Secrets to Longevity

Hoping for a long life?

Check with Neo-Neocon for an informative essay on the topic, "Want to reach 100? Just do whatever you want…":

…and hope for the best.

HAT TIP: Instapundit.

Timeline of Gabrielle Giffords' Recovery

See Telegraph UK, "Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has voted in the US House of Representatives for the first time since she was shot in Arizona in January. Here is a timeline of her remarkable recovery..."

I'm really fascinated by this. She looks so alert and able. I read a lot about her surgery and medical prospects at the time. I recall just a couple months ago reports indicating the Giffords' speech was still halting. But as much as we can see here, she's chatting up a storm on the floor of the House.

I'll update if I find more information. It's truly is remarkable and a testament to the human spirit. I'm very proud and happy for her.

A Gaping Hole in Global Warming Alarmism?

I saw this earlier, at Lonely Conservative, "Sorry, Global Warmers: New NASA Study Shows Heat Not Trapped in Earth’s Atmosphere as Claimed."

But see also Astute Bloggers, "Ten year NASA study: There is no global warming!," and Pajamas Media, "Uh-Oh: NASA Satellite Data Blows Big Hole in Global Warming Models." (Via Memeorandum.)

And at IBD, "Junk Science Unravels":

Climate Change: The scientist who claimed that global warming threatens polar bears is under investigation. There's a hole in Earth's greenhouse. A cooler era lies ahead. That hiss is the hot air coming out of alarmists' balloon.

The global warming fraud is coming apart faster than the alarmists can repackage and rebrand their fairy tale. Their elaborately constructed yarn can't hold together much longer. There are just too many loose ends ...

More at the link.

Glenn Reynolds Talks with Jerry Pournelle

An fascinating interview, adding a lot of information to some of my postings on the Space Shuttle program:

Pournelle was once a professor of political science, and way back in the day, when I used to read a lot of paperback fiction, I read The Mote in God's Eye. More here.

Atlantis Landing Ends Space Shuttle Era

At Los Angeles Times.

Also, "A cloudy vision of U.S. spaceflight."

When the orbiter Atlantis lands at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday, ending the 30-year-old space shuttle program, NASA will have its sights set on the next big exploration mission: sending astronauts to an asteroid in about 15 years.

But the path to that goal remains poorly defined, jeopardized by a bleak budget outlook and a weak political consensus. It has left a deep angst that U.S. leadership in space flight is in rapid decline and the very ability to fly humans off the Earth is at risk.

"I'm very disappointed about where we are today," said Robert L. Crippen, who flew on the first space shuttle mission and went on to senior leadership jobs in both NASA and the aerospace industry. "NASA's future is very fuzzy right now."

NASA has a complicated plan that would include operating the International Space Station, tapping a private launch service to ferry astronauts to orbit, and building a new launch system to send humans on deep space missions, including an asteroid by the mid-2020s.

Engineers and technicians are busy at plants across the nation, building new crew capsules, testing hardware in vibration chambers and preparing to conduct demonstration flights, all part of supporting the future steps that NASA envisions.

Nonetheless, the overall plan has failed to gain widespread support, reflecting serious concerns about the costs, risks and the lack of detail about the most difficult aspects of the exploration mission.

But see, Nicholas de Monchaux, "Spirit of the Spacesuit."

Added: A killer piece at Daley Gator, "Home At Last: Atlantis Makes Historic Final Landing As Nasa’s 30-Year Shuttle Program Comes to An End."

Gay Men's Penis Sizes

Here's the Traditional Values Coalition petition against federal funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Some grant money goes to gay penis size research, apparently. See Daily Caller, "Feds pay for study of gay men’s penis sizes."

Actually, there's been some serious research on this, starting back in the 1930s: "The Relation Between Sexual Orientation and Penile Size." One suggestion is that gay men were more likely to lie about length and girth, and hence the finding of greater penis size among gay men. Weird, I know. The problem is that NIH is still funding this type of research, for example, "The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men." The abstract's at the link, and you have to admit it's pretty fascinating:

Men with below average penises were significantly more likely to identify as “bottoms” (anal receptive) and men with above average penises were significantly more likely to identify as “tops” (anal insertive). Finally, men with below average penises fared significantly worse than other men on three measures of psychosocial adjustment. Though most men felt their penis size was average, many fell outside this “norm.” The disproportionate number of viral skin-to-skin STIs (HSV-2 and HPV) suggest size may play a role in condom slippage/breakage. Further, size played a significant role in sexual positioning and psychosocial adjustment. These data highlight the need to better understand the real individual-level consequences of living in a penis-centered society.

Well, that's scientific language for who's on top, etc. And this bit about the "penis-centered society." That sounds more from radical gender studies than queer theories. But who knows? I had no idea these were academic specializations while I was in grad school.

See also Fox News, "NIH-Backed Study Examined Effects of Penis Size in Gay Community."

RELATED: At Jawa Report, "Bringing New Meaning To 'Stimulus' Dollars."

The Future of Space

We need a space program. The end of the Space Shuttle Program makes us think about our priorities and world preponderance. America's not relinquishing scientific leaderships just yet, thank goodness.

There's an appraisal at New York Times, "3, 2, 1, and the Last Shuttle Leaves an Era Behind" (via Memeorandum).

Also at USA Today, "Shuttle ends 30-year run, but U.S. will be back":

Though shuttles will have launched 135 times with unique achievements — and two catastrophic failures that claimed the lives of 14 courageous astronauts and reminded a stunned nation of the price of pioneering — the program never did vastly expand the human presence in space.

But fret not. The end of the shuttle is not a signal that America is becoming less adventurous. It is simply the latest indication that technology advances in fits and starts, and rarely along the trajectories projected by the experts.

America will be back with a new manned space vehicle at some point. This may happen for political reasons if China, or some other nation, goads us into action by embarking on an ambitious program of its own. And it will happen for a variety of reasons when engineers overcome the one barrier that has frustrated them — the prohibitive costs of getting the first hundred miles or so off the Earth's surface.

In the meantime, let's step back and consider the extraordinary age that we have created ...

Atlantis Launches on Final Shuttle Mission (VIDEO)

Mashable has video, "Space Shuttle Atlantis Launch Video: The Final Flight."

And at Los Angeles Times, "Space shuttle Atlantis lifts off":

Despite earlier weather concerns, Atlantis is launched on the final flight for NASA's space shuttle program. It is the 33rd flight for Atlantis and the 135th shuttle mission overall.

Reporting from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Atlantis lifted off Friday morning, shooting straight into a brightening sky on a 12-day mission that marks the end of the nation's three-decade space shuttle program.

There was a brief hold in the countdown at 31 seconds because of a glitch seemingly involving a piece of retractable equipment. As millions of onlookers on the ground and via television held their breaths, officials checked and reported that the equipment had, indeed, been moved.

With the last knot in the timeline unsnarled, the countdown resumed and the engines fired, sending the craft upward and out along the eastern coast of the United States.

When it returns, Atlantis will join Discovery and Endeavour as retired vessels. NASA will shift its mission to sending astronauts to asteroids and Mars while private companies take over the more mundane aspect of moving cargo and crews from Earth to orbit.

More at the link above. I'll post YouTube video later.

10:20am PST: Okay, from AP ...

Also, at Wired Science, "The Last Space Shuttle Launches Safely Into Orbit" (via Memeorandum).

The Space Shuttle Program Helped Carry Southern California's Aerospace Industry for Four Decades

At Los Angeles Times, "The space shuttle's Southland legacy."

Amid the odes to a shuttle program that ends with the last mission of the last shuttle, Atlantis, scheduled for liftoff Friday, is an awareness that the space plane helped carry Southern California's aerospace industry for four decades. It staved off decline after the end of the moon landings, bequeathing new generations of aeronautical technology — and jobs — to the regional economy.

"Building the space shuttle fleet enabled a historic chapter in NASA's space program," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander. "Southern California has a strong place in shuttle history as a key site where the spacecraft were built and often landed."

Constructing the shuttle fleet was testament to how advanced Southern California's aerospace engineering and labor workforce had become by the 1970s — and assured that the vast assemblage of brainpower and engineering know-how would not be lost in the Southland.

The history of the shuttle program may be linked forever to the flights of Challenger and Columbia, its two deadly tragedies. But the shuttle era will also be remembered for advancing technology, including reusable rocket engines and computerized guidance systems, that changed manned flight.

Should Evolution Be Taught in School?

Ann Althouse has a lengthy response:

These women don't seem to realize how well-established the theory of evolution is and how central it is to the study of science. Of course, it should be taught in school. The more lively present-day issue is whether intelligent design may also be taught alongside evolution, but that isn't what the women were asked. The question prompts them to think of evolution as something that perhaps ought not to be taught in schools. From the bizarre similarity of the answers, I would extrapolate standard beauty-contest advice: Look for the prompt in the question and echo it back with some embellishment that makes you sound thoughtful, caring, and respectful of diversity.

There's a lot of silly responses, yet I'm noticing some regional variation. The Southern girls appear more likely not to accept evolution as science, and thus is something that perhaps shouldn't be taught in schools, as if that would threaten belief systems. That said, these aren't ignorant responses to the one. Maybe someone's quantified this with a content analysis, but listen to Brittany Thelemann at about 7:20 minutes and I think that's an example of some very well-rounded beliefs. Althouse takes issue with Miss New Jersey in particular, and note that it's the demonic progressive outrage that prompted her post in the first place (notice how the clip is titled "Miss Ignorance USA"). Faith and religion is not science, and the existence of God isn't falsifiable, despite all the claims of militant atheists. (Certitude!) So possibilities will always remain and stir questioning and wonderment. Interestingly, some scientists suggest that the notion of an "In the beginning" type moment isn't incompatible with what we know --- or, especially, what we don't know --- about the universe and human evolution.

How a Naked Female Scientist Tries to Tame Belugas in the Freezing Arctic

Awesome report at London's Daily Mail, via Instapudit, who notes:

Photos tasteful, but possibly NSFW given the Taliban-like sensibilities of many corporate HR departments ...

"Taliban-like sensibilities." Sounds like Scott Eric Kaufman. He's a liar too.

Space Shuttle Endeavour's Final Landing

I watched on Fox, and check NASA's Shuttle page for updates. And at ABC News, "Space Shuttle Endeavour Lands Safely in Florida."

I'll post video later this morning.

Added: AP Video.

Sociology and Other 'Meathead' Majors

From Harvey Mansfield, at Wall Street Journal (and here, in case it's behind the paywall).

Substituting "political science" for "economics" at the essay also works. (Recall this post.)

Reflecting on Endeavour's Great Journey

From Ralph Vartabedian, at Los Angeles Times:

Spare parts were collecting dust in warehouses in Bell, Downey and Palmdale when the urgent call came from NASA: the nation needed another space shuttle.

It was the unusual beginning of the orbiter Endeavour, which will streak across the California coastline at hypersonic velocity one last time Wednesday, carrying its six astronauts and two decades of the nation's human space flight history.

When it was christened in Palmdale in 1991, it was the newest and most capable of the fleet, fawned over by astronauts for its advanced flight electronics, sinuous skins and, eventually, the first toilet that actually worked.
"It was a real clean bird," said Robert "Hoot" Gibson, the Navy aviator who flew Endeavour the year it entered service in 1992. "We didn't have any issues with that machine."

But it began its life amid a political scheme to circumvent opponents by squirreling away spare parts in the hope they would someday amount to a real spacecraft.

When the Challenger was lost in an explosion in 1986, the spare-parts plan was vindicated and they suddenly became the starting point for keeping the shuttle program alive.

And now the ship will come back home a museum piece in the county where it was built, destined for a display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The last shuttle flight is scheduled to launch July 8, after decisions by the Bush and Obama administrations to end the program.

More at the link above.

Seems weird the program's winding down and America's got nothing big planned to replace it.

RELATED: "After Columbia: why we must still boldly go" [from 2003].

Also, a NASA Twitpic.

Looking Back at the Apollo Mission, 50 Years Later

At New York Times:

It was the spring of 1961. President John F. Kennedy, speaking of new frontiers and projecting the vigor of youth, had been in office barely four months, and April had been the cruelest.

On the 12th, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth — one more space triumph for the Soviet Union. Though the flight was not unexpected, it was nonetheless deflating; it would be more than a month before Alan Shepard became the first American in space, and that was on a 15-minute suborbital flight. On the 17th, a force of anti-Castro exiles, trained by the C.I.A., invaded communist Cuba at the Bay of Pigs — a fiasco within 36 hours. Mr. Kennedy’s close aide Theodore Sorensen described him on the 19th as “anguished and fatigued” and “in the most emotional, self-critical state I had ever seen him.”

At one meeting, his brother Robert F. Kennedy, the attorney general, “turned on everybody,” it was reported, saying: “All you bright fellows. You got the president into this. We’ve got to do something to show the Russians we are not paper tigers.” At another, the president pleaded: “If somebody can, just tell me how to catch up. Let’s find somebody — anybody. I don’t care if it’s the janitor over there.” Heading back to the Oval Office, he told Mr. Sorensen, “There’s nothing more important.”

So, 50 years ago, on May 25, 1961, President Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress and a national television audience, declaring: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

There it was, the challenge flung before an adversary and to a nation on edge in an unconventional war, the beginning of Project Apollo.

RTWT.

We had good Democrats back then.

(I wasn't quite born yet, but I'll be 50 later this year.)

Last Launch for Space Shuttle Endeavour (VIDEO)

And Gabrielle Giffords was on hand: "Gabrielle Giffords, Mark Kelly met privately before shuttle launch."

Also at AubreyJ's.

Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch Today

Check in over at AubreyJ's for updates and a live feed of today's launch, "Update on Upcoming Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-134 Mission."

And at Wall Street Journal, "Blastoff Obscures NASA's Troubles":

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Space shuttle Endeavour's scheduled launch Friday recalls sunny spectacles that marked NASA's former glory. But the sense of excitement surrounding the event masks the uncertain future of America's manned exploration program.

The launch is expected to be witnessed by a huge crowd, including President Barack Obama and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman wounded in an assassination attempt whose husband, Mark Kelly, commands Endeavour.

Lawmakers, contractors and leaders of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration continue to squabble over how to divvy up shrinking space budgets. And with the final shuttle countdown expected this summer, no consensus has emerged on how to meet the administration's goals of exploring an asteroid around 2025, and eventually sending astronauts to Mars.

"NASA's fundamental problem is a lack of clear-cut direction and goals," said Scott Pace, a former senior NASA official who now teaches at George Washington University. "The current path is a very risky one, and time is quickly running out to correct course."

Almost two years have passed since Mr. Obama roiled Congress and the aerospace industry by seeking to privatize many of NASA's core functions. Both critics and supporters of the agency worry it's embroiled in nagging political battles and increasingly seems out of touch with the deficit-conscious mindset of voters.

Keep reading at the link above. It turns out that Rep. Giffords chaired the House subcommittee overseeing NASA and she opposed the adminstration's space commercialization efforts. Plus, "Some officials now hope the personal drama surrounding Rep. Giffords and Mr. Kelly will rekindle public ardor for the agency's mission."

We'll see.

RELATED: "First Pictures of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Since Shooting, Walking on Her Own."

Not So Fast on Japan's Chernobyl

From The Blog Prof, "Vlog: Fukushima is No Chernobyl, and Here's Why":

RELATED: At New York Times, "Data Show Radiation’s Spread; Frantic Repairs Go On at Plant." And more at Memeorandum.

Stephen Walt, Harvard's Israel-Bashing Political Scientist, Implicated in Libyan Influence-Peddling Scandal

While many supporters of Israel are well acquainted with Stephen Walt, who co-authored the wildly controversial attack on the Jewish state in "The Israel Lobby," my familiarity with the Harvard political scientist goes back to the 1990s. Walt's theories on realism and the balance of threat in strategic studies formed a basis for my dissertation work. I had no idea that Walt was a far-left wing crackpot until the controversy over "The Israel Lobby" burst out in 2006. Even then I looked at it mostly as a matter of scholarly differences within political science. But since Walt became a blogger at Foreign Policy a couple of years back I've really gotten a handle on his hatred of the Jewish state. I went back and read The Israel Lobby in book-length, and I assigned the essay from the London Review in my World Politics classes. So it's pretty fascinating that Professor Walt is deeply implicated in the Libyan lobbying controversy that's been in the news this last couple of weeks. David Bernstein writes on this at Volokh Conspiracy, "Stephen Walt on Libya." And in the comments there especially, from Gary Rosen:

Walt is just one more in a long line of Western hypocrites who make[s] a living demonizing Israel while winking at her enemies which are mostly bloody human rights hellholes. He and his ilk have been hugely responsible for enabling the repression that infects the region.

Walt lied, people died.

So true, although Walt's precise location within the Libyan lobby is sketchy. He took a recent junket to Libya at the invitation of the Gaddafi dictatorship "to give a lecture to its Economic Development Board ..." The nature of the financing or compensation is unknown, but given that a number of other well-connected academic have previously traveled in these footsteps, it's obvious that Libyan lobbying efforts in the U.S. are paying off. And there's a detailed analysis at Elder of Zion as well, "Stephen Walt and Gaddafi's Libya." Following the links there takes us to a killer piece from Martin Peretz at The New Republic, "The Qaddafi family didn’t lack for Western allies." Folks should just click the link and RTWT. Peretz provides a beautiful background to some rather ignominious writing Walt's done recently on his Foreign Policy blog. Walt predicted that the Tunisian revolt wouldn't spread to the rest of the Middle East. Big mistake, obviously, and Walt offered a sort of apologia sometime later, at "What I got wrong about the Arab revolutions and why I'm not losing sleep over it." Peretz makes mincemeat of it all:

Smart man, this Walt! But spread, the revolution did, to Egypt even before it went elsewhere, which now makes it almost everywhere in the Arab world. Barely a month later, Walt had to admit in Foreign Policy, the journal that routinely carries his enormous mistakes in fact and in judgement, “What I got wrong about the Arab revolutions and why I’m not losing sleep over it.” But his was not just an evaluative error. It was a basic misunderstanding of Egyptian realities: “I underestimated the degree of internal resentment” in Egypt, which is the basic fact about Egypt, isn’t it? This is like a doctor saying, “I thought it was a common cold. I’m sorry; it turned out to be pneumonia.” The physician, if a person of conscience, however, did lose some sleep over his bungle, as Walt is proud to tell us he did not. Apparently, Arab life is cheap not only to the collapsing regimes but also to this Kennedy School professor. One thing is for sure, and it is that there’s no wisdom in taking his classes.

No, no wisdom there at all.

RELATED: "Libyan Opposition Leaders Slam U.S. Business Lobby's Deals With Gaddafi."