Congress is mandating a heavy launch system that NASA doesn’t want:

Right in the middle of all this opportunity, the US Congress has decided that not enough money is being spent. It is mandating, apparently against the wishes of NASA and the Administration and without interest from any potential user, building a new launch vehicle by 2016—an overly optimistic, earlier-than-needed date. It appears that the result of the fiscal year 2011 budget deliberations in Congress will be to mandate for NASA to begin development of a rocket capable of delivering 130 metric tons to orbit, and prescribing that it uses the shuttle core stage and solid rocket motors.

But who is the customer? What are the requirements? What is the mission? If we have, or soon will have, four ways to get humans to low Earth orbit already, isn’t that enough for the present? Heavy-lift capability isn’t needed until we have heavy-lift requirements. Starting down the development path before those requirements are defined is a textbook prescription for wasting money. Not only will money be wasted, but it will undermine the existing Air Force and commercial options. America might repeat the perilous mistake of 1979–80: putting all human-to-space eggs in one not-yet-built basket.

That’s our Congress, pouring our money down the drain. Again.

Way to go Jenny! Michigan’s first population decline in 100 years.

You can safely stick your hand in liquid nitrogen…but you probably shouldn’t

What Does ObamaCare Mean to You?

Obamas’ buddy, Hugo Chavez, is working to acquire Iranian missiles that can reach the United States:

The Iranian move to place medium range missiles in Venezuela – which may not be the impetus behind the actions by Brazil and Argentina – clearly threatens every nation within the missiles’ range. Chavez’s close relationship to the world’s principal sponsor of terrorism isn’t new, but it is a quantum leap in escalation of his enmity to America and his threat to South American democracies.

The 1962 Cuban missile crisis was the closest the United States came to a nuclear war. With Soviet medium range missiles in Cuba, capable of carrying nuclear warheads to any American city, JFK’s demands that they be withdrawn were accompanied by the threat that we would remove them ourselves. An Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over Cuba raising tensions close to war. A naval blockade of Cuba was about to engage and turn back a Russian convoy when the Russians backed down.

Chavez’s Venezuela was, for a time, Castro’s Cuba on steroids. His new “socialist” revolution is bankrupting the nation, but Chavez is working diligently – with Iranian and Russian help – to do what his idol, Fidel, failed to do.

Would you feel guilty buying a Volt?

The War on Morality

State of public ed: 40% of Chicago Public School Teachers Send Own Kids to Private Schools

The First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral-

Ultra Fast Camera Enhances Understanding Of High Explosive Detonation:

With the development of such detonation systems, diagnostic techniques capable of accurately characterising detonator functionality are required.

Application note 14 describes how a SIM8 Ultra Fast Camera running at 1 million frames per second (1360 x 1040 pixels per frame) with 500ns exposures and front lighting was used to record the detonation of high explosive driven liner using a EBW detonator. Initial timing for the detonator and camera were generated using timing from digital delay generators.

Additional synchronization of precise delays to start of frames and flashes were achieved using internal camera timing generators with nanosecond accuracy. Framing data is presented covering the 7.5?s recording period of interest enabling clear diagnosis of how the high explosive driven liner detonates.

FCBZ: Rev. Al “Gotta Gin Up Racism in the Headlines or I’d Be Out of a Job” Sharpton is at it again. He wants to silence conservative speech on the radio — namely Rush Limbaugh. And he’ll pull out that dog-eared race card again to try to do it.

Abolish the FCC!

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repealed

The Sentry Journal looks to be up and running at full speed: The circle of dictators – from King George to King Barry