Back Door Socialism

I've talked before talked about George F. Will.

Just gotta share this with ya all.

George Will sits down with The Daily Caller's Jamie Weinstein. 

GEORGE WILL: Global warming is socialism by the back door. The whole point of global warming is that it's a rationalization for progressives to do what progressives want to do, which is concentrate more and more power in Washington, more and more Washington power in the executive branch, more and more executive branch power in independent czars and agencies to micromanage the lives of the American people -- our shower heads, our toilets, our bathtubs, our garden hoses. Everything becomes involved in the exigencies of rescuing the planet.

 

Second, global warming is a religion in the sense that it's a series of propositions that can't be refuted. It's very ironic that the global warming alarmists say, "We are the real defenders of science," and then they adopt the absolute reverse of the scientific attitude, which is openness to evidence. You cannot refute what they say. 

I own a house in Kiawah Island, South Carolina, facing the Atlantic, where the hurricanes come from. After Katrina, the global warming people said, "This is just a sign of the violent weather that's going to become more common because of global warming." Well, that certainly interested me. Of course, since then, there's been a collapse of hurricane activity. 

I was a columnist in the 1970s when Newsweek, Time, all sorts of media outlets said the real problem is global cooling. I remember the Washington Post reporting that the armadillos were going south to escape the coming chill, the threat of glaciation over northern Europe. We've been through this before. You say, "What happened to global cooling?" They say, "Well, our models were wrong." Now we're supposed to risk several trillion dollars of global growth and spending on new models that might be wrong? 

One other thing, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change produced a report. The New Yorker, which is impeccably alarmed about global warming, the writer being their specialist began her story something like this: "In a report that should be but unfortunately will not be viewed as the final word in climate science." Now, just think about that. The final word in microbiology, the final word in quantum mechanics. There are no final words in science. But there you have the deeply anti-scientific temper of the global warming advocacy groups: Final words.


Real Clear Politics

Hubble Space Telescope turns 24

I remember growing up just in time to observe the beginning of human space exploration. Satellites orbiting the Earth, then eventually walking on the Moon.

A lot has happened since then, a most important was 24 years ago, Hubble Space Telescope

Hubble Space Telescope turns 24: The journey so far

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is celebrating its 24th birthday. The craft was launched on 24 April 1990, becoming the first major optical telescope ever launched into space.

Soon after launch, astronomers noticed images recorded by the space observatory were blurry. Investigation revealed the main (primary) mirror of the instrument was ground to the wrong shape. The error, present in the outer edge of the mirror, was off by one-fiftieth of the thickness of a human hair. That small mistake destroyed the capabilities of a wide range of observations made using the $2.5 billion dollar craft. 

Four primary instruments of the Hubble Space Telescope were impaired by the error. Three of these, the Goddard High Resolution Spectrometer, Faint Object Spectrograph, and the Faint Object Camera were corrected with the addition of a single module. 

"The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) instrument, installed in 1993, fixed a major flaw in Hubble's primary mirror," NASA officials wrote in a press release about the anniversary of the Hubble mission. 

COSTAR was not capable of improving the measurements of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC) on Hubble. That instrument was designed to record deep-space images in great detail. Work had already started on an upgrade, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). That replacement mechanism was adapted to account for the error in the orbiting observatory. 

The Pillars of Creation, an image of the Eagle Nebula photographed by the Hubble

telescope in 1995 captivated viewers around the world. 

Hubble travels at around 17,000 miles per hour during its orbit, which it has completed over 110,000 times since the start of its mission. During that time, the orbiting observatory has traveled 2.8 billion miles, approximately the distance between the sun and the planet Neptune. 

The NASA observatory uses 2,800 watts of electricity to complete, about the same as a 20,000 BTU air conditioner.  

Some of the oldest galaxies in the observable universe have been imaged by Hubble,

which also determined limits of their age. Planets around other stars, including those still in the process of formation, have been viewed by astronomers using the HST. 

Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB's), the most powerful explosions ever witnessed by mankind, have also been examined by Hubble, revealing information about the cataclysmic events. During the 1960's, GRB's were discovered by military satellites searching for evidence of nuclear tests. 

COSTAR and the WFPC2 were returned to Earth in 2009. Both modules have recently been put on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

Happy Birthday, Hubble!

TECH TIMES

Eric Holder, Wimp

Eric Holder, he is a real piece of work.

Eric Holder Says He Wasn't Playing Race Card When Decrying GOP Opposition

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Attorney General Eric Holder said he wasn't referring to race last week when he strayed from prepared remarks during a speech before a civil rights group in order to discuss the way he has been treated at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

"I didn't say there was a racial component. I was very careful not to say that," Holder told The Huffington Post on Friday, when asked about his comments before the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

First of all, anything having to do with Sharpton is suspect in itself.

moving on

"What attorney general has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?" Holder asked during his National Action Network speech.

Context is everything.  Who does he think he is fooling? He is out there with Al Sharloton?

We all know AL Sharloton is a phony race baiter, everything but a convicted lair.

Not like Eric isn't a buddy of the other race baiter, President Omabama.