Red State America is about to get Bigger, as in Texas-sized Big

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Texas will gain 4 new Congressional Seats: Big Losers - New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio & Illinois

From Eric Dondero:

In addition to the growing trend of Party Switchers, and an unfavorable electoral environment for the Donkey Party in 2010, Democrats may be facing some very unfavorable demographic trends in the coming years.

According to new Census figures, the increasingly solid Republican South stands to gain a multitude of new seats for Congress, after 2010. Texas stands to gain an astonishing 4 new congressional seats. Other winners include: Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

According to an independent analysis by Polidata, LLC:

[This will] confirm expectations that voters living in manufacturing states are beginning to retire and head south or are otherwise leaving their homes in pursuit of new jobs.

From The Hill:

Nine states, all but one of which are located in the Northeast or Midwest — Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — could each lose one seat next year, according to the firm.

Consequently, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah and Washington state could each gain one seat.

The report cited Texas as the big winner, set to gain 4 new seats. It also cited Ohio as possibly losing 2 seats. Obviously, Louisiana is losing a seat do to the special circumstance of migration caused by Katrina.

The Nutcracker Dance of the Saturn Moons [Space]

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Nothing is more Christmasy to me than the Nutcracker. OK, and Christmas pudding. Sooooo—nothing is more Christmasy than the Nutcracker and Christmas pudding—and probably eggnog. Maybe Christmas carols too. OK. Nutcracker, Christmas pudding, eggnog, carols, and Saturn's moons.

In space, nobody can see you dancing classical ballet while eating Christmas pudding dunked in eggnog while singing Xmas carols. And with nobody I really mean the Cassini spacecraft.



Johanns, We Nebraskans "don’t want a special deal"

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Calls his Senate colleague Ben Nelson "Un-Nebraskan"

Republican Senator Mike Johanns was quoted yesterday highly critical of his colleague Ben Nelson's decision to trade his vote for a bribe for the State. Nelson got what ammounted to $100 million for Nebraska paid for by the Federal Government for future Medicare payments, in exchange for his "Yes" vote on the Health Care package.

Nebraska's Republican Governor John Heineman said yesterday, that he would "absolutely" oppose the State taking the money, which he said amounted to a bribe.

Nelson is receiving condemnation statewide from all quarters for his vote trade. Even the liberal press in Omaha have been running cartoons lampooning him, and lambasting him in editorials.

From Politico.com, this morning:

“We don’t like that,” Johanns, also a former governor, said in an interview. “We just think that’s so un-Nebraskan. You know, we live out there on the prairie. It’s hot in the summer. It’s cold in the winter, and we’re kind of less-government sort of people. We don’t want a special deal.”

Johanns continued:

“This violated our sense of ethics.”

My Run-In with the Law

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While driving last night from Wellesley to Charlottesville, I was stopped for not having a working light over the rear license plate.

My wife said, "It makes sense to have such a rule; otherwise police could not read your license (at night)."

My response was, "Why do the police need to read my license plate (at night or otherwise)?  Why require license plates at all?"

The answer is presumably something like, "It helps police solve crimes." 

But how many?  Is it worth the cost of all those license plates?

Mineral wool Granulate

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Dear All,

This is in regard to a techincal query of Insulation system in Cold Boxes of Air separation units.

why mineral wool granulate is used inside the coldbox which is supposed to be a cryogenic service where moisture and condensation is a issue . If it is performing well Why can't we

alternator

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merry crismast

dear cr4

i buy new delco remmy alternator type 300 who have voltage 24vdc but when iam use in my engine the out put is 15 vdc ,are something rong with my new alternator or other

Yokogawa CS3000 MLD block

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hi we are facing problem with DCS MLD block we found many time we are not getting output from DCS to the positioner of the control valve later it was found that MLD block goes to manual mode ,again by putting back to auto mode we get the right output to the positioner , can anybody help

Seismic Vibration Probe

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hi one of our pump is frequently tripping on seismic HI vibration . B/N 3500 system slot 2 ch3 goes danger alarm hi other related probe gives only vibration alarms which on motor side .we check by overriding the trip and found that vibration are shown by the probes does exist but our vi

Cassini Holiday Movies Showcase Dance of Saturn’s Moons

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Saturn's moons spin around the planet
Saturn's moons give Tchaikovsky's classic ballet, "The Nutcracker," a graceful new spin in this video compiled from some 61 images taken by the Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
› Play video (Quicktime) | › View related videos

Like sugar plum fairies in "The Nutcracker," the moons of Saturn performed a celestial ballet before the eyes of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. New movies frame the moons' silent dance against the majestic sweep of the planet's rings and show as many as four moons gliding around one another.

The new video can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini , http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org.

To celebrate the holidays, the Cassini imaging team has created a video collection of "mutual events," which occur when one moon passes in front of another, as seen from the spacecraft. Imaging scientists use mutual event observations to refine their understanding of the dynamics of Saturn's moons. Digital image processing has enabled scientists to turn these routine observations into breathtaking displays of celestial motion. The original images were captured between Aug. 27 and Nov. 8, 2009.

In one scene that synthesizes 12 images taken over the span of 19 minutes, Rhea skates in front of Janus, as Mimas and Pandora slide across the screen in the opposite direction. While the dance appears leisurely on screen, Rhea actually orbits Saturn at a speed of about 8 kilometers per second (18,000 mph). The other moons are hurtling around the planet even faster. Mimas averages about 14 kilometers per second (31,000 mph), and Janus and Pandora travel at about 16 kilometers per second (36,000 mph).

Saturn's moons give Tchaikovsky's classic ballet,

"As yet another year in Saturn orbit draws to a close, these wondrous movies of an alien place clear across the solar system remind us how fortunate we are to be engaged in this magnificent exploratory expedition," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

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Mayon Volcano, The Phillipines

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Mayon Volcano, The Phillipines
Tens of thousands of people living within the danger zone of Mayon Volcano in the Philippines were forced to evacuate to emergency shelters in mid-December 2009 as small earthquakes, incandescent lava at the summit and minor ash falls suggested a major eruption was on the way. On the evening of Dec. 14, the local volcano observatory raised the alert level to Level 3, which means "magma is close to the crater and hazardous explosive eruption is imminent."

This natural-color image of Mayon was captured on Dec. 15, 2009, by the Advanced Land Imager on

NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite. A small plume of ash and steam is blowing west from the summit. Dark-colored lava or debris flows from previous eruptions streak the flanks of the mountain. A ravine on the southeast slope is occupied by a particularly prominent lava or debris flow.

The Phillipine Star said on Dec. 22 that "ashfall blanketed at least three towns in Albay, raising new health fears for thousands already bracing for an eruption that could come at any time ... Health officials warned the tiny particles could cause respiratory problems or skin diseases, and could affect the thousands of people crammed into evacuation centers.

Also on Dec. 22,

CNN reported that "tens of thousands of people have already fled their homes. More than 9,000 families -- a total of 44,394 people -- are being housed in evacuation camps after authorities raised the alert status of the country's most active volcano" as "fountains of red-hot lava shot up from the intensifying Mayon volcano."

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Off-Duty Day for New Expanded Crew

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ISS022-E-014044 -- Expedition 22 crew
Image above: Wearing festive holiday hats, the Expedition 22 crew speaks with officials from Russia, Japan and the United States. In the front row are Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev (left) and Commander Jeff Williams. Behind them, left to right, are newly-arrived Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov, T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi. Credit: NASA
Following the arrival of the three new Expedition 22 crew members Tuesday, the crew aboard the International Space Station had an off-duty day Wednesday.

The crew members spent most of the day sleeping due to the late finish of the docking activities.

NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi docked with their new home at 5:48 p.m. EST Tuesday. The trio launched aboard the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft at 4:52 p.m. Sunday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

From inside the station, Commander

 Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev monitored the approach of the Russian spacecraft as it docked to the Earth-facing port of the Zarya module.

After completion of leak checks, the hatches between the two vehicles were opened at 7:30 p.m. Williams and Suraev, who arrived at the station Oct. 2 aboard the

Soyuz TMA-16, welcomed the new Expedition 22 flight engineers aboard their orbital home for the next five months.

Creamer, 50, is making his first flight into space. Selected as an

astronaut in 1998, Creamer was a support astronaut for the Expedition 3 crew and worked with hardware integration and robotics.

Kotov, 44, is making his second

spaceflight, having previously served six months aboard the station as an Expedition 15 flight engineer in 2007. Kotov will be a flight engineer for Expedition 22 and assume the duties of Expedition 23 commander when Williams and Suraev depart in March 2010.

Noguchi is making his second spaceflight. He flew on the

STS-114 return-to-flight mission of Discovery in 2005 and conducted three spacewalks totaling more than 20 hours.

› View imagery of Expedition 22 docking

› Read more about Expedition 22
› View crew timelines

› Read more about the station's butterfly experiment

<!--

Research in Space: Facilities on the International Space Station

The International Space Station is the first step in exploration, from research and discovery, to international cooperation, to commercial development, and to exploring beyond low-Earth orbit. This booklet outlines our ISS research capabilities and potential as we usher in this new phase of on-orbit research.

› Read booklet (2.6 Mb PDF)

NASA Publishes Report about International Space Station Science

Advances in the fight against food poisoning, new methods for delivering medicine to cancer cells, and better materials for future spacecraft are among the results published in a NASA report detailing scientific research accomplishments made aboard the International Space Station during its first eight years.

The report includes more than 100 science experiments ranging from bone studies to materials research.

› Read more
› Read full report (3.8 Mb PDF) -->

2010 International Space Station Calendar

NASA is offering a 2010 calendar that describes the work being done on the International Space Station and gives information about the crews that have lived there. The calendar contains photographs taken from the space station and highlights historic NASA milestones and fun facts about the international construction project of unprecedented complexity that began in 1998. (Note: In order to print the document correctly, please select the two-sided print option in your printer dialog box)

› Download calendar (8.6 Mb PDF)

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Undergraduate Students Fly High for Weightless Science

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NASA has selected 28 undergraduate student teams to test their science experiments in simulated weightlessness. The teams were selected to fly in the summer of 2010 with NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities and Systems Engineering Educational Discovery (SEED) programs.

Selected teams will test and evaluate their experiments aboard an aircraft modified to simulate a reduced-gravity environment. The aircraft will fly approximately 30 roller-coaster-like climbs and dips during experiment flights to produce periods of weightlessness and hyper-gravity ranging from 0 g to 2 g.

"Today's students will be the ones going to the moon and beyond to live, explore and work," said Douglas Goforth, the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program manager at

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston."This project gives them a head start in preparing for those future ventures by allowing them to conduct hands-on research and engineering today in a unique reduced-gravity laboratory."

The Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program provides a rare academic experience for undergraduate students to propose, design, fabricate, fly and evaluate a reduced-gravity experiment. The overall experience includes scientific research, hands-on experimental design, test operations and outreach activities.

Teams selected to participate in the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program are from Utah State University, San Jacinto College North, the College of New Jersey, State University of New York at Buffalo, West Virginia University, Purdue University, Yale University, Austin Community College, the University of Washington, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, two teams from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and two teams from the University of Michigan. Teams also may invite a full-time, accredited journalist to fly with them and document the team's experiment and experiences.

Teams selected to participate in the

SEED program will work with NASA scientists, engineers and researchers on systems engineering projects that use a reduced gravity environment to test spaceflight hardware, spacecraft components and spaceflight procedures. Each team is assigned a NASA principal investigator to help prepare their experiment for flight. The SEED teams also will participate in at least two videoconferences through NASA's Digital Learning Network to work with other engineering and agency organizations.

The

SEED teams for 2010 are from Washington University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin, Auburn University, the Ohio State University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Toledo, Carthage College, Yale University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Colorado, and Boise State University, from which two teams were selected.

Under these programs,

NASA continues its investment in the nation's education programs. It is directly tied the agency's education goal of strengthening NASA and the nation's future workforce. Through this and other college and university programs, NASA will identify and develop the critical skills and capabilities needed to carry out its space exploration mission.

The flights are provided in cooperation with the

 Reduced Gravity Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center. For more information about the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program or to view abstracts of the selected team's experiments visit:

http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov

For more information about SEED, visit:

http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/se

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

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Astronauts Aboard the Space Station Talk With Troops in Iraq; Brave Men and Women on Both Sides of the Holiday Hookup Are Far From Home

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Some U.S. forces in Iraq will get the chance during the holidays to talk with two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station who also are far away from their families and friends. A 20-minute live video downlink will start at 8 a.m. CST on Dec. 29. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's Web site.

Station Commander

 Jeff Williams, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and Flight Engineer T.J. Creamer, an Army colonel, will talk with U.S. forces while orbiting 220 miles above Earth. Service members will have the chance to talk with the astronauts about life on the station, their military careers and what it is like to live in space for up to six months.

 NASA Television will provide live coverage of the conversations, with video from aboard the station during the event. A video file will be available later in the day, with edited footage from both the station and the service members in Iraq.

For more information on

NASA TV, including a schedule of events, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov


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“Toxins”: the new evil humours

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They say that everything old is new again and that is certainly true in the world of “alternative” health. One of the axiomatic premises of contemporary “alternative” health puts its believers behind the times … by approximately 500 years.

A fundamental premise held by believers in “alternative” health is that we are swimming in a world of “toxins” and those “toxins” are causing disease. Like most premises in “alternative” health it has no basis in scientific fact; makes intuitive sense only if you are ignorant of medicine, science and statistics; and speaks to primitive fears and impulses.

The preoccupation with “toxins” is a direct lineal descendant of the obsession with evil humours and miasmas as causes of disease. It is hardly surprising that prior to the invention of the microscope the real causes of disease went undiscovered. The idea that disease is caused by tiny organisms that invade the body is not amenable to discovery in the absence of scientific instruments and scientific reasoning. And it goes without saying that the same people who were unaware that bacteria and viruses cause disease could not possibly imagine chromosomal defects, inborn errors of metabolism or genetic predispositions to disease.

Instead, people imagined that diseases were caused by excess evil humours, substances that were named, but never seen or identified in any way accessible to the senses. It was recognized that some diseases were contagious, and in that case, people invoked the idea of “miasmas” that somehow transmitted disease.

Even religion got into the act. Rather than attributing disease to evil humors of miasmas, religious authorities often claimed that disease was attributable to evil demons or to sin itself.

These theories shared several important features. The evil humours, miasmas, etc. were invisible, but all around us. They constantly threatened people, and those people had no way of fending off the threat. Indeed, they were often completely unaware of the threat that was actively harming them.

Evil humours, miasmas, demons, etc. were put to rest by the germ theory of disease. That was the first big breakthrough in our understanding that each disease was separate and has its own specific cause. The search for causes has taken us beyond bacteria and viruses, through errors of metabolism and chromosomal aberrations, right down to the level of the gene itself. We now understand that tiny defects in individual genes can cause disease or can increase the propensity to a specific disease.

But fear and superstition never die and the “alternative” health community has used that fear and superstition to resurrect primitive beliefs. It is axiomatic in the “alternative” health community that disease is caused by evil humours and miasmas. They just don’t call it that anymore; they call it “toxins.”

Toxins serve the same explanatory purpose as evil humours and miasmas. They are invisible, but all around us. They constantly threaten people, often people who unaware of their very existence. They are no longer viewed as evil in themselves, but it is axiomatic that they have be released into our environment by “evil” corporations.

There’s just one problem. “Toxins” are a figment of the imagination, in the exact same way that evil humours and miasmas were figments of the imagination.

Poisons exist, of course, but their existence is hardly a secret, and their actions are well known. Most poisons are naturally based, derived from plants or animals. Indeed, the chemicals responsible for more diseases than any others are nicotine (tobacco), alcohol (yeast) and opiates (poppies).

Nonetheless, “alternative” health advocates persist in subscribing to primitive theories of disease. For those who have limited understanding of science, primitive theories apparently make more sense.

Hence the obsession with “toxins” in foods, in vaccines, even “toxins” arising in the body itself. The height of inanity is the belief in “detoxifying” diets and colon cleansing. The human body does not produce “toxins.” That’s just a superstition of the “alternative” health community. The waste products produced by the human body are easily metabolized by organs such as the liver, and excreted by organs particularly designed for that purpose such as the kidneys.

“Alternative” health practitioners are nothing more than quacks and charlatans and their “remedies” are nothing more than snake oil. The fact that anyone in this day and age still believes in such crackpot theories is a tribute to the power of ignorance and superstition.

Evil humours and miasmas have not died, they’ve been reincarnated as “toxins.”


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Pressure Control Valve Parallel Operation

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Hello guys,

i wana know why pressure control valves are connected in parallel for the inlet of veritcal vessel,during the HAZOP of this section there were a debate on the issue but due to lack of control phlosophy it was a little difficult to get clear answer.

jsut i wana any one e