Nominal.

Nominal.

Good word.

http://www.spacex.com/webcast/

Watch the video from a couple of seconds before launch (about 21:00) and stick with it for 15 minutes or so.  You won't be disappointed.

Nominal indeed.

I Don't Care, I'm Posting This Anyway

Un-Science!

Not meaning to offend, and all that, but really, do the Intelligent Design folks have any arguments that are more robust than "isn't it amazing that my legs are long enough to reach the ground?"

Because when I run into this topic, it seems that I'm supposed to find the above position compelling, and if that's all they've got then it's even less sciencey than they think they want it to be.

"Look to the Skies!" No, Seriously - Right Over There!

100 years ago, horse-drawn carriages were still common and on this day I found:

"Sep 23rd - Earl Ovington becomes 1st air mail pilot."

Via Tam, today I read

"It is critical that all pilots/flight crew members report any observed falling space debris to the appropriate (air traffic control) facility and include position, altitude, time and direction of debris observed," the FAA statement said.

Not too bad, Humans. Not too bad at all.

A Stew of Links To Enrapture the Unwary

This one is a 2-fer. Interface geeks and Star Wars nerds rejoice: Dan O'Bannon and the the tactical displays in Star Wars.

H/T to Borepatch for this one:  Armor Penetration and the Medieval Longbow.

Found this in Wired. Ever wanted to see a Zombie-decapitating Slingshot? Didn't know that you wanted to see that until just now?  The Slingshot Channel on Youtube.

Is It Just Me, or Is It Not Getting Hot in Here?

Another handful of nails for the Carbon coffin:

Via Hot Air:

The evidence is powerful, straightforward, and damning. NASA satellite instruments precisely measuring global temperatures show absolutely no warming during the past the past 10 years. This is the case for the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, including the United States. This is the case for the Arctic, where the signs of human-caused global warming are supposed to be first and most powerfully felt. This is the case forglobal sea surface temperatures, which alarmists claim should be sucking up much of the predicted human-induced warming. This is the case for the planet as a whole.

I've been saying it for 20 years. It's basic science. You pose your theory and you test it, and if the results 100% contradict your hypothesis, your theory is disproven and you move on from it. If you refuse to do this you are not practicing science.

End of line.

Science, Bitches!

Dark matter, my ass:

The student conducted a targeted X-ray search of vast structures known as "filaments of galaxies", which stretch across the vast expanse of space. Examining data the research team had already gathered, her analysis of material confirmed that mass was present in the filaments.

"If we're looking very, very long distances from Earth we're detecting mass, but if we're looking closer to Earth we only see about half the mass that we're expecting to see. This is what is called the missing mass problem.

"People have theorised that this mass has settled in filaments that extend between clusters of galaxies, so we tested and confirmed this prediction by detecting it in the filaments," the Australian media quoted Amelia as saying.

Remember, ladies and gents, when you have to invent something as dumb as "dark matter" to describe your missing mass, you're not looking hard enough.

Atom Smasher 1: Whiners 0

All of you hoping that technology will continue to be the savior of the human race -- Behold. I give you the artificial leaf. 

If you've finished marvelling, I remember something my esteemed co-blogger once said when irked by some whining about the depletion of the Amazon rainforest. "Fuck it. If we wanted to, we could just build another one." 

I know this artificial leaf doesn't create oxygen, but I suspect that's just a matter of time.

Grand Unified Theory-Check Time

One of my driest, most boring, most methodical, and least-communicative astronomy professors (a cosmo-chemist) turned to the 8 of us in the Astro core curriculum one morning and said "Of course, keep in mind that all of this (gestures at formulae on the board) is relevant only so long as the Universal Gravitational Constant is truly constant; and we really don't have direct proof of that."

That'll snap you awake at 8:30am.

Bottom line is that I'm more prepared to believe that c is not constant over time than I am in something called "dark matter" or "dark energy".

And the thing that makes me smile is that once upon a time the concept of the cosmic ether made sense, because waves need something to propagate through. Then "the ether" became a stupid idea, because light waves are different.

And now we have to invent a magical something that no one can see and that is so pervasive throughout the cosmos that it actually determines the internal forms of the universe via gravity.

Hello, cosmic ether. Maybe we dumped you too soon. Will you take us back?