The solar wind today id a howling 412 km.sec. Accelerated by Friday's X-flare, energetic protons from the sun are still swarming around Earth tonight. The radiation storm ranks S2 on NOAA scales, which means it is not a severe storm. Nevertheless, it can still affect spacecraft and satellites at the nuisance level. So be careful if you are leaving the planet tonight. Make sure to have your radiation shields working and have a safe journey. Bring us back something will ya?
When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look up. Jupiter and the nearly-half Moon are gathered together less than 10o apart. It's a beautiful sight, and a nice way to end the day. We have again dodged a cosmic bullet. A powerful X-class flare blasted away from the Sun today, but from a spot near to the Western limb. The double barrel missed Earth again.
Satellites Land in Ohio
It’s not what you think. They came via truck. A trio of once-secret U.S. spy satellites built to look down on the Soviet Union were unveiled in Ohio on Thursday (Jan. 26) in a rare public display by the United States Air Force.
The vintage reconnaissance satellites joined the Cold War Gallery at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, and will eventually be installed in a new wing for space relics and other aircraft. The satellites — called KH-7 Gambit 1, the KH-8 Gambit 3 and the KH-9 Hexagon — were officially declassified in September by the National Reconnaissance Office and released for public viewing.
"Last year the NRO celebrated its 50th anniversary, and we announced the declassification of two NRO systems, Gambit and Hexagon, which were America's eyes in space and the most sophisticated satellites of their time," NRO director Air Force Gen. (Ret.) Bruce Carlson said in a statement. "These systems were critical for monitoring key targets in the USSR and around the globe and provided much-needed cartographic information to the DOD to produce accurate, large-scale maps."
Governments are not the only ones making ventures into Space. A Canadian two-man team of young scientists launched the world’s first Lego astronaut into space, and retrieved him...alive. Two Canadian highschoolers have wowed the Web with their video of a Lego toy taking a balloon ride to near-space.
The video, made by Toronto 17-year-olds Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad, shows a tiny Lego man holding a Canadian flag with the blue curve of the Earth far below and the black of space above. It is the latest example of do-it-yourself near-space photography by an amateur balloon launching team.
The teens used a weather balloon to carry the Lego minifigure and set of cameras, one with a fish-eye lens, into to the stratosphere, ultimately reaching a height of nearly 80,000 feet (24,384 meters) before the balloon burst, according to the Toronto Star. Once the balloon popped, the Lego man and its attached cameras fell back to Earth under a homemade parachute. Homeland security folks have put them on a no space list, so I’m afraid these two young men will never become U.S manned space participants. Oh yeah. I guess no American will be going to space until we change presidents.
By the way, I heard an old argument today. I mean really old. One of my business partners said, “Gingrich has a stupid idea of wasting taxpayer dollars to make a base on the Moon. Right now there are 69 active space programs. Whereas many of them are exciting, they reach far out into space beyond anything practical for our planet. With the exception of the trillions of dollars in military defense programs, there is nothing that is aimed at utilizing the Moon. It is my opinion that a Moon colony would not only be profitable in so many ways we couldn’t count them, it would be smart to have a land-based space station a mere three days away from Earth. There is fuel, water, and the availability of many large sub-surface access points that would make for a natural shield against solar or galactic radiation. No brainer, folks. One thing in for sure. If the U.S. doesn’t return to the Moon, China will. He who controls the Moon controls Earth, that’s what everybody says. Okay, well maybe it is just me and a few thousand of my friends who say it.
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Joint military training exercises will be held evenings in downtown Los Angeles through Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The LAPD will be providing support for the exercises, which will also be held in other portions of the greater Los Angeles area, police said.
Training sites ``have been carefully selected to ensure the event does not negatively impact the citizens of Los Angeles and their daily routine,'' a department official said.
The training, which a department official said would involve helicopters, has been coordinated with local authorities and owners of the training sites, police said.
Police said safety precautions have been taken to prevent risk to the general public and military personnel involved.
The exercises are closed to the public, police said.
The exercises are designed to ensure the military's ability to operate in urban environments, prepare forces for upcoming overseas deployments, and meet mandatory training certification requirements, police said.
This GOP race could go on for a long time, and Democrats profess to be thrilled about that prospect, about Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich continuing to bloody each other up, aided by Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.
Why would this go on for awhile? Because a combination of an elongated schedule, new Republican National Committee rules, and some quirks of fate have diminished the importance of individual contests and reduced the ability for knock-out punches.
Part of the reason for this schedule is then-RNC chair Michael Steele wanted an extended primary season so as to ensure a strong nominee; the elongated Barack Obama v. Hillary Clinton race indubitably made Obama a better candidate, and got out a lot of his “dirty laundry” – Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, William Ayres, flag pins and such – long before the general election, so that his campaign could by the fall claim it was all old news.
But top Democrats are hoping that won’t happen with the GOP race, that it will just provide more moments of Romney calling Gingrich “erratic” and Gingrich calling into question Romney’s business practices.
Here’s how top Democrats see it: On January 31 comes the Florida primary, as we know. Because the Sunshine State has opted to hold its primary on an earlier date than the RNC had sanctioned, Florida’s 99 delegates have been shrunk to 50 as penalty, lessening the state’s impact. These delegates will be winner-take all.
Whoever wins – Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Paul – it’s unlikely that the other three will drop out. As of now Romney, Gingrich and Santorum can brag about winning one contest. One of their rivals’ jumping to two doesn’t change the dynamic all that much, they can argue. Especially when all it means is 50 delegates out of 1,144 needed to win the GOP presidential nomination.
What comes after Florida? February brings four GOP caucuses – Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada. That’s a whole month for just 128 delegates, 5% of the total that can be won. All of these 128 delegates will be allocated proportionally. This won’t encourage anyone to drop out – it will keep folks in the race. Third place finishers in caucuses can get delegates.
February ends with winner-take-all primaries in two other states that have been penalized by the RNC, Michigan and Arizona — a total of 116 delegates. All of this means that by the end of February, 85% of the delegates will still not have been awarded.
Then comes Super Tuesday, which will be less important this year, diminishing the opportunity for a knockout punch:
* It comes a month later in this election cycle than it did in 2008 — March 6, 2012 versus February 5, 2008.
* In this year’s Super Tuesday a smaller number of delegates will be at stake — 466 delegates in 11 states this year, versus 1,069 delegates in 21 states in 2008. Gingrich could do well in his home state Georgia, and other southern states such as Tennessee. Romney and Paul are the only ones on the Virginia ballot, and he will no doubt romp in Massachusetts and Vermont.
* Plus, many, many more of this year’s Super Tuesday delegates will be awarded proportionally as opposed to winner-take-all.
After Super Tuesday 64% of the total delegates will still be at stake, with 28 states not having yet voted.
April showers bring some Winner-Take-All showers that might allow Mitt Romney to build some delegate momentum. On April 24, northeast states such as New York, Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island will offer an estimated 231 delegates. (If Santorum has stayed in the race this long, his home state of Pennsylvania also holds its contest this day.)
But there are other states holding primaries in April where a conservative non-Romney could do well – take the Texas Primary on April 3. The governor has endorsed Gingrich, and the Texas State Republican Party may change its rules to award its 155 delegates winner take all, possibly offering Gingrich a counterbalance to the April 24th contests. Democrats hope the April 3 Texas Primary and the April 24 Northeast Primary essentially cancel each other out.
More than 25% of the delegates will still be un-awarded as the Republicans head into May. California and New Jersey don’t vote until June 5.
And that’s why Democrats think and wish this could be long and bloody for their rivals.
Newt Gingrich took the opportunity of being on Florida's space coast to revisit one of his favorite topics: space exploration.
"By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," Gingrich said to applause.
He said the development would include commercial and private efforts, and will make apparent, "we clearly have the capacity that Chinese and the Russians will never come anywhere close to us."
Gingrich also said he would push to develop propulsion technology that would get man to Mars.
He emphasized that it doesn't have to be expensive, exploration in partnership with private companies can lower the cost.
"If it's cheaper and it's faster and it works, do it," he said.
He also said launch areas should be capable of launching multiple spacecrafts in a day, like an airport.
"Does that mean I'm visionary? You betcha," he said
Fried Foods are Okay
Dividing participants into four groups, from lowest fried food intake to highest, they found no significant difference in heart disease.
There were 606 incidents linked to heart disease in total, but they were split relatively evenly between the four groups.
The authors concluded: "In a Mediterranean country where olive and sunflower oils are the most commonly used fats for frying, and where large amounts of fried foods are consumed both at and away from home, no association was observed between fried food consumption and the risk of coronary heart disease or death."
Commenting on the findings in the BMJ, Professor Michael Leitzmann of the University of Regensburg in Germany said two other studies - one from Costa Rica and another by an international team - had also failed to find strong evidence of a link.
He said: "Taken together, the myth that frying food is generally bad for the heart is not supported by available evidence.
Forget global warming - it's Cycle 25 we need to worry about (and if NASA scientists are right the Thames will be freezing over again)
· Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years
By David Rose
Last updated at 5:38 AM on 29th January 2012
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The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.
The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.
Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.
A painting, dated 1684, by Abraham Hondius depicts one of many frost fairs on the River Thames during the mini ice age
Meanwhile, leading climate scientists yesterday told The Mail on Sunday that, after emitting unusually high levels of energy throughout the 20th Century, the sun is now heading towards a ‘grand minimum’ in its output, threatening cold summers, bitter winters and a shortening of the season available for growing food.
Solar output goes through 11-year cycles, with high numbers of sunspots seen at their peak.
We are now at what should be the peak of what scientists call ‘Cycle 24’ – which is why last week’s solar storm resulted in sightings of the aurora borealis further south than usual. But sunspot numbers are running at less than half those seen during cycle peaks in the 20th Century.