by Ian Punnett

 

Well, it won't be happening Sunday night either:  Once more, the crew of the space shuttle had to unbuckle and go back inside for the night.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- NASA on Sunday postponed the launch of space shuttle Endeavour for the second straight day due to concerns over weather.

Storms near the Kennedy Space Center prompted Sunday's postponement, the space agency said. Sunday's launch was to happen at 7:13 p.m.

"We got the vehicle ready, and the weather unfortunately did not cooperate with us today," launch director Pete Nickolenko told shuttle commander Mark Polansky. "We're going to have to declare a scrub for today and try to bring the team back for another attempt tomorrow."

I know the feeling.  Same thing happens to me whenever we load up the family truckster and try to hit the road for some vacay.  I swear we go around the block five times before we finally launch too.

Coming soon, not only can your SUV be environmentally friendly but also your private plane:

(Physorg.com) The world's first piloted aircraft capable of taking to the air using only power from fuel cells took off in Germany Tuesday, producing zero carbon dioxide emissions, its makers said.

"We have improved the performance capabilities and efficiency of the fuel cell to such an extent that a piloted aircraft is now able to take off using it," said Johann-Dietrich Woerner from the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

"This enables us to demonstrate the true potential of this technology, also and perhaps specifically for applications in the aerospace sector," he said.

The system uses hydrogen as its fuel, and this is converted into electrical energy in a direct, electrochemical reaction with oxygen in the ambient air, without any combustion occurring.

The only by-product is water, and if the hydrogen fuel is produced using renewable energy sources, then the motor glider is genuinely CO2-free, the DLR said.

And more than that, it’s quiet. Zero carbon emissions and the almost noiseless engine of a UFO.  

Which reminds me:

London, Jul 9 (ANI): For years, Britain’s biggest UFO mystery had been kept under wraps, but now an Air Force official has admitted that an “extra-terrestrial” craft did visit the air base at Rendlesham Forest in 1980.

Former Deputy Base Commander Col Charles Halt claimed that even though the incident was later covered up, “extra-terrestrials” had been the cause of the close encounter in Suffolk.

Halt had led a group of airmen who reported seeing a triangular UFO taking off into the air, leaving traces of radiation behind.

“The UFOs I saw were structured machines moving under intelligent control and operating beyond the realm of anything I have ever seen before or since,” the Daily Star quoted Col Halt, now retired, as telling investigator Gary Heseltine.

“I believe the objects that I saw at close quarters were extra-terrestrial in origin,” he said.

He added that the Air Force later issued “dis-information” to throw the public off the scent.

His comments were hailed as “sensational” by former Ministry of Defence UFO investigator Nick Pope.

“This may help us to finally solve Britain’s biggest UFO mystery,” Pope said.

“Structured machines moving under intelligent control.”  How would you like to bump into that in the middle of the woods some night?  

If that isn’t right out of “War of the Worlds.” If I had been a soldier coming across that I would have been walking around sneezing like crazy and trying to find the person on the base with the biggest cold.

 The good news is that it looks like we’ve got some of our own to fight them with according to the science section from today’s paper:

“Robot Jellyfish Swims like the Real Thing”

Even though a jellyfish is 90 percent water, it moves at about 40 mph. Jellyfish use their bell -- the top portion, above the tentacles -- to create a jet that propels them through water. Now, scientists at the Chonnam National University in the Republic of Korea have built a robot that mimics the movement. The robot, using an electro-active polymer artificial muscle, retracts and expands its skirt, exerting a minimal voltage and propelling the jellybot faster than you can swim.

The concept -- which could have practical implications for rescues in open water -- relies on resonant frequency to keep the energy requirement very low (think of the minimal force required to push someone on a swing) and the operation efficient and near-silent. popsci.com

Why robot jellyfish?  We’ve had those intersection robots long enough.

Area drivers looking to outwit police speed traps and traffic cameras are using an iPhone application and other global positioning system devices that pinpoint the location of the cameras.

That has irked D.C. police chief Cathy Lanier, who promised her officers would pick up their game to  counteract the devices, which can also help drivers dodge sobriety checkpoints. 

"I think that's the whole point of this program," she told The Washington Examiner. "It's designed to cir****vent law enforcement -- law enforcement that is designed specifically to save lives."

The new technology streams to i-Phones and global positioning system devices, sounding off an alarm as drivers approach speed or red-light cameras.

Lanier said the technology is a "cowardly tactic" and "people who overly rely on those and break the law anyway are going to get caught" in one way or another.

The greater D.C. area has 290 red-light and speed cameras -- comprising nearly 10 percent of all traffic cameras in the U.S., according to estimates by a camera-tracking database called the POI Factory.  (Washington Examiner)

NEW PORT RICHEY — It was Sunday night and the ghost hunters stood on the steps of the West Pasco Historical Society, trying to talk with William Barber, a Union soldier whose desk is inside the building.

The desk dates to 1850 and was donated to the society in 1983. It is said that Barber's spirit is still very fond of his desk and that he doesn't like things put on it. Museum volunteers say people often smell wafting cigar smoke when they pass by the desk.

As I understand it, when they captured this guy’s voice on EVP, the first thing this Civil War soldier asked was, “How is my old foxhole buddy, John McCain doing?”