Nigel Hey's Blog, page 8

Could 1960s idea have made N. Korea nuke program ‘impotent and obsolete’?

Zenith Star SDI laser concept didn't fly   (LMC image)
To my surprise and pleasure I heard today from a man who ran Project Defender for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), ’way back in the 1960s. He had been a key information source when I wrote my book on 1980s space defense concepts, The SDI Enigma. Now I reflected that, in the best of worlds, one of his projects could have been taken more seriously in the 1960s and upgraded in the 1980s in preference to laser weapon...

A haven for extraterrestrial life in another neighboring planet?

Frond-like tracery of cracks on Europa's icy surface (NASA)
Nearly two and a half decades ago, on October 18, 1989, yours truly was stationed at Cape Kennedy, watching as the Atlantis shuttle roaried into the air, ruffling my shirt with the acoustic waves from its giant booster rockets. I was there because Atlantis was carrying a precious cargo, NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and her moons, and my lab had nominated me to help staff a small team of Department of Energy information officers a...

A haven for extraterrestrial life in another neighbor planet?

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A Delightful Quartet of Essays from Tony Hillerman: A Belated Review

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London’s freedom-of-the-press controversy is resolved – we hope.

London samples from Rupert Murdoch's News International,
including discontinued News of the World

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Words to remember: “We are as gods and might as well get good at it”

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The Dinosaur in My Garden

Geococcyx californianus, photo by Jonathan Hey
  It was looking at me from behind a large chunk of sandstone. An orange eye with a small flash of orange and blue skin flaring behind studied me, the crest moving slightly on its head. I threw a pebble and my own therapod, modified for the Holocene epoch, ran off in a dead-straight line toward its lair in a tall blue spruce. I heard the clack of mandibles and knew there would b...<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

Storms in the East, Drought in the West: How It Looks from the Desert

My garden: When monsoons still came to New Mexico
Today, as the first week of March ends, the northeastern quadrant of the United States is stricken with yet another storm. Here in Albuquerque we are experiencing another day without rain or snow. If only we could have someone tow some of those clouds a few hundred miles to the Southwest! Yes, I know Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are at their lowest...<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

White House moves to speed disclosure of tax-supported scientific research results

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UK Press Control Measures: The Stalemate Persists

In my Dec. 4 blog I reported that the UK...<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>