Posts Made By: Timothy Iafolla

Wes,

You just keep raising the bar.

OK, everyone, the lower right half of the crater floor is relatively flat. At about the 5:00 location theres a small well-defined craterlet, with a chain of 3-4 craters to its upper left and a "snowman" double crater just below. Got it? That's Walter Q, which has a diameter of 4km. I'll leave it as an exercise for the student to figure out the resolution of this photo.

Hint: I'm pretty sure at this scale you could see Yankee Stadium. 8O

Tim Iafolla

Well, Chris, with that image I think you've joined Damian and Roland in producing the finest earth-based Saturn images. Congrats!

Tim Iafolla

Well it happened again. Here was an interesting thread, with the opinions of an on-the-ground American Lt. colonel regarding readiness and attitude of the Iraqi soldiers who we are counting on to replace American forces.

Our esteemed moderator jumped in, made his contention in a strident and disagreeable way that dared a response, about an issue that wasn't particularly relevant anyway. (Turns out his contention isn't supported by the article anyway (there's NOTHING about IED's in the exchange with the Iraqi commnder, just his and his troops' general state of readiness and training.)

The thread degenerated into snarling over a bone, and any chance of real information being exchanged was lost. Great job.

Better read this quick, I fully expect it to be deleted for not showing proper respect.

Tim Iafolla

Fantastic Nick, I rarely see eyepiece projecton photos that match that quality. Good detail for an 8", and very smooth processing.

Tim Iafolla

Yesterday's speech makes me even more amazed that Bush has been given a free pass on so many statements that are provably untrue. Bush (or Rumsfeld, or Cheney) have at least 4 times in the last 2 years announced that Iraq has a quarter of a million troops (the exact number varies) fully trained. Every time it happens, and then the real figures come out, the media says that Bush was being "optimistic" in his estimates, even when it was shown that the number was more like 1% of that figure.

When does "being optimistic" cross the line into deception, official corruption, abuse of power, and outright lies? It's not like it's a harmless exaggeration...the statements have been made to obtain support for continuing the war, extend deployments, and increase spending.

If I make an optimistic estimate of my salary on a mortgage application, or overstate my education on a job application, bad things happen. Clinton got impeached for lying about a BJ, fercryinoutloud. Are the Republicans really so powerful that normal standards are now completely irrelevant?

HOW IS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION GETTING AWAY WITH THESE OVERT, DAMAGING, SELF-SERVING LIES?
Tim Iafolla

Well, I could respond to your quote in several ways, but just as a contrast I'll keep it short and factual:

There is NO evidence that Saddam was paying suicide bombers. This is one of the misleading contentions put forth by the Bush administration and later shown to be untrue. That didn't stop the Bushies from continuing to say it.

Saddam may have had ambitions of using WMD against the west, but had no WMD's, nor the means to deliver them. Another Bush lie that was repeated so often and with such conviction it became "fact".

I'm not sure how you figure that Libya's actions were related to the Iraq invasion.

We probably would have found out about the UN's unsavory financial actions anyway, and don't sound so self-righteous...remember there were some very large US firms participating, some of them closely tied with administratyion officials.

- his sons would still be running the rape rooms...probably true, but this was an internal matter that had nothing to do with the invasion, except as a post-hoc excuse. Saddam's regime was just as nasty and brutal while the Reagan administration was supporting him during the Iran-Iraq war, and we had no problem overlooking his actions then.

I also resent the oft-repeated charge that anybody speaking against the invasion is "happy" about Bush's troubles, and that we're pissed off now that things seem to be improving a little. Bush's problems have cost American lives and LOTS of American treasure, and we would like nothing more than for him to be quickly successful in wrapping up our involvement there.

My son will be of draft age in under 2 years....do you still think I'm looking forward to a long, messy outcome just so I can gloat over Bush's misfortune?

Tim Iafolla

Jim Wayda said:

Please listen to the attached NASA URL Christmas Eve Broadcast from Apollo 8. Even NASA believes that God created the Heaven and the Earth.

OK Jim, I'll bite.

First, remember that this happened almost 40 years ago. There's probably not one current NASA employee who was working there when this happened.

Second, do you REALLY think that an astronaut reading a scriptural text represents the official position of the organization, or the people in it? Do you really think that the majority of the engineers, astrophysicists, geologists, and cosmologists in NASA think that the Universe was created in 6 days, or do you think maybe they are researching the Big Bang and subsequent 13 billion years? If it's the former I want my tax money back.

Third, these trolls of yours are really annoying. They're like a car wreck...I try not to slow down and look but just can't help myself.

Tim Iafolla

The Economy is doing great...sure, our economy is fine...it should be, we are hitting our federal credit card and spending it past the limit. We're sucking out the last of the easy oil and gas and using it at unprecedented rates. We're producing CO2 at an unsustainable rate, becuase it's easy to continue using internal combustion than to bite the bullet and increase mileage or convert to something more efficient.

But our children and grandchildren will have a helluva time digging themselves out of today's deficit spending, profligate resource use and insane concurrent tax cuts.

Tim Iafolla

There will be a lot of people tossing and turning instead of sleeping, now that Abramoff has become a member of the prosecution team. NPR this morning stated that the list already includes over 40 people, including congressmen from both parties, political appointees, and senior-level aides. And you can bet that once those first 40 start talking the list will expand quickly.

A bunch of congressmen (on and off the list) have already tried to launder the money they received from Abramoff by refunding it or donating it to charity. All the upcoming tap dancing is going to be very entertaining. I really can't wait to see that smug smile wiped off of Tom DeLay's face.

Tim Iafolla

Paul Kammueller said:

Sandy Stubblefield said:
What's wrong with this?
There is No Problem with being sure God is on your side...

It's great when it's a positive thing. But the writer was of course referring to other all-too-common situations.

Unfortunately, many are just as sure God is on their side with regard to killing innocent people in terroristic acts. Or persecuting those of other religions, or of other denominations within one's own religion.

Being sure God is on one's side allows one to cast aside normal moral judgment and rationalize almost any course of action, however wrong or inhumane it might be, since no cause is higher than God's. And there is no opportunity to change one's course of action, since God doesn't change his mind.

And for some queer reason the person sure God is on their side generally assumes that God's prime cause has something to do with the advancement of that person's particular religion. 8)

That, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with it.

Exactly, Paul, well said. It's well known that suicide bombers purify themselves before the attack and scream "Allah hu akhbar" just before pulling the pin. They're so damn sure that God is on their side that they have no problem with taking out a few dozen bystanders.

But my point was that it's only a matter of degree between that and the Pat Robertsons of the world (and the George Bush's for that matter). Anything goes, no matter what the science, morality, economics, or logic of the situation, if god is sitting on their shoulder whispering in their ears. It leads to things like requiring the teaching of creationism and banning federal funding of stem cell research. Worse yet, many times it's not even a sincere belief, just political expedience.

Tim Iafolla