Weekend Links

• Ares I-X Puzzle Pieces Coming Together
• Ares I-X slips to September 18 as processing edges towards stacking
• Ares I: Dual-Plane Isolators Emerge as Most Promising Thrust Oscillation Fix – Or how to fit your rocket with shock absorbers.
• Article says Air Force doubts Orion can escape an Ares I disaster
• A Closer Look at the Max Launch Abort System – The other Orion escape system moves quietly toward testing.
• Orion Crew Modules from Coast to Coast – With all of the testing going on, there's getting to be quite a collection of full-size mockups around the country. (But none in my neighborhood, darnit.)
• New cleaning protocol for future 'search for life' missions – No point in searching for life (or organic molecules), if you might have brought it with you. Which has always looked to me like a complete show-stopper for human exploration of Mars.
• One fifth of humanity deprived of Milky Way – The stars at night are not big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, no matter what lies we Texans like to tell ourselves. And the rest of the developed world is about the same.
• Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified – Oh, good. We certainly wouldn't want to utilize all of that taxpayer investment to learn anything.
• German lad hit by 30,000 mph meteorite – Of course, it wasn't going 30,000 mph when it hit him.
• A smashing end for Japanese lunar orbiter mission
• Seven things that don't make sense about gravity
• Getting a theory of everything by ditching tenet of physics – Lorentz Invariance? We don't go in for that sort of thing around here.
• First new element for five years makes periodic table – Welcome, element 112.
• ITER fusion project faces more delays – So much for "first plasma" in 2016. I'll say it again: all of our eggs should not be in one basket where a game-changing technology like fusion is concerned. We know it's possible. We know it'll completely transform our global energy situation if we can harness it. Having multiple teams pursuing multiple approaches would be worth every penny.
• NASA working on 'open rotor' green (but loud) jets – Trading one kind of pollution for another: Decreasing carbon dioxide pollution by increasing sound pollution.
• Ekranoplan Showcase Part 2 – (From Jay Lake's blog.) Like Jay, I have a soft spot in my heart for the wonderfully weird Soviet technology that is the Ekranoplan.
• Human subjects have human rights – As Daniel Everett asks: “Did Jared Diamond libel Papua New Guineans in a high-profile article? I don't know. And, most likely, neither do you.” – An interesting issue. Also, I can't recommend reading Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, or Daniel Everett's Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes too highly. And while you're at it, Mark Plotkin's Tales of a Shaman's Apprentice is a "must read." In fact, read it before you read Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes.
• Does Military Sonar Kill Marine Wildlife? – In short: yes.
• Snow Leopard Pictures: Rare Snow Cats Caught by Camera Traps
• Rare Amazon Animal Photos: Giant Armadillo, Bush Dog, More
• Amazon deforestation leads to economic boom and bust – No good comes of it. But lots that's bad does.
• Scientists Create a Form of Pre-Life
• At Last, Facing Down Bullies (and Their Enablers) – I went to one junior high school, and three high schools. Two of those schools were in rich white people areas of Houston, Texas. Two were in the poorest black communities of Houston's inner city. At one of the latter two schools I was the victim of a coordinated attack that left my jaw broken in three places, and subsequently wired shut for seven weeks. That was a picnic compared to life in the rich white people schools. (From Jay Lake's blog.)
• 72 Years of Happiness – Or not.
• Searching for Afghanistan's Third Giant Buddha – This may take a while....
• Carfree Times, June, 2009 – Always worth a read.
• US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive – Because sprawl costs.
• Once-Parched Ranch Is Conservation Model – A good article about David Bamberger's work. (Thanks to Brendan Boerner for finding this.)