Jun 14 2013

Size does matter in space exploration: smaller might be way better

Categories:

Curiosity, Jupiter, Mars, NASA, Saturn, Titan

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There are more than one-hundred sizable objects in our solar system with ice or liquid water, each reachable and explorable with present day technology

There are more than one-hundred sizable objects in our solar system, many of them with ice or liquid water, including planets, moons, asteroids, and KBOs, each reachable and explorable with present day technology

Small probes the size of a human hand or smaller could be a big help to planetary exploration. Moore’s Law and tightening budgets could team up to make that technological leap sooner rather than later. In particular, small probes packed with microelectronics and advanced software capable of learning on the alien spot might bring the deep subcyrosphere of moons like Europa or Saturn’s Dionne under scrutiny: Read the rest of this entry »

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3 comments

Jun 14 2013

Psychic sued for damages resulting from fake “visions”

Categories:

psychic, Skepticism

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The Great Psychic Shootout, from SouthPark episode 124 "Cartman's Incredible Gift"

The Great Psychic Shootout, from SouthPark episode 124 “Cartman’s Incredible Gift”

A self purported psychic had “visions” that dozens of dismembered bodies were buried on the property of a Texas couple. Surprise! No bodies there. But that was discovered after the yard and house had been torn to shit thanks to credulous morons in the local police department and the couple’s name dragged through the mud by infotainers in the media. So the couple sued the woosayer: Read the rest of this entry »

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8 comments

Jun 14 2013

Progressives love them some Pope?

Categories:

class warfare

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And by love I mean the purely platonic, non sexual and definitely non same-sex love. Love as in love his position on issues, not necessarily his position on the Gay Lobby, cue dramatic chipmunk. It’s hard to know if stuff like this is the Vatican planting a narrative to see how it grows — it does reek a bit of that — or the real deal. But I can understand, given past Papal apathy or outright corruption and complicity, on class warfare and income inequality, why anyone who stays focused on those growing issues might be a welcome breath of fresh air: Read the rest of this entry »

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5 comments

Jun 14 2013

NASA finds high CO2 & methane levels over Arctic permafrost

Categories:

Climate Change

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Permian-Triassic extinction event in context with other such events

Permian-Triassic extinction event in context with other such events

Carbon dioxide gets most of the climate change press. But methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas. Climate scientists have long studied it as an indicator of CO2 levels and a possible co-conspirator in a number of dramatic extinction events correlated to a sharp increase in global temperatures, most notably the Permian-Triassic event. Recent data suggests there is reason to be concerned: Read the rest of this entry »

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4 comments

Jun 13 2013

Maybe this needs “rebranding”

Categories:

dominionism

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Pat Robertson got slammed on Free Republic when he blamed Haiti’s earthquakes on evil  voodoo. Turns out though, he’s not the only one who thinks that! So does this clown: Read the rest of this entry »

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4 comments

Jun 13 2013

Another day, another double standard for women

Categories:

war on women

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Really nice, pretty much sums up the whole social conservative position on women and guns, and in more than one way:

Salon — A man in Florida shoots a man he finds having sex with his wife, killing him. A woman in Florida shoots the wall to scare off an abusive husband, harming nobody. Guess which one was acquitted? Guess which one was convicted? …

But you don’t have to guess, do you? I bet you can even guess which shooter was white and which was black.

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2 comments

Jun 13 2013

SCOTUS decides genes not patentable

Categories:

healthcare, SCOTUS, Uncategorized

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I’ll leave it to Ed Brayton and friends to parse the decision. All I know is I think it’s the only possible right one and it was unanimous: Read the rest of this entry »

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Jun 13 2013

Toiling in the data mines

Categories:

Commentary, NSA

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By Tom Tomorrow at Daily Kos

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4 comments

Jun 13 2013

Dumbass Republicans just can’t help themselves on rape

Categories:

Birth control, class warfare

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Conservatives know they’re supposed to keep their real views on abortion and rape quiet, they’ve been told point blank to not say the word rape at all, and last election two candidates that should have sailed to election in the Senate lost because they could not keep their mouth shut about conservative pseudoscience and rape. But they’re still at it:  Read the rest of this entry »

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4 comments

Jun 13 2013

Non belief in Tunisia

Categories:

atheism

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Interesting article about atheism in Tunisia, excerpt below. As best I can tell it’s not an automatic death sentence like it is in many Islamic countries. But it’s frowned upon to some degree, I guess not that different from the US in some ways: Read the rest of this entry »

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2 comments

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