Virgin Galactic Unveils WhiteKnightTwo in Mojave

WhiteKnightTwo is the carrier aircraft that will be be used to help carry SpaceShipTwo, the commercial upgraded version of SpaceShipOne. An article with several pictures of this morning's rollout at the Mojave Air and Space Port can be seen on Wired.com:

One Giant Step For Virgin Galactic

For more photos and information, see Wired's Science Blog.

Burt Rutan: Entrepreneurs are the future of space flight

Freeman Dyson on Looking for Life in the Outer Solar System

TV Footage of the Moon Landing 39 Years Ago Today

39th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two people to walk on the face of the moon. I was twelve and living in Ohio at the time. I remember watching it on TV with my parents and grandparents. My dad, a sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, would leave for Viet-Nam for his second tour of duty about a month later. He could recall when they had installed electricity on his parent’s farm while he was growing up. What amazed him most of all about the successful trip to the moon was the fact that it was being televised. He’d always figured we’d get there, he just hadn’t expected we’d get to watch it happen on live TV.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

From the man that brought you Firefly, Serenity, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer:



Check it out; it goes away on Sunday, July 20 at midnight (that is, it will cost money after that; till then, it's free).

Earth and Moon

A video of the Earth and moon taken from 31 million miles away by the Deep Impact probe:

Quote for the Day

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.

Daniel J. Boorstin

Science Fiction Author Quote for the Day

There is no cause so good or noble that it will not attract fuggheads; and the fuggheads will get all the press

Larry Niven

Mercy

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:...

William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

Happiness Is Increasing

Americans, and people around the world, are getting happier all the time according to an article at the National Science Foundation. This is consistent with an article I read in Scientific American a few years ago that indicated that most people, in most parts of the world, most of the time, are happy. I wonder if we make a mistake when we accept Voltair's assumption, and that of most critics of theism, who argue that the world is an awful place and that therefore the horrendous suffering of the planet means that there can't possibly be a good, loving, all-powerful God. If most people are happy and getting happier, wouldn't that argue against Voltair's assumption?

Leibnitz argued that if we assume that God is good, loving, and all powerful, then in fact this must be the best of all possible worlds--given the existence of human free will. Perhaps the data supports Leibnitz's position?