When a meteor flashes over Russia, it’s captured by a million high-quality dashcams. Oh, sure, that’s only because driving around Russia is a nightmare of drunks, tanks and insurance fraud, but still… compare that to the complete dearth of images of the one that just went over the US:
Unconfirmed reports state that the meteor has made an impact near the Maryland/Delaware line.
After Trayvon Martin got himself shot while assaulting George Zimmerman, President Obama unwisely jammed himself into the story by suggesting that if he had had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon.The purpose of that – or at least the result of that – was to make sure that “race” was front and center in the story about the confrontation between a black person and a “white Hispanic” person, where one of ’em got shot and killed.
Well, might this hypothetical son of Obama’s also maybe possibly might’ve looked like one De’Marquise Elkins? Here we have another case of a confrontation between a black person (Elkins) and a “white Hispanic” person (Antonio West). Except in this case, it appears Elkins, 17, shot West, 13 (months, not years) dead in the face in the course of a robbery.
Will Obama insert himself into this story?
I don’t have any more information than what’s contained in this one extremely thin little PR announcement:
…later tonight, Senator Mike Lee of Utah intends to offer an amendment to the budget resolution that would prohibit any gun control legislation which does not have a 2/3 vote in the Senate.
I’d like it to be true. I’d like it to pass. But I suspect that, at best, it’s a little bit of political theater that’ll simply get wiped away.
A rule that makes *any* new federal law or regulation that infringes upon basic rights contingent upon requiring a 2/3 majority seems like a good idea to me.
Artwork (via the NASA HQ History Office) of the Lockheed STAR Clipper. This was an early stage-and-a-half concept with a reusable orbiter and expendable propellant tanks. Vastly more info on this is available in APR issue V3N2.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden testified yesterday before a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee about the recent security troubles at NASA and what he’s doing about them.
Bad news: “I have closed down the NASA technical reports database while we review whether there is a risk of export-controlled documents being made available on this website.” So, yeah, NTRS is closed to the public until an army of bureaucrats go through the whole thing.
Good/about-damned-time news: “I have ordered a moratorium on granting any new access to NASA facilities to individuals from specific designated countries, including China, Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.”
Was NASA *really* providing access to people from North Korea and Iran? Well, at least they wised up enough to put Saudi Arabia on the list.
Around 1 AM this morning I became aware that a lightning storm was passing by. Sadly, it was a fast mover; by the time I got my camera set up taking photos, it was all over. Still, a *few* interesting photos out of the process, though no good lightning shots.
Dragon seems to have announced a re-tooled version of their 1/72 Saturn V, this time as a kit rather than a fully built-up display model. And rather than $255, it’ll be in the $170 range. Available for pre-order HERE for $135. Sadly I don’t get a piece of the action from sales there, so anyone wants to send me one of these kits, feel free…
Kits to modify the Saturn V into something else would seem called for… a Skylab shroud, or strap-on boosters, or a 10-meter Orion payload…
The European Space Agency has published a map of the cosmic background radiation compiled from images taken by the Planck space telescope. This measures very slight differences in the microwave background temperature, which is at about 2.7 degrees kelvin.
The data allows some refinement in understand of some of the details of the universe:
1) 4.9% of the mass/energy of the universe is “normal” matter and energy such as stars and planets and photons and such
2) Dark matter makes up 26.8%
3) Dark energy makes up 68.3% (Consider that we know virtually *squat* about dark energy, other than it will KILL US ALL)
4) The Hubble constant has been refined to 67.15 kilometers per second per megaparsec
5) The age of the universe is now estimated at 13.82 billion years.
Additionally, there is a cold spot in the universe, and definite asymmetry. Odd, those…
This is comet C/2011 L4 (PanSTARRS) in the NASA STEREO HI-1B field of view, from March 09 -16, 2013. … The sun is out of the frame, off the left-hand edge and we’re seeing its outflow and coronal mass ejections come into view. Also on the left we see the planet Mercury, while on the right we see our home, Earth. (We can see Earth because STEREO is on the other side of the Sun from us.)
Wow.
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It’s from the Daily Mail (quoting the National Equirer, no less), so take it for what it’s worth…
A “source” claims that Holmes converted to Islam in prison so that he could believe he was on a jihad to kill infidels.