Celebrating Freedom Weekend and the 4th of July, we have a nice arrangement of red, white and blue flowers in the living room. I hope you enjoy this photo of our patriotic bouquet.
Update: I’m so proud that none other than Lorie Byrd liked this picture too! Thanks Lorie! Happy 4th of July!
p.s. Lorie also posted this on Wizbang!
Since the James Webb Space Telescope is a ways off, I’m delighted to see the engineers get the Hubble Space Telescope back in operation.
From NASA:
NASA Issues Hubble Space Telescope Status Report
NASA engineers successfully activated the Advanced Camera for Surveys at 9:12 a.m. EDT Friday aboard the agency’s Hubble Space Telescope. Checkout was completed at 10:20 a.m. EDT with science observations scheduled to resume Sunday, July 2.
“This is the best possible news,” said Ed Ruitberg, deputy associate director for the Astrophysics Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. “We were confident we could work through the camera issue, and now we can get back to doing more incredible science with the camera.”
Engineers began uploading commands to the instrument Thursday, June 29, in an effort to restore operational status. A pre-programmed observing timeline for normal camera science operations will begin executing at approximately 8 p.m. EDT on July 2.
Engineers received indications on Monday, June 19, that power supply voltages were out of acceptable limits, causing the camera to stop functioning. The instrument was taken off line, so engineers could study the problem and determine the appropriate remedy. Hubble observations continued using other onboard science instruments.
The third-generation Hubble instrument consists of three electronic cameras, filters and dispersers that detect light from the ultraviolet to the near infrared. Astronauts installed the camera during a servicing mission in March 2002. It was developed jointly by Goddard, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colo.; and the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore.
For information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:
About the James Webb Space Telescope:
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2013. JWST will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. JWST will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. JWST’s instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.
JWST will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won’t fit onto the rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open only once JWST is in outer space. JWST will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth.
JWST will orbit the L2 Lagrange Point, in the vicinity of the WMAP probe we blogged about yesterday.
Scientists believe the Big Bang occurred because of an observed “cosmological background radiation” seen in all directions from the vantage point of Earth. Since June, 2001, a space-based instrumented observation platform called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has been collecting data that allows scientists to literally look back in time and space to virtually witness the birth of the universe.
In the video below, you will see a journey back through space/time starting from the WMAP probe in it’s orbit and continuing outward past Mars, the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter, Saturn, through the Oort cloud and into interstellar space. The journey continues through a “local” nebula in Orion and thence out of the Milky Way and past thousands of galaxies back into the time of primordial blue giant stars and ultimately past the “dark ages” and into the afterglow of the Big Bang. Then, brilliant light and, finally, darkness at “before the beginning of time.”
Please take this thrilling journey back to the beginning of time: (press 
to play)
Some history about WMAP:
WMAP was launched on June 30, 2001 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base aboard a Delta II rocket.
WMAP completed its prime 2 years of mission operations in its L2 orbit by September 2003. Meanwhile, the 2002 and 2004 Astronomy and Physics Senior Review granted WMAP mission extensions, endorsing the proposed 8-years of mission operations, to end September 2009.
In February 2003 the WMAP Team released a set of 13 papers (241 journal pages) along with flight data from the first year of observations of the CMB. In March 2006, the WMAP Team released 3-year data, including full polarization data, and papers describing the data processing, systematic error analyses, calibration, and other critical aspects of the experiment.
And, finally, a schematic diagram of the trip you just took back over more than thirteen and a half billion years in about a minute!
Schematic of the cosmic chronology
Images and video courtesy of NASA
No, not a romance story, but a good one nonetheless. Since terrorists in Iraq have taken to the sewers and canals like the rats they are, the Multi-National Forces have been equipping and preparing troops to deal with getting wet, staying afloat and protection from small arms fire — the latest accessory is floating body armor.
Operation.Iraqi.Freedom — Body armor protects, floats
Story and photo by Pfc. Paul J. Harris
3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
BALAD, Iraq – In Iraq the insurgents have begun using the canals and waterways of the Tigris River as a means to move weapons caches while avoiding Coalition Forces patrolling the streets.
Image: 1st Lt. Sean Craig, a Chicago native and a 3rd Battalion platoon leader, swims a 16-yard distance in his body armor system during a drown proofing class.
With the battle being taken to the rivers of Iraq, the command group of 3rd Battalion, 29th Field Artillery, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, Task Force Band of Brothers, developed training to help Soldiers survive in full combat gear if they fall in water.
With river boat patrols increasing, Command Sgt. Maj. Dean Keveles, 3rd Battalion’s top enlisted soldier and a team of his senior noncommissioned officers decided to test the buoyancy of the interceptor body armor system at the outdoor swimming pool at Logistical Support Area Anaconda.
A Soldier going out on patrol wears about 40 to 50 pounds of gear. With the weight of the gear there was concern the Soldier would sink to the bottom of a canal.
It turns out body armor will float and support the weight of the Soldier. It is like having a bulletproof life vest. Keveles said.
From what they learned at the pool, Keveles and his sergeants were able to put together a training exercise they could teach Soldiers. The exercise has Soldiers in full Army Combat Uniform wearing armored vests without ammo pouches.
The instructor gave a Soldier a kick in the back to simulate the surprise of falling into the water. Once in the water Soldiers had to swim 16 yards before coming out of the pool.
We don’t have a way to simulate river current in the training but at least the Soldiers can build their confidence by training, said Keveles.
1st Lt. Sean Craig, 3rd Battalion platoon leader, felt no discomfort after hitting the water.
“I am a pretty strong swimmer so it felt fine, felt like I normally swim,†said Craig. “It felt like a life jacket, a secure feeling because as soon as you get in it pops you back up.â€
Last night we saw Walt Disney’s Eight Below. Inspired by a true story, this Antarctic adventure is about sled dogs, rescue, survival and more rescue. The movie has beautiful scenery, dramatic and exciting sequences and is mostly about these wonderful dogs. This movie was so good that we had to add a new rating level to my on-line DVD database — “excellent” didn’t quite get it, so “sensational” has been added.
Above: “Max” and “Maya”
If you enjoyed “Snow Dogs” and “March of the Penguins” then “Eight Below” is for you. If you haven’t seen them yet, then I highly recommend seeing all three!
I’ll bet that NONE of the mainstream media will publish emerging evidence that the events that took place at Haditha, Iraq involving the U. S. Marines have been highly distorted by both the media and partisan Democrats, Jack Murtha, in particular.
Read this article from NewsMax: New Evidence Emerges in Haditha Case
In the aftermath of the brutal mutilation and murder of two U. S. Soldiers, the terrorists responsible for these atrocities have been tracked down by the Military. Why is this largely overlooked by the press?
From CENTCOM: Press Releases – COALITION FORCES TRACK DOWN TERRORISTS RESPONSIBLE…
Where was the press when the Clinton Administration sat around and did little in the aftermath of the Khobar Towers terrorist attack that killed 19 U. S. Airmen and wounded scores of others?
From Opinion Journal: Khobar Towers
And finally, did you know that the Bush Administration never rejected the Kyoto Accords? Did you know it was unanimously rejected by the U. S. Senate when Bill Clinton was still in the White House? Probably not — the press was too busy demonizing Ken Starr for investigating presidential philandering.
From Right Thinking from the Left Coast:More Kyoto Idiocy
How can you possibly trust the major media when these important facts are largely ignored by them?
Treason Central, the New York Times, has again betrayed America and compromised yet another tactic in the War on Terror. Boycott the New York and Los Angeles Times.
And not to shortchange the equally treacherous L.A. Times . . .
