Monday, September 15, 2014

Curiosity at the foot of Mt. Sharp...

Curiosity at the foot of Mt. Sharp...  And heading up the slope, climbing a mountain on Mars!

Meanwhile, back on the ISS they're conducting observations on slime mold growth in microgravity.  How thrilling!  Not...

Breaking science news: men and women are different!

Breaking science news: men and women are different!  Probably the scientists involved in this study will be denounced by the feminazis, and websites carrying the news will be boycotted.  For now, though, you can read all about it: science shows that men and women actually have intrinsically different abilities.  Imagine that!  Men really are better at parallel parking, and women really are better at anything requiring fine motor skills (like sewing, knitting, or circuit board assembly).

You mean their really might be a biological reason why men are better at some things, and women better at others?  Really?  Whatever will these scientists discover next?!?

Comet 67P from just 30 km (18 miles)...

Comet 67P from just 30 km (18 miles)...  Via APOD, of course.  Yesterday the ESA chose primary and secondary landing sites for the Philae lander.  They're carefully setting expectations, as there is a good chance the landing attempt will fail.  The selection team emphasized safety over scientific interest (though every potential site is quite interesting!), and the primary site ended up being on the relatively smooth end of the comet's smaller lobe.  The landing attempt is scheduled for November 11th, by which time the Rosetta “mother ship” will be orbiting at an altitude of just 10 km (6 miles)...

As if we would expect honesty and transparency from this administration!

As if we would expect honesty and transparency from this administration!  More revelations about the seamy, casually corrupt Obama administration...

Estonia leads the way!

Estonia leads the way!  In tax competitiveness.  The U.S.?  We're at number 32, behind Slovakia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Slovenia.

Number 32.

This is why corporations are decamping to other countries.  It's not their lack of patriotism, nor their stupidity – it's that the U.S. is far from being the most attractive place for them to be located.  It's that simple.  To pick on an example from recent news, Burger King is relocating its headquarters to Canada mainly because it's going to save them a boatload of taxes.  That's not much different that what we just did: we moved from California to Utah, and a big part of that motivation was to escape the (absolutely absurdly high) tax rates in California...