Smile, you never know who might be watching.
Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach Gets Good News
February 18, 2011
commentary, Gay, News dont-ask-dont-tell, gay military men, Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach Leave a comment
I Want YOU - For The US Air Force!
On December 22, 2010, I posted this picture and a link to NOH8’s website where it and others of military men affected by Don’t Ask Don’t Tell could be found.
Now the latest news about the status of Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, the Air Force officer in this picture:
The South Bend Tribune reports that the Air Force has informed Lt. Col. Fehrenbach that he will be retired with his full rank and pension on October 1, 2011. This effectively cancels the discharge proceedings that were in progress since he was involuntarily outed in 2008.
“It was a great sense of relief. I didn’t expect it,” said Fehrenbach, 41, a 1991 University of Notre Dame graduate, in a telephone interview with the Tribune Tuesday from Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.
For nearly three years, Fehrenbach has been in a battle to save his career because of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy — a policy that was overturned in late 2010.
With no further explanation, the military in January sent Fehrenbach new orders: Effective Sept. 30, he will be retired from active duty at his current rank and with his pension. He’ll serve out the remaining months of his military duty at his current desk job at the base in Idaho.
Vacation Begins: Now
February 18, 2011
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Starts now. Ends March 13. Need suggestions on what to do in between. Ideas?
#Bigfoot Geek – #Sasquatch caught taking a bath
February 16, 2011
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Photo credit: Google Street Views
You just never know what you’ll run across at Google Street Views. Here’s a site with some interesting scenes from around the world.
Star Trek Geek – Beam Me Up, Scotty, I’m Ready To Help!
February 15, 2011
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Everything in the world you ever wanted to know about the Starship Enterprise, is in that book!
Not so, Klingon breath, but pretty damned close!
Lunar Geek – Fox aired Moon Hoax show 10 years ago
February 15, 2011
commentary, geek Bad Astronomy, Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?, Fox program, Moon hoax, Phil Plait Leave a comment
Captain Alan Bean, Apollo 12 Commander holding a sample container, Ocean of Storms, November 1969 Photo Credit: NASA
Ten years ago today, Fox aired a program called “”Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?” Bad Astronomy author (and astronomer) Phil Plait writes how this one program did more to advance his career than perhaps any other single thing.
The simple answer? Yes, of course we went to the Moon. Six times, eighteen crew members, and twelve who actually walked on it’s surface. The picture above is Apollo astronaut Alan Bean. Phil says this of the photo:
This is a picture of Al Bean. It’s a man in a space suit. It’s a man in a spacesuit holding a sample container. It’s a man in a spacesuit holding a sample container on the Moon. Standing on the Moon. It’s a man standing on the freakin’ Moon!
And I watched every last one of them, live on TV! Or, as live as was possible back in the days of three networks and six channels, who didn’t always interrupt prime time for our “routine” lunar missions. Before NASA TV, the Internet, and hundreds of cable channels. But when it was on, I was there.
Lunar Geek – Happy Valentine’s Day from the Moon! (and beyond)
February 14, 2011
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A heart-shaped crater in the Galilae region on the Moon. Credit: ASA/GSFC/Arizona State University; 3-D by Nathanial Burton-Bradford.
If you have red/green 3D glasses, you can see the Moon’s heart in 3D! To see the crater in it’s real orientation (this image rotated for effect), go to Universe Today.
UPDATE:
Mars, not wanting to be left out, also sends it’s Valentine’s Day greetings to the lovers of Earth.
A heart-shaped feature in the Arabia Terra region of Mars is show on the left, with additional context on the right, in excerpts of an image taken by the Context Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
And another UPDATE:
The Heart Nebula. Perhaps this is the look of a broken heart.
Mr. Deity and the Science Advisor
February 13, 2011
commentary, geek, Humor Mr. Deity, PZ Myers, Science Advisor 1 Comment
Galactic Geek – NGC 4921
February 13, 2011
commentary, geek life in outer space, ngc 4921, spiral galaxy 1 Comment
Meet NGC 4921. An odd spiral galaxy, located in the Coma Galaxy Cluster, at a distance of about 320 million light-years from Earth.
When the light that makes up this image first started on it’s trip to us, the dinosaurs were still in Earth’s future.
What’s interesting to me, though, is not so much the galaxy, as cool as it is. It’s that almost every other speck of light in that image is also a galaxy! And they’re even farther from us than 4921. They’re millions and billions of light-years away, and they are countless.
It’s pictures like this that make me wonder… if we could magnify these images, and zoom into this galaxy, or the ones beyond, what would we see? Would we see other beings looking back at us? Or rather, looking at the Earth as it was 320 million years or more ago? And if we could see them looking at our primeval Earth, what would they be like? What would they look like? And what became of them in the intervening time? Are they still there? Have others risen up to take their place? Is there a vast stellar Federation, with ships plying the star lanes? Factions and wars? Beings evolved beyond anything we can imagine?
Or could it be only inanimate matter there? Perhaps nobody looking over at our rather average spiral galaxy, wondering if anyone is home here? I hope not. I hope there was/is someone out there, looking back at us. Maybe someday we’ll be able to say “hi, neighbor”, and have them say hello back.
This image is from an iPhone app, Star Walk, astronomy picture of the day.
JimmieJoe / KC6YRU 
The #Almighty Tweets Words of #Wisdom
February 19, 2011
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