Houston, We Have a Problem

Years before the publication of "The Bible Code", Jerry Woodfill was finding hidden meaning in the Bible. Of course, so has everyone else. What makes Woodfill's interpretation interesting is that he was a NASA engineer on the Apollo program. As you might guess, this means that he finds space exploration tidbits salted away among the parables. What makes his findings really interesting is his record for crying wolf. You see, Woodfill was no ordinary engineer - he was the Apollo 11 Warning System Engineer. It was his system that kept flashing the "1201 Program Alarm" that indicated that Neil Armstrong should abort the descent.

Woodfield waxes eloquent about the "amazing correlation" between the moon landing and a verse in the Old Testament. What is this verse? Obadiah 1:4, which reads (in the King James Version): "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD."

Get it? Eagle. Stars. What more could you want?

Woodfill explains it all

Returning to the words of the Prophet Obadiah, an EAGLE would SET ITS NEST AMONG THE STARS. As the ancients looked heavenward, the Moon was said to be among the stars. Obviously, no biological creation of God, even an eagle, can achieve escape velocity of seven and a half miles per second. Additionally, eagles require oxygen which is absent in outer space. Therefore, Obadiah’s eagle must be a spaceship named Eagle. Certainly, it would not be the Soviet’s craft. The American eagle embodied all that communism opposed: free enterprise, Christianity, the independent freedoms of citizens. The Soviet’s ship would have been the BEAR, their regime’s mascot.

Creepy, eh? It gets better

There is then a valid application of the number 13 to a space mission. Does it demonstrate God’s plans and purposes as an after-the-fact element of testimony? Using 13 in a Bible sense shows forth praise for what God accomplished. This requires knowledge of thirteen’s meaning in scripture. As a frustrated college math student, I inventoried Bible stories that dealt with numbers. Thankfully, this exercise dealt with arithmetic not the advanced differential equation course I failed in my junior year. The story of Joshua’s army marching around Jericho for seven days came to mind. Turning to the account, I read: "On the seventh day, Joshua marched around Jericho SEVEN TIMES." A quick tally of Jericho orbits was once each day for six days then seven orbits on the seventh day. Six plus seven equals 13 times. And what happened? There was an explosion of sorts, the sudden destruction of massive stone fortifications. The walls crumbled in response to the Israelites’ shout. This certainly was a convincing Bible definition of thirteen as far as Apollo 13 was concerned : DESTRUCTION, COLLAPSE, perhaps, AN EXPLOSION. Even Joshua’s march around Jericho matched Apollo 13’s intended orbit around the Moon. Furthermore, the name Jericho in Hebrew means MOON.

Woodfield isn't finished, though

But most remarkable are the first words spoken from the Moon, "Houston, Tranquillity Base, the Eagle has landed." The word, Houston is derived from hus meaning spirit and ton meaning town or place of dwelling. In a spiritual sense, Armstrong unknowingly communicated to the place where the Holy Spirit dwells.

Actually, Houston (the city) is named after Sam Houston, first President of the Republic of Texas. Houston's (the person) name is Scottish and derives from the Old English spelling of Hughstown, which was a settlement south of Glasgow. Woodfill's site also discusses the Mayflower, Christopher Columbus, and the Challenger, all with the same insightful presentation.

In the end, it must be admitted that Woodfill is mostly harmless. The only people likely to take it seriously have already drunk the Kool Aid. At least he doesn't deny the Moon landings took place, he only claims that they were biblically presaged.

Water, Water, Everywhere

I bet that you think that water is that H2O stuff that they taught you about back in the second grade. If you wasted too many years in institutions of "higher learning", as Tentakles and I have, you probably have all sorts of details about bond lengths and angles crammed back in the cobwebs of your head. Well, friends, John Ellis is going to prove you wrong.

Mr. Ellis has invented a machine that fixes everything that's wrong with water. "What's wrong with water?" I hear you asking alliteratively. Well, according to Ellis

ANY LAB will tell you, many other health promoting activities can't work without the ELECTRONS found in CHARGED WATER because OXYGEN levels have dropped to as low as 8%, in today's water molecules, they are SMALLER and CAN'T HOLD the additional donor ELECTRONS (from OXYGEN) needed to make them work!! As a result, VIRUSES and BACTERIA are mutating out of control... CAUSING almost ANY problem you can name!

He goes on to add

MOST VITAMINS CAN'T WORK because there aren't enough donor electrons to make them work! It's like a leaf that falls off of a tree, the nutrients are still there, but it's ELECTRICALLY DEAD...they must be reactivated by ELECTRONS! Since OUR WATER MOLECULES are LARGER (as any lab will confirm), they HOLD MORE ELECTRONS...like it was when OXYGEN was at38% and rainwater was highly charged, potentially explaining the incredible ages mentioned in the BIBLE! THAT'S WHAT OUR PRODUCT DOES, nature's way!

Fortunately for us, Ellis' machine uses

A PATENTED METHOD OF EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION OF THE WATER MOLECULES SEVERAL TIMES/MINUTE TO CONSUME OXYGEN, WHILE TAKING ON DONOR ELECTRONS!

In fact

This was recently confirmed again by a Bio-Tech firm that tested TWO of our fine-tuned machines in their labs. Most importantly, our water molecule is LARGER with the same molecular weight as an ordinary water molecule and since the electrons kill viruses, they are using the water for proprietary medical applications. They also found the angle between the hydrogen atoms is 10 degrees greater, the viscosity is different and it has a beautiful crystalline structure at ROOM TEMPERATURE that is dodecahydronal (12 planes).

Now, how much would you pay for such a marvel? Before you answer, listen to some of the Wonders (Ellis' word) that his water can do

Treat a well (one time) with only 10 gallons and it lasts for years! Also, this water will eliminate the smell in waste lagoons and septic systems (it kills only bad bacteria)! When you drink either water you won’t smell up your septic system with the horrible smell of disease!!

In all the dairy farms we treated the contaminated water contained bacteria, parasites, fungus, chemicals and viruses and it was coming straight through into the milk. Once the water was treated, the milk was no longer contaminated. This would hold true for nursing mothers as well.

In another case, a woman wanted their well treated but her husband was dragging his feet so their oldest son did it. In the process, he broke a rusty part of the well head. When the husband went to look at the well head a day or two later he found the broken area and pipe as shiny as new. He’s a believer now!

Another family was watering two horses from a large tub and it took the horses 7 days to drink all that water. After the water treatment the two horses would drink that much water in only 3 days!

Another family that raises dogs always had to deal with the green, slimy watering pans. After the treatment, the problem was gone.

Another family wanted their well treated but the husband wasn’t convinced in spite of telling him story after story until they put a 5 gallon bucket of the water out in the sun for one week, nothing happened… no green. So, he said, leave it another week… still nothing. The proof was in the bucket. After they went ahead and treated the well, the neighboring house noticed a change in their well water also. The water traveled the vein and purified their water also!

Ellis' site is filled with such heartwarming testimonials as

"After a serious accident, I was barely able to move. Now, in a short while, I am stronger than I was 20 years ago!"
M.M. Londonderry, NH

"A problem I had for 12 months stopped immediately!"
R.G. Mariposa, CA

"I lost 10 pounds in 3 weeks and so did my wife. A plant that hasn't bloomed in 3 years bloomed!"
J.C. Gulf Breeze, FL

My test revealed properties so amazing, I am using it for proprietary medical use!"
Dr. G. A. Torrance, CA

"A friend in Texas said his gray from his hair is disappearing! Already, 25% of my wife's hair has turned dark and 50% of mine!"
R.H. Anoka, MN

So, friend, having heard all that, what would you pay for such a marvel? For a limited time, the LWM ELECTRON 3™ is only $1,500. That's a savings of $495 off the suggested retail price of $1,995. But, as they say, there's more: for only two hundred dollars more, you can upgrade to the LWM ELECTRON 4™, which is

Same as LWM ELECTRON 3™ but with levels 15 times higher (with CORNING™) in passing vapor through an air gap.

I can hear you saying, "But, Hephaestus. I have real water problems. If I don't get help, I'm shuffling off this mortal coil." For you, and you alone, Ellis has the LWM ELECTRON 5™. This is the BIG ONE folks. It'll set you back $2,800, but look at what it can do

Same as Electron 4™ except with twice the oxygen and electron output with two bulbs and a more powerful transformer!! 50 Years ago oxygen was much higher in the atmosphere and you rarely heard of people with cancer and diabetes etc. Today, oxygen is much lower and, as a result, it's an epidemic. This is the only product that keeps blood oxygen levels high! Also, we break down the hydrogen bonds so blood gets to the extremities.

Customer: "I went for a physical and the doctor said I was one person in a million. My blood oxygen levels are near 100%!!"

You can't develop these problems with high blood oxygen levels and these are the only products that can do that.

Diabetic: "I was already scheduled for surgery to remove my foot one week after I received your machine. That's how close I came to losing my foot...one week! If I had listened to those pure water companies I would have lost my foot!!"

Now, Ellis makes the point that his machine is covered by US Patent 4,612,090. In the interest of saving you time, I've read his patent and the fifteen claims that it makes. None of them even touch on wonderous. In fact, it's a patent for a two-vessel, self-regulating boiler.

The patent states

This invention constitutes an improvement over prior known distilling apparatus including the apparatus disclosed in applicant's prior United States patent in that it embodies a novel and improved small boiler including instantaneous heating means, a condenser and a reservoir which provides an automatic supply of water to the boiler and may function to cool the condenser. With this arrangement, the water in the reservoir, as will be shown, circulates to and from the boiler to repeatedly interrupt boiling and heat thus imparted to the water in the reservoir together with the heat at least part of which may be imparted by the condenser will heat the water in the reservoir to a temperature that will effectively boil off chemical constituents of the water and the time required for operation of the distiller in order to produce a distillate free of chemicals and undesirable odors is materially reduced.

Another object of the invention resides in the provision of novel and improved water distillation apparatus which not only avoids control means for feeding water from a reservoir to a boiler but also embodies an arrangement and organization of elements wherein all portions of both the reservoir and boiler are readily accessible for cleaning and maintenance.

A still further object of the invention resides in the provision of hot distilled and substantially odor-free water for the brewing of coffee and tea as well as for use in the preparation of other foods such as soups and the like.

A still further object of the invention resides in the provision of a novel and improved water degasification and distillation apparatus characterized by its simplicity, ease of operation and maintenance and relativly low cost.

A still further object of the invention resides in the provision of a novel and improved boiler for the distillation of water which minimizes the accumulation of foam in the boiler caused by salts, detergents and other water contaminents which can contaminate the water being distilled.

He goes on to add

Means may also be provided in association with the tank for feeding condensed distilled and degasified water into brewing apparatus for making coffee, tea or merely provide hot water for other purposes.

Strong stuff indeed! That odor free coffee water will do wonders for the diabetes. His patent 6,409,888 adds an ozone generator to the apparatus, while 5,203,970 adds a mechanical stirrer and optional oversized filter.

The sad fact is, there are probably hundreds of people who have sent Ellis a good chunk of change to get one of his coffee water distillers. Unfortunately, the Justice Department doesn't fill its halls with scientists or engineers, so Ellis and his kind are likely to continue to remain in the miracle business.

Bad Day to Be a Creationist

The discovery of a genuine "missing link" fossil on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic is a kick in the teeth for the Intelligent Design crowd. Tiktaalik roseae is one of those things that creationists have always demanded to see: a truly intermediate form that bridges a gap between one clearly defined branch of life's tree and another.


In the case of Tiktaalik, what has been found is the holy grail of evolution: a fish that has begun to develop the characteristics found in land animals. These include fins, scales, and the jaws of a piscine, along with a wrist structure, a flexible neck, and a rib cage like a tetrapods.

The discoverers reported that in addition to being in remarkably intact condition, it was just possible to make out a faint design embossed on the scales:

So, Tell Me How You Really Feel

Seen on a bumper sticker: Only criminals, terrorists, and Democrats fear an armed populace.

That's Why They Call It "Running an Ad"

Sometimes you have to wonder what possesses a company to run the ads that they do. Did anyone at this briefcase company really think about whether it was a good idea to put a picture of someone stealing a briefcase on their website?

Savannah on my Mind

The world's first nuclear-powered merchant ship is looking for a port. The Virtual Office of Acquistion of the Maritime Administration is trying to find a home for the decommissioned N.S. Savannah. This comes about as a result of MARAD's plan to remove the reactor and piping from the vessel in order to reduce its liability as a potential target for terrorist attack.

The Savannah was launched in 1962 and spent 1965-1971 sailing the oceans for the American Export Isbrandtsen Lines under a contract from the U.S. government. While a technological and aesthectic success, it was not financially practical, and was decommisioned in 1972 to save money for the war in Vietnam. The ship was built as a passenger/cargo hybrid, with thirty staterooms, but the size of the engineering plant and the space taken up by the passenger quarters meant that it could carry less than 10,000 tons of cargo. She was built with the knowledge that it could never be profitable, but it was hoped that she would demonstrate the benefits of atomic power.



The Savannah was fast, with a maximum speed of twenty-three knots and a sustained cruising speed of more than twenty knots. She was equipped with active roll stabilization and had rolling cargo cranes instead of the common kingposts. Her reactor was surrounded by armor designed to prevent a collision from rupturing the core. This included two feet of crushing material made up of high-strength steel and redwood, and concrete reactor shielding eighteen inches thick. The reactor containment vessel had a pair of spring-loaded manholes on the bottom, which were designed to open in the event of the ship sinking. These would allow seawater in, to balance the pressure as the vessel sank, in order to prevent it from being crushed. When the pressure equalized at the bottom, the springs would drive the hatches shut, sealing the reactor.

In reality, there wasn't any way to make a nuclear ship profitable. Imagine a tramp steamer with a crew of nuclear engineers. Only two other merchant ships have ever been nuclear powered: the N.S Otto Hahn in Germany, which was launched in 1964 and which served from 1970-1979 before it was converted into a conventionally powered ship; and the "Sevmorput", an icebreaker-freighter in Russia which was launched in 1988 and is still active. The "Sevmorput" has a bit of an unfair advantage though, as it is on a highly subsidized route across the Northeast Passage. Japan built a nuclear ship, the Mutsu, which was launched in 1969. Her reactor was a technical disaster and her career consisted of four voyages in 1991 before she was decommissioned the next year. The Japan Atomic Energy Institute emphasizes the success of her 1991 cruises, but doesn't mention the twenty-two year gestation period.

It's interesting to note that the U.S. Navy has decommissioned all nine of the nuclear-powered cruisers that it built, leaving only the carriers in service. Apparently, even they couldn't make the economics work in their favor.

As an aside, the Savannah's namesake was the first steam-powered ship to cross the Atlantic, in 1819. She carried enough fuel to run her boilers for eighty-nine of the 707-hour voyage.

Good News. Bad News

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter successfully entered orbit around the Red Planet this afternoon. Everything seems to be nominal at this point. We'll hear more at the press conference later this evening.

On the other hand, word on the wire is that NASA is going to change out the ECO sensor in the external tank, pushing the launch of Discovery to July at the earliest. That's for the best, as the first results from the wind tunnel testing of the reconfigured tank were not good. This could change as the complete series of tests is run, but it's better not to rush at this point. With the launch moved back, there will be plenty of time to run (and re-run, if necessary) all of the tests needed to be certain about the aerodynamics.

Blackstar

There is a must-read piece at Aviation Now. The folks at Aviation Week and Space Technology have decided to release what they know about an ultra-black two stage to orbit system that was developed in the 1980's to launch a small manned craft into orbit.

For 16 years, Aviation Week & Space Technology has investigated myriad sightings of a two-stage-to-orbit system that could place a small military spaceplane in orbit. Considerable evidence supports the existence of such a highly classified system, and top Pentagon officials have hinted that it's "out there," but iron-clad confirmation that meets AW&ST standards has remained elusive. Now facing the possibility that this innovative "Blackstar" system may have been shelved, we elected to share what we've learned about it with our readers, rather than let an intriguing technological breakthrough vanish into "black world" history, known to only a few insiders. U.S. intelligence agencies may have quietly mothballed a highly classified two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane system designed in the 1980s for reconnaissance, satellite-insertion and, possibly, weapons delivery. It could be a victim of shrinking federal budgets strained by war costs, or it may not have met performance or operational goals.

What's more, they claim that this system was operational in the 90's and has only recently been terminated, due to the high cost of the war in Iraq. It used a B-70-like mothership that was built out of pieces that had been purchased for the third (unbuilt) prototype of that Mach 3 bomber. The space capsule was derived from the X-20 Dynosoar (everyone has wondered why that technology hasn't been used for something).

What evidence exists for this program? I definitely recommend that you read the article.

Here We Go Again

There is a report today from NASASpaceflight.com that an Engine Cut-Off (ECO) sensor in the shuttle's external tank is acting up again and that sources within Lockheed Martin and NASA have indicated that it must be changed. This involves entering the tank, which would guarantee a miss on the May launch window. NASA PR people are denying that any decisions have been made.

This is a reprise of last year's launch fiasco where an erratic ECO was giving erroneous signals. NASA issued a variance of their flight rules and flew with only three of the four ECOs operating then, under the explanation that the anomoly was intermittent. Reports from the Cape indicate that it was indeed intermittent, as it would disappear when the SIM circuit was shut off and reappear when it was turned back on. Unfortunately, the purpose of the SIM circuit is to detect failures in the ECO — signals that should only appear when the SIM is on.

Anyone with any doubts as to what NASA's internal politics are like should read Dragonfly, about the American astronauts on Mir. Managers from low-level up to the director are willing to do whatever is necessary to keep the money flowing. Astronauts know that to speak up means that they'll never fly in space, so they keep their mouths shut and hope that when their turns come, nothing will fall off or explode. It is not an environment designed to elicit clear rational thought.

Make no mistake: spaceflight is a terribly dangerous activity. People will die on the way to and from the heavens. If advances are to be made it is probably the case that people should die; for if not, we are probably not pushing the envelope hard enough. What is not necessary is that people die because of bureaucratic stupidity.

Hephaestus' First Law

Any sufficiently unlikely event will immediately be siezed upon as a miracle by true believers.

I mention this because The New York Times Book Review has added a science fiction column by David Itzkoff. This event will immediately be forwarded to the Vatican as evidence of Octavia Butler's first miracle. For those of you who didn't notice, Ms. Butler died last week, far too young. The NYT did give her a decent sendoff.

Who knows what inspired the editors of the Grey Lady to rush into this move a mere sixty years or so after the beginning of science fiction's Golden Age. Still, we'll take what we can get.

Addendum: Itzkoff's list of his ten favorite science fiction books shows that he has promise. It's not my list, and I don't recognize some of the titles (I'll go look for the ones that I don't), but I can't argue with any of the selections that I do know.

Penultimate Failure

Airbus recently tested the wing of their new A380 to destruction. Unfortunately, it failed a little earlier than anticipated. The test that failed is known as the Ultimate Load test. It involves mounting a wing in a jig and bending the tip up to simulate the strain that the wing might face in service. The first series of tests are to the "Limit Load" — the maximum amount that the aircraft is to carry in service. The European aviation authorities then require the wing to withstand a strain of 1.5 times the Limit Load for three seconds before failing.

The A380 wing failed between 1.45 and 1.5 times the Limit Load. Airbus will attempt to convince the authorities to approve the wing based upon models of any changes, rather than testing another actual wing. This is in accordance with standard Airbus practice. The A330 wing also failed just short of the standard. Airbus actually points to the failure with pride, pointing out how it means that there is no wasted weight spent on excessive strength, as compared with the Boeing 777 which didn't fail until 1.54 times the Limit Load.

While there is something to be said for avoiding excessive conservatism and the fact that the wing did fail at precisely the point predicted by the models, I'd prefer to fly on a plane that had been designed with the extra little bit of strength built in.

One for the Visiting Teams

Yesterday, the heads of the Russian, Japanese, and European space agencies all met at NASA to announce the new IIS construction schedule. The transcript of the press conference is an interesting read. The European and Japanese science modules were all moved up in the assembly sequence. The Russians have agreed not to fly one of their power modules, instead taking power from an American module.

When Mike Griffin was asked whether any American modules would not be flown, he deferred the question, saying that the head of space operations would know better than he. This is disingenuous, as Griffin knows full well that the American habitation module, which would have provided living quarters for four astronauts, and the propulsion module, which would have given the station the ability to correct its own orbit have been cancelled, even though both have been built. The Centrifuge Accommodation Module, which was built by the Japanese to pay for their shuttle flights has been grounded as well. He knows all this because he was the one who cancelled all of these projects.

All-in-all, the partners sounded very pleased to have the schedule compressed and to have their components moved up in the schedule. There was much talk about the Americans leaving the ISS program after 2015 ("abandon in place" is NASA's unofficial motto) and the whole assembly schedule is based upon the shuttle launches matching their twenty-five year average of 4.56 flights per year.

Ad Astra Per Aspera

The Schedule is Everything

The folks at NASA are working hard to get Discovery off the ground during the May launch window. For those of you who might not be following along at home, the space shuttles are doomed to the Sisyphean task of pushing space station parts into orbit. In order to maximize the loads they carry, they must launch when the station is properly positioned. After Columbia, it was decided that at least the first two shuttle flights had to take place when both the launch and the point where the external tank is discarded is in daylight, to allow for visual and photographic inspection. This inspection is what showed that huge chunks of foam were still falling off of the tank.

After both Challenger and Columbia, NASA officials were taken to task for creating an environment where adherence to schedule trumped concerns for safety. Now, with an launch window available in May, NASA is doing it again, rather than waiting for the July window.

The external tank that will fly has just left the construction facility outside of New Orleans, having been rushed out a week ahead of schedule. Even still, the normal preflight foam inspections and repairs will eat up every day of contingency time in the schedule. At the same time, leaking helium seals have been replaced in two of Discovery's engines. Unfortunately, three of the four seals don't meet specifications, despite being hand-picked as the best available in the inventory. There are also metal shavings that have been detected in a filter screen in the oxygen line of one engine. More have been found in one of Endeavour's engines. NASA has no idea of where this metal came from or what it's made of.

Even with all of these problems, the shuttle program manager remains very optimistic that there will be three shuttle flights this year. The launch director, Mike Leinbach, has said, "What we've done this time is, we've put together a schedule that has no contingency in it. Some people could call that an aggressive schedule. I like to call it an exciting schedule. It has a reasonable chance of success. If we run into a significant technical issue, we don't have much time to resolve it, obviously. But barring the big 'gotcha' in the processing, we feel pretty good about making that schedule."

There is a reason for all of this haste. Many of the remaining components of the space station have been built and have been sitting for years awaiting launch. For various technical reasons, these parts are reaching the end of their viable storage lives. If they are not put into service soon, they will require extensive (and expensive) refurbishing to replace seals, batteries, and other items. So, just as happened before Challenger and Columbia, NASA has become schedule-driven to meet arbitrary dates. It will be interesting to find out how many variances of the Flight Rules will be needed to get Discovery into the air in time for two more launches this year.

Stop the Presses!

Much to my amazement (and that of most of the rest of the world), not all American Olympic athletes are slimy, self-centered buffoons with the social graces of an enraged hippotamus and the myopic world view of the current occupant of the White House. Apparently, speedskater Joey Cheek actually spent his post-victory press conference talking about things other than himself and his sport. He also donated his winnings for the games (a $50,000 bonus for a gold medal and $25,000 for a silver, from the US Olympic Committee) to an organization called "Right to Play" that benefits third-world children.

This story in Sports Illustrated describes how he also encouraged corporate sponsors of the games to match his donation, raising a cool half-million dollars.

Of course, such selflessness won't go unnoticed in America. When the New York Times asked one of the principals of a large New York marketing firm about Cheek's potential as an advertising spokesman, he replied, "Has he won anything yet?"

The Decline of Ancient Civilization

The 2006 Winter Olympic Games have apparently ended. I confess to having not watched any of it and to having read preciously little as well. My wife and ten-year-old daughter watched about fifteen minutes of ice skating early on and then abandoned it. They did watch every minute of "Dancing with the Stars" for the last three weeks, though. I predict that the next round of bidding for television rights is going to be postponed once or twice before a "new paradigm" of broadcasting is announced, with the television rights going for a fraction of the current rates and one or more companies picking up iPod and other digital media rights.

Intelligent Designs

I had the opportunity to listen to a one of the leading experts on the subject give a talk on the development of herbicide resistance among weeds. It's a problem every bit as serious as the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, if not more so, as there has not been an herbicide with a new mode of action developed in over a decade and there do not appear to be any new products on the horizon. After the talk, when I went up to him and asked how he hoped to get the message of resistance across to a population who doesn't even believe in evolution, he shrugged and shook his head.

That's the problem. It's not enough to say "you believe in religion as the answer to everything and I'll believe in science, and we'll all go our merry ways." A small handful of sufficiently stupid people have the potential to screw things up for everyone. Unfortunately, when it comes to using antibiotics and herbicides, it's not a small number of people, but a substantial portion of the population. Ignorance of basic biology represents a threat to the health and welfare of all of us.

The problem seems to lie with the fact that many people are unable to understand the most basic of syllogisms; if it requires independent thought, it's beyond their ken. They rely entirely upon the rule of authority. Since science admits that there are things that are not yet understood and which may never be understood, while the answer to all questions in religions is that it's all god's fault, religion obviously has the greater authority.

So how can rational people deal with the "the bible says it, I believe it, end of story" crowd? Simple. When they get sick, encourage them to go with faith-based interventions. Talk them out of medical solutions and into prayer groups. If we can't outbreed 'em, let's outlive them.

When It's Not Your Year

NASCAR's truck division ran the GM FlexFuel 250 at Daytona, NASCAR's hallowed ground, yesterday. GM must have shelled out a healthy seven-digits to get the race sponsorship, which celebrates their line of pickups and SUVs, all of which can run on either gasoline or E85 (a mixture of 85% ethanol, 14% gasoline, and 1% highly enriched uranium).

Unfortunately for the sponsor, the fastest Chevrolet truck finished in twelfth place, behind two Dodges, four Fords, and five Toyotas. In fact, only three of the top twenty places were held by Chevys, although the back of the pack was well stocked. Even considering the knuckleheads of the NASCAR nation this sort of performance can't be good for sales.

Out of the Loop

Well, there's very little I can add to Dick Cheney's own words, but that won't keep me from trying.

DC: "And it was also important, I thought, to get the story out as accurately as possible, and this is a complicated story that, frankly, most reporters would never have dealt with before, so —"

Very true. Sarah McClendon died back in 2003 and she had only started covering the White House in the FDR administration. I doubt that anyone still working the Washington beat is likely to have covered Aaron Burr shooting Alexander Hamilton.

DC: "I had a bit of the feeling that the press corps was upset because, to some extent, it was about them — they didn't like the idea that we called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times instead of The New York Times. But it strikes me that the Corpus Christi Caller-Times is just as valid a news outlet as The New York Times is, especially for covering a major story in south Texas."

Possibly true as well. Of course it would have played better if Dick hadn't just said: "In terms of who I would contact to have somebody who would understand what we're even talking about, the first person that we talked with at one point, when Katherine first called the desk to get hold of a reporter didn't know the difference between a bullet and a shotgun — a rifle bullet and a shotgun." I'm reasonably confident that the Times has someone on the National Desk who can tell the difference between being sniped and being blasted, even on a Saturday.

DC: "I think this decision we made, that this was the right way to do it."

Now we know the real mastermind of Adminstration policy. This is almost a direct quote to explain away the debacles of Iraq and Katrina. Consistency is a fundamental virtue.

And finally, Dick shows that he's a real softy at heart.

Brit Hume: "Will it affect your attitude toward this pastime you so love in the future?"

DC: "I can't say that. You know, we canceled the Sunday hunt. I said, look I'm not — we were scheduled to go out again on Sunday and I said I'm not going to go on Sunday, I want to focus on Harry. I'll have to think about it."

What more can you say about the guy? After blasting his friend in the face and chest, he was concerned enough not to go out shooting the next day.

Vandalism

The University of Idaho's football coach, Nick Holt, resigned last Sunday to take a position as an assistant coach for the St. Louis Rams. The Idaho Statesman quotes Holt as saying, "I feel good about it. It's bittersweet to leave this place, especially when I know it's headed in the right direction. I know we can be good now."

It's not hard to see why he feels good about it. Idaho was 5-18 under his coaching.

The school seems pretty broken up about it as well. Athletic director Rob Spear said, "We're disappointed we're losing Nick. But we're Vandals, so we're excited about a Vandal getting an opportunity at the next level." (Yes, the University of Idaho nickname is the Vandals. There are no reports as to whether any East European barbarian hordes will be suing the NCAA to get them to change it.) Holt left spud country to work for Scott Linehan, the new head coach of the Rams, who is a former Vandal quarterback and assistant coach.

But before he even set foot in the Gateway City, Holt bolted. Spurning the defensive line coaching position offered by the Rams, Holt decided to accept the role of defensive coordinator at the University of Southern California instead. The Statesman has not received a statement from Holt regarding his new position, but they quote him as saying on last Sunday that the Rams job was "an opportunity I just couldn't turn down.''

In the bitter irony department, the U of I has hired former NFL and college head coach Dennis Erickson. Erickson coached for four years at Idaho in the early eighties and ran up a 32-15 record. His overall college record is 144-57-1 over seventeen years.

It's Rocket Science

NASA has just released their FY2007 budget request and it shifts 4.63 billion dollars out of the space science budget between now and 2010. Where is this money going? You might think that it's supposed to pay for the work that's needed to put men back on the Moon and for the first landing on Mars, but you'd be wrong. Exploration Systems, which NASA says, "develops and demonstrates new
technologies that will enable NASA to conduct future human and robotic exploration missions, including the development of robotic precursor missions for lunar exploration" is losing $1.51 billion over the same time frame and Human Systems, which according to NASA: "advance knowledge and technology critical for supporting long-term human survival and performance during operations beyond low-Earth orbit,with a focus on improving medical care and human health maintenance", is getting whacked for $2.41 billion. That's an $8.55 billion decrease in the science budget.

Of this, $2.95 billion is going to pay for additional space shuttle missions, the destination of each being the International Space Station. You may remember the ISS, which was widely promoted by NASA hacks as being the greatest scientific tool since the invention of the microscope. If you do remember it, it's almost certainly not for the science, as it hasn't generated enough data to provide source material for a single decent dissertation.

Another $1.23 billion is earmarked for a new program called the Innovative Partnerships Program. This is a handout to private industry and a handful of national laboratories. NASA makes a big deal of talking about the Small Business Initiative for Research, which earmarks some of this money for small companies. They don't mention that the SBIR program accounts for only 2.5% of this spending. They also trumpet their Enterprise Engine which is a venture capital fund to sponsor "youngyoung, privately-held companies developing innovative, multi-use technologies that will meet NASA's future mission needs, as well as better position these technologies for future commercial use." This fund accounts for all of 1.0% of the IPP.

The rest of the windfall, some $6.8 billion including additional funds, is going to down the hole to create the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), and the Heavy Lift Launch Vehicle (HLLV), about which more will be said in the near future.

The Creation Story

In the beginning the universe was a simple place, without distinctions such as matter and energy, good and evil, and Republican and Democrat. Modern physics tells us that this period of rationality lasted roughly one billionth of a billionth of a femtosecond, which is about how long it takes to realize that you just ran a stop sign right in front of a cop, and then someone dropped the universe and it shattered into countless fragments, none of which fit together. Science, which feels obligated to give everything a name, refers to this as symmetry breaking.

Broken symmetry has a lot to answer for. It's responsible for the fact that the visible universe is comprised almost entirely of matter, and not anti-matter. It is the reason that gauge bosons have mass (thus distinguishing between the weak and the electromagnetic forces). And, most troubling of all, it explains why people have a morbid fascination with which celebrities are sleeping together.

This blog is dedicated to broken symmetry and all of its effects. It's a place for random fragments to come together and just possibly restore a bit of order to the universe.