Watch the Apollo 11 mission recreated in real time

Neat. I've always loved moon stuff; the real missions as well as the proposed. [Link]

Families crowded around black-and-white television sets in 1969 to watch Neil Armstrong take man’s first steps on the moon.
Now, they’ll be able to watch the Apollo 11 mission recreated in real time on the Web, follow Twitter feeds of transmissions between Mission Control and the spacecraft, and even get an e-mail alert when the lunar module touches down. Those features are part of a new Web site from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum commemorating the moon mission and Kennedy’s push to land Americans there first.
“Putting a man on the moon really did unite the globe,” said Thomas Putnam, director of the JFK Library. “We hope to use the Internet to do the same thing.”
The Web site — WeChooseTheMoon.org — goes live at 8:02 a.m. Thursday, 90 minutes before the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It will track the capsule’s route from the Earth to the Moon, ending with the moon landing and Armstrong’s walk — in real time, but 40 years later.
Internet visitors can see animated recreations of key events from the four-day mission, including when Apollo 11 first orbits the moon and when the lunar module separates from the command module, as well as browse video clips and photos and hear the radio transmission between the astronauts and NASA flight controllers.

WeChooseTheMoon.org

Transparency in Government

Not. [Link]

Mark Tapscott reports on what should be the defining quote of the Hopenchange Administration.  Climate Czar Carol Browner got a little too much into czar character when she told the Auto Industry Task Force to leave no record of the negotiations, or for that matter, no record of anything at any time.  How many of those who voted for Barack Obama’s campaign figured on hearing this?

Carol Browner, former Clinton administration EPA head and current Obama White House climate czar, instructed auto industry execs “to put nothing in writing, ever” regarding secret negotiations she orchestrated regarding a deal to increase federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI, is demanding a congressional investigation of Browner’s conduct in the CAFE talks, saying in a letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, that Browner “intended to leave little or no documentation of the deliberations that lead to stringent new CAFE standards.”

Federal law requires officials to preserve documents concerning significant policy decisions, so instructing participants in a policy negotation concerning a major federal policy change could be viewed as a criminal act.

If this broke federal law, then Congress should demand Browner’s resignation.  Even if it didn’t, the intent of the law is to keep both the people and Congress informed of executive-branch development and enforcement of policy.  Browner’s admonition didn’t intend to keep information from the people, though, but from hostile members of Congress.

Obama's Science Czar fan of 70's population dystopias

I hope he still doesn't have these views. They are right up there; forced abortions, mass sterilizations thought the water supply, a "planetary regime". You can't make this stuff up. [Link]

Compulsory Abortion:

Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society.

As noted in the FrontPage article cited above, Holdren "hides behind the passive voice" in this passage, by saying "it has been concluded." Really? By whom? By the authors of the book, that's whom. What Holdren's really saying here is, "I have determined that there's nothing unconstitutional about laws which would force women to abort their babies." And as we will see later, although Holdren bemoans the fact that most people think there's no need for such laws, he and his co-authors believe that the population crisis is so severe that the time has indeed come for "compulsory population-control laws." In fact, they spend the entire book arguing that "the population crisis" has already become "sufficiently severe to endanger the society."

Sterilization through the water supply:

Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control. Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today, nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock.

OK, John, now you're really starting to scare me. Putting sterilants in the water supply? While you correctly surmise that this suggestion "seems to horrify people more than most proposals," you apparently are not among those people it horrifies. Because in your extensive list of problems with this possible scheme, there is no mention whatsoever of any ethical concerns or moral issues. In your view, the only impediment to involuntary mass sterlization of the population is that it ought to affect everyone equally and not have any unintended side effects or hurt animals. But hey, if we could sterilize all the humans safely without hurting the livestock, that'd be peachy! The fact that Holdren has no moral qualms about such a deeply invasive and unethical scheme (aside from the fact that it would be difficult to implement) is extremely unsettling and in a sane world all by itself would disqualify him from holding a position of power in the government.

A Planetary Regime:

Toward a Planetary Regime
...
Perhaps those agencies, combined with UNEP and the United Nations population agencies, might eventually be developed into a Planetary Regime—sort of an international superagency for population, resources, and environment. Such a comprehensive Planetary Regime could control the development, administration, conservation, and distribution of all natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable, at least insofar as international implications exist. Thus the Regime could have the power to control pollution not only in the atmosphere and oceans, but also in such freshwater bodies as rivers and lakes that cross international boundaries or that discharge into the oceans. The Regime might also be a logical central agency for regulating all international trade, perhaps including assistance from DCs to LDCs, and including all food on the international market.

The Planetary Regime might be given responsibility for determining the optimum population for the world and for each region and for arbitrating various countries' shares within their regional limits. Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits.

In case you were wondering exactly who would enforce these forced abortion and mass sterilization laws: Why, it'll be the "Planetary Regime"! Of course! I should have seen that one coming.

The rest of this passage speaks for itself. Once you add up all the things the Planetary Regime (which has a nice science-fiction ring to it, doesn't it?) will control, it becomes quite clear that it will have total power over the global economy, since according to Holdren this Planetary Regime will control "all natural resources, renewable or nonrenewable" (which basically means all goods) as well as all food, and commerce on the oceans and any rivers "that discharge into the oceans" (i.e. 99% of all navigable rivers). What's left? Not much.

Go to the link to see scans from the book and more.

Ryan Reynolds is Green Lantern

Cool. [Link]

Ryan Reynolds has landed the coveted role of “Green Lantern,” getting the starring role in Warner Bros.' live-action film based on the DC Comics hero.

Martin Campbell will direct. The studio is still working on the picture’s budget, but production is expected to begin in January.

The news caps off a memorable summer for Reynolds, who played Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” a performance that prompted Fox to begin development on a spinoff film. Reynolds followed that by starring opposite Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy “The Proposal,” which crossed the $100 million mark this week.

Warners and Campbell chose Reynolds, who vied for the superhero role along with “The Hangover” star Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto. The momentum built for Reynolds in the last week, as he was the only actor whose option was extended.

Why are they making Robots that eat food?

This is just asking for trouble when the robots start going on a human eating rampage. [Link]

The idea of EATR is ostensibly that military reconnaissance droids far behind enemy lines would be able to forage for fuel. Robotic Technology Inc, lead contractor on the EATR, puts it thus:

EATR is an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance military missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling. The patent pending robotic system can find, ingest and extract energy from biomass in the environment, as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, diesel, propane and solar) when suitable.

The machine runs on a "biomass furnace" which powers a steam generator driving a "waste heat engine" from Cyclone Power Technologies. These pieces of kit will now be mated together within 90 days, according to RTI.

The robot steamers are envisaged as being equipped with powerful articulated arms in order to rip trees or bushes out of the earth and stuff them into their glowing maws. By way of a treat, it seems that the machines will also be able to loot or forage more conventional fuel supplies from the petrol tanks of cars, domestic gas cylinders and so on. Cyclone says that their engine can also run happily on old apple cores, banana peel and other kitchen garbage gleaned from bins.

Hapless drivers or householders will be in no position to object to such robotic plundering: military reconnaissance vehicles are typically heavily armed, and doubtless the EATR will be no exception. It might also be fitted with DARPA's SELF tech, enabling it to construct copies of itself and modify its own design.

35%

Wow. [Link]

Perhaps a number will help: 35%. That is the aggregate percentage of United States GDP produced by the three industries that the Democrats hope to restructure from the top down: Health care (17% of GDP), energy (9.8% of GDP), and financial services (8% of GDP). Think about that. Without even considering the transformational impact of proposed anti-business laws of general application, such as the Orwellian "employee free choice act," the Obama administration wants to redesign 35% of gross domestic product from the center. And he proposes to do it all in a rush this summer, lest the decline in his popularity and that of the Congressional Democrats erodes his power to do so.

Muppets All Through the Night

Laser weapons that won't blind permanently

Used to stop vehicles. [Link]

Laser dazzlers — or “optical distraction devices,” as the military prefers to call them — have proven invaluable in Iraq as a way of warning drivers to stop at checkpoints. (A flash of bright light does tend to give people pause.) But as Danger Room reported, several U.S. troops have suffered serious eye injuries from laser “friendly fire” incidents. So the U.S. military’s Joint Nonlethal Weapons Directorate is developing a new type of laser which aims to be both safer and more effective than existing dazzlers, I report in New Scientist. Whether it will work is still an open question.

Rather than a continuous beam, the Laser Windshield Obscuration project works by firing a short laser pulse, which is absorbed by the vehicle windscreen. That produces a brilliant white ‘re-radiation’ flash (see photo, right), leading to cracking or hazing of the glass (photo, left).

Originally, the objective was to cause the maximum amount of the damage to the windscreen, making it impossible to see through. As the photograph shows, the laser is certainly capable of it. The concept is similar to the lens-destroying “laser crazer” project, proposed for knocking out cameras and other sensors. However, researchers found that the bright flash was enough to cause “optical incapacitation” or dazzling of the driver. Work is now concentrating on changing the output to produce a brilliant flash with minimum damage; ideally, the windscreen would not need to be repaired or replaced.

The laser flash should give a clear and unambiguous signal to stop. If the driver does not stop in spite of the warning, they may be assumed to be a suicide bomber and more lethal means will be used. (And a dazzled suicide bomber should be slightly less dangerous).

Existing laser dazzlers have the double problem of limited effectiveness in daylight and the potential to cause eye damage at short range. The JNLWD say that the Windshield Obscuration Laser will be equally effective in all lighting conditions. And, since the brilliant flash is generated at the windscreen, it should have the same effect at five meters or five hundred.

That;s Great Now Fix the Economy

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
That's Great Now Fix the Economy
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Joke of the Day

No, really. Fix the economy.

Boondoggle 2.0

Up to $18 million will be spent on recovery.gov redesign. [Link]

For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site.

The new Web site promises to give taxpayers more information about where their money is going than the current version of the site.

“Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent,” James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. “Armed with easy access to this information, taxpayers can make government more accountable for its decisions.”

Innovative and interactive? Uh huh. Are they going to allow people to leverage the implementation to develop synergies to ramp up the long-term intellectual capital and champion a mission critical paradigm shift.*

* Some buzzwords taken from Business Buzzword Bingo. No actual buzzwords were harmed in the making of this post. Now get out there and re-engineer the moving parts that will give a strategic fit on the info highway.

New kind of rocket

Neat. [Link]

Funded by the Air Force, Brian Gilchrist and his colleagues are developing a new type of thruster that uses nanoparticles as propellant. Much of the engine is etched directly onto a wafer-thin piece of silicon via micro-electromechanical systems technologies, known as MEMS, that are more commonly used in the semiconductor industry. Measuring no thicker than a half-inch (1 centimeter, including the fuel) and with tens of thousands of accelerators able to fit on an area smaller than a postage stamp, these “stick-on” thrusters could power tiny spacecraft over vast distances.

Previous claims for nanoFETs [2007 paper]
- nanofets could deliver up to 10 times as much thrust as an ion engine
- nanofet systems can span an Isp range of 100 to 10000 s at greater than 90% thrust efficiency with three types of carbon nanotube particles
- advantages offered by nanoFET’s potential for high efficiencies, lower thruster specific mass, and longer operational lifetimes are both mission enhancing and enabling.
-Having EP systems with long operational lifetimes is important for future missions that require continuous propulsion capability for tens to hundreds of kilo-hours. The nanoFET concept’s operational lifetime is not driven by the primary life-limiting factors of state-of-the-art EP systems. Since the nanoparticles are charged electrostatically rather than ionized as in ion or Hall thrusters, greater reliability and efficiency can be achieved. Without the need to ionize propellant, nanoFET does not experience charge exchange (CEX) collisions between high energy charged and slow moving neutral particles.

This somehow seems to be missing the point of tests

Texas schools get to count failed kids as passing if they think they will eventually pass, but there is no feedback if they actually don't pass. Once again, the children are being disadvantaged by those who are supposed to help them. [Link]

Texas schools are expected to get higher ratings under a new state rule that counts students who fail the state exam as passing if they’re expected to pass in the future. School accountability ratings have changed so much, it’s “a test in itself to figure out if a school is doing better, doing worse or holding even,” writes the Dallas Morning News.

Say a seventh-grader failed the math TAKS. The Texas Education Agency developed a statistical formula that predicts whether that student will pass the math test in eighth grade. The formula considers the student’s math and reading TAKS scores, plus the average math TAKS score at his school.

If the student is predicted to pass, the school gets to count him as actually passing – even though he really failed.

If the student fails in the future, nothing happens to the school’s rating, says Education Gadfly.

A Normal Day

Neat.

MacGruber goes big screen

Sigh, yet another semi amusing SNL recurring character that will be in an ok 5 minute sketch stretched out to 90 minutes. Yay. I'm guessing there will be an in movie Pepsi ad as well. [Link]

Will Forte's bumbling spy MacGruber is headed for the bigscreen as the latest in a long line of "Saturday Night Live" characters to make that transition.

"SNL's" Kristen Wiig will reprise her Vicki character for the feature. Val Kilmer and Ryan Phillippe are in talks to join the cast.

Forte -- who will return to "SNL" in the fall -- debuted the parody of the 1980s action-adventure series "MacGyver" in 2007. He'll co-write with "SNL's" Jorma Taccone and John Solomon; the logline's being kept under wraps. Taccone will direct.

SyFy (ugh) working on Alien Nation reimagining and space opera

Interview with Tim Minear about Alien Nation. [Link]

TIM MINEAR: There is a way to do an alien invasion story that is not Invasion of the Body Snatchers, or gleaming metal ships hovering over cities with laser canons. There’s a way to do an alien invasion story that’s real, and creeping and complex, but totally recognizable. Because it’s happening right now, more so in Europe than in the States. It’s an alien invasion not through hovering space ships and laser beams, but through birth rates and demography. Alien Nation would draw partly from that European clash of civilizations and drop it into the continental US. A French-like ghetto slum in Dallas, or a Gaza Strip in Seattle. The central thematic question is assimilation versus balkanization. To the wary humans, this fast growing alien population threatens to take over via demographics. To the newcomer species that finds itself in an alien world -- the more radical might feel they’re being bullied into assimilating, some feel the larger culture threatens to swallow them whole; to annihilate their identity.

So, the Tenctonese as Islamic immigrants.

More on Alien Nation. [Link]

SyFy seeks the next big space opera. [Link]

Now that the Syfy Channel has a new name, does that mean it's abandoning science-fiction fans? Syfy president David Howe assures us that's not the case, and promises a new space-opera, along the lines of Firefly or Farscape, by 2011.

We spoke to Howe at a special event this morning, celebrating the new spelling of the channel's name, and it's brand new slogan, "Imagine greater." After Howe reassured us the channel wasn't abandoning its core audience of science-fiction fans with its new rebranding, we got a chance to talk about the future of this new Syfy Channel.

Our first question was: What's going to replace Battlestar Galactica? Clearly, Caprica is not the same type of show as BSG, so what's in the pipeline to replace this much-loved space opera? Howe replied that, thanks to Mark Stern and the development team, not only is the channel aiming to greenlight a pilot in the next couple of months for a new series (mums the word on the title) but "we're actively looking into developing the next space opera hopefully for the next year or the year after."

So after Howe dropped this stunner, we hunted down Creative Director of Original Programming, Mark Stern, to find out more about the next big Syfy space opera. Will it have alien puppets?

SyFy is still a stupid name.

Democrats worried about lack of stimulus

Why, it could never have impacted it at all like they claimed. Most of the money hasn't been spent and won't be spent until 2010. It was always about paying off constituents and expanding programs. Now they're talking about another stimulus! [Link]

And well they should. Democrats put down an $800 billion bet and locked Republicans out of the room in placing it. They know their party and their President completely owns the results — and those aren’t looking good at all. And like any bad gambler, they want to double down on a lost hand:

Five months after Congress approved a massive package of spending and tax cuts aimed at reviving an ailing economy, the jobless rate is still climbing and the White House is scrambling to reassure an anxious public that President Obama’s prescription for economic recovery is on the right track.

Yesterday, Obama took time out of his first presidential trip to Moscow to defend the $787 billion stimulus package, arguing that the measure was the right medicine at the right time. “There’s nothing that we would have done differently,” he told ABC News.

Back in Washington, senior Democrats on Capitol Hill were nervously contemplating whether additional government stimulus spending may be needed to pull the nation out of the worst recession since the 1930s. Senior administration officials acknowledged that the effects of the stimulus package have been overshadowed by an unexpectedly sharp drop-off in employment since the measure passed in February. But they reported that only about $100 billion has so far been spent and that as increasingly large sums flow out of Washington, the program is on pace to save or create 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days.

“It is clear from the data that there needs to be more fiscal stimulus in the second half of the year than there was in the first half of the year,” White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers said. “Fortunately, the stimulus program designed by the president and passed by Congress provides exactly that.”

But that wasn’t what the White House or the Democrats promised when they passed Porkulus. Barack Obama’s economic advisers demanded fast action, rather than reasoned debate and negotiation, to adopt their recommendations in order to avoid a spike in unemployment in the near term. They got what they wanted — a spending plan that funded just about every liberal fantasy of the last 30 years, save universal health care — and it didn’t do anything to stop rapid unemployment.

I also hate the 'save or create' jobs line. That doesn't mean anything and can't be measured. I know it's expecting too much to hope that the media might call them on this crap. Unemployment is already higher than they claimed it would be if we didn't pass the stimulus.

Continuing a pattern

White House misspells Obama's name. They just don't seem very detail oriented. [Link]

Oops.

In a release touting an agreement between Obama and President Dmitry Medvedev over how to craft a follow-up to the START arms reduction treaty, the White House claimed the document had been signed by one "Barak Obama."

The worst part is this was a hastily arranged release because it appears the Kremlin was more transparent in their release of the Joint Understanding reached the other day.

Change we can believe in.

Father, son bond over dumping of dead hookers body

How does this happen? [Link]

According to the affidavit filed in Orange County court, the boy said he was with his father when Jett picked up a prostitute from the Parramore area. The trio went back to Jett's apartment in the 7100 block of Forest City Road, and the adults went into Jett's bedroom.

Awhile later, the boy heard his father and Brand argue about money. Then he heard silence, according to the affidavit.

Jett left his bedroom and took his son to dinner. As they left, the boy asked Jett about Brand and was told she was sleeping. The boy told investigators he saw her on the bed but thought then that she was dead.

The next morning, Jett told his son the woman had left. Later, however, the boy went into his father's room, opened the closet and saw Brand's body wrapped in a blanket and tape, according to the affidavit.

He didn't say anything to his father and went to his summer-school classes. After school, the boy told Jett he knew the woman was dead because he saw her body in the closet.

A day later, Jett told his son they needed "to get rid of the body" because it was starting to stink, the affidavit said.

Jett then wrapped the body in more bedding and asked his son to help him load it into the back of his Chevrolet Tahoe, the boy told investigators. They both got in the vehicle and dumped the body in a field.

Asked to show investigators the location, the boy took them to the same place off Forest City Road in Eatonville where Brand's body was found June 22.

Deputies have not said how the woman died.

The Department of Children and Families placed the boy with a relative.

I thought we had come so far...

And then I read this. [Link]

The Creative Steps Day Camp paid more than $1900 to The Valley Swim Club. The Valley Swim Club is a private club that advertises open membership. But the campers' first visit to the pool suggested otherwise.

"When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool," Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. "The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately."

The next day the club told the camp director that the camp's membership was being suspended and their money would be refunded.

"I said, 'The parents don't want the refund. They want a place for their children to swim,'" camp director Aetha Wright said.

Campers remain unsure why they're no longer welcome.

"They just kicked us out. And we were about to go. Had our swim things and everything," said camper Simer Burwell.

The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded.

"There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

Google attempting to make Microsoft/Apple irrelevant

Google announces Google Chrome Operating System. [Link]

It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

If all you do is run web applications or applications that can move to the web, this will be a good choice. With Google Gears, you don't even need to be connected to a network to keep working. I bet people will be surprised how much of what they do can be pushed to the web.