Posts Made By: James Brown

Lee Spain said:

Alright, my wife wants to know how come the shuttle and space station astronauts seem to have perfectly coifed hair? If there is no gravity, shouldn't they have crazy hair like Einstein? Even if it is short, shouldn't it be floating in all kinds of directions? 8O

Like this?

Lee Spain said:

Alright, my wife wants to know how come the shuttle and space station astronauts seem to have perfectly coifed hair? If there is no gravity, shouldn't they have crazy hair like Einstein? Even if it is short, shouldn't it be floating in all kinds of directions? 8O

Or this?

(I guess the well coifed astronauts are using a special NASA hair glue!)

Christine Canelos Welsh said:

I find the whole presidential pardon thing really confusing. Who are these people and by what criteria do they get to the list? Other than the case of Charlie Winters, there was very little explanation in the article. I don't get it, especially some of the drug offense ones. There are tons of people in jail for drug offenses. Why these?

http://news.aol.com/article/bush-issues-19-more-pardons/259387

I haven't heard any more on the request to pardon George Ryan lately, either. I hope Bush leaves him behind bars though.

Hi Christine:

This article covers the details pretty well:

http://igs.berkeley.edu/library/hot_topics/2008/Dec.2008/pardon.html

Most pardons make a lot of sense. George Washington pardoned the participants in the "Whisky Rebellion" and Andrew Johnson (who became president when Lincoln was assassinated) pardoned most Confederate combatants after the Civil War. This kind of pardon cleans up a big national legal mess in one swoop.

Recently, most pardons are granted after someone has done their time, or sometimes posthumously, when they are later demonstrated to be innocent.

Only a few pardons (Richard Nixon, Marc Rich, Scooter Libbey) are politically motivated or newsworthy. What I often see though is that the press will quote a figure like "Clinton pardoned 140 people on his last day in office" and then talk extensively about a crook that apparently bought a pardon like Marc Rich.

Many people who read or hear these stories might get the impression that the other 140 folks also bought favor, when in fact these are people who probably deserved a pardon because they were innocent, or did their time and turned their life around etc. I don't think there is any excuse for an obvious "bought pardon" like Marc Rich's. My only point is that the vast majority of pardons are not like that.

Jim

Hi Rod:

I was curious to see your picture from the 70's...but my firewall/filter at work blocked the site as "pornography!" Har! I never asked what your day job was....

Actually our firewall/filter has a hair trigger. I'll check out "young Rod" tonight.

Jim

Robert Pasken said:

{High crimes and misdemeanors}

The definition the law requires is that a President, who maintains that he is above the law and repeatedly violates the law thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors.

No, that is the definition Bob Pasken created and favors because it dovetails with his personal view of the activities of former president Bush. You can think what you want Bob, and I am OK with that. But when you spout legal nonsense with an authoritative voice, I feel compelled to pop in and set the record straight.

"High Crimes and Misdemeanors" is not defined in the Constitution. There is a ton of history before and after the drafting of Article II regarding this term. My best analysis is that Congress can, within reason, define these terms as they see fit within the context of impeachment proceedings. If anyone is interested in learning more about this, here is a good place to start:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/article02/18.html

Have a good weekend!

Jim

Rod Kaufman said:

What was that McCain/Palin slogan they had? Oh yeah, it was country first...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/18/palin-to-pay-back-taxes_n_167818.html

Does this mean that she gets a seat in Obama's cabinet?

Jim

James Barnett quoted Vic Maris as saying:


"Schott FK51 is very close to OK4, Schott FK61 is close to FPL-51 and

Schott makes Calcium Fluorite (CaF2). Thanks!

- Jim

Jim, it looks to me like Vic merely mis-typed a "5" as a "6" in the part you bolded above. The entire sentence makes more sense that way since everyone seems to agree that FK51, OK4 and FPL-51 have similar dispersion characteristics. I suspect that Vic has the chart that Roland posted handy and knows that Schott makes FK51, not FK61. Maybe your whole premise is "much ado about a typo?"

I don't have a stake in this never ending debate by the way. I have owned refractors made by TEC, Tak, SV and TV. All were/are pretty sweet telescopes.

Jim

itz marcus said:

Hi,
Did anyone get Lulin in a 4-5 inch refractor? What are the best powers to see it at and is it more impressive than comet Holmes (which I thought was not that great as far as comets go).
Clear skies
Itz

Hi Itz:

People are getting Lulin in 10x50 binoculars according to the "Comets" forum. You should do well with your 4" refractor. I thought Holmes was really cool by the way. We have clear skies right now. I might have to go for Lulin later.

Jim

David Berman said:

Does anyone know why the W.O. forum dropped off?

Herb dropped the TEC and StellarVue groups too. Some of the the vendor specific groups were pretty slow. He is encouraging the TEC, StellarVue and presumably WO people to post in the general "Refractors" forum.

Jim

Tyler Allred said:

Hi all.
These images of M51 and M63 are first light with my new Starlight Xpress SXVF-H16 camera. I quite like the field of view and the square shape of the sensor. It makes for a little different composition. The links are below. Be sure to click on the images for the full versions. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Cheers,
Tyler

The M63 Image is at:
http://71.18.228.62/images/M63%20LRGB2.jpg


The M51 image is at:
http://71.18.228.62/images/M51%20LRGB%20v11%20sRGB.jpg

Hi Tyler;

You've been busy! all of these look great. Is this the camera that is getting a new filter wheel?

Jim