EXCELLENT! The space station's robotic arm has grappled SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft! WOO HOO! That's history right there folks!

Skidamarink a dink a dink, Skidamarink a doo, I love you. I love you in the morning And in the afternoon, I love you in the evening And underneath the moon; Oh, Skidamarink a dink a dink, Skidamarink a doo, I love you!

 Anyone have 41k$ I can borrow? Found an awesome house!!!

I messaged a woman on OkCupid. She replied then I replied back asking what she is looking for in a guy... this is her novel of a reply. 

Dear Future Partner...
===
This is a list of rules, well, because I am a list fanatic and crazy like that. As you should know or will come to find out, I like to have everything in its place so to speak. So, without further ado, here is my list. Please bare with me because darn it, I'm worth it!
===

Family / Children
* I'm ok if you have children from a previous relationship. Just treat them well.
* You have to love my children like they are your own flesh and blood. Favoritism is not an option.
* You have to be willing to spend time with my family and support me if I go off the deep with any one of them, right or wrong. And you can only tell me if I'm wrong when we are alone!.

Flowers
* Let's talk Roses. DO NOT send them to me unless they are miniature and yellow or cream in color because those are the only ones I can tolerate, so to be on the safe side, never buy or send them to me. I don't like roses very much, they are overdone in my opinion.
* Now, what if you did want to send flowers? Well, I prefer potted plants but the occasional bouquet of fresh-cut flowers is acceptable. The more unique, the better. I like orchids and flowers that pop, multiple exotic colors that scream, "Look at me!" Please no carnations, that is so "junior high."
* My favorite flowers are the lilly and calla lillies... can't ever go wrong with those... and knowing they are my favorite is a bonus...

Jewelry/Other Expensive Gifts
* They don't impress me. I'd much rather have something that you put some thought into or did on a whim - like buy me a blackberry pie because that's my fave, or oh my gosh, send me on a scavenger hunt to find your butt!
* I don't like diamonds UNLESS I know 100% they did not come from or support the blood diamond trade. Too many people have died in man's quest for money over diamonds. Note, to date, I have not worn one, so I likely won't... But if you must shower me with diamonds, make sure you pick a reputable company with a good social identity.
* I love pearls. I like my birthstone. Not too flashy, but something small.
* NEVER get me a piece of jewelry that is a heart. Yuck, enough said!..
* Would I turn away a lavish gift, no, but why waste your money on a non-holiday when a simple note will do wonders?

Vacations, Getaways, and Dates
* Going to see the worlds largest rubber band ball or the worlds largest iron skillet is not my idea of a fun vacation. Maybe a weekend 'trip' and only if we had to kill some time while doing something else, but never a vacation!
* I prefer nature over man-made structures, so the grand canyon is a yes, mountains are a yes. But a huge ass dam that holds back millions of people from being flooded? Nope.
* Anywhere north is a plus! Changing of the leaves in Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island. Skiing in Colorado, Washington, Vermont... Backpacking up north... Alaska even.
* Avoid the South unless it is cooler. Then, if you must, take me to Charleston, SC or another historic town where I can enjoy the people and the folklore/history.
* Murder Mystery dinners, a play at the theater (Broadway or otherwise), Ballets, Symphony Orchestra events, Ballroom Dancing, and other 'girly' stuff is right up my alley.
* A football game, a baseball game, a girls basketball game, the roller derby are all interesting, so I am not against those. DO NOT TAKE me to a mens basketball game unless we get to meet the players. JKJK, I would go...
* Some man-made structures are tolerable, I mean if you wanted to take me around the world, the pyramids are pretty freaking cool. As is Stonehenge. But again, please, no dams, maybe a bridge long enough to drive over it! :)
* Bowling, ice skating, roller skating, concerts, movies --- all acceptable dates...

Holidays
* Halloween ---- Dressing up as a 'power couple' is not only a turn on, but a requirement. Fred and Wilma Flinstone, Barney and Betty Rubble, Marge and Homer Simpson, a duo from Harry Potter, Mr. & Mrs. Loving, Romeo and Juliet, etc... You gotta be willing to go to the extreme and be outside your comfort zone to impress me. This has always been a dream of mine, and since I ain't getting any younger, I want what I want...
* Christmas ---- You have to be willing to participate in my cheesy activities, including but not limited to, homemade cocoa making, 12 days of christmas crafts, homemade gifts, volunteering to help the needy, etc.
* Thanksgiving --- Also must be willing to participate in my cheesy activities and want to be around my family and friends. Tall order, but if you are the right one, you can do it!

Other
* You have to be willing to deal with my crazy and love every minute of it :) jkjk! or am I?
* I'm subject to flights of fancy, and while I am a very logical and realistic person, it would be nice to have a fellow daydreamer around... so someday we could search for Sasquatch, build a tree house, search for buried treasure, etc. But if you are serious, I welcome someone to bring back down to earth. Though occasionally, you gotta venture out and explore :)
* Never underestimate the power of a picnic.
* Dancing in public is not a sign of weakness, it's flattering.
* Singing to me is always encouraged. Even in public if the lyrics aren't degrading.
* Picking apples at an apple orchard is not cheesy!
* Taking a couples cooking class together is right up my alley...

===
So, what are my financial, education, spiritual, etc. requirements for a partner? Well, that is a separate list, and I will send it some other time.

===
BUT here is the real meat and potatoes of this whole list, which will continue to grow as I think of more things to add: you must be willing to do these things even 50 years down the road. Not just during the dating or honeymoon phase... but long term. Imma talkin' sitting in a rocking chair, you serenading me with the latest love song while sitting on a deck drinking martinis at the age of 80, watching grand kids and great grand kids playing Red Rover in our large back yard.

===
Or you pushing me in a tire swing for our 20th anniversary! Get it? Got it? You up to the challenge?

Today in Geek History: Bob Metcalfe invents Ethernet at Xerox PARC to share a printer in 1973.

Sorry for not doing one of these in a while folks.

SpaceX private rocket blasts off for space station

I've been waiting for this launch for quite some time. I'm glad it finally launched, once it reaches the ISS in a few days new history will be made, private space exploration (well ok not exploring anything but it is a step in the right direction).

The SpaceX company made history as its Falcon 9 rocket rose from its seaside launch pad and pierced the pre-dawn sky, aiming for a rendezvous later this week with the space station. The rocket carried into orbit a capsule named Dragon that is packed with 1,000 pounds of space station provisions.

It is the first time a private company has launched a vessel to the space station. That's something only major governments have done - until the present test flight. Launch controllers applauded when the Dragon reached orbit 9 minutes into the flight.

Read more HERE

Three-telescope interferometry allows astrophysicists to observe how black holes are fueled

I don't really see any practical use for this, understanding black holes isn't really something we need to know right now but something cool might be discovered with this instrument.

By combining the light of three powerful infrared telescopes, an international research team has observed the active accretion phase of a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy tens of millions of light years away, a method that has yielded an unprecedented amount of data for such observations. The resolution at which they were able to observe this highly luminescent active galactic nucleus (AGN) has given them direct confirmation of how mass accretes onto black holes in centers of galaxies.

Read more HERE

Kepler satellite telescope reveals hundreds of superflares on distant stars

A BILLION times as powerful as those are sun produces... wow.

Here on Earth we are occasionally concerned about solar flares due to the impact they can have on our electrical systems. But our solar flares are puny when compared to so-called superflares that occur with other stars. A new research study by a team from Japan’s Kyoto University has found after studying one patch of sky over a 120 day period in 1990 using data from the Kepler telescope, that superflares are rather common, and as they describe in their paper published in the journal Nature, some are a billion times as powerful as those that occur with our own sun.

Read more HERE

Hubble spies edge-on beauty

Here is your beautiful image of the week!

Visible in the constellation of Andromeda, NGC 891 is located approximately 30 million light-years away from Earth. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope turned its powerful wide field Advanced Camera for Surveys towards this spiral galaxy and took this close-up of its northern half. The galaxy's central bulge is just out of the image on the bottom left.

Read more HERE

James Glendy: December 7, 1951 - May 18, 2012

Visitation

Monday, May 21
11:00 AM to 1:00 PM   

Legacy Cremation and Funeral Services

1604 W. Morris Street Indianapolis, IN 46221

Nice, my email response to a scenario is read on Gunfighter Cast episode 61: Question Show. The question was asked on GC-058 Warning Shots

Check Gunfighter Cast's website out, it's on the http://gunrightsradio.com/

My full answer is as follows

I tell the clerk to call 911. I point my weapon system at the ground but at the ready and observe any conveyance the suspect gets into making note of make/model and any plate info I can see without leaving the store. When the suspect is out of sight I holster my weapon and tell the employee to lock the door until the police arrive, I then write down everything I observed about the suspect and wait for the LEO's.
 
In other news, our infosec people have gunfightercast.com blocked at work, what kind of !&#* is that?!
 
Thanks again for your service to our country at your day job and your service to the gun community in your spare time.

Here are the Avengers in high school

The National Space Society (NSS) calls on Congress to ease export control regulations on spacecraft and related items, as urged by the Departments of Defense and State in their recent, joint "Section 1248" report, "Risk Assessment of the United States Space Export Control Policy", available here.
 
This report concluded that spacecraft and their components, designated as dual-use items, can safely be removed from the U.S. Munitions List (USML), which is controlled under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) by the Department of State. 
 
Once off the USML, the report recommends that these items be placed on the Commerce Control List (CCL) managed by the Department of Commerce. Experts maintain that a failure to implement this change not only would continue to cause harm to the American space industrial base, but could actually pose a threat to national security and potentially impede current and future space exploration efforts.
 
"For many years, the U.S. space industrial base has been at a competitive disadvantage with other countries due to outdated and overly burdensome licensing processes under ITAR," said NSS Executive Director, Paul E. Damphousse. "The U.S space export control system has created delays, driven up costs, and severely hampered the ability of the American space industry to compete in an increasingly global market, and this situation must not be allowed to continue."
 
A distinguished panel of export control policy experts will discuss the recommendations outlined in the Section 1248 report at NSS's upcoming International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Washington, DC May 24-28, 2012. Patricia Cooper of the Satellite Industry Association will moderate the panel, which will include representatives from the Defense Department, Tauri Group, Bigelow Aerospace and the Universities Space Research Association. For more information about media access to the panel, please visit http://isdc.nss.org/2012 or email ISDC2012.Media@nss.org.
 
NSS believes that implementation of these recommendations will serve to bolster critical American space industries vital to space development and lead to increased cooperation in space exploration initiatives with our international partners. NSS agrees with the report's goal, which is to urge Congress to enact legislation to "create higher walls around fewer items" and support the health and leadership of the U.S. space industrial base.
 
About ISDC: The International Space Development Conference is the annual conference of the National Space Society. ISDC 2012 will take place at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington, DC from May 24 through 28, 2012. ISDC brings together a diverse group of NASA officials, aerospace industry leaders and interested private citizens to engage in discussions about today's prevalent space issues in order to stimulate innovation and overcome the obstacles that hinder human advancement off the Earth.
 
About The National Space Society (NSS): NSS is an independent, educational, grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization.  Founded when the National Space Institute and the L5 Society merged in 1987, NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen's voice on space.  NSS has over 12,000 members and supporters, and over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world.  The society publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the most important developments in space. 

Thank God!!! Dick the dinosaur Lugar just conceded!!!

So the past couple of days when I try to reply to an email to comment on a facebook comment... I get "For your protection, email notifications sent up until November 24, 2009 are not available for commenting via email. To add a comment to one of these threads please login to the Facebook website." and it's terribly annoying... a google search finds ZERO pages about it, so feel free to comment on this post if you too are having the issue so I know I'm not alone.

There's a hold up in the Bronx, Brooklyn's broken out in fights. There's a traffic jam in Harlem, that's backed up to Jackson Heights. There's a scout troup short a child, Kruschev's due at Idlewild. Car 54, Where Are You?

If anything happens to me anytime soon, check the surveillance cameras that cover the parking lot of O'Reilly Auto Parts on W. Washington for 4:30-5:30pm for 5-02-2012. The man in the vehicle that was talking to me, or his employer, are responsible.

The new 999 number is 0118 999 881 999 119 7253

If anyone around Indianapolis needs carpet cleaning contact His Carpet Care -> http://www.hiscarpetcare.com/ they are good people!

If you knew there were 24 hours left before the Earth and everything on it ceased to exist and you were the only person privileged to this information, what would you do during those 24 hours?

Sorry for the much overdue This Week in Space. I just haven't felt like doing one lately, and haven't even followed space news for a month or so.

Satellite proposed to send solar power to Earth

The first time I saw this idea was in Sim City '2000' back in 1993 or 1994 where you could build microwave power stations that would beam solar energy down from space via mirowaves.It's a good idea, just not really been worth it due to cost of solar cells, they are however getting cheaper and electricity is getting more expensive as demand for it increases.

Artemis Innovation Management Solutions has been given some seed money by NASA to look deeper into a project the company first proposed last summer; namely, building a satellite that could collect energy from the sun and beam it back down to Earth to add to the electrical grid. Building such a satellite has been bantered about for several decades by various groups and scientists, but until now, no one had come up with a design that would work given all the constraints of the time. But now, an idea proposed by longtime NASA engineer John Mankins, now with Artemis, has clearly created enough interest within NASA that some money to investigate the idea is being offered.

Read more HERE

New look at HD 10180 shows it might have nine planets

I like how when I was born we knew of a whopping 0 planets outside of our star system, we now know of over 2,000 and confirm more weekly. HD 10180 has as many as we used to (before Pluto lost planethood) and may even have more. The chance that we are the only sentient life in the universe is absurdly low, hell we likely aren't alone in our neighborhood in our galaxy.

Astronomer Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, has found after looking at data regarding the solar system surrounding the star HD 10180, that it likely has nine planets making it the most highly populated solar system known to man (ours has just eight after the demotion of Pluto). He details his findings in a paper pre-published on arXiv (and set for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics) describing how after studying slight wobbles by the star as it’s tugged by planetary gravitation, he found what he believes is confirmation of a seventh planet, and evidence for two more.

Read more HERE

Newfangled space-propulsion technology could help clean up Earth orbit

I love it! I want to see this used on a small sattelite inside of 5 years. Get to it!

Some of the most valuable “real estate” for humans isn’t on Earth at all but rather above the planet’s atmosphere, where all manner of human-made objects orbit. The problem is that those orbits are too crowded with dead satellites and debris, making new launches riskier. Robert Winglee has spent years developing a magnetized ion plasma system to propel a spacecraft at ultra-high speeds, making it possible to travel to Mars and return to Earth in as little time as 90 days. The problem is that cost and other issues have dampened the desire to send astronauts to Mars or any other planet.

Read more HERE

Will Russia rescue ExoMars?

I hope this mission gets salvaged, although we have a nice one on it's way... Curiosity which is set to land between August 6 and August 20, 2012.

After NASA was forced to back out the joint ExoMars mission with the European Space Agency due to budget constraints, ESA went looking for help with the planned multi-vehicle Mars mission. Now, reportedly the Head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin met with Director General of the ESA, Jean-Jacques Dordain last week, and the two signed a memorandum of understanding to work together to make ExoMars a reality.

Read more HERE

Hubble spies a spiral galaxy edge-on

There is your beautiful image for this installment of This Week in Space.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spotted the "UFO Galaxy." NGC 2683 is a spiral galaxy seen almost edge-on, giving it the shape of a classic science fiction spaceship. This is why the astronomers at the Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory, Cocoa, Fla., gave it this attention-grabbing nickname.

Read more HERE

People are getting really bent out of shape over the Instagram purchase by facebook... it's a crappy app with crappy filters anyway...