Decius wrote:

It cannot be denied that this feels like a punch in the gut. It is. I'm not going to pretend that the wound isn't deep and personal, like an attack on my own family. It was meant to be. Many Obama supporters voted against our rights, and Obama himself opposes our full civil equality.

Doesn't it seem wrong that a simple majority can pass a Constitutional amendment in a referendum? I must confess some ignorance of state Constitutional issues, but no minority is safe from a process that can deny any basic civil right whenever a razor thin majority desires it. If not for incorporation of federal constitutional rights, this would be a recipe for unrelenting tyranny.

Apparently, the courts could decide that this is a "revision" and not an "amendment" -- "revisions" can only be put on the ballot by the legislature.

RE: Prop 8

A fungus that lives inside trees in the Patagonian rain forest naturally makes a mix of hydrocarbons that bears a striking resemblance to diesel, biologists announced today. And the fungus can grow on cellulose, a major component of tree trunks, blades of grass and stalks that is the most abundant carbon-based plant material on Earth.

Rainforest Fungus Naturally Synthesizes Diesel | Wired Science from Wired.com

DragonLab provides a platform for in-space experimentation, including recovery of pressurized and some unpressurized payloads, as well as deployment of small spacecraft. As a complete system, DragonLab provides for all aspects of operation: propulsion, power, thermal control, environmental control, avionics, communications, thermal protection, flight software, guidance, navigation and control, entry, descent and landing and recovery.

SpaceX DragonLab, a free-flying, fully-recoverable, reusable spacecraft capable of hosting pressurized and unpressurized payloads | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

NASA indicates that the probability of achieving the IOC milestone for the Ares 1 and Orion vehicles by March 2015 is 65 percent--that is, its level of confidence about meeting that date is 65 percent, which the agency considers to be a reasonable level for purposes of program planning. (NASA estimates the feasibility of meeting such milestones by using standard probability analyses of its plans for development programs.) NASA's 65 percent figure takes into account the reduction in its fiscal year 2007 budget (relative to the Administration's request) of $577 million (in 2007 dollars), a change enacted in the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007 (Public Law 110-5). The agency has accommodated the cut in its 2007 funding by eliminating some future missions of its Lunar Precursor Robotic Program. (That program is designed to launch robotic spacecraft to the moon to collect data about the moon's surface to help plan future human lunar missions.)

This *summary* of a cbo analysis of where NASA stands with Constellation and finishing iss/shutting down sts is still quite dense but gives a fascinating glimpse into how these programs are managed.

CBO: An Analysis of NASA's Plans for Continuing Human Spaceflight After Retiring the Space Shuttle | SpaceRef - Space News as it Happens

The foul-mouthed musician swept up by MTV’s speech code is Weird Al Yankovic, whose lyrics to “Don’t Download This Song,” a tongue-in-cheek complaint about file-sharing first released in 2006 included those so-called offensive terms. (Since then, two of those sites — Grokster and Morpheus — have become inactive.)

Censorship, or What Really Weirds Out Weird Al - NYTimes.com

In a decision that could reshape the way banks and high-tech firms protect their intellectual property, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a man’s business concept was too vague for patent protection.

Court Rules Business Concept Cannot Be Patented - NYTimes.com

ZOMG!

YouTube - Awesome Air Race Stunt!!!

The U.S. needs new nukes. That's the message Pentagon chief Robert Gates is delivering right now, as part of a broad, spirited defense of America's nuclear arsenal.

Congress and the Bush administration have been wrestling for years over the so-called Reliable Replacement Warhead — the next generation of nuclear weapon designs. Lawmakers have had the upper hand in the match, eliminating funding for RRW. Today, in a speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Gates looks to scramble back on top, with a dire warning to Capitol Hill.

Defense Chief: Give Us New Nukes, or Else | Danger Room from Wired.com

Scientists have better maps of distant Mars than the moon where astronauts have walked. But India hopes to change that with its first lunar mission.

Chandrayaan-1 — which means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit — launched from the Sriharikota space center in southern India early Wednesday morning (Local Time) in a two-year mission aimed at laying the groundwork for further Indian space expeditions.

SPACE.com -- India Launches Moon Mission in Asian Space Race

Five years after being formally approved and following a series of late delays, India's first-ever planetary mission is on track to launch the morning of Oct. 22 Local Time, with arrival in lunar orbit scheduled to occur 17 days later.

SPACE.com -- India Shoots for the Moon with New Probe