DeRosaWorld

White Flight... To Mars

The US and European space agencies have signed the "letter of intent" that ties together their Mars programmes.

The agreement, which was penned in Washington DC, gives the green light to scientists and engineers to begin the joint planning of Red Planet missions.

The union will start with a European-led orbiter in 2016, and continue with surface rovers in 2018, and then perhaps a network of landers in 2018.

The ultimate aim is a mission to return Mars rock and soils to Earth labs.

Their broad vision would encompass the following launch opportunities:

In 2016: A European-led orbiter to study trace gases, including methane, in Mars' atmosphere. The mission would also put a static meteorological station on the surface. Critically, Europe would handle the entry, descent and landing (EDL) of this station - a capability it has yet to demonstrate.

In 2018: European and American rovers would be dispatched to Mars. The US would do the EDL.

In 2020: "Under consideration" is a network of landers focused on geophysics and the environment. 

The U.S. Congress wants an amendment to the 'Letter Of Intent' that states no American funding for these space flights will be used on aborted missions.

"And if California slides into the ocean... Like the mystics and statistics say it will... I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill." - Warren Zevon

"That is a signal of the fault weakening; you only have to push a little bit and the fault fails."

We're fucked.

The major 2004 earthquake in Sumatra may have weakened the San Andreas fault, 8,000km away in California.

Does It Replace Watson or Holmes?

Gumshoes need not apply.

How would Raymond, Chandler, Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie or Dashiell Hammett deal with this technology?

"In the heart of New York Police Department's (NYPD) Real Time Crime Centre (RTCC), Inspector Kenneth Mekeel surveys data coming in on a giant monitor the size of a cinema screen.

As queries come in from officers on the street he brings up different data streams and punches them back to the officers.

Inspector Mekeel is on the digital front line of North America's fight against crime.

He is also part of a new wave of policing which increasingly relies on technology and immediate access to digital information."

Hammer Films Presents: Return Of The WITCH

In England, their first computer, the Harwell (1949) is being resurrected.

"The computer, which was designed in 1949, first ran in 1951 and was designed to perform mathematical calculations; it lasted until 1973.

When first built the 2.4m x 5m computer was state-of-the-art, although it was superseded by transistor-based systems.

The restoration project is expected to take a year.

The system was built and used by staff at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell, Oxfordshire...

...Retired from service at Harwell, the system was offered as a prize for colleges, with Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Technical College (later Wolverhampton University) taking ownership and renaming it as the WITCH (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computing from Harwell). It was used in computer education until 1973."

The U.S. Outsources The Total Eclipse Of The Sun To India And China

"On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan's Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 s. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean."

The Obama Administration and the Democrat Congress have given over the total eclipse of the sun to India and China... probably 'cause Obama was born there.

A Man On The Moon: 40 Years Ago Today

"Impressive. Most impressive" - Darth Vader

Okay, let''s all stop and think for a moment. On July 20, 1969, the United States landed men on the moon. And we returned them safely back to Earth.

One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Maybe for only a few moments, we were all one people. We were Earthlings. That's saying something.

A True Symbol Of Post-JFK America: NASA Throws Away Moon Landing Footage And Hollywood Recreates It.

One of humankind's greatest achievements, landing a men on the moon and returning them safely to Earth.

Old Status: U.S. lost original footage...

New Status: Hollywood restores copies and makes it all shiny and bright and better than the original.

This, more than anything represent the United States in a post-JFK America... full of shit and lying about it on TV.

Now I'm really sure we didn't go up there the first time we said we did.

It’s A Bipartisan Thing.

"Dr. Francis S. Collins, the geneticist who discovered the causes of half a dozen diseases, oversaw the government's efforts to map the human genome and wrote a now-famous book presenting scientific evidence for a belief in God, will be nominated to head the National Institutes of Health, the White House confirmed Wednesday."

I'd rather have Socrates.

So a Cosmonaut goes into orbit around the earth, looks out his space ship window and declares: This is proof there is no god.

An Astronaut goes into orbit around the earth, looks out his space ship window and declares: This is proof there is a god.

Francis Collins. Do we trust him to spend the billions of dollars in the right places?  He seems like the perfect example of an Obama-man for-all-seasons.

Education... check. A little too American South for my prejudices.

Curriculum vitae... check.

Science bona fides... check.

Theological bona fides... BioLogos... not so much.

I just wish that somewhere in the Administration we were getting a flaming liberal... no apologies.

Saturday Musings: 'Moonwalking At 50' Edition

An interesting climate bill was passed by Congress last night. America had to jump into this at some point with both feet, after leaving Al Gore at the alter back in 2000... but, we should not be breathing easier.

Humans, not individual nations, need to understand that we all live and breathe on the same planet. We all go down together if we get this one wrong.

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Michael Jackson is still going strong. The folks behind his corporate/music career are working over time to make sure they can milk the singer for everything they can get, even after his death.

Michael Jackson is going to be in our lives for a long time. Just imagine how many careers are going to be revived by the funeral, alone. The freak show keeps moving on and we are going to be forced to watch.

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Governor Sanford (R-SC) who was caught in Argentina having an extra-martial affair says that David (King David from the Bible…) didn’t resign after having his affair with Bathsheba...so why should he.

Well I knew King David, sir and you are no King David. But… maybe the trailblazing Governor was speaking code… so is there also a ‘Jonathan’ in the Governor’s closet?

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President Obama keeps putting his hand out and it keeps getting bit. I wonder how long this will go on? His latest idea of drafting an executive order that would indefinitely incarcerate terrorist suspect is not playing well with the liberal progressive base that love voted for him. In fact they are the ones gnawing on his knuckles.

The President thinks this comprise puts him on the high ground for this issue. Okay, we get it… he is never gong to take a strong left-wing stand, we are going to get four, maybe eight years of little baby steps back from the right-wing abyss.

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So, is the public option health care plan dead? Sometimes, societal change happens overnight. It has to, or be thwarted.

THERE WAS A TAPE MACHINE, Ass-Sweat.

Most Americans know most national religious figures are charlatans.

Most Americans know that most Republican political leaders are phonies.

I'm not saying these two groups aren't smart, they do fool a lot of people into following them, but man... Richard Nixon takes the cake.

These newly released Presidential recordings of Nixon just keep getting worse for the former, failed, Republican President. We already knew he was anti-Semitic and racist, but in that everyday, all-American, white- guy, asshole from the 1950's kind of way.

I know Richard Nixon never slept with pre-teen boys, or sexy female interns, but he committed every other sin the book. And like all professional assholes, he takes people down with him.

The Reverend Billy Graham is toast. Butter his ass and file it under L for liar... "Synagogue of Satan"?

I love the Presidential tape recording system. Not only does it prove for history that Republican Presidents are degenerate, racist, lying pricks who belong in prison rather than the Oval Office... it also has proven that Democratic Presidents are interesting, smart, patriotic leaders who deserve to be in the Oval Office.

I read a few hate biographies of President Kennedy that have him in a back-brace, rolling around the floor of the Oval Office crying to the Joint Chiefs of Staff to help him out of the Cuban Missile Crisis... but wait... there is TAPE!!! And guess what... JFK was actually a hero... and the Joint Chiefs were treasonous bastards that would have blown up the world. Check out the movie 13 Days based on the tapes.

"Bomb, Bomb, Bomb... Bomb, Bomb Iran"... how would that have worked out for us all, in the light of history, huh?

Republicans... trash 'em.