Your morning laugh...

Your morning laugh ... courtesy of my mom.  Oh, the hypocrisy of those socialists!

Chinese launch trans-lunar mission...

Chinese launch trans-lunar mission...  This is a practice mission, to test their ability to send a spacecraft to the moon and back to earth, then land.  They're planning to use a skip reentry method, a particularly sophisticated choice that requires enormous precision in navigation, and the ability to react to atmospheric variations.  The benefit is that it can use a smaller, lighter heat shield.  The U.S., back in the '60s and '70s, didn't have the ability to navigate precisely enough to do this, nor did we know enough about the upper atmosphere to be confident even if we did – so our Apollo missions needed large and very heavy ablative heat shields.  More here.

The next step for the Chinese space program is to land a robotic explorer on the moon (something they've already done once), collect some rock samples, then return to Earth.  Their space program is ambitious, and more than a little impressive...

AR2192...

AR2192...  It's a giant active region (a “sunspot”) turning toward Earth, and could hammer us with a giant CME.  Via APOD, of course...

If you're of a certain age...

If you're of a certain age ... and you were an avid follower of the U.S. space program in the '50s and '60s, then this page will send you trippin' down memory lane.  It's a collection of high quality audio recordings from NASA, covering things from Sputnik to the Space Shuttle, and more.  At right is one of my favorite examples.  I remember sitting in my uncle's basement, watching a grainy picture of Houston Mission Control on a crummy black and white TV set.  I, too, was holding my breath waiting for word of whether Armstrong and Aldrin had landed safely...

Economics over panic, act 45,992,822...

Economics over panic, act 45,992,822...  Remember the great rare earth panic, in which China had a stranglehold on the world's supplies?  Well, that raised prices – and all of a sudden, other countries discovered that they, too, had profitable reserves of rare earths – which turn out to be not so rare after all.  The same phenomenon is why the U.S. has suddenly become an oil exporter: the high price of oil makes fracking economically feasible...

“When you're using a slide rule you have to be engaged.”

“When you're using a slide rule you have to be engaged.”  That's a quote from a decent article about slide rules just published by NPR, of all folks.  The article reprises a broadcast segment of All Things Considered that's also quite good (you can listen to it from that link).  That quote is from a piece of both the article and the broadcast that talks about one of my favorite things about using a slide rule: that you have to think about the math as you're using it (as opposed to a calculator, which just hands you the answer on a silver platter).

Obama administration sinks to a new low...

Obama administration sinks to a new low...  They apparently have no sleaze or arrogance limit at all...