Archive for the 'Politics' Category
Mar 13th, 2008
Comments(1) News from NASA: Jim Green & Andrew ThomasQuick notes, often copied from PowerPoints. Attempts to write in full paragraphs not made. The Reserarch and Analysis budget had been cut 15%. This below life support levels! With this level of cuts, […] Read more...
Mar 10th, 2008
Comments(15) Michael Griffin ReduxThe last time I reported on Michael Griffin I was at AAS and he was addressing us (the astronomy community) on the future of astronomy missions (space missions focusing on stuff outside of our solar system). Today he will address the planetary science community (and a few stray astronomers like me) on the future […] Read more...
Feb 27th, 2008
Comments(10) Freedom to like who I want to likeI will be the first to admit that I sometimes don’t understand why politicians do what they do, even when they do what is generally considered the right thing.
Feb 22nd, 2008
Comments(7) More politically inspired songsThis is not a discussion of politics. This is a discussion of the music and music videos inspired by politicians. If you know of any other songs (we are sticking to the musical genre only!) about people actively running for president, forward and I will post.
Feb 20th, 2008
Comments(13) No one can shoot a satellite down!Was the title provocative enough for you?
Jan 9th, 2008
Comments(6) NASA, I think we need to talkYesterday’s Michael Griffin talk left me feeling just plain disgruntled. This morning, walking over from Starbucks, the gang of us ran into a NASA related person (whose name I didn’t ask permission to use, so I won’t), and had a really good talk about what went wrong yesterday, what was meant, and a few things […] Read more...
Oct 10th, 2007
Comments(6) Travel, Politics, and other RandomnessThis year I’m traveling more than I think I have ever traveled before. Thursday I’m flying down to Texas to attend AstroFest, which is being hosted by the Swinburne University of Technology and their program Swinburne Astronomy Online. Friday morning I’ll be giving a talk on the Improbable Universe (which I’m going to try […] Read more...
Jun 6th, 2007
Comments(27) Politics, Religion, Science and TearsThere are few concepts that can make advocates of the scientific method, astronomy and biology more twitchy than “Creationism.” In its strictest sense, creationism is the belief that humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe were created in their entirety by a supernatural deity or deities (typically God), whose existence is presupposed.* This definition is extremely broad and leaves room for both Descartes’ watchmaker Deity - a God who sets the universe in motion and watches it tick - and a literalist view of the Bible that implies a young Earth - e.g. the view that the Bible tells the factual Judeo-Christian History of the actual creation of the Earth. In today’s rhetoric, it is generally the later form of Creationism that is meant when the word is used. For instance, the Discovery Institute and the Creation Museum both use the word Creationism to describe a cosmology in which dinosaurs and man co-roamed an Earth that was created several thousand years ago. Let me start by saying I hate vague language (even if I sometimes fall prey to using it). Read more...
Jun 6th, 2007
Comments(8) Republicans and CreationismThere is a story over on Cosmic Variance that is a most read for anyone planning to vote or to try and influence someone’s vote in the U.S. 2008 presidential elections. To quote Sean: “It was an embarrassing moment in the first Republican presidential debate when the participants were asked, “Does anyone not believe in evolution?”, and three candidates — Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, and Mike Huckabee — raised their hands. Embarrassing for those three, obviously, but also for the Republican party, in which they are far from unrepresentative, and for the United States, that anyone would even think to ask such a question of serious candidates for the highest office in the land.” (Read entire story here) Read more...
May 13th, 2007
Comments(2) Random thought 2
There are approximately 300,000,000 people in the U.S. The U.S. is spending roughly $275 million* per day on the Iraqi war. Celestron Nexstar 5″ Schmidt-Cassegrain GoTo scopes cost $799 plus shipping. If the U.S. government spent on its people what it spends in Iraq in one day every person in America could own a nice GoTo telescope. Read more... |





