Daily Kos

The image above adorns a post on a new site some friends put together for me, but I'm far from the major attraction. FreeThoughtBlogs is a work in progress with plenty of layout changes and additions in the works. But FTB already features the familiar powerhouse science and political blogging duo PZ Myers and Ed Brayton, as well as some newer faces with specialties guaranteed to entertain, and at times depress ...

• The pseudonymous PhysioProffe is, as the name suggests, a physiology professor at a private medical school who blogs about politics, sports, food, science, booze and academia, and not necessarily in that order.
• The Digital Cuttlefish an atheist and a skeptic, and is madly, passionately in love with science. Plus he's not afraid to pen the occasional satirical poem about Michele Bachmann.
• Chris Rodda runs This Week in Christian Nationalism and wrote the book Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History. She'll keep you up to date on historical revisionism in everything from education to legislation.

On a related science note, it's storm season. There are several systems in the Atlantic right now, two of which bear watching over the next several days and could develop into tropical storms next week. And farther north a pattern is emerging which could set a new record low for Arctic ice:

This weather pattern, known as the Arctic Dipole, was also responsible for the record sea ice loss in 2007, but was stronger that year. ...  The 2011 summer weather pattern in the Arctic has not been nearly as extreme as in 2007, but the total sea ice volume has declined significantly since 2007, leading to much loss of old, thick, multi-year ice, making it easier to set a new low extent record with less extreme weather conditions.

Fox News is worried about the children of America being fed misleading information. In cartoon form no less. Won't someone please think of the children?

Today's (August 3) edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends included a remarkable exchange on the issue of SpongeBob Squarepants, climate change science, and the state of science education in the U.S. Apparently, using cartoons to teach children about important science issues of the day raises hackles at Fox, especially when those issues are at odds with their political perspectives. In particular, Fox & Friends attacked SpongeBob ...

Oh yeah, you know what comes next, right? Mike Huckabee, Fox News contributor, has a little old cartoon series of his own to peddle:

So -- what does Huckabee's "unbiased" view of 9/11 look like? A lot of praise for the PATRIOT act (which it, should be said, many conservatives don't like), a lot of praise for the Department of Homeland Security, a lot of praise for Israel and the clear implication that President George W. Bush was responsible for the death of Osama bin Laden.

• On to real science, which explains the image above, the Mars orbiter snapped an interesting image showing what could be evidence of recent flowing water. Some thoughts on that here:

  It was thought after the Viking Missions in 1976 that Mars might be a very dry world. The Mars Phoenix lander in 2008 changed that view. Not only did the landscape revealed by Phoenix’s cameras show unmistakable signs of a phenomenon well known to geologists and hydrologists called frost heaving, the lander found large deposits of water ice a few inches below the Martian soil everywhere it looked.

• Check out this amazing time lapse video of a volcanic landscape collapsing. Some more background and images on Big Think's blog.
• On the heels of hot years and turbulent climate the Arctic Ice Cap recorded the lowest surface area at maximum summer melt in 2007. That record may be met or surpassed next month:

  The Arctic ice typically melts until September, before freezing again through March. Scientists at the Boulder, Colorado-based center say the declining ice pack is a harbinger of global warming. By 2030, there may “consistently” be summers where little or no ice remains on the ocean, Meier said.

A scientist who rang the alarm about climate change in the Arctic has been suspended. Charles Monnet, a wildlife biologist employed by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, and who made the polar bear the poster child for climate change was put on ice. Critics of the action charge senior officials who made the decision with corruption by Big Oil:

"You have to wonder: this is the guy in charge of all the science in the Arctic and he is being suspended just now as an arm of the interior department is getting ready to make its decision on offshore drilling in the Arctic seas," said Jeff Ruch, president of the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. "This is a cautionary tale with a deeply chilling message for any federal scientist who dares to publish groundbreaking research on conditions in the Arctic."

• Carl Zimmer on the ocean microbe within us
• The Juno mission to Jupiter is on top of its launch rocket and ready to fire up for the giant planet on August 5. And much farther away, massive Hot Jupiters may put on truly enormous light shows.
• Another study on Neandertal culture, this one suggests we are its killers:

  The invasion of so many modern humans overturned the Neanderthals' domination of the land and forced them into fierce competition for food, fuel and other crucial resources.

How far did Ruper Mordoch's ugly tentacles extend? Remember a little thing called ClimateGate, which incidentally was never solved? Maybe now we're going to find out why no one was ever held responsible for the theft:

Neil Wallis — the former News of the World executive editor — became a “£1,000 a day” consultant to Scotland Yard in October 2009.  Last week he became the ninth person arrested in the metastasizing News Corp scandal “on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to section 1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977.”

• Did a massive methane release help the dinos gain ground over earlier, mammal-like reptiles which had already survived the greatest mass extinction in the fossil record?
• I'll take my small victories where I can:

  Today we saw Texas kids and sound science finally win a vote on the State Board of Education. Now our public schools can focus on teaching their students fact-based science that will prepare them for college and a 21st-century economy.

• Should we let robots do the exploring and keep our fragile, water bag, hairy bodies back here on the firma of Terra? It's a good question.y
• What NASA, and science needs are more spending cuts! Well, except for Sen Shelby's (R-Hypocrite) deeply red conservative district, they should place should get a giant funding increase.

The accompanying post to the image above is even better. Here's a short sample:

I was talking about this depressing turn of events last Friday at a somewhat misnamed happy hour with my friend Ellen, who just about slumped forward to the point where her forehead was touching the icy rim of her martini glass, so demoralized was she over the prospect of the end of America’s space program, with all it symbolized—the ebbing of American optimism and enterprise, our supremacy in science and technology, the inexorable decline of the country. “And all because we couldn’t get our shit together to tax rich people and quit fighting expensive wars,” she said.

Indeed. Where were you, 42 years ago today, when people from the planet earth first walked on the moon?

As the shuttle winds down, the feeding on its bones begins. Sadly, my own home state representatives are lining up with the wolves and vultures:

Today there are four Real space states – and we aren’t one of them. They are Florida, Virginia, New Mexico and California. States not only home to NASA or DOD facilities, but entrepreneurial space companies and space ports. They have high-level pro-active support for research and education, favorable tax and other laws, state chartered organizations and serious amounts of state and local money to draw what I call New Space companies. --Rick Tumlinson

The reason Texas isn't in the game is because this state is controlled by hypocritical conservatives who love their Big Gubmint money and could care less about commercial space. Beyond the obvious political waffling it's a pity. Because, for a quirk of geography, South Texas is the best location for a full blown, sci-fi, ground to orbit spaceport in the entire United States. And all the kick ass, high paying jobs that would go with it.

• As seen above, the Dawn spacecraft successfully entered a looping orbit around Vesta on July 14. The ion powered probe will spend the next year sweeping ever closer to the myserious object before heading off for the dwarf planet Ceres.
• A new report states, "The loss of large predators and large herbivores may be 'humankind's most pervasive influence on nature,' according to a paper published in journal Science."
• Just as there's fake balance in politics, science is also beset by the affliction. And Orac is deep in the herat of it here and here.

Now is the time for Democrats to cripple the GOP and pre-sweep 2012. Opportunities like this come rarely. The Republican budget plan to kill Medicare is wildly unpopular. Americans overwhelmingly favor raising taxes on the super rich conservative creeps who fund the most reactionary wing, the nuttiest of the wingnuts, in the Republican Party. Wall Street, the Bankstas, the US Chamber of Commerce, progressives, democrats, and even a huge chunk of Republicans all agree the debt ceiling must be raised.

GOP governors are about as popular as rabies -- all the Koch's whores and all the Koch's men cannot put the lipstick on the pig again. The leading wingnut primary contenders are a guy social conservatives consider a flip-flopping cult member and an unlectable flaked out harpy. A yawning chasm has opened up between the Teaparty wing and the GOP funding arm. It's begging to be widened, the wedge to do has been dropped precisely into place by fate, it is bearing down with an immediate, unstoppable force. And the empircal facts are lined up on our side like rows of marble statues.

This is the time when Democrats, metaphorically, politically, stomp these assholes into the dirt and light the bloody mush on fire.

While much of America is watching the final space shuttle mission gear up, the House Appropriations Committee has taken an axe to what are arguably the best parts of NASA while leaving, and in some cases increasing, funding for the pork. And NASA is not alone. A press release just posted on the committee’s website touts billions in cuts to science programs and a bunch of other stuff. Some of the science highlights:

• NASA is funded at $16.8 billion in the bill, which is $1.6 billion below last year’s level and $1.9 billion below the President’s request with severe cuts to virtually every sector including—reading between the lines—unmanned exloration and earth sciences. Only the Senate Launch System and related projects are spared.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—The legislation contains $4.5 billion for NOAA, which is a cut of $103 million below last year’s level and $1 billion below the President’s request.  
• National Science Foundation (NSF)—The legislation funds NSF at $6.9 billion, the same as last year’s level and $907 million below the President’s request.  

The NASA cuts are devastating, something big has to give. Meaning the ISS comes down blazing like Skylab, or a host of science missions have to be stopped in their tracks (including the James Webb Space Telescope), or both. It's not clear where this goes next, or if it's unofficially part of any wider budget deal. But sources close to the process seem convinced this or something very much like it will pass the House and move on to the Senate. And several sources tell me as far as science funding goes, it's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. But some people still believe!

I was a teenager when it began, I'm pushing old age as it draws to a close. The last Space Shuttle flight is currently scheduled for July 8, 2011.

Inside the cargo bay is a module packed with 8,600 pounds of supplies and spare parts that will help keep the International Space Station fully stocked and staffed through 2012. Mission commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim plan to fly into KSC around 2:45 p.m. on Independence Day, and the final shuttle countdown will pick up at 1 p.m. Tuesday.  

At least I got to see a bunch of launches -- and night launches were spectacular -- of what is arguably the most complex technological device ever made by humans.

• Speaking of NASA,, whatever happened to that climate satellite was reportedly killed by Cheney and now wastes away in government storage somewhere next to the Lost Ark. Did that really happen and if so, is it safe to bring it out yet?

  “The Whitehouse...felt threatened by [DSCOVR]. They didn’t want to hear anything about the Earth changing because that meant climate change, and that means CO2 and then they would have to regulate CO2 and they just wanted to avoid anything to do with that… Cheney was the chief hatch man on climate change in general.

• Scientists in Glasgow peer inside the beating heart of a tarantula and find some strange goings on. No word yet if the spider's HMO is declining payment on the expensive MRI.
• And as long as we're talking arthropods, and really, why would anyone talk about anything else, here's some electron micrographs of a very interesting find: it's the bees ... OK it's the beetles knees.
• Oldest quasar ever discovered:

  The brilliant beacon, named ULAS J1120+0641, is powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun. Located at a redshift – a term relating to astronomical distances – of 7.1, its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach us. The next most distant quasar is seen at 870 million years after the big bang..

Reports surfaced this week that Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor may be invested in a fund that takes a leveraged short position benefiting from price declines in U.S. Treasury obligations. This type of fund would almost certainly appreciate in the event of a bond crash, the kind which some economists fear would unfold if the U.S. debt ceiling is not increased:

Last year the Wall Street Journal reported that Cantor, the No. 2 Republican in the House, had between $1,000 and $15,000 invested ... The fund aggressively "shorts" long-term U.S. Treasury bonds, meaning that it performs well when U.S. debt is undesirable.

This is probably not quite as diabolical as it sounds, but there is an important lesson here. A generic, diversified, one-million dollar stock and bond portfolio managed by an experienced financial adviser might have $50,000 spread across several of these type of investments, often referred to as non-correlated assets. Reason being, even if stocks and bonds get clobbered, the non-correlated asset[s] can appreciate dramatically, thus shoring up losses in stocks and bonds during bad markets. If Cantor has an investment portfolio with similar qualities, $15,000 in a non-correlated asset class wouldn't represent a financial incentive to destroy the U.S. economy. It would be like burning down a million dollar mansion to collect 100 grand in fire insurance.

But this is a great opportunity to remind White House budget negotiators that people with significant investment portfolios, like most conservative senior members of the U.S. legislature and those who donate generously to them, have to have a debt deal to safely stay rich. The idea the GOP is negotiating from a position of terminal strength may make great Fox News clips and fire up the base. The notion they're so batshit crazy they'll annihilate themselves and their billionaire political sponsors might serve the tactical purpose of trying to spook Democrats into signing a crappy debt ceiling deal. But every GOP lawmaker knows perfectly well they're not going to risk their own life savings, and they know they'll be ordered to crawl over broken glass if that's what it takes to protect every last dollar in the very deep pockets of their conservative sugar daddies.

While the Netroots is winding down from our annual meeting, another exciting encounter is about to unfold hundreds of millions of miles away in the cold, lonely reaches of the asteroid belt. NASA's Dawn spacecraft is nearing Vesta. If all goes well, the unmanned probe will begin beaming back high resolution images of one of the more mysterious objects in our solar system next month.

Principal Mission Investigator Christopher Russell is deservedly bursting with pride and excitement, telling me in part, "I and the Dawn team right now feel like Christopher Columbus and his crew must have felt after putting their faith in their three little ships and finally seeing the American shore ahead." Russell, who invested 15 years of his own life into designing and managing the ambitious mission, added, "Like Columbus we have a very modest expedition conveyed by three little ion engines, but those little engines were quite sufficient for us to make the journey. The moment is profound and it is exciting to be finally at Vesta!"

4 Vesta as it's officially known, is the brightest asteroid as seen from earth and one of the first discovered way back in 1807. Up to now our best photos are blurry, splotchy images showing gross features on the order of tens of miles in size. But little of the fine detail is known. The spacecraft will learn more about Vesta in the next 30 days than we've discovered in the last 200 years combined
The best part is Dawn won't be marooned off Vesta. After examining the enigmatic worldlet up close and personal with a suite of instruments for a year, Dawn will fire up her triple redundant Xenon ion thrusters and head for another equally tantalizing and mysterious object: the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015.

• I'm not entirely sure why we should care, but 49 out of the 51 Miss America contestants expressed skepticism over evolution. The contest winner, Miss California, was one of two who did stick up for science (The other was Miss Massachusetts). Maybe next year we should ask the contestants if they prefer Loop Quantum Gravity or String Theory ...
• Via Bad Astronomy addressing Arctic ice loss, a new paper published in the American Geophysical Union (.pdf) handily debunks the denier zombie lie that a single average volcano yeilds more CO2 than human activity creates in a year. The actual figures: humans out greenhouse gas volcanoes by a hefty a hundred to one.
• Dude, where's my robotic car? In Nevada, they're legal!

Science journalist Chris Mooney pens a wonderful article about science and politics, noting along the way that the conservative animus to mankind's most successful methodology has decimated GOP membership among research scientists. And for good reason according to MIT professor Kerry Emanuel:

“I remember hearing fellow students defending Pol Pot and Mao Zedong and Stalin, and I was so horrified,” he says. But now Emanuel sees the situation as reversed: The extremes are on the Tea Party right, the Democrats are centrists and pragmatists, and Emanuel--really always a moderate--finds not so much that he has moved but that his party has.

• How quickly supermassive black-holes arose in the early universe and affected or were affected by infant galaxies is a field of active research. New data shows they arose fast:

  Were the black holes born very massive, or did they experience a rapid growth phase even earlier in the Universe? It’s a chicken and egg scenario that, although left unanswered by these observations, has been pushed right back to the very first epoch of growth ...

• The scientific meaning of the term theory has been distorted beyond recognition n popular culture. But astrophysicist Ethan Seigel at Starts with a Bang takes on the Herculean task of setting the record straight here.
• There's a new comet in the outer solar system, it may be a first time visitor to our neck of the woods, so there's a chance it could make quite a show in 2013:

  "The comet has an orbit that is close to parabolic, meaning that this may be the first time it will ever come close to the sun, and that it may never return," Wainscoat said.