[T]he use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. In this respect the brain is like a muscle. When we think well, we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.

Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used

It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation.

There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right; they’re the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.

You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.

November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996

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source

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Lamenting its retirement, I’ve been posting a lot about the Space Shuttle lately here, here, here, here and here.

Well here is another one. It is a 360° view of the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Check it!

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  From Wikipedia, STS-130 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Space Shuttle Endeavour's primary payloads were the Tranquility moduleand the Cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center, providing a 360-degree view around the station. Endeavour launched at 04:14 EST (09:14 UTC) on 8 February 2010 and landed at 22:20 EST on 21 February 2010 on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility. ...
• July 21, 2011 -- The end
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• July 20, 2011 -- Stunning images from the Space Shuttle’s last mission
  Tomorrow marks the end of the the 30-year long U.S. Space Shuttle program when Atlantis is scheduled to land at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Merritt Island, Florida. For people of my generation and younger, there there is no memory of any other means of U.S. space transportation. It's the end of the longest chapter in U.S. manned space exploration. Here are a few photos from NASA's Space Shuttle gallery. Go over and check them all out. [caption id="attachment_2415" align="aligncenter" w...

From Wikipedia,

STS-130 was a NASA Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Space Shuttle Endeavour’s primary payloads were the Tranquility moduleand the Cupola, a robotic control station with six windows around its sides and another in the center, providing a 360-degree view around the station. Endeavour launched at 04:14 EST (09:14 UTC) on 8 February 2010 and landed at 22:20 EST on 21 February 2010 on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility.

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  Lamenting its retirement, I've been posting a lot about the Space Shuttle lately here, here, here, here and here. Well here is another one. It is a 360° view of the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Check it! ...
• July 21, 2011 -- The end
  ...
• July 20, 2011 -- Stunning images from the Space Shuttle’s last mission
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I have never understood evolution denial. Even in my Catholic daze I accepted evolution as simply God’s means of creation. I don’t get what the big deal is. Oh, and I really don’t like when people use phrases like “belief in evolution.” It’s science, not a matter of belief.

ht calamities of nature

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Instead of looking for rational causation, some of us look for fairy dust explanations.

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• September 20, 2010 -- Don’t forget to look up tonight, Jupiter making a close pass
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• July 19, 2011 -- Unloading a space shuttle — for the last time
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• July 8, 2011 -- End of an era
  ...

Tomorrow marks the end of the the 30-year long U.S. Space Shuttle program when Atlantis is scheduled to land at the Shuttle Landing Facility in Merritt Island, Florida. For people of my generation and younger, there there is no memory of any other means of U.S. space transportation. It’s the end of the longest chapter in U.S. manned space exploration.

Here are a few photos from NASA’s Space Shuttle gallery. Go over and check them all out.

This image of the International Space Station was taken by Atlantis' STS-135 crew during a fly around as the shuttle departed the station on Tuesday, July 19, 2011. STS-135 is the final shuttle mission to the orbital laboratory.

This picture of space shuttle Atlantis was photographed from the International Space Station as the orbiting complex and the shuttle performed their relative separation in the early hours of July 19, 2011.

This image is of Atlantis and its Orbital Boom Sensor System robot arm extension backdropped against Earth's horizon and a greenish phenomenon associated with Aurora Australis. One of the station's solar array panels appears at upper left. Because of the exposure time needed for this type of photography, some of the stars in the background are blurred.

Astronaut Ron Garan took this image during the spacewalk conducted on Tues., July 12, 2011. It shows the International Space Station with Space Shuttle Atlantis docked on the right and a Russian Soyuz on the far left.

Space shuttle Atlantis is seen over the Bahamas prior to a perfect docking with the International Space Station at 10:07 a.m. (CDT)

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Follow the heat wave on NOAA.

A shroud of high pressure has taken a foot-hold over the U.S. from the Plains to the Northeast, and with it has brought temperatures well into the 90′s and 100′s for half of the country. This animation shows the predicted daily high temperatures from NOAA’s high resolution North American Model (NAM) from July 13-21, 2011.

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• No Related Post

From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What’s that astronaut doing? Unloading a space shuttle — for the last time. After the space shuttle Atlantis docked with the International Space Station (ISS) last week, astronaut Mike Fossum underwent a long spacewalk that included carrying a Robotics Refueling Mission (RRM) payload from Atlantis’ cargo bay to a platform used by the space station’s famous robot DEXTRE. On Earth, the RRM box would have the weight of about three people and be much more difficult to carry. Pictured above on the far left, DEXTRE prepares to help move a failed space pump back to Atlantis. Visible behind the astronaut is the space station’s Kibo Experimental Module. The much awaited final shuttle return flight is currently scheduled for 5:56 am EDT Thursday, July 21.

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• July 21, 2011 -- The end
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• July 8, 2011 -- End of an era
  ...