Five myths about the satellite smash-up - Space- msnbc.com
Good article.
29 February, 2008
21 February, 2008
Satellite Shot Down
Good Shot! Go Navy!
Some good explainations from the BadAstronomy guy
But I doubt the US was concerned about technology getting to the ground. I think it really was about the hydrazine. I bet NRO has specs to ensure the classified aspects of their projects burn up properly on reentry. Like he says, these NRO projects reenter all the time, usually on command and into known places, but NRO isn't going to take the chance that a reentry will go wrong and plop a classified payload in China. So, I bet there was no concern, as was stated, that classified tech would be found.
The below video shows how the debris spreads. A misconception people have is that the missle shot the satellite. Actually it is more like the missle was run over by the satellite. The NRO satellite is traveling in orbit around the earth at 17000mph, the missle isn't going nearyly that fast. This is more like driving my Jetta onto the tracks just in front of a Japanese Bullet Train at full speed. The speed of the collision at 17000mph is what destroyed everything. The resulting debris continues on in mostly the same orbit the NRO satellite was traveling in, mostly unchanged. Now each piece is smaller and affected by the earth's atmosphere more than the whole was. Pieces have been slowed and thus dip lower into the atmosphere. Any fragments headed upward will be turned around by the earth's gravity and come back down, again dipping lower into the atmosphere and burning in. As the video shows, when the parts get low enough, they really start to slow down due to air friction and fall to the earth. But not all at once, it will take days for it all to come down.
15 February, 2008
Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | U.S. plans to fire missile at falling spy satellite
Spaceflight Now Breaking News U.S. plans to fire missile at falling spy satellite
"Solid as it is now, not all of it will melt, OK?" he said. "So you will land on the ground with a tank full of slush hydrazine that would then later evaporate. The tank will have been breached. Not probably, the tank will have been breached because the fuel lines will have been ripped out of the main spacecraft and so that hydrazine will vent."
"Solid as it is now, not all of it will melt, OK?" he said. "So you will land on the ground with a tank full of slush hydrazine that would then later evaporate. The tank will have been breached. Not probably, the tank will have been breached because the fuel lines will have been ripped out of the main spacecraft and so that hydrazine will vent."
14 February, 2008
Pharyngula: Unbelievable
Pharyngula: Unbelievable
Happy Valentine's day...
"Saudi Arabia is one screwed up, vile little backwater of a barbarous craphole. You have to read the case of Fawza Falih. She has been condemned to death. By beheading...
Happy Valentine's day...
"Saudi Arabia is one screwed up, vile little backwater of a barbarous craphole. You have to read the case of Fawza Falih. She has been condemned to death. By beheading...
And the crime for which she is to be executed? Witchcraft. She is accused of casting a spell that caused a man to become impotent, and threatening to cause people to be possessed by dogs.
Apparently, the spells must have worked all too well, since all the men of Saudi Arabia are now cowardly eunuchs with the souls of craven mongrels. At least, that's the only explanation I can see for their uncivilized behavior."
I have NO respect for ANY religious beliefs. Shit.12 February, 2008
04 February, 2008
Pharyngula: Our congress takes care of the IMPORTANT stuff
Pharyngula: Our congress takes care of the IMPORTANT stuff:
"Responding to complaints from the Religious Right, Congress has passed
legislation mandating that the phrase "In God We Trust" be moved from the edge
to the back or front of the new presidential dollar coins."
"They're all demented fuckwits."
They snuck that one in on us.
03 February, 2008
Health Care: OneCareNow Video
YouTube - OneCareNow Video
A short video on the California Health Care plan being pushed through the California legislature...
Now that Arnold's sell out to the insurance companies is dead, distractions from SB840 for California single payer health care is removed.
SB840:
* Health care is paid by California to private doctors and health care providers at rates they negotiate. It is still free market, the doctors don't work for California.
* California negotiates prices with equipment providers, pharma, doctors, hospitals, potentially leading to great savings with the un-ignorable buying power we will have.
* You and your doctor decide what care you need, California only pays the bill.
* You pay a 2% insurance premium, your employer pays 8%, with 30million Californians spreading the risk, the rates stay low. (Is it a "tax"? Get over it, we have to pay for it somehow, isn't it better to be efficient about it?)
* No co-pay, no deductibles, no pre-existing condition exceptions.
* Every resident is covered. (Get over the illegal alien thing, if they pay, they get covered, you are paying for them today when they go into an emergency room for treatment without insurance or money)
* Medicare has 3% administrative overhead. Current insurance industry has 30% "administrative" overhead which includes all the ads you see, profit for shareholders, salaries for executives, and lobby money to your representatives (like old Arnold and Hillary). That $30 billion wasted is enough to pay for all of our health care.
It seems to me that a lot of economic prosperity is stifled by the inability of employers to get employees, to keep them healthy, for people to spend on stuff instead of insurance premiums and going into debt over health bills. There are concerns about availability of services once everyone has coverage. That may be initially the case as far as I can tell. But it isn't Canada where the doctors are government employees. If the market is there and they are getting paid, then they will come.
Write your State Rep and express your support.
For more info: http://onecarenow.org
Tom
A short video on the California Health Care plan being pushed through the California legislature...
Now that Arnold's sell out to the insurance companies is dead, distractions from SB840 for California single payer health care is removed.
SB840:
* Health care is paid by California to private doctors and health care providers at rates they negotiate. It is still free market, the doctors don't work for California.
* California negotiates prices with equipment providers, pharma, doctors, hospitals, potentially leading to great savings with the un-ignorable buying power we will have.
* You and your doctor decide what care you need, California only pays the bill.
* You pay a 2% insurance premium, your employer pays 8%, with 30million Californians spreading the risk, the rates stay low. (Is it a "tax"? Get over it, we have to pay for it somehow, isn't it better to be efficient about it?)
* No co-pay, no deductibles, no pre-existing condition exceptions.
* Every resident is covered. (Get over the illegal alien thing, if they pay, they get covered, you are paying for them today when they go into an emergency room for treatment without insurance or money)
* Medicare has 3% administrative overhead. Current insurance industry has 30% "administrative" overhead which includes all the ads you see, profit for shareholders, salaries for executives, and lobby money to your representatives (like old Arnold and Hillary). That $30 billion wasted is enough to pay for all of our health care.
It seems to me that a lot of economic prosperity is stifled by the inability of employers to get employees, to keep them healthy, for people to spend on stuff instead of insurance premiums and going into debt over health bills. There are concerns about availability of services once everyone has coverage. That may be initially the case as far as I can tell. But it isn't Canada where the doctors are government employees. If the market is there and they are getting paid, then they will come.
Write your State Rep and express your support.
For more info: http://onecarenow.org
Tom
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