Tornado Strikes Visalia! I must have slept right through it.

Leave a comment

Display Sites Chosen For Retired Shuttle Fleet

Leave a comment

NASA Administrator (and former astronaut) Charles Bolden, in a ceremony at one of the Shuttle Processing Facilities, announced Tuesday the locations where the retired Space Shuttle Fleet will be displayed.

Enterprise, the first Space Shuttle, used as a test platform which never went into space, will be moved from the Smithsonian Institution‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport, to New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum.

Shuttle Discovery will be displayed in Enterprise’s place at the Udvar-Hazy Center.

Shuttle Endeavour will be at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Shuttle Atlantis will remain at the Kennedy Space Center, on display at the Visitor’s Complex.

Retirement of the Space Shuttle Fleet leaves the United States without the capability to send people into orbit.  Any access by astronauts will be on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.  The Constellation program, which was to be our follow-up to the Shuttle has been defunded, leaving the United States hoping that successful commercial vehicles can be developed in the future.  Until such vehicles are developed, at an unknown point in the future, the United States can only send unmanned rockets into space.

QueerVisalia.com undergoing upgrades!

Leave a comment

QueerVisalia.com is currently undergoing an upgrade, and will be up and running in it’s new incarnation soon!  The new format allows users to register (free) and upload content themselves.  This will allow for a more reader-driven blogsite, and we look forward to local input!  Check it out!

QueerVisalia.com

 

We’re here, we’re queer, and we’ve been here forever.

Leave a comment

Five thousand years after he died, the first known gay caveman has emerged into the daylight.

According to archaeologists, the way he was buried suggests that he was of a different sexual persuasion.

The skeleton of the late Stone Age man, unearthed during excavations in the Czech Republic, is said to date back to between 2900 and 2500 BC.

His body was positioned in the grave like a woman, but his head was pointing in the direction reserved for men.  Items buried with him have only been seen in the graves of females.

While still only speculation, the idea fits the evidence.  Burial rituals were very important to the people of this era, and we have learned a lot about their culture from their remains, and what they chose to include in the graves.  The position of the person in society influenced the burial, and items interred with the deceased spoke to the life they lived.

This man was buried in such a way as to suggest he might have been what we today would call homosexual, or transgender.  He was buried with respect and honor, with concern for his journey to the afterlife.  He clearly was not an outcast, and was treated with the respect anyone in his village would have received.

We’re here, we’re queer, and we’ve been here forever.  It’s so simple, even the cavemen understood it.  It’s a shame so many “modern” homo sapiens don’t.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1374060/Gay-caveman-5-000-year-old-male-skeleton-outed-way-buried.html#ixzz1ImWiGZSd

UPDATE:
or, maybe not… here.

Solar System Geek: Mercury, brought to you in living color!

Leave a comment

Photo Credit: NASA

Yes, actually, that is in color.  Here’s the scoop, at Bad Astronomy. (and a bigger image, too!)

Newt Gingrich: A New Idiot For The Ages

Leave a comment

This man, Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, and perennial non-candidate for President, is an idiot.  Over the weekend he expressed fear that soon the United States will be an atheist country, dominated by Islamic radicals.  He doesn’t appear to realize that you can’t have a country dominated by atheists if it’s also dominated by Muslims!  (clue for Newt:  Muslims believe in the same God you do!  They just have a different name for him, and a different holey book) (holey is not a typo)

This man is an idiot.  See the CNN report on his weekend nonsense.

SuperMoon Today! Run for your lives!

2 Comments

It’s Super Moon! It’s tonight!

Tsunamis!  Earthquakes!  Werewolves!  Really bad news reports!

The world may come to an end!

Or not.

The full moon that makes it’s appearance tonight will seem about 14% bigger than when it’s at it’s furthest distance from the Earth.  The tides will be affected by maybe an inch in most places, and up to 6 inches in some geographically odd locales.  Beachfront residents might want to move the chaise lounges back a foot, just to be safe.

It didn’t cause the recent Japanese earthquake.  Any quakes that happen today won’t have been caused by it’s nearness.

There’s something you need to remember about the Moon, tonight’s super fullness, and the effect it has on the Earth.

More

Follow Queerlandia on Twitter!

Leave a comment


Follow our national / international gay news and blogging site on Twitter! We’re at @Queerlandia
See our blog at Queerlandia.com

Veteran Speaks Truth To Power, Power Doesn’t Like It

Leave a comment

Veteran Isaac Soderstrom speaks out at a budget meeting in Modesto, California, March 9, 2011.  Cuts to programs at the Modesto Junior College are creating controversy in the community.  Mr. Soderstrom takes issue with the treatment of previous speakers.  The board does not respond well, and the audience vocally supports him.  The Chairwoman clearly does not understand what the best course of action should be, worried only that the “rules” be followed.  The clip ends with Soderstrom escorted out by police.

Discovery Makes Final Landing – Will Be Retired

1 Comment

Photo Credit: NASA

OV-3, Discovery,  made it’s final landing today at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, ending it’s career as the most historic member of the Space Shuttle fleet.  39 missions, 365 total days in space, first to return to space after the Challenger and Columbia disasters, Discovery completed it’s last mission by delivering supplies and the last habitable component to the International Space Station.

The Shuttle now heads to museum duty, to be displayed as a monument to the United States space program.

Older Entries Newer Entries