First, I want to point out a few links on Bad Astronomy about the “Denialgate,” or how the Heartland Institute is hoisted on its own well-deserving petard.  Oh, the hypocrisy!  When I’m trying to understand the anti-science, religious, conservative mindset on display regarding issues like climate change and other issues such as evolution, I think of episodes like this one.  That side really does think there’s a conspiracy, scientists believe in science like religion, and that folks argue a point based on who is paying them toward the goal of winning, not the goal of being right.  BECAUSE THAT’S HOW THEY DO IT.  They’re just projecting themselves onto the liberal scientists trying to be objective, because that’s all they know.  Now, this isn’t true of 100% of deniers, but I suspect it’s the vast majority for one of the above reasons.  We need more science education!  If that were the case, Santorum wouldn’t have ever found his way into office, let alone be a leading candidate for president all the time denying evolution.  Instead, it’s skeptical non-believers who are taboo.  We should have learned this lesson after the tobacco crap, because it’s the same crap, different issue.  We are an all too easily deluded and misled species.

Sorry for the rant.  Let’s wash out the Santorum with something cool: Cool worlds in science fiction from John DeNardo of sfsignal.com.

Island hopping to the stars.  Interesting, but a flawed analogy, ultimately, in my opinion.

Technology to project voices into your head.   The unethical experiments I could do on Santorum…or maybe someone already did?  Wait, is he one of the ones who actually talks to god, or is that the others?  So hard to get straight, but this would explain a lot.

An update on the James Webb Space Telescope.  Yeah, it’ll be great, but it is late and way overbudget.  NASA is not going to be able to keep doing this.

Still on about the WOW! signal, although it feels like the Patterson-Gimlin bigfoot film.  Old news, not repeated, not enough to convince everyone about the existence of something extraordinary.  I personally have a statistical problem that this was found early, but nothing comparable has been found with much, much larger searches.

The cost of the Death Star.  I test science fiction against science, but economic tests are interesting and fun, too.

***

Informational Email 2012-03

Bethany Johns
John Bahcall Public Policy Fellow

Astronomy in the President’s FY 2013 Budget Request

The President released the FY 2013 Budget Request on February 13, 2012. Federal funding for astronomy is mainly from NASA and NSF. Below is a quick analysis of the proposed budget compared to FY 2012 estimated actual dollars for both agencies.

The President’s FY2013 budget request for science and technology and research and development supports the Administration’s commitment to double the budgets for three key science agencies. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is one of the three agencies the President has committed to doubling, over a reasonable timescale. However, NASA is in not included as one of the key agencies.

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

The President has requested $17,711.4 billion in FY 2013 for NASA. This is a decrease of about $60 million compared to FY 2012.

The Science Mission Directorate (SMD) which houses the Astrophysics, Planetary Science, Heliophysics Divisions, and JWST, is requested to be $4,911.2 million for FY 2013, a decrease of $161.5 million compared to FY 2012; a decrease of 3.2 percent.

Planetary Science is proposed to decrease $309.1 million from $1,501.4 million in FY 2012 to $1,192.3 million in FY 2013; a decrease of 20.6 percent.

Astrophysics is proposed to decrease $13.3 million from $672.7 million in FY 2012 to $659.4 million in FY 2013; a decrease of 2 percent.

James Webb Space Telescope received the requested amount according to the new re-plan, increasing $109 million from $518.6 million in FY 2012 to $627.6 million in FY 2013; an increase of 21 percent.

Heliophysics increased $26.5 million from $518.6 million in FY 2012 to $647 million in FY 2013; an increase of 4.3 percent.

Within the SMD, Planetary Science decreased by the largest amount. At the NASA budget release roll-out event, Charles Bolden, the NASA Administrator, said, “We could not do another flagship right now.” Beth Robinson, the CFO of NASA, stated, “Planetary science’s decline is due to MSL and other expenditures going down.” The stated plan for planetary science is to identify and define a synergy with science and human space flight, efficiently accomplishing two agency priorities.

No specifics on an integrated strategy were presented, but a rough timeline for progress was mentioned, with a goal of summer for an internal process with input from the community. Bolden emphasized that the directorates are not merging, but creating a synergy. NASA is not ready to define a combined mission, but will work with scientists and the National Research Council’s Vision and Voyages Planetary Decadal Survey in the next months.

Plutonium-238 is proposed to be funded at $10 million from the Technology line item within Planetary Science. The is no cost-share agreement with the Department of Energy, as in past years.

The explorer programs in Astrophysics and Heliophysics are both proposed to decrease the most. Each decreased 33.1 percent and 23.4 percent, respectively.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

The President has requested $7,373.1 million in FY 2013 for NSF, a proposed increase of $340 million from $7,033.1 million in FY 2012 and an increase of 4.8 percent.

Astronomy (AST) is funded through the Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) Directorate in the Research & Related Activities(R&RA).

AST is proposed to increase $10 million from $234.55 million in FY2012 to $244.55 million in FY 2013, an increase of 4.3 percent. AST Research is requested to increase by $10.63 million, from $73.23 million in FY 2012 to $83.86 million in FY 2013; an increase of 14.5 percent.

The increase in AST Research is due mainly to a proposed growth in the Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS) program increase of $9.0 million. AST is the home of radio spectrum management for the entire NSF, and this is where the EARS program was founded.

The NSF budget document states, “Approximately 57 percent of AST’s budget is used to support current operations and future development of large multi-user astronomy facilities, while 33 percent supports individual investigator grants and 6 percent supports the development and operation of advanced instrumentation and experiments based on such instrumentation. In general, about 19 percent of the AST budget is available for new research grants, while the remainder funds long-term facilities and continuing awards for grants made in previous years.”

The Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) is proposed to remain relatively flat at $197.17 million. In FY 2013, Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is ramping down, but the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) is ramping up to $25 million.

The American Astronomical Society will release a statement on the FY 2013 President’s Budget Request in the coming weeks.

Last week I gave Obama some love for promoting science via a White House science fair.  This week, I’m disappointed by his cuts to space exploration.  Is there a way to cut the space visionary out of Newt Gingrich and graft it onto Obama?  What would that look like?

Meanwhile, the NASA breakthrough that could save millions of lives.

The politics of Star Trek.  Apparently they’re conservative.  Except for the liberal stuff, like internationalism, breaking racial barriers, getting rid of money, etc.  You know, I think any decent artwork can be interpreted a number of ways, but there’s also a clear worldview being expressed by the Star Trek franchise.  It ain’t generally conservative.

Shifting from Trek to Wars, we’ve got the 3D release of episode one going on, and a whole bunch of articles.  A lot of the articles don’t make any sense.  For instance, why the prequels are better than the original trilogy.   Hard to believe that that writer actually watched the movies I watched, because the prequels suck ass pretty hard, meesa can tell you (as can this article).  Here’s another article about Jar Jar Binks that I don’t buy either.  That character was about a million times worse than Wesley Crusher.  George Lucas had some talent once upon a time, or maybe it was just him being part of a collaborative team that brought out his genius and corrected his weaknesses.  I don’t care that much any more.  Lucas though is continuing to try to revise history the same way he revises his movies.

The Science Fiction Effect.  Basically…cool stuff going on in the world of science gets popularized by science fiction, ergo, science fiction is an important way to disseminate science.  Hmmm, sounds like something I might write in a proposal.

I follow cryptozoology at some level.  There are definitely previously unknown animals recently discovered, and more to come.  I didn’t realize that people had reported seeing Woolly Mammoths in Siberia (with pics!).  I’m afraid photographic evidence isn’t enough, however, and while it looked good to me at first glance, I do see the “bear with fish” being plausible as well.  Stupid poor photos…

Kevin J. Anderson writing a novel to go with the new Rush album.   At first I thought it was a cool idea, but then I worried about the album being much better than the novel, or vice versa, and the stigma of the gimmick marginalizing both.  Let’s see how the experiment goes.

William Gibson interviewed by Wired.

Time-lapse video of the VLA in New Mexico.  Pretty cool.

Ten Writing “Rules” We Wish Science Fiction Writers Would Break.  The issue of women writing hard sf comes up and links to an old post here.  I guess the article is just a reminder that there are no true rules to writing.  If it works, it works.  The rules that exist are guidelines to what usually works, but a clever enough writer can break them.  And the women writing hard sf thing…they’re underrepresented, but certainly many can and do.

Another io9.com article.  This one on the experts who put the science in science fiction movies.  Wish they did it better, or were allowed to do so, being fair.  Too many directors prefer something cool and ridiculous to something less cool but realistic, and too many audiences lack a good enough science education to make them pay for it.  Happily there are exceptions:

Most scientists are willing to advise not only because it allows them to be gate- keepers of their disciplines, but because they want to be portrayed accurately on-screen. “It’s rare that you have a relatable character,” says Sheril Kirshenbaum, a research associate at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. That’s why James Cameron created Avatar‘s xenobotanist, Grace. “Scientists are usually shown as geeks or losers or evil,” he says. “I wanted to celebrate the mind and the passion of a scientist.”

Expert says intelligent aliens probably wouldn’t visit Earth.  Well, that’s like his opinion, man.  Seems like I have credentials as good as his and I think they’d come for the humans, but stay for the LOLcats.

Hellboy, the summer camp.  Seriously!  Got to love it.

And finally, something completely different…Hulk splash!

They’re priced at $2.99 each.  I’ll be updating links on their webpages this weekend, but in the meantime, you can go here:

For Barnes and Noble’s Nook:  Star Dragon, Spider Star

For Amazon’s Kindle: Star Dragon, Spider Star

I’ll try to get them up through smashwords by next week as well, which will feed other venues.

If you helped out with suggestions for the cover art last month and would like a free copy, drop me a comment or better, an email.

Thanks!

In the meantime, the White House hosted a science fair, and Obama pleaded to the press to cover it and promote young people learning and doing science! He played with a marshmallow gun based on the principles of physics, sharing the fun of discovery.  From the article: “He [Obama] said that it’s only fitting to bring science achievers to the White House given that the winners of the Super Bowl are invited each year.”!!!

I got a lot of inquiries and requests the last week, making me feel simultaneously more famous and beset upon than normal.  I’m probably only running at a milli-Tyson (arguably the most famous astronomer alive at present) at best, so it isn’t going to my head.

The Writer apparently ran an article about Launch Pad, and I’ve gotten some odd questions about it.  We’ll be open in March for applications for July 22-29, 2012 edition with Geoffrey Landis.

Another big one…we’re developing a version of Launch Pad we’re planning to hold at Dragon*Con.  Details to come soon.

The local library wants me to run a science fiction writing workshop this summer, which I’ll probably do.  Watch me complain about being busy or skip blogging while that’s going on.

I’ll be “taking a trustee to class” next month, too, which seems like a win-win.  I think I run an entertaining class, at least minus the occasional derivations on the white board, and making connections with university trustees, and them with faculty, has to be a good idea.

Got a query about doing some work for a Hollywood project, which probably won’t go anywhere.  I’ve gotten a couple of these sort of requests over the years and none have gone anywhere.  I’m too busy with the astronomy thing, don’t have a background in film/tv, and most Hollywood projects don’t go anywhere.  I’ve got several friends who have had some success, so it’s possible, if a pipedream usually.  I wonder if I really want to see the sausage getting made.

Oh, another query about whether or not to include me as a Wyoming “bigfoot researcher” in a forthcoming book.  Well, I haven’t been camping in years, and even more years since I’ve camped in what could be called “bigfoot country.”  Messing around in the woods with fun gadgets isn’t exactly “research” in my book, but whatever.  I do like the topic and think it’s one of the few way-out things in the weird world that could turn out to have some reality, as there’s nothing impossible about bigfoot and there are fossil species that have survived longer than anyone has thought (e.g. the “hobbits,” etc.).

And in the meantime I’m struggling to find time to work on the new book, and have to remember that the time I give others is time away from my own priorities.  When they overlap, that can be a win-win, but they often don’t overlap as much as I’d like.

Oh, and let me add a third video, which is an extended version of the Avengers movie Superbowl commercial, and looks very good to me:

Now that it’s not part of the 24 news cycle stupidity that is our reporting/commentary today, and with some time for reflection, I want to comment on Newt Gingrich’s Moon Base America idea, and the reactions it inspired.

Some folks suggested it was just pandering to Florida voters, since space missions generally mean lots of jobs for Florida.  Pandering?  Yes, at least in terms of timing and location, but Newt has been a science/space/tech geek for a long time.

Some folks, like Bad Astronomer Phil Plait and others, looked into feasibility, finding it impossible or close to it, in their opinions.

Some other folks, like Jon Stewart and many others, just made fun of it as kooky, “science fiction.”  Great.

Now, I am no fan of Newt, but he’s one of us (my readership of this blog) — in terms of being a future-looking technophile looking for humans  to expand into space in a sustainable way.  Obama, on the other hand, really isn’t.  He’s lukewarm on space at best, and personifies classic liberal values in terms of prioritizing universal health care, more progressive tax rates, and the like.  He really isn’t fundamentally visionary, unfortunately, in my opinion.  Apollo was American exceptionalism, perhaps the best example in our history.

I think it’s bad form to put down a political leader for having a grandiose vision.  I don’t actually know if the media made fun of Kennedy, but at least Fox News would today, but in hindsight no one does.

Myself, I look down on anyone who thinks the goal of a nation or the human species is just to keep everyone employed, in a house, and covered with health care.  Those aren’t bad things, but if being warm and eating  is the most humans can aspire to, let me go live in the woods by myself and I’ll do better.  Newton stood on the shoulders of giants, and we’ve got Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, von Braun, and Hawking to stand on.  Well, maybe not Hawking — he’s kind of frail.

This isn’t just about space exploration, which is something we must do at some point or risk destruction, but about everything worth living for.  I remember talking to my art teacher in high school.  She told me that some of the parents would come into the annual open house and start questioning how art class would help their kids get a job.  She always told them that there was more to life than making money, and I agree with her.

Fewer people seem to agree.

Now proposing big plans that would represent fundamental milestones for the human species seem snickered at all too often.  When does that trickle down to more basic science, like astronomy.  The US government could save a few billion dollars by cutting astronomy research funding entirely.  Woo hoo!  Black holes and supernovas are just science fiction stuff anyway, right?  And there’s a budget deficit.

The truth about the deficit and the budget is that we could fix it if we wanted.  We’re in a deep hole because we decided to cut taxes and start two wars (I was in favor of the first and finishing it properly, not the second).  Tax rates were much, much higher in the 1950s when the space race started.  This is more of an issue of will and priorities than a question of “science fiction” or “fantasy.”

So be angry at Newt for being an oblivious, nasty, sort of racist asshole.  Don’t get upset for him having a vision and speaking it out loud.  We should encourage that from all our politicians who want to do more than the minimum and care about something other than just reelection.

I think at this point the best we can hope for from Obama are some incremental improvements and little to point to that will distinguish his administration, and that this may well be the case for our future presidents as well as long as ridicule is the standard response to big ideas.

At least Gingrich wouldn’t point out Obama’s support for funding for a Planetarium as a waste of money the way John McCain did.  At least I don’t think so.

And a last link about the stupidity of Republicans and why they like Newt, lest anyone think I’ve gone too conservative.  Heh.  Funny because it’s probably true.

He is far from unique.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Dickens, James Thurber, Edgar Allen Poe, and others of similar literary greatness, have all similarly blundered.  A lot of the mistakes involve the moon:

“Till clomb above the eastern bar

The horned Moon, with one bright star

Within the nether tip”

– Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Basically he’s suggesting that a star may be seen between the two tips of the crescent moon, either because the stars are between us and the moon or because the space between the tips isn’t opaque in that phase.  I don’t think so, Sam.  Phil Plait remarked about the same problem in an episode of Legend of the Seeker.

Now, as fun as it might be to some to bash literary types for poor scientific literacy, I want to point this stuff out and highlight it as an educational opportunity.

I’m going to keep saying it until it happens, but a single werewolf-centric book series in the same ballpark as Harry Potter or Twilight (or just outside the ballpark) could do the world a huge favor and educate millions about basic astronomy.  I’d think any traditional werewolf character would know all about how the moon worked and be obsessed about it.  Obsessed fans would know, too.

There are a lot of misunderstandings of how the stars, Moon, planets, and Sun move and behave in the sky. Another example.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s A Descent into the Maelstrom, a captain notes the time on his watch, which he can see under the light of a full Moon “nearly overhead.”  Six hours later it is noted to be setting in the west?  Did I mention that this is on July 10 off the coast of Norway?  (About 68 degrees north latitude.)  That far north the Moon is never seen “nearly overhead.”  It would barely be over the horizon.  And any object “nearly overhead” that far north never sets.  Also bad is the fact that you’ve got almost continuous daylight this close to the arctic circle, and the light of moon isn’t needed and probably wouldn’t be noted.

There’s a couple of errors, and I’ll point you at a bunch more.

I read a lot, and have a fairly strong background in the classics, but I needed reminding and just doing the collecting is time consuming.  I want to point you at my source for this post:  The Wayward Heavens in Literature by Louis Berman.  This is a paper from 1970 where these issues are highlighted.  I came across it trying to track down the Coleridge error, which I remembered correctly but thought was from T.S. Eliot.  My apologies to Eliot.  The paper is free to download, so please check it out.  Regularly scheduled starlinks coming soon, including more Moon talk.

Interesting illustration of astronomical size scales.

Special relativity for dummies (aka writers).

Kentucky cuts education funding, but keeps tax breaks for a creationist theme park.  Ugh.  Really?!

Republicans turn their backs on the enlightenment.  Chris Mooney tells us why.  Or tries anyway.

The value of education.  Scary but cool, too, if true.

What is it with women and the sciences?  Some experiments suggest it isn’t stereotype threat.  Wondering about it myself right now since our fraction of female grad student applications in astronomy seems a little low, although a couple of women are among the strongest, too.

Five things to know before dating a scientist.  A bit too much generalizing for my taste.  It may be that scientists generally abide by some stereotypes, but some are extremely clueless and some are extremely cool.

A paintball demo to demonstrate some aspects of quantum physics.  (Thanks, Steve!  Finally got to it!)

Can Project Orion be reborn?

Science education group to tackle climate change.

And Missouri going after evolution education.  Idiots.  This guy, too, who denies it.  Teaching the controversy is not what educators should do.  There is NO CONTROVERSY among educated people on this topic.  Only those with religious bias resist.

Canceling physics?  The economics of education.

What happened before the Big Bang?  Philosophers find something to waste time and money on again, as usual. 

SETI, Aliens, etc…. Alien footprints.  Alien monuments.  Top five claims of alien life.

Abolish the leap second?  Say it isn’t so!  Was just lecturing about this recently.

I still do have the chance to make some small fixes if anyone sees a glaring error or problem.  I could be overlooking something…professors have the “absent-minded” stereotype for a reason!  I’m just now seeing that the covers have different relative dimensions, and I’m not sure why…hmmm.  It’s probably ok?

Well, I have a million other things to do.  Thanks again for the input!

An old friend of mine now has a nice gig at Forbes.com and reports that NASA is relenting about releasing Richard Garriot’s science fiction film made in space.  I probably should have listed him as one of my multiple-threat genre heroes in my post from a few weeks back.

Another cute, short science fiction film making the rounds.  It’s only about the length of a pop song, so check it out.

Scientist pickup lines, backed by Howard Wollowitz.  I don’t suggest anyone actually use any of these, but thinking of them as bad science jokes, they’re worth a few moments diversion.  A couple may be LOL worthy.

Some astronomy news from the National Science Foundation on new classes of planets and the origins of some supernovas.

And the Milky Way hosts at least 100 billion planets.

Astronomers to attempt to image the black hole at the center of our galaxy.

How to make your own light-up Cyclops visor.  Am I the only one whose favorite X-Man is Cyclops?

A scientific literacy quiz.  Kind of dumb from question one, which doesn’t specify a percentage by mass or particle density or an altitude.  Sort of the science factoid version of scientific literacy, which I think is insufficient as literacy about the scientific process is equally valuable.  OK, I just did the first 12 of 50, getting them all correct, and have to say it’s slow and too many questions are really science trivia for my taste.

Nine of ten of the hottest years on record have been since 2000.  Phil Plait on climate change and telling deniers that they’re full of crap.

Creepiest thing I’ve seen in a while:  Real-life Beavis and Butthead.  Huh huh huh.

George Lucas accepts the blame for the Indiana Jones in the fridge scene.

Fringe renewal sounds iffy again.  I like the show and wish it continues, but mostly I’d be happy with an ending at this stage when it does go.  I’m still haunted by Twin Peaks.

Former astronaut to lead starship project.  I love it that there’s a starship project.

Related news, interstellar space sex not so sexy, unfortunately.

How much energy required by the Death Star to destroy Earth?  Ah, a good physics problem to give my students…

The rise of, and limitations of, groupthink.  This is one reason I stopped playing RPGs in favor of writing.

Digital textbooks.  As a college professor, I have been giving thought to the future of (higher) education.  Some opportunities to do some things better and cheaper, but also some potential pitfalls.

More future predictions: twenty of them for 100 years from now.  Agree with many of them.  A few seem implausible.

What if humans were twice as intelligent?  Republicans wouldn’t exist?  Ha ha!  Ok, that’s a biased, partisan joke that not everyone would find funny.  I do wonder about the changes if the intelligence distribution were changed in various ways, as well as the distribution of personal work ethic, creativity, physical appearance, gender, etc.  Mess with any of them and you’ve got an interesting science fiction story.  Yeah, many of them have been done, but an infinity remain.

An update on SETI, with good news and bad news…and this is NOT aliens.

Do those in the humanities fields suffer physics envy?