Check out this link to photos from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. See how cozy the Soyuz Capsule is.
Thanks to Les for the link.
Cosmodrome Photos
1 Reply
Bush II and His Faith-Based Bailout
Where is the Decider President? He sent his creepy surrogate, Dick “Rasputin” Cheney, slinking around to urge members of congress to support the bailout plan, but where is George?. I suppose Bush II is lying low to avoid casting the long shadow of the GOP on this banking train wreck.
But it’s just so striking; in the run up to the largest business bailout in the history of the solar system, Secretary Paulson’s boss is strangely absent. No frank and heartfelt talk with the American people. All the Bush administration can do is to attempt to hustle congress into a mysterious plan. Take our plan on faith- we know what we are doing.
No details have been released to the citizens regarding how this number, $0.7 trillion, was arrived at. Is this large sum actually large enough? How does the country recoup this outlay? Is the stated urgency related to the election?
Citizens must learn to save more cash and be smarter about the terms of the mortgage they sign. We must consider that our banking system is much like the municipal water system- it’s integrity must be scrupulously maintained and those who manage it must be held accountable for its operation.
Update: Bush II will make an announcement to the nation this evening. I wonder if there will be any folksy anecdotes?
Craters of America
This is the Atomic Testing Site in Nevada. These craters were dug through the use of cold war neutrons.
Meteor Crater is an example of what a large collision with reality looks like.
Somewhere within the glass and stone canyons of Manhattan, a financial crater smolders while dazed onlookers wonder how deep it is …
Drill Baby Drill!! The GOP Call to Arms.
I recall sitting on the sofa watching the 2008 GOP convention and hearing the intoxicating refrain “Drill Baby Drill”. It was like the sensation of sitting in the dentist chair with my brainstem bathed in cool nitrous oxide vapors and face numbed with lidocaine. I found myself tumbling head over heals in a mild, drooling, narco-twilight state while my twitching eyeballs attempted to focus on McCain. My fellow citizens had drummed themselves into an enchanted war dance and gathered to hear Colonel Kurtz, but without the banana leaves.
Then I snapped out of it. Drill baby drill. This was not just a work order or a requisition for drilling staff to please set up a few drilling rigs in the morning. This was an exhortation to rip those smirking tree huggers from their stations, pulp the trees to make a paper dunce cap for Pelosi, and call in the Air Force to oversee saturation drilling of the continental shelves, and do it pronto!
“Drill baby drill ” was a catch phrase along the lines of “Damn the torpedoes! ” or “somebody get a rope! ” Its conception and use was a masterful bit of applied propaganda- A figurative running of the liberals out of town on a rail.
But what was lost in the excitement were the pragmatics of oil production. You need to boost refinery capacity to increase the supply of refined fuels. And, what oil company is going to attempt to flood the market in a bid to drive down oil prices? What oil company is going to step in and provide cheaper crude to US refiners so that they can, dutifully, distribute cheaper gasoline when the global market price is so high? Only the dumb ones. Do they think that Santa Claus runs Exxon?
I thought GOP’ers were market savvy, laissez faire devotees swingin’ the big stick of Ronnie Reagan tough love? What has happened to these people?
Seems to me that oil in the ground is like money in the bank. Why are we so anxious to deplete North America of its supply?? What about pulling back on demand to counter the high prices? That is the one big stick that consumers have in the market.
China to Demand “IT Accreditation” from Foreign Manufacturers
Yomiuri Shimbun, September 19, 2008. The Chinese government will soon oblige foreign companies to disclose source code in IT products for sale in China. Foreign manufacturers will be allowed to sell their IT-based products to the Chinese market only after an accreditation body examines the code and finds that it passes unspecified tests.
Products expected to be subject to examination include smart cards, digital copiers, and computer servers. China claims that this activity is needed to shut out viruses and stymie hackers. Companies that decline to cooperate can be barred from both sales and manufacture of the product in China.
I would suggest to China that they spend more of their energies keeping better track of melamine and lead.
Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right
Pity Larimer County in northern Colorado. We poor sods who live here find ourselves sandwiched between two unexploited deposits of natural mineral wealth. To the east of Fort Collins, near the hamlet of Nunn, is a fairly large uranium ore body. In the northwest, there may be an exploitable diamond deposit. Perhaps hundreds of Kimberlite pipes may be lying in the CO/WY region waiting to be exploited.
Diamonds have already been mined in northern Colorado, near the Wyoming border. The Kelsey Lake diamond mine closed in 2002 due to bankruptcy. The Kelsy Lake mine produced the 5th largest diamond ever found. The yield of the formation is reportedly 4 carats per 100 metric tons of ore.
Given that the Colorado Front Range has been substantially gentrified, the discovery of mineral wealth in the vicinity of hobby ranchers and McMansions will make for some interesting times for the county commissioners. Uranium and Diamonds. NIMBY.
Stealers Wheel Video 1972.
Two Shuttles
(Credit: AP Photo)
Here is something you don’t see every day. Two Shuttles are now sitting locked and loaded for the upcoming Hubble repair mission. Think of all of the contained energy waiting to spring out.
Van’s Aircraft Flight Testing the RV-12
Van’s Aircraft indicates they are in the final phases of flight testing their new entry, the RV-12, into the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) category. This is a new regulatory category of aircraft that has resulted from some new thinking about what is necessary and sufficient in terms of the regulation of homebuild light aircraft. The new category relaxes certain restraints on operators of homebuilt aircraft.
The new regulatory requirements found in the LSA are welcome to those trying to enjoy aviation on a budget. The video below shows an interview with Dick VanGrunsven, founder of Van’s Aircraft.
Friday Fun- Bob the Angry Flower.
Here is a link to the cartoon strip Bob the Angry Flower. I like the one about Schrodingers Fridge. I was tempted to post a copy, but I didn’t want to rile the Copyright Gods.
BASF Offers to Buy Ciba
According to the on-line publication Chemical Engineering, German chemical giant BASF has made an offer to buy Ciba Holdings AG, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. In the public takeover, BASF has offered CHF 50.00 for each nominal share of Ciba stock. The agreed upon price represents a 32 % premium above the Sept. 12, 2008, closing price. The acquisition will help BASF strengthen its hold on specialty chemicals, particularly in the area of coatings.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
