Sally Ride, America’s first female astronaut, dies

Published July 23, 2012 | By Iowadawg

Sally Ride, who blazed trails into orbit as the first American woman in space, died Monday of pancreatic cancer. She was 61.

Ride died at her home in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, said Terry McEntee, a spokeswoman for her company, Sally Ride Science. She was a private person and the details of her illness were kept to just a few people, she said.

Ride rode into space on the space shuttle Challenger in 1983 when she was 32. After her flight, more than 42 other American women flew in space, NASA said.

“Sally was a national hero and a powerful role model. She inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars,” President Barack Obama said in a statement.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former astronaut, said Ride “broke barriers with grace and professionalism — and literally changed the face of America’s space program.”

“The nation has lost one of its finest leaders, teachers and explorers,” he said in a statement.

Ride was a physicist, writer of five science books for children and president of her own company. She had also been a professor of physics at the University of California in San Diego.

She was selected as an astronaut candidate in 1978, the same year she earned her doctorate in physics from Stanford University. She beat out five women to be the first American female in space. Her first flight came two decades after the Soviets sent a woman into space

“On launch day, there was so much excitement and so much happening around us in crew quarters, even on the way to the launch pad,” Ride recalled in a NASA interview for the 25th anniversary of her flight in 2008. “I didn’t really think about it that much at the time — but I came to appreciate what an honor it was to be selected to be the first to get a chance to go into space.”

Ride flew in space twice, both times on Challenger in 1983 and in 1984, logging 343 hours in space. A third flight was cancelled when Challenger exploded in 1986. She was on the commission investigating that accident and later served on the panel for the 2003 Columbia shuttle accident, the only person on both boards.

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After retiring from space, she founded Sally Ride Science, an organization created to inspire young people, especially girls, to stick with their interest in science, and pursue careers in science and engineering.

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Energy-efficient CFL bulbs cause skin damage, say researchers

New research funded by the National Science Foundation has scientists warning consumers about the potentially harmful effects energy-saving CFL light bulbs can have on skin.

The warning comes based on a study conducted by Stony Brook University and New York State Stem Cell Science — published in the June issue of Photochemistry and Photobiology — which looked at whether and how the invisible UV rays CFL bulbs emit affect the skin.

Based on the research, scientists concluded that CFL light bulbs can be harmful to healthy skin cells.

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Let me offer you my definition of social justice: I keep what I earn and you keep what you earn. Do you disagree? Well then tell me how much of what I earn belongs to you – and why?
—
Walter Williams

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The Top 150 Conservative Websites – July 2012

Doug Ross does an exhaustive job of compiling the top 150 conservative blogs.
This is the ultimate blogroll. (Every entry is linked. That is invaluable.)
This should be bookmarked and used on that rainy day when iOTW just ain’t cutting the mustard.

Thank you, Doug Ross!

THE LIST IS HERE

Good websites in this list you should at the least check out!

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Canada goose Eddie will be allowed to remain in his home in an ancient London park, instead of being deported to a swan sanctuary. The decision comes after his disheveled appearance caused more than one concerned passersby to fear he had been mauled by dogs.

Eddie, named after Edward Scissorhands, has a genetic condition called angel wing that causes his feathers to stick out sideways and keeps him from flying. The poor guy also has been malting something bad lately, which has caused him to look even more odd than usual.

Luckily for Eddie, wildlife photographer Ron Vester wasn’t about to let the popular pond-dweller disappear — he successfully pleaded for a stay of deportation on Eddie’s behalf.

His wings stick out like spikes, they’re not beautifully flowing feathers and this poor little creature has been living on that pond for five years.

So many people had called in to say he had been attacked, but people who know him said: “No that’s just Eddie, he’s fine.”

It was all just a little mistake.

From : london24

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And you know that not that darn many will ever work again! Plus must be good business to get people onto SDI since I see a constant barrage of lawyers on television and lots of ads on the internet all wanting to make sure you get on SDI.

(CNSNews.com) – The number of workers taking federal disability insurance payments hit yet another record in July, increasing to 8,753,935 during the month from the previous record of 8,733,461 set in June, according to newly released data from the Social Security Administration.

The 8,753,935 workers who took federal disability insurance payments in July exceeded the population of 39 of the 50 states. Only 11 states—California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and New Jersey—had more people in them than the number of workers on the federal disability insurance rolls in July.

Virginia, the twelfth most-populous state, had 8,096,604 people in 2011, according to the latest Census Bureau estimate. That would make Virginia’s population about 657,331 less than the number of workers who took federal disability insurance payments in July.

Congress enacted legislation in 1956 to add federal disability insurance to the Social Security system. Over the decades, the number of Americans actually working has dramatically declined relative to the number claiming federal disability insurance payments.

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Our debt continues to increase. We must get a new president quick!

(CNSNews.com) – By the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2012, the new debt accumulated in this fiscal year by the federal government had already exceeded $1 trillion, making this fiscal year the fifth straight in which the federal government has increased its debt by more than a trillion dollars, according to official debt numbers published by the U.S. Treasury.

Prior to fiscal 2008, the federal government had never increased its debt by as much as $1 trillion in a single fiscal year. From fiscal 2008 onward, however, the federal government has increased its debt by at least $1 trillion each and every fiscal year.

The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30. At the close of business on Sept. 30, 2011—the last day of fiscal 2011—the total debt of the federal government was $14,790,340,328,557.15. By June 29, the last business day of the third quarter of fiscal 2012, that debt had grown to $15,856,367,214,324.44—an increase for this fiscal year of $1,066,026,885,767.29.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, the federal debt has continued to accumulate, hitting $15,874,365,457,260.40 at the close of business on Thursday, July 19—marking a total increase so far in fiscal 2012 of $1,084,025,128,703.25.

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The Reading Lists Of Your Favorite Fictional Characters

The local newspaper ad that recognizes a man for pleasing 15 women in one day.

A man wrote his own song, “Mitt Romney: A Hero In My Mind,” to protest YouTube’s blocking of a Romney ad for copyright infringement. Hilarious and horrific.

Old Spice’s latest ad is Olympic-inspired, and ridiculous, and good.

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Sure, as a laughingstock!

RCP:

“Because we’re leading around the world, people have a new attitude toward America. There’s more confidence in our leadership. We see it everywhere we go,” President Obama said at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Reno.

“Four years ago, I stood before you at a time of great challenge for our nation. We were engaged in two wars. Al Qaeda was entrenched in their safe havens in Pakistan. Many of our alliances were frayed. Our standing in the world had suffered. We were in the worst recession of our lifetimes. Around the world, some questioned whether the United States still had the capacity to lead,” Obama said earlier in his speech.

“So, four years ago, I made you a promise. I pledged to take the fight to our enemies, and renew our leadership in the world. As President, that’s what I’ve done. And as you reflect on recent years, as we look ahead to the challenges we face as a nation and the leadership that’s required, you don’t just have my words, you have my deeds. You have my track record. You have the promises I’ve made and the promises that I’ve kept,” he said.

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Feinstein: White House Leaked Classified Info

From Newsmax:

The Democratic leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Monday that the White House appears to be responsible for some leaks of classified information.

“I think the White House has to understand that some of this is coming from their ranks,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein told a World Affairs Council forum.

The California lawmaker said she was certain that President Barack Obama, who receives a daily intelligence briefing, isn’t disclosing secret information, but she was uncertain about others at the White House. “I don’t believe for a moment that he goes out and talks about it,” she said.

Republicans have criticized the disclosures, arguing that members of the Obama administration were intentionally leaking classified material to enhance the president’s reputation in an election year. Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed two attorneys to lead the investigation into who leaked information about U.S. involvement in cyberattacks on Iran and about an al-Qaida plot to place an explosive device aboard a U.S.-bound airliner.

That hasn’t satisfied some Republicans who have pressed for a special prosecutor.

Last Thursday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified in closed session before the House Armed Services Committee on the leaks. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., told reporters afterward that he did not believe the Pentagon was responsible for recent national security leaks.

“I feel pretty secure they were not” from the Pentagon, McKeon said after the three-hour hearing.

Separately, the Pentagon announced that it was taking new steps to try to clamp down on leaks of classified information, saying unauthorized disclosures undermine national security and in some cases rise to the level of criminal acts.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said Panetta has ordered him to join the Pentagon’s top intelligence official in monitoring all “major, national level” news media reports for unauthorized disclosures of secrets.

Panetta also reiterated guidance issued by his predecessor, Robert Gates, that the Pentagon’s public affairs office should be the only source of defense information provided to the news media in Washington.

Feinstein said her committee would meet Tuesday to craft legislation that would address the leaks of classified information, including additional authorities and rules to stop the leaks.

Her comments came as U.S. officials said the number of people with access to some of the nation’s most carefully guarded secrets topped 4.86 million in 2011.

That’s up from 4.7 million people granted security clearances the year before, likely reflecting new hires approved by Congress as part of expanded clandestine operations in the Obama administration.

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In the wake of the Aurora shootings, Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert is oh so sad that Democrats won’t talk about gun control. Oh so sad. And of course he’s lashing out at the Right to make his case as to why Democrats won’t talk about it by smearing the Right with a paranoid delusion that Obama and Holder are going to take our guns: