's Note: By: W. E. Messamore. The Humble Libertarian is a great blog, and worth a daily read.)

Everyone in this country is agreed on the landmark importance and symbolism of today's Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy. There are two candidates in this race whose starkly contrasting views tell the entire story:

The Massachusetts Alternatives:

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Barbuda: Not Your Ordinary Caribbean

barbuda460_1551349cWhen you hear the word Barbuda, people most often assume that you mean Bermuda or Barbado’s. However, the tiny island is unique detination that is starting to catch the eye of mainstrea tourists.

The only way to reach tiny Barbuda, 27 miles north of Antigua, is via the larger island. The main town is Codrington, officially the capital but referred to by all as “The Village”. Codrington consists of just a handful of streets and offers a glimpse of the Caribbean as it used to be. 

Long popular with islomaniacs, a new luxury hotel is opening the island up to more affulent travelers. Lighthouse Bay is the site of nine glorious ocean-front suites. With the Caribbean to the west and Codrington Lagoon to the east, it feels like a private island and a stroll on the sand that fringes the hotel is like walking in our own personal grounds.

Source: Telgraph

Private Island Reno

jumbybayantiguacaribbeanHere is a renovation that I would definately watch on HGTV!  Jumby Bay resort the luxury private island in the Antigua recently undrewent an impressive $28 million renovation.  Owned by Rosewood Resort’s and set on an impressive 300 acre private island the transformation is redefining private island luxury in a market already known for having high standards. New additions to the private island resort include Sense, a Rosewood Spa, offering treatments with indigenous natural ingredients which are performed before dramatic ocean views; plus the opening of 28 new suites and the enhancement of 40 Guest Rooms.

Along with the redesigned resort, two new Estate Homes valued at $22 million apiece and stretching at least 9,750 square-feet will also debut. Each has distinct design style which compliments classic Caribbean, with unique pools, state-of-the-art kitchens, expansive outdoor space and use of resort services and amenities.

Caribbean Culinary Event: If you want to learn to cook and eat fresh Caribbean food with celebrity TV chefs in the Caribbean this year then head to Rex Resorts on 2 – 10 March for the ‘Taste of Rex Resorts Food Festival.’ Using locally sourced ingredients, celebrity chef Greg Wallace will be providing food demonstrations and tastings alongside chefs from Hawksbill and Halcyon Cove to present delicious Caribbean inspired dishes, such as Banana & Rum Tartin.

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