Category Archives: Science/Engineering

Texas scope testing 68 candidate earths

Posted on February 4, 2011 | Comments Off on Texas scope testing 68 candidate earths

“We also go to the really big telescopes, and we get very sharp images to see if there’s anything around that star that could explain it. When we’re through with all those tests, we go to the Keck or the HET or another large telescope and we measure the spectra.

“If the spectra show that the star is wobbling, we get the mass of a planet. In particular, we can go to the Keck, get the period of the planet and get the epoch (where the planet is on its orbit). And that should exactly match what we have with Kepler. If they have the same orbital period and they occur at the same time, we can say yes, we have a confirmation and can announce it.”

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Texana

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Glaciers advancing, not retreating

Posted on February 3, 2011 | Comments Off on Glaciers advancing, not retreating

The carbon dioxide cult takes another hit in the mouth. Oh, the humanity!

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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Fool’s War

Posted on February 1, 2011 | Comments Off on Fool’s War

This is a wonderful hard science fiction story, marred only by occasional repetition (characters show tension so often by running their hands through their hair that I finally decided they all needed a change of shampoo) and, in the Kindle edition, at least, enough typos, misspellings, and grammar mistakes to make an honest proofreader turn to drink.

Seriously, folks, the $6.99 price is just right, the story very surprising and well done, but the publisher (Little, Brown and Company) should be ashamed for this many text errors in one file. I suppose they consider the ebook a throwaway, which is remarkably shortsighted, even for a mainstream book publisher stupidly wedded to paper in the face of rising ebook sales. It’s also a pity because  author Sarah Zettel deserves praise and respect for her intriguing tale of machine intelligence run amok.

But no reader deserves to have to wade through so many mistakes in a text, particularly in the last half of the story. I was constantly trying to decide which word or tense was intended. Even the characters’ names are repeatedly misspelled. Not even a homicidal AI would be so cruel!

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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space

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All set for the new poisonous lightbulbs

Posted on January 27, 2011 | Comments Off on All set for the new poisonous lightbulbs

American_gothic_parodyYep, we’re ready to follow the new Green dictate on light bulbs. No more, uh, harmful bright incandescents. No, sirree, not for us. We’re not environmental baddies who want to harm the climate.

Give us those new mercury-filled, shadowy, compact fluorescent light bulbs any time. We’ll be sure to follow the government’s guidelines and shoo the children and pets out of the room should one ever break, spilling poisonous mercury on the furniture and the carpet.

Hey, we know it’s for the best. It’s for our own good here at the rancho. Our overpaid, undereducated career politicians in Congress and their toadies in the legacy media told us so. We’re in the very best of hands.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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Mexico’s crystal caves

Posted on January 22, 2011 | Comments Off on Mexico’s crystal caves

crystalsReprising a Texas Scribbler  oldie but goodie that’s a favorite with the Googlers.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, South of the Border, Texana

To boldly wish

Posted on January 21, 2011 | Comments Off on To boldly wish

I think it was science fiction writer Charlie Stross who said that anyone wishing to settle Mars should first try settling the Gobi Desert in the winter while wearing a fireman’s respirator.

Somehow I doubt these folks would want to do that, but at least they have more imagination than the wretched politicians who have grounded the idea for so long. Meanwhile, we can hope the intrepid don’t go entirely alone either.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Library, Science/Engineering, Space

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P3 at Whidbey

Posted on January 19, 2011 | Comments Off on P3 at Whidbey

An example of the nephew’s bird at Whidbey Island NAS which I know he hopes to fly again one day.

P3TOa

UPDATE:  Alas, the nephew’s health problems prevented him from getting back on the flight deck. After a stint with Naval Intelligence, another on the USS Enterprise and finally managing a ROTC program, he got out of the Navy. Seems happier, though I bet he misses his P3.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, The War, Troops

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