Space, Storms, Pinwheels, Pinheads and Politics

Space. In our own backyard

Cosmic dust particle

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2008) — The origin of the microscopic meteorites that make up cosmic dust has been revealed for the first time in new research out September 1, 2008.
The research shows that some of the cosmic dust falling to Earth comes from an ancient asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. This research improves our knowledge of the solar system, and could provide a new and inexpensive method for understanding space.

The answer to so many important questions, such as why we are here and are we alone in the universe, may well lie inside a cosmic dust particle. Since they are everywhere, even inside our homes, we don’t necessarily have to blast off the Earth to find those answers.

Perhaps they are already next to you, right here and right now.”

Storm Watching;

From the Goes East Satellite
This is great!
http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/carb/loop-vis.html

Cloudy Martian Skies

NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA / TAMU Clouds scoot across the Martian sky in a movie clip consisting of 10 frames taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. This clip accelerates the motion. The camera took these 10 frames over a 10-minute period. Particles of water ice make up these clouds, like ice-crystal cirrus clouds on Earth.

You don't need to travel to the red planet to get a Mars Turbine.
In a few years, you may see scores of giant blimps floating overhead. But it won't be because Goodyear is having a hoedown -- those blimps are actually wind turbines. They're not your typical turbine, though. These extremely mobile energy generators, christened with the acronym MARS, will float high in the air at altitudes ranging from 600 to 1,000 feet (183 to 305 meters). The MARS acronym -- not to be confused with the red planet -- stands for Magenn Air Rotor System, and its concept is actually pretty down to Earth. The turbine's only relationship to outer space is the fact that it slightly resembles an oddly shaped UFO.

Magenn Power
The MARS turbine captures the higher speed winds found at altitudes of up to 1,000 feet and converts them into electricity using a generator.

More from Space...
Shaken not stirred.
This asteroid has a whole lot of shakin' goin' on.
Like a jiggled jar of mixed nuts, shaking on the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa is sorting loose rock particles on its surface by size, causing the smallest grains to sink into depressions, a new study suggests.

Image of the near-Earth asteroid Itokawa.

Space Between Their Ears.

Commander-in-chief-ette?
Republicans Say The Darndest Things

If you ask McCain's team, the skepticism about Palin's experience is totally unwarranted. "She's more qualified than Obama," senior advisor Mark Salter told Salon, citing her 13 years in elected office (including her time on the Wasilla, Alaska, city council). "He has no business being president." Campaign aides seem unwilling to drop the line that Palin's command of the Alaska National Guard gives her an important credential, even though it sometimes sounds a little silly coming from Republican loyalists. "She's run her own military," said Joseph LeBlanc, 82, a delegate from Mountain Home, Ark. "Alaska is the biggest land [area] state," said Betty Kiene, an alternate from Piedmont, Okla. "Her neighbors are Canada and Russia, which means she's dealt with international problems." By Mike Madden, Salon.com

If you are paying attention to the words in the speeches, interviews, and, "talking points," from the republican convention, you will notice they are all spewing the same, "sanitized," bullshit. Karl Rove and his speech writing staff have been working day and night to put the, "right," words into the mouths of candidates, pundits and the mainstream media.

Former White House speechwriter Matt Scully wrote her convention speech (and wrote the remarks she gave on Friday) and former Bush strategist Tucker Eskew is working with Sara Palin on press strategy. Senior aides said the campaign also dispatched a team of consultants and lawyers to Alaska to basically take over Palin's political operation.

Gone are the days when a president was smart enough to write his own speech in a carriage, on the way to Gettysburg.

At first, I let myself get upset by the lies and twisted, illogical nonsense that filled space on television and the mainstream press. I asked God to help me understand this madness. His message to me was to find the humor. I will sleep with those words of wisdom and continue this post tomorrow.

In politics, absurdity is not a handicap.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Pinwheel Galaxy

This dramatic image of the galaxy Messier 83 was captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory, located high in the dry desert mountains of the Chilean Atacama Desert. Messier 83 lies roughly 15 million light-years away towards the huge southern constellation of Hydra (the sea serpent). It stretches over 40 000 light-years, making it roughly 2.5 times smaller than our own Milky Way.

I Like Ike

Pinwheel Galaxy? Nope, Ike and Josephine in the Atlantic.

When Ike ran for president we got, "I like Ike," buttons, and little plastic elephants that would walk down a cardboard platform. Times have changed. Ike was a general. McCain was a prisoner of war. Ike had a crook for vice president, and McCain has a, "book banning", beauty queen. Tonight she speaks the words that Karl Rove told Matt Skully to write for her, and the delegates will cheer and say; " She's honest and speaks from the heart."
I would rather have the plastic, walking elephant.

Another Beautiful Day in Redding

My reflection in balcony thermometer. 9/3/08

Today's relevant song;
"Hot Fun in the Summertime"
Sly and the Family Stone

The Golden Rule,
"Do unto others as you would have them do to you."
Egyptian saying, 4,000BC