New Space Direction Press Conferences Set

NASA has released that it will hold to major press events this week to address the new direction for space by means of the presidential proposed budget request to Congress for 2011.

julia child cooks primordial soup

i'm speechless... she uses a big old knife to point with, and later she uses a mixing spoon! haha!

"Julia Child cooks up a batch of primordial soup and explains how these simple ingredients produce amino acids - the building blocks of life. This video played in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Life in The Universe gallery from 1976 until the gallery closed."

STS-130: Cupola to the Station

STS-130 Endeavour is in a final launch campaign countdown this week taking the Italian-made Cupola to the International Space Station for final installation.

blast from the past

there is a nice gallery of photos on flickr that show a modern scene with an image of the location from the past superimposed - the effect is really great! here is my favorite, but be sure to check out the whole gallery.


i also like this one by jason e powell.


found via mike's meandering mind.

Political Impact: "Just Lost the Geek Vote"

Blogger News Network writer Nancy Reyes provides some political analysis of Monday's expected presidential decision announcement as to a change in the direction of NASA away from the planned 2020 return to the Moon in the piece, "We Just Lost the Geek Vote."

What political impact the high-level presidential decision may have long-term for the president in 2010 mid-term elections and the presidential election of 2012 is yet to be seen, just as the president's formal budget. But Congressional Democrats in Florida [vid] are going to be especially hard pressed in the days ahead with thousands of rocket engineers expected to be sidelined from the state's I-4 economy without a new space agency human launch vehicle being built.

Members of the Congress from Florida, Alabama, Texas will be sounding alarm bells in the coming week on Capitol Hill as Space Shuttle Endeavour takes to a dark morning sky orbit on Super Bowl Sunday from the Kennedy Space Center, if all goes as now planned.

The shuttle is being set upon on the fifth of the final five flights in a program with a nearly 30-year flight history, to be retired prior to year end. The launch and mission will draw some national news attention with the addition of the ISS Cupola [vid] throughout the week. The nation's space program may well be among the pre-game conversation by hundreds of thousands, perhaps even a few million, on February 7th as the 'Bud guys' and the 'keyboard geeks' gather around the television to watch the pig skin rotate and later at post-game water coolers.

The growing longer-term political questions on Capitol Hill will be: 1] 'does the space program have much political impact these days?' 2] 'How will Americans react when some measure of national security realization sets-in that the Chinese and Russians have the only rides for human space access in 2011 -- and there is no space shuttle or Ares replacement?' 3] 'Will Internet-rocketeers heroically save the day with commercial space launches and put Americans back into orbit prior to the 2012 election?' That is when the so-called 'Geek Vote' will really matter strategically -- in several states.

Firefox 3.6 Released, Its 20% Faster Than 3.5

Mozilla Has Launched The Latest Version Of Their Wonderful Internet Browser, Mozilla Firefox With More Features And Security Than Ever.
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Taurus II Hardware Readied for Wallops

Orbital Sciences Corporation has released information relating to the status of the new Taurus II rocket expected to loft cargo to the International Space Station in the spring of 2011 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in 2011.

The report notes that the hardware is globalized with supplies in Ukraine, Russia and the United States in final stages of testing prior to the booster configuration and the start of a final launch campaign at a new launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia. Orbital Sciences Corporation have a contract to launch eight cargo flights to the ISS from Virginia's spaceport.

Virginia is providing Virginia-based commercial space launch firms with state income tax benefits for cargo and other payloads launched to space. In addition thereto, the state has been the 'Change Agent' with regard to human spaceflight liability and immunity.

star wars cakes

why didnt i think to get a star wars theme cake for my 30th birthday? there's always the 31st to plan for...




see the whole set at funcrawler.com

NASA Sets Commercial Space Stimulation Meeting at NASA HQ for February 16, 10 AM

Published in the Federal Register yesterday was a notice of meeting of the Commercial Space Committee to the NASA Advisory Council set for Tuesday, February 16, 2010, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. EST at NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street, SW., Room 6H45, Washington. The meeting is open to interested persons.

The agenda for the meeting includes an overview of the intended objectives for the Commercial Space Committee and preliminary discussions on some of the topic areas that will be explored by the Committee in future meetings. These topic areas include but are not limited to exploring opportunities to stimulate and encourage commercial space as well as the progression of commercial capability to the ISS and to Low Earth Orbit/LEO.

The committee will explore opportunities for interagency collaboration on commercial space initiatives, and fostering commercialization on the International Space Station as a National Lab. [Hat tip to Fred McKee]

Musk Speaks to Falcon 9 Safety

Now Subscribe To Any Website W/ Google Reader

Now You Can Subscribe To Any Website Via Google Reader, It Doesn't Matter Whether The Site Supports Feed Or Not.
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NASA Budget Conference Monday with Bolden: Commercial Space Launch Accepted

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will brief reporters about the agency's fiscal year 2011 budget at 3 p.m. EST on Monday, Feb. 1. The news conference will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. S.W., in Washington.

The news conference will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions will be taken from media representatives at headquarters and participating field centers. NASA budget and supporting documents will be here at 12:30 PM, Monday, Feb. 1, 2010.

Varied reports indicate that the President will pledge $6-billion to commercial space launch development and increase NASA's operational budget over the next five years in his proposed federal budget. The Constellation Ares-1 and Ares-V moon landing program is expected to end if his proposal is adopted by the Congress. Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin was especially critical today comparing President Obama's space policy to that of Richard Nixon cancelling Apollo.

Winter Snowshoe

My friend, Kim Amthor, and I went snowshoeing yesterday, even though the wind chills were well below zero. We decided to go from the Sable Visitor's Center, toward Sable Falls, since most of the trail is in the woods and protected from the wind. Since we both love the sand dunes, we had to at least take a peak. The wind was blowing so hard up there, that we only took time to look around and snap off a picture, then we headed back into the protection of the woods. Sable River, or Second Creek as we locals call it, is so beautiful this time of year.

White House: Ares-1 is Dead

Apple iPad: All You Need To Know

In The Previous Post, I've Shown You, What You Could Do With An iPad. Here Is An Handy List Which Will Give You A Better Idea About Apple's iPad.

• The Ipad Is A 9.7″ Touch Screen Tablet Device And Is Designed To Fill The Gap Between Macbook And Iphone


• To Look At, It’s A Large Ipod Touch/Iphone. As With The Iphone It Contains An Accelerometer So That You Can Rotate It To Switch Between Portrait And Landscape Modes.


• Steve Jobs Calls It “Our Most Advanced Technology In A Magical & Revolutionary Device At An Unbelievable Price”. Jonathan Ive Says “This Defines Our Vision, Our Sense Of What’s Next”.

Spec

• 9.7″ Screen – LCD, Not OLED As Rumoured.


• The Screen Has IPS (In-Plane Switching) To Improve The Viewing Angle And Colour Rereproduction When You’re Not Looking At It Flat-On.


• 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. 30-Pin Connector, Speaker, Microphone, Accelerometer And Compass.


• 10 Hour Battery Life (When Playing Video), 1 Month Stand-By.


• Some Models Come With 3G Data As Well As Wifi.

Models, Prices And Availability

• 16GB Wifi Only: $499


• 32GB Wifi Only: $599


• 64GB Wifi Only: $699


• 16GB Wifi & 3G: $629


• 32GB Wifi & 3G: $729


• 64GB Wifi & 3G: $829


• Wifi Only Versions Available From March. 3G Versions Available From April. You Can Sign Up For Preorder Notification Over At Apple’s Ipad Pages.

Built In Apps

• Its Web Browser Is Billed By Jobs As “The Best You’ve Ever Had”.


• Photo Viewer, With Map View To See Geotagged Photos And A Slideshow Mode.


• Email Client


• Music Player Much More Like Itunes Than The Standard Iphone Music Player.


• Movies Play With Borders Because The Screen Aspect Ratio Is Closer To 4:3 Than 16:9


• Itunes Store


• Maps With Current Location Detection.


• Youtube Client


• An Address Book That Actually Looks Like… A Real Address Book.


• Calendar – Very Much Like Ical On OSX.


• A Giant On-Screen Keyboard Takes Up Almost Half The Screen, Allowing For Big, Fat Buttons Supposedly Making Typing A Breeze.

3rd Party Apps

• “Virtually All” Iphone Apps Can Run On It Without Modifications – Either In A Small Box In The Middle Of The Screen In Actual Size Or ‘Pixel Doubled’ To Fill The Screen By Tapping A ‘2x’ Icon.


• Existing Apps You’ve Bought For Your Iphone/Pod Touch Can Be Synced To The Ipad Without Paying Again.


• A New SDK Is Released Today For Developers.


• Ipad-Specific Apps Will Be Listed As Such In The Store.

Ipad Apps

• The New York Times Demonstrated An App That Is Essentially A Reader For The Newspaper But With Interactive Features Like Being Able To Play Movies Embeded In The ‘Pages’.


• An Impressive Painting App Was Revealed That Allowed Users To Create Artwork With Their Fingers On Screen. So That’s That The Paint Splashes On The Event Invite Were About!


• EA Deomonstrated An Version Of Need For Speed With Great Looking 3D Graphics And Touchscreen Controls.


• MLB.Com Revealed An App For Baseball Fans.

Ibooks

• Apple Has Launched Its Own E-Book App Called Ibooks.


• Books Can Be Browsed From An On-Screen Bookshelf And Then Read Fullscreen. Pages Can Be Flipped By Touching The Screen.


• An Ibook Store Is Built In Featuring Books From Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan And Hachette Book Group.


• Ibooks Supports The Epub Format For E-Books.

Iwork

• A New Version Of Apple’s Iwork Suite Has Been Created Specifically For The Ipad. Rather Than Pay For The Complete Suite You Can Buy Each Iwork App Separately For $9.99 Each.


• Pages, Keynote And Numbers Are All Included Meaning Word Processing, Presentations And Spreadsheets Are All Possible.


• Keynote Allows Presentations To Be Both Viewed And Created On The Ipad. As The Ipad Can Be Connected To A Projector It Should Make For An Excellent Presentation Control Device.


• Likewise, Pages Allows Both Document Viewing And Creation/Editing. Everything Has Been Revised And Optimised For The New Device.


• Numbers Is, Again, Fully Capable. It Can Create And Edit Spreadsheets Complete With Graphs And The Like.

Desktop Sync

• As With An Iphone You Can Sync The Ipad’s Music, Movies, Contacts Etc With Your Computer Via Itunes.

3G Data

• If You Want To Be Connected Everywhere You Can Connect Some Ipad Models To A 3G Data Network. (See Device Price Above).


• In The US This Is Priced At $15 For The First 250MB Or $30 For Unlimited Data.


• US 3G Is Provided By AT&T. There’s No Contract – You Just Activate The Data Connection On Your Ipad And Pay As You Go.


• International Data Deals Should Be In Place By June.


• The Ipad Is Unlocked, Meaning That You Could In Theory Use Another Network. The Ipad Uses GSM Micro Sims – So Any Network That Uses Them Will Be Fine.

Accessories

• Need To Type Out A Long Document Or Blog Post? Just Buy Yourself The Full-Size Mechanical Keyboard That Connects Via The Ipad’s Dock Connector.


• A Case For The Device Is Available That Doubles Up As A Table Stand For Viewing Movies Easily.

Hats Off To Martin Bryant (The Next Web)

For This Valuable Info About Apple iPad.

Apple iPad : The Tablet PC From Apple

Here Comes The Most Awaited Apple Tablet, The iPad. Watch The Official Video From Apple Team To Have A Closer Look At The iPad.
Enjoy The Video:

Ever heard of Wallops Island?

Virginia State Delegate Lynwood Lewis (D-Accomack Co) recently took to the Virginia House of Delegates floor to cited a recent commentary entitled: Space Race: Florida vs. Virginia written by Barney Bishop, president of Associated Industries of Florida. While competition among the Atlantic coastal states may be interesting and even fun, the cause of both states remains the same: building the infrastructure and the skilled workforce for the United States to have space access in the next decade.

Meanwhile, State Delegate Terry G. Kilgore (R-Scott County) has obtained House passage of a measure removing the sunset clause on the Spaceflight Liability and Immunity Act passed first by Virginia in 2007 and signed into state law. State Senator Ralph S. Northam has obtained Senate passage of a similar measure. Passage of both bills now assure removal of the sunset clause.

Cold and Blustery

After having temperatures in the mid-30s last weekend, the bottom has now dropped out of the thermometer. The ambient temperature this morning is in the single digits in Grand Marais. But with 20 to 30 mph winds, the wind chill is between -15 and -19 degrees!



Yesterday was cold, too, but the wind wasn't quite as bad. Dianna Bell and I did go cross country skiing anyway. Below are a couple of shots I took while out on the trail in the national park.




As I was checking my photos, I realized I had not posted these pictures taken in the Burt Township School Forest when I skied with friends Wendy Lynn, Kim Amthor, and Kathy Correll. For those of you who have explored the school forest, which is the largest school forest in the state of Michigan at around 1,600 acres, you'll recognize the chimney. This was the site of a one-room school building that unfortunately burned down several decades ago.






Editing of the manuscript is going well. I've received back a few of the copies that I sent out for review. The photographer, Tom, is also finalizing the photos. We are hoping to send the files off for pre-printing production sometime in the next two weeks! Below is yet another photo that will appear in the book. This is a picture of an iris agate from Tennessee. This optical property has been known for more than a hundred years. Although it seems that most iris agates have incredible tight bands, this is not the only characteristic that causes the iris effect. Scientists have determined that an agate will iris within a range of a hundred to more than 15,000 bands per inch, and up. Instead, the key factor is that the alternating layers must have higher and lower refractive indices. When light travels from air into a substance, its velocity is reduced. This change of speed at the surface interface causes light passing between the substances to be bent, or refracted. When white light is refracted, as when passing through a prism, waves of different frequencies (i.e., the various colors) are bent at different angles. The result is that light is dispersed and spread out into its component colors. When droplets of water in the air form the refracting interface, the result is a rainbow. When this happens between agate bands, the result is an iris effect As with most of the pictures in the book, this one was taken by Tom Shearer.

guinness and the mouse

Some Guinness was spilled on the bar room floor
as the pub was closed for the night.
Out from his hole crept a wee brown mouse
and stood in the pale moonlight.
He lapped up the frothy brew from the floor
and back on his haunches he sat.
And all night long you could hear him roar
"Bring on the God damn cat!!!"

No Human Moon Landing in This Decade!

Today many lunar landing advocates must feel the same way as Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell as he pasted by the Moon failing to fulfill his dream of walking on the lunar surface in the pursuit of science.

With the next federal budget to be submitted by the President February 1, 2010, there will be no human return to the Moon in this decade leaving potentially ten thousand talented NASA space workers scrambling for private sector NewSpace jobs in the proposed $6-billion commercial space launch program, potentially with future American astronauts.

The last time American astronauts left Earth orbit was aboard Apollo 17 in 1972. It is now unclear how many years - even decades - it will be before American astronauts will be on an Earth departure trajectory again as the President and the Congress chart the course ahead in space.

Most of the children of Apollo will not be around to bear witness to the second return to the Moon by American astronauts. The best hope for a human return to the Moon in the decade of 2020 may now rest with the Chinese. Nonetheless, a new era is opening in American space with the commercial space launch sector.

Read Popular Magazines Like PC Magazine For Free With Firefox Browser

Read Free Online Popular Magazines Using Firefox Browser. This Free Online Popular Magazines Reading Trick Can Ease User Reading Magazine Online Via Zinio Services.
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hola mars

right now our neighbor mars is as physically as close as it ever gets to us, a position called opposition. mars is the bright orange speckle rising in the eastern sky.


to get ahold of mars' position in our sky for the next couple months, look up a bit after sunset on friday, the 29th of january, and see our nearly full moon sitting just next to mars in the sky for the evening.

tethys plays peek-a-boo

saturn's moons play games with the space craft cassini in today's astronomy picture of the day. the tiny moon tethys pokes around the side of saturn's largest moon, titan.


you can see a huge crater on tethys in the image, and you can clearly see one of the most intriguing features of titan: the dense atmosphere that surrounds it! titan is the only satellite in our solar system known to have such a substantial atmosphere which places it on the top of the list of candidates to host some sort of microbial extraterrestrial life. there is currently discussion happening about future missions to explore titan more closely.

mike brown (aka - pluto killer!) wrote a great description of his team's discovery of some storms in titan's atmosphere.

you can watch a video of the entire occultation shown in the image above, or you can learn more about saturn from the sixty symbols video!

New Research Center Seeks to Develop Fusion Energy for Electric Power in Wise

AVRC has been awarded a contract by Wise County's Industrial Development Authority to manage a $7 million energy research center now under construction in the Lonesome Pine Business and Technology Park in Wise, VA. One of many alternative energy projects that they expect to develop is inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) aneutronic fusion energy. The energy research center is called the Appalachia America Energy Research Center, and IEC fusion is only one of several projects they are developing in a significant energy technology portfolio.

Plans are in the works to conduct a multimillion-dollar research project in Wise to develop fusion technology into an economic source for everything from electricity to medical applications. Invented by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Dr. George Miley, the process involves pumping aerosol boron plasma into a spherical container where it is made very, very hot. The atoms begin to fuse, creating energy.

The project will start small, with about 6-8 researchers, and could employ 20-28 researchers within 18 months. If the project becomes commercially viable, it could move to a bigger location and could grow to employ up to 100 people and involve four major research universities. The initial fusion research proposed is $3.5 million.

With offices in Raleigh, NC and headquarters in Danville, VA, the Advanced Vehicle Research Center has been involved in the transportation energy sector since 2001.

Comparing Google, Microsoft, Apple, & Yahoo On Their Services : A Cheat Sheet

Yesterday Nick Bilton (NY Times)  Showed Us An Interesting Sheet Which Tells Us Which Businesses Are Running By Google, Microsoft, Apple, And Yahoo.
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Blogger Allows Custom Page Creation : Here Is How To Do It

This Could Be An Important Update To The Blogger, Now Blogger Allows You To Create Custom Pages Such As "About Me". Its Now Available On Draft Version Only.
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No Chinese Spacewalks Planned at Tiangong

The Chinese Tiangong-1 space lab is expected to be launched to low erath orbit in late 2010 or 2011 as a part of an expanding human space effort. A human-rated Shenzhou 9 spacecraft will be launched to the space lab following an unmanned Shenzhou 8 rendezvous and docking. But there will be no planned Chinese taikonaut spacewalks planned with the Tiangong-1 space lab and its crew, according to a report published by Space Daily.

This Blogger previously suggested a joint Chinese-Russian-US mission to the planned space lab that would have included a spacewalk in 2012. The Chinese will launch their fourth human-rated mission in 2011 with an anticipated crew of three. Many believe that the Chinese will attempt a human landing on the Moon by 2022.

How Google Ads Works On Search Pages : Video

Here Is An Another Interesting And Informative Video From Google Team, In This Video Google's Product Manager Nundu Janakiram Will Show How These Search Ads Works.
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Google's Video On New And Improved Orkut

Google Has Published A New Video On Their Youtube Channel, Which Will Give You A Idea On How To Use The New Orkut Page.

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White House Has DECIDED to Outsource Astronaut Rides to Space to Private Firms

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Sunday evening that the White House has decided to begin funding private companies to carry NASA astronauts into space, but the proposal faces major political and budget hurdles, according to people familiar with the matter.

The controversial proposal, expected to be included in the Obama administration's next budget, would open a new chapter in the U.S. space program. The goal is to set up a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, including some start-ups, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit—and eventually deeper into the solar system. More ->

Virginia Spaceport Has Hiring Growth

Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) is growing and is expected to start adding a few hundred jobs in support of commercial spaceport launch pad and support facilities construction for a lunar spaceprobe and several cargo missions to the International Space Station beginning in 2011. MARS is only one of four commercial spaceports with launch-to-orbit capability in the United States today.

Spaceport Support Services, a small prime contractor located in Selbyville Delaware, provides engineering services to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia and is now hiring an engineer to develop work process designs, cost estimates, and resolve problems involving both facilities and operations. Responsibilities include studying requirements to determine facility and functional responsibilities of workers, coordination, review and development of schedules and work plans, along with review and oversight of hazardous procedures to ensure worker and site safety.

Orbital Sciences Corporation is expected to hire several rocket scientists, engineers, and project managers to support the $1.9 billion NASA launch contract to re-supply cargo to the space stationin addition to the planned NASA-sponsored lunar mission. Virginia has issued $26-million in bonds to support a second commercial spaceport launch pad.

The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) is now in the final process of hiring a new Deputy Director to assist in the rapidly growing commercial spaceport operations and launch pad construction. The job was announced some several weeks ago with the final hire expected to made within the next month. Dr. Billie Reed serves as the Executive Director of the VCSFA managing the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport operations. Reed is expected to hire other support staff in 2010.

The NASA Wallops Flight Facility recently engaged William Wrobel as the new director to advance the space agency's interests at the Virginia Eastern Shore facility. His background includes work with Orbital Sciences Corporation.

Setting Amazon Associates On Blogger Blog

In Previous Post I've Notified You On The Announcement Of Intergration Of Amazon Associates On Blogger, In This Post, I Will Show How To Setup Amazon Associates And Enabling Amazon Product Search On Blogger Editor.

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when a cat upsets your gravity

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

i'll also take this opportunity to point you in the direction of the cat lovers version of the sartorialist: the catorialist!

Now Its More Easier To Monetize Your Blogger Blog With Amazon Affiliates, Coz They Are Now Intergrated

Blogger And Amazon Associates Are Now Integrated. You Can Expect More Explosions From Google Blogger As I Love To Blog With Blogger Other Than Any Other Platforms.

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Taquamenon Falls and Canada Lakes Skies

After all the long days working on the book, my friend Diana Bell suggested that we head out of town on a ski trip. It was also a belated birthday present, which was terrific. Living on the south shore of Lake Superior, we don't see the sun much in the winter. However, last week we had at least 3 days with sunshine, including Thursday when we went out of town.

The temperature was around 30, but it had been cold at night so the skiing was fantastic. We skied at Canada Lakes, located a few miles southeast of Newberry, MI, for around 3 hours. What a great ski that was.







After we left Canada Lakes, we drove north through Newberry and went to the lower Taquamenon Falls. We skied to the falls, took the skies off, and walked down the steps. I always love going to the falls. There wasn't much ice on the falls given the high flow rate, but there was a lot of ice -- including some blue ice -- hanging from the walls of the gorge around the falls area. Beautiful.

Finally, before heading home, we had a nice dinner at the brewpub located on site in the state park. It was a great day.