Science and politics rarely mix very well. This is a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, dated 3-26-12, regarding a request for NASA to refrain from making unsubstantiated claims that human produced CO2 is having a catastrophic impact on climate change.

The signatures are below the fold.

March 28, 2012
The Honorable Charles Bolden, Jr.
NASA Administrator
NASA Headquarters
Washington, D.C. 20546-0001
Dear Charlie,

We, the undersigned, respectfully request that NASA and the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) refrain from including unproven remarks in public releases and websites. We believe the claims by NASA and GISS, that man-made carbon dioxide is having a catastrophic impact on global climate change are not substantiated, especially when considering thousands of years of empirical data. With hundreds of well-known climate scientists and tens of thousands of other scientists publicly declaring their disbelief in the catastrophic forecasts, coming particularly from the GISS leadership, it is clear that the science is NOT settled.

The unbridled advocacy of CO2 being the major cause of climate change is unbecoming of NASA’s history of making an objective assessment of all available scientific data prior to making decisions or public statements.

As former NASA employees, we feel that NASA’s advocacy of an extreme position, prior to a thorough study of the possible overwhelming impact of natural climate drivers is inappropriate. We request that NASA refrain from including unproven and unsupported remarks in its future releases and websites on this subject. At risk is damage to the exemplary reputation of NASA, NASA’s current or former scientists and employees, and even the reputation of science itself.

For additional information regarding the science behind our concern, we recommend that you contact Harrison Schmitt or Walter Cunningham, or others they can recommend to you.

Thank you for considering this request.

Sincerely,

(Attached signatures)

CC: Mr. John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for Science
CC: Ass Mr. Chris Scolese, Director, Goddard Space Flight Center

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A Pegasus rocket in flight. Click for larger. Credit: Orbital Science Corp.

Orbital Sciences Corporation doing it right for 30 years.  Happy Anniversary!

What have they done in 30 years?  A LOT!!  Check it out.

Time to balance a few eggs. Credit: The Christian Science Monitor

Ah today is the first day of Spring.  Astronomically speaking today is the March Equinox and it occurs the moment the sun crosses the imaginary line above the Earth’s equator, also known as the Celestial Equator.  That moment occurred today at 05:14 UTC (UTC the abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is the same as GMT).

We generally think of this as a day that the number of daylight and dark hours are equal at 12 hours each.  In practice this isn’t strictly true and it’s latitude dependent, have a look at this page from timeanddate.com – it’s a fun place.

Today is also one of the two days a year (the other is the September Equinox) when you can balance an egg on its base.  Wait, what?  That’s not true?  Oh Okay, it’s not and the balancing act can be done on any day; but don’t tell the kids they seem to get a big kick out of it and what could be better than egging-on a bunch of kids (sorry couldn’t help it).

So round up some kids and break a few eggs!

Happy Spring!

Apparently not.  Marian did not give any indication she wasn’t going to do one and I have no time so I guess we will go without.  If I had some notice I could have done something or another; I’m really kind of disappointed really.

I’ll see what I can do about getting something up, but this might be a day off.

Sorry folks.

Source

The invisible monkey Dodge used in a car commercial that drew the ire of PETA. Credit: thecarconnection.com

Not taking a position on this, just putting it out there.

Memorial for Chimpanzees Abused in Early Space Program Would Bolster Legislative Effort to Have Their Kin Released From U.S. Labs Today [ed. 29 Feb]

Cape Canaveral, Fla. — Prompted by reports that the Kennedy Space Center’s budget issues have led the center to rent unused parts of its compound, PETA sent a letter today to Robert Cabana, director of the space center, to ask for permission to turn an unused shuttle hangar or other building into a museum and memorial for the chimpanzees who were abused and killed in violent crash tests and terrifying space flights by the space program.

“PETA’s exhibit will show that while NASA has stopped blasting terrified chimpanzees into space and crippling them in crash tests, chimpanzees are still tormented in laboratories–and that cannot go on,” says PETA Vice President of Laboratory Investigations Kathy Guillermo. “With Congress considering a bill to ban experiments on these intelligent and social animals, it’s the perfect time for an exhibit about what we have done to our closest primate relatives.”

As PETA explains in its letter, the Chimpanzee Empathy Museum would highlight how many relatives of the space program’s chimpanzees are still locked up in laboratories across the country. The museum would also urge visitors to call their legislators in support of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, which is backed by more than 160 senators and representatives as well as actors Woody Harrelson, Ellen DeGeneres, and Alec Baldwin. The act would permanently end the use of chimpanzees and all other great apes in invasive experiments, retire federally owned apes to sanctuaries, and save taxpayers millions of dollars a year.

PETA’s letter to Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org or click here.