Read more »

An intimate tour in 1080p of Earth's most impressive landscapes as captured by astronauts with their digital cameras. Dr. Justin Wilkinson from NASA's astronaut team describes the special places that spacemen focus on whenever they get a moment.

We start with the coast of Namibia in southwestern Africa, the very dry desert coast of the Namib Desert. You can see a cloud band butting up against the shore and some straight sand dunes in the lower left of the picture. Yeah those are big red sand dunes that the astronauts say is one of the most beautiful sites that you can get when you're flying.

Coming into the view on the left is an impact crater right in the middle of the picture, right about now and some wind streaks. We know where this area is because it's a bit unique. We've got a major dune field coming into the picture on the left there: the Oriental Sand Sea, as it's called in French, and on the top is the Isawan Sand Sea.

This is the island of Sicily with cloud over Mt. Etna, so you can't quite tell there's a big volcano in the middle of the picture right now. And there's the toe of the boot of Italy coming into the picture from the left. See a good example of sun glint on the right with the sea reflecting the sun.

This is the smooth east coast of the Kamchatka peninsula again. As you move inland it gets even more striking as a picture because of all the volcanoes on this peninsula and the snowy mountains. There's a volcano just coming into the picture from the top left there. You can see a knob-shaped feature.

Here is a smaller finger of land in China sticking into the Pacific Ocean. In winter you can see all the snow lower left. This is called the Qindoa P eninsula and we recognize it. And again, the sun glint point moving along the coast upper center.

In a very clear picture, the Zagros mountains with snow on them in Iran.

Here we have the north coast of Australia and the gulf of Carpenteria and some islands. The biggest island at the bottom of the screen there is Groote island, which means the big island in Dutch.

When you see a huge powerful feature like this and the astronauts do shoot them a lot and we have had some detailed views looking right down the eye, looking at the eyewall. In fact I seem to remember views of breaking waves on the sea surface at the bottom of the eye. Amazing detail.

Look at this neat picture of Great Salt Lake in Utah. And the variation in colour. That's due to an almost a complete blockage of the circulation of the lake by a trestle for a railroad that crosses from one side to the other. It stops the circulation and things get a little bit saltier and certainly saltier at the north end of the lake.

Here you see two circles coming in to the top of the view now. These are either volcanoes or effects from inside the earth producing circular features. We think this is the Big Bend area of Texas.

This is an interesting sideways view of the peninsula of Florida, with the Keys stretching out into the lowest part of the picture there. And the shallow seas around the Bahama Islands top right. And Cuba coming into the picture lower right.

And this I believe is the coast of Northern Chile in South America. It's a very straight coast, except for that strange headland out to the right just disappearing. And so the desert is the first part of the inland zone, and then you see much blacker at the top of the picture the Andes Mountains with some many dozens of volcanoes.

Here is a thunderhead. The typical look of the thunderheads, the big rainstorms, that develop over the Amazon Basin. And another one coming in top right. Here's an obviously a major river. There's an even bigger one coming in on the right. That looks to me like it could well be the Amazon River, with one of its big tributaries on the left. And the flow would seem to be from the bottom of the picture to the top.

Read more »

I got this great illustration sent to me yesterday by El Muencho. It was in regards to social media companies and their projected value. This is actually something I have given thought to, the manner in which these companies are valued. Is there another tech bubble, are we continuing on the bubble-burst scenario?

Have a look, you'll need click on the image to expand it, which will open another tab.

Read more »

This was sent to me a grip load of times Tuesday and yesterday, so I relented.

Read more »

Read more »

Read more »

When disaster strikes and society comes to a halt, the necessity to relieve yourself doesn't. If anything, you'll be more inclined to crap your pants. But it needs to be clean, or else disease spreads. Enter, the Japanese emergency crapper. (Sauce)

Read more »

"Make 'Em Say UHH!"

Read more »

This was forwarded to me by El Muencho this morning...If you are unsure, confused, angry any other emotion right now about this revamp of MediCare then please read the content below. It should shed some light and help you organise your emotions a little better.

Basics

- Starting in 2022, Medicare would privatize. Private health insurers would take over most of the functions government performs now for Medicare.
- In general, RyMed would affect Americans age 54 and younger. Those 55 and older would stay on the current version of Medicare.
- BUT, those 55 and older would be affected in the costs of prescription drugs. The Ryan plan reopens the "donut hole," a point in the cost curve where seniors must pay full price for their drugs.

What Happens To Each Person On Medicare

- Again, starting in 2022.
- Each person on Medicare would be allotted a certain dollar amount from the government to help them buy private health insurance.
- RyMed calls this a "premium support" payment.
- Next each person would chose from a list of government-approved private health insurance plans.
- Then the government's allotted payment for that Medicare recipient goes directly to the health insurer they chose.
- The Medicare recipient pays the difference between the insurance plans costs and what the government has allotted for them.

What Does That Mean? In Dollars?

- Here's how the Congressional Budget Office looked at that in dollars.
- CBO estimated that in 2022, the government would allot $8000 for a 65-year-old, to go toward buying a health insurance plan.
- CBO estimated that the 65-year-old would then pay an additional $12,500 for that plan and for all out-of-pocket costs.

Medicare Survival

- Medicare is running out of money.
- The latest forecast from Medicare trustees predicts Medicare will completely go through its trust fund by 2024.
- At that point, money coming into Medicare will not cover the costs of current benefits.
- The Ryan plan cuts the government's Medicare costs, thereby offering one way for the system to survive.
- Ryan argues that the system cannot continue with the amount of cash coming in and the much larger amount going out for costs.
- Critics point out that the Ryan plan shifts Medicare costs from government to the individual. Individuals continue paying into Medicare at current rates, but could face increased out-of-pocket costs for the same benefits they receive now.

How Much Government Will Pay (wonky but important)

- Under the Ryan plan, the government's Medicare payments would increase by no more than the rate of inflation each year.
- Ryan sets the inflation rate at CPI-U, the consumer price index for urban consumers. That is the broadest current CPI measure.
- Other Medicare plans (Simpson-Bowles, for example), tag Medicare cost increases to GDP or the growth in the economy.
- Depending on the economy, the Ryan measure could keep Medicare costs lower for the government. But it could thereby increase the out-of-pockets costs of individuals each year.

What We Don't Know

- How much costs will go up by age. The Ryan Medicare Plan allows insurers to charge more for older Medicare recipients. Thus, an 85-year-old could have significantly higher costs than a 65-year-old.
- What the benefits look like. RyMed stipulates that private insurers have to give Medicare recipients at least the same value of benefits that Members of Congress and other federal employees receive. What that means, specifically, is unclear.(Sauce)

Read more »

I think it is not supposed to start until 6:00pm local time.

Read more »

Read more »

Read more »

If the world is ending why aren't creationists throwing a party?

Read more »

From the man himself. Not Christ but the man who is promoting his return.

How Harold Camping who owns Family Radio, came up with the date May 21st, 2011...

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

"Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved.

"I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.

You really have to read the whole article to really appreciate it.

Read more »

The title of this post says it all.

Read more »

...wanting the statue to throw the stick!

That is one smart and stupid dog at the same time!

Read more »

There is a space-time vortex around Earth, and its shape precisely matches the predictions of Einstein's theory of gravity.

Researchers confirmed these points at a press conference today at NASA headquarters where they announced the long-awaited results of Gravity Probe B (GP-B).

"The space-time around Earth appears to be distorted just as general relativity predicts," says Stanford University physicist Francis Everitt, principal investigator of the Gravity Probe B mission.

Time and space, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, are woven together, forming a four-dimensional fabric called "space-time." The mass of Earth dimples this fabric, much like a heavy person sitting in the middle of a trampoline. Gravity, says Einstein, is simply the motion of objects following the curvaceous lines of the dimple.

If Earth were stationary, that would be the end of the story. But Earth is not stationary. Our planet spins, and the spin should twist the dimple, slightly, pulling it around into a 4-dimensional swirl. This is what GP-B went to space in 2004 to check.

Click here to read MOAWR!

Read more »

More than 30 years after they left Earth, NASA's twin Voyager probes are now at the edge of the solar system. Not only that, they're still working. And with each passing day they are beaming back a message that, to scientists, is both unsettling and thrilling.

The message is, "Expect the unexpected."

"It's uncanny," says Ed Stone of Caltech, Voyager Project Scientist since 1972. "Voyager 1 and 2 have a knack for making discoveries."

Yesterday (4/28), NASA held a live briefing to reflect on what the Voyager mission has accomplished, and to preview what lies ahead as the probes prepare to enter the realm of the Milky Way itself.

The adventure began in the late 1970s when the probes took advantage of a rare alignment of outer planets for an unprecedented Grand Tour. Voyager 1 visited Jupiter and Saturn, while Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. (Voyager 2 is still the only probe to visit Uranus and Neptune.)

When pressed to name the top discoveries from those encounters, Stone pauses, not for lack of material, but rather an embarrassment of riches. "It's so hard to choose," he says.

Stone's partial list includes the discovery of volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io; evidence for an ocean beneath the icy surface of Europa; hints of methane rain on Saturn's moon Titan; the crazily-tipped magnetic poles of Uranus and Neptune; icy geysers on Neptune's moon Triton; planetary winds that blow faster and faster with increasing distance from the sun.

Click here to read MOAWR!

Read more »