The Politics Test

I thought so...

You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (38% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid.com: Free Online Dating Also : The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

I got it!

The space station flew overhead this evening and I tried to set up to photo it. I had the star chart all set and planned where to shoot it. It was going to go right by the center star of Cygnus. But at 7:22 pm. I thought it would be darker. I could barely see Deneb at 7:20 and Liz could see it coming. Crap. I had set the focus on Jupiter so decided to do the best I could tracking it with the finder scope and firing the shutter whenever it was in the field of view. I had the shutter release in my hand while I was guiding the telescope and camera. I fired off over 60 shots. At ISO 1600 and 1/2000 shutter speed, I guess the motion of me moving everything didn't matter too much.

Cannon XTi mounted on a 1540mm Maksutov-Cassegrain (5 inch) telescope.

Jon Stewart on Palin-Hannity interview

Hypothesis and Testing

Quotes from SGU 5x5 #37

 

Hypothesis: A model of how the universe works that successfully makes predictions.

Testing of hypothesis must predict information that isn't already known.

 

 

Byron 9/14/08

Waiting for 81C to return.

John and Monique gossiping.

Monique getting advice on her ticket.
5 tows. Not a hard day for 16Y.

Unemployment with Bush

Unemployment during the Bush years.  Notice the decline during the Clinton years.  Now on third Bush unemployment rise.

Of course the national debt is nearly $10T and on the rise against the GDP.

Michael Reiss's big mistake

There is to be no sympathy given to bad ideas.

Phil Plait - May 2005

I know a place where the Sun never sets.

It’s a mountain, and it’s on the Moon. It sticks up so high that even as the Moon spins, it’s in perpetual daylight. Radiation from the Sun pours down on there day and night, 24 hours a day — well, the Moon’s day is actually about 4 weeks long, so the sunlight pours down there 708 hours a day.

I know a place where the Sun never shines. It’s at the bottom of the ocean. A crack in the crust there exudes nasty chemicals and heats the water to the boiling point. This would kill a human instantly, but there are creatures there, bacteria, that thrive. They eat the sulfur from the vent, and excrete sulfuric acid.

I know a place where the temperature is 15 million degrees, and the pressure would crush you to a microscopic dot. That place is the core of the Sun.

I know a place where the magnetic fields would rip you apart, atom by atom: the surface of a neutron star, a magnetar.

I know a place where life began billions of years ago. That place is here, the Earth.

I know these places because I’m a scientist.

Science is a way of finding things out. It’s a way of testing what’s real. It’s what Richard Feynman called "A way of not fooling ourselves."

No astrologer ever predicted the existence of Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. No modern astrologer had a clue about Sedna, a ball of ice half the size of Pluto that orbits even farther out. No astrologer predicted the more than 150 planets now known to orbit other suns.

But scientists did.

No psychic, despite their claims, has ever helped the police solve a crime. But forensic scientists have, all the time.

It wasn’t someone who practices homeopathy who found a cure for smallpox, or polio. Scientists did, medical scientists.

No creationist ever cracked the genetic code. Chemists did. Molecular biologists did.

They used physics. They used math. They used chemistry, biology, astronomy, engineering.

They used science.

These are all the things you discovered doing your projects. All the things that brought you here today.

Computers? Cell phones? Rockets to Saturn, probes to the ocean floor, PSP, gamecubes, gameboys, X-boxes? All by scientists.

Those places I talked about before? You can get to know them too. You can experience the wonder of seeing them for the first time, the thrill of discovery, the incredible, visceral feeling of doing something no one has ever done before, seen things no one has seen before, know something no one else has ever known.

No crystal balls, no tarot cards, no horoscopes. Just you, your brain, and your ability to think.

Welcome to science. You’re gonna like it here.

Busy Weekend - Sept 08

Had a busy weekend... two houses were on fire down the street in Ben Lomond when I got home from work on Friday.  Very worrisome with the dry brush and trees around.  Cal Fire and BLFD were on it quick!

Flew 3 loads of kids for Young Eagles on Saturday and then flew up to Susanville.

On Sunday, Evan and I flew around for over an hour with him at the controls most of the time. He did great, for 98! My camera was dead so no pictures of that.

   Monday I few home slowly... some kind of headwind made it take 20 minutes longer to get home than going up. Then it was a bit foggy at WVI not enough to keep me out. Overall a great weekend.

Goofy Large Hadron Collider Stuff

"Those hadrons are hard to hide sometimes. You'll be sitting at work, bored out of your mind, and next thing you know you've got a hadron in your pants. The worst part is you've got a meeting to go to you're already late for."

Large Hadron Rap

Oh Crap - Now I am really worried.

Daily Kos: State of the Nation:

Sarah Palin: Dominionist Stalking Horse
by dogemperor
Fri Aug 29, 2008 at 03:21:50 PM PDT
The big news, obviously, in the blogosphere today is John McCain's surprise pick for the Republican veep nominee--a relative unknown by the name of Sarah Palin, whom--at least in the more conventional political circles--would appear to be a complete cypher.
Unfortunately, if one digs just a bit deeper, Palin is found to have some very interesting--and very disturbing--connections...among them, being potentially the first Assemblies-linked VP candidate and having a number of links to dominionist groups targeting kids via 'bait and switch' evangelism.


Uh oh, big reason to keep McCain/Palin out of office. This is right out of a bad novel, nut case religious nut gets VP job, old fart President kicks the bucket (naturally?), now nut case is in charge and her secret religious army rises to try to take over the country, killing and imprisoning the "intellectuals" and "elite".

Bad novel? How about recent history. Iran. Afghanistan. 1930's Germany. Many African countries? I'm sure there are more...

There must be separation between Church and State.

McCain / Palin must not win.

More on Joel's Army

National Debt Graph

Again... next time someone says your going to vote for those "tax and spend" democrats... point to this.  Republicans are "borrow and spend".

Pharyngula: Matthew Cobb and Jerry Coyne write a letter

Pharyngula: Matthew Cobb and Jerry Coyne write a letter:

"In reality, the only contribution that science can make to the ideas of religion is atheism."

Pissed Off

Ranting...

1. I am pissed at Harry Reid for being a limp noodle. Where is his spine? Republicans are filibustering all over the place and he says nothing. Americans don't know what the GOP is doing, hiding, trying to protect, what they are screwing up before they lose the White House. STEP UP and LEAD! Or get out of the WAY!
   
2. I am pissed off at Pelosi for doing nothing about impeaching Bush/Cheney. McCain wouldn't be anywhere close to Obama in the polls... impeachment would have shown Americans what they have lost in rights, how corrupt the Bush administration has been, how un-American they have been. Too late now!
3. Fucking Coulter and Limbaugh... lying about Obama's position on abortion in a way to stir up emotion, saying he is for third term abortion, to even "chase the doctor down the hall to ensure the aborted baby is dead". They are lower than low. They are dog shit.
4. DNC's "Big Tent" event on Faith prior to the convention. What a bunch of crap. Especially since they decided to not invite 40% of the Democratic voters. Those without religion, secularists, atheists. Can't have a "Big Tent" without everyone. Pandering obviously to the Christians and "moral majority". I better not hear any crap about god talking to anyone.
5. Obama. He better STEP IT UP! There better be some FIRE in the convention and campaign now. I am tired of the Lying Liars in the GOP getting away with their LIES. I better not hear too much faith babble from him.

Update:  Pretty happy with the convention.  Obama stepped it up!  Yay!  The network coverage I saw always cut away to commercial whenever the prayers were happening!  Excellent!

Richard Dawkins at Berkley, March '08

I liked this lecture as it touched on morality, and the treatment of children.