Luke Barats from Barats and Bereta has a problem with his auto insurance.

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Fox News is starting to resemble the ‘Simple Life’ reality TV series featuring Ann Coulter as their Paris Hilton. The number of seemingly daff blonde ‘political analysts’ are ever more present on the set of every news network. But is it all news?

There seems to be no low to which Coulter won’t sink in her pursuit of airtime. She recently apparently endorsed the murder of Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) and suggested that Democratic support of a recent Supreme Court decision is “siding with Al Qaeda.” Coulter’s musings about violence against her perceived enemies are nothing new; she once suggested that former President Clinton be assassinated.

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While speculation surrounding the possible death of Osama Bin Laden encircles the global leaders, in a recap of the UK Times article entitled each of Osama’s broadcasts and/or audio tapes with a predominant quote from each. While we have continued to kill innocent Iraqis in the ‘war against terrorism,’ I say we are doing nothing less.

We are terrorizing the Iraqi people unlike they have had in over 10 years. While video from Sept. 11, 2001 show a peaceful state of Iraq, we all see on the television what it’s like today - from our air conditioned homes. If Osama has offered not once, but several times, as noted below, to make peace - why haven’t we? That’s all I want to know.

January 19, 2006 audiotape offered truce “to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan�

April 15, 2004 audiotape said: “Stop spilling our blood so we can stop spilling your blood�

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Nothing of over substantial consideration on lonnypaul.com lately? Well, unfortunately time has been taking it’s toll on my ability to post new events on a regular basis. In the past during these times, I provide subscription based feeds for your enjoyment, primarily of Space Imagery and tech products.

These days, there is much more going on than lonnypaul.com. I am currently writing for a number of blogs personally, and try to get a couple videos a day out regarding current political situations on YouTube.com.

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Supernova SNLS-03D3bb. Image credit: LBL
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Astronomers used to believe that all Type 1a supernovae were essentially the same brightness. That’s because they explode with the same amount of fuel. But now a supernova has been discovered that’s twice as bright as all the other Type 1a supernovae. This is a problem, since this kind of supernovae are used as standard candles, to determine distances across the Universe. Most recently, these supernovae have been used to calculate the mysterious force called dark energy that seems to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe.

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Battlestar Galactic Season 2.5 DVD
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I just received a review copy of Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5, the DVD that covers episodes 11-20. In case you’ve been living under a rock, this is the new Battlestar Galactica series running on the Scifi channel in the US. I’m going to preface this with the disclaimer that I’m already a huge fan of Battlestar Galactica - I’ve seen every episode multiple times, and I think it’s one of the best television shows on TV. It’s also impossible for me to really talk about what’s in the episodes without ruining some part of the plot for somebody. I’m a notorious show-ruiner, so I won’t even go there. (My friends call ruining the end of a movie “Frasering”).

The boxed set contains 3 DVDs, with episodes 11-20 in widescreen. It’s also got a few minutes per disc of deleted scenes, as well as some video logs by the producers. Perhaps the coolest part is the audio commentary. They were originally released as podcasts on the Internet, but it’s great to have them play in the background while you’re watching the episodes instead of having to synch up your iPod while you’re watching live TV.

If you haven’t seen the show, you can purchase older DVDs (here’s a link to Amazon for the Season 1 (contains the Miniseries) - Season 2.0 and the new Season 2.5). You’d better hurry, though, Season 3 starts up in just 2 weeks.

I’m going to give away my review copy of Battlestar Galactica 2.5 - I did open it, but it’s otherwise undamaged. You know the drill. Send me an email at info@universetoday.com with the subject line “BSG Giveaway” before 12:00pm PDT Tuesday, September 26, 2006. I’ll pick one email address at random, announce a winner, and mail out the copy.

Good luck!

Fraser

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Soyuz approaches the station. Image credit: NASA TV
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The next crew of residents arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday, and they brought a special visitor. Expedition 14, Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, travelled to orbit with space tourist Anousheh Ansari. Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin will remain on board the station until the Spring, while Ansari will return with Expedition 13 in a week.

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Saturn’s new ring. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI
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Cassini recently passed behind Saturn, so that the Ringed Planet completely obscured the Sun from view. This revealed intricate details in the planet’s environment, including a brand new ring. This newly discovered ring is outside Saturn’s main rings, but inside the G and E rings - the moons Janus and Epimetheus orbit within it. During its pass behind Saturn, Cassini also captured an image of the Earth, from a vantage of nearly 1.5 billion km (930 million miles) away..

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The rim of Victoria crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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NASA’s Opportunity rover is close enough to spot the edge of the massive Victoria crater; its destination for almost 2 years. The crater is roughly 750 metres (.5 mile) across and up to 70 metres (230 feet) deep. Once the rover gets inside, it’ll be able to examine exposed rock on the crater walls. Scientists are still gathering evidence of past water conditions on the surface of Mars, and this view will be one of the best “opportunities” they’ve had so far.

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Astrophoto: NGC 7048 Image by: Stefan Heutz
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The ability for convex and concave transparent objects to enlarge or reduce had been known since Antiquity and by the end of the thirteenth century; quality glass was relatively inexpensive, particularly in Italy. At the same time, techniques for grinding and polishing had reached a high state of relative precision in Venice. So, handheld magnifying glasses became relatively common. During the fourteenth century, the craftsmen of Venice began producing small double-sided convex glass disks that could be mounted and worn in a frame- the first reading glasses. By the middle of the fifteenth century the Italians were also producing spectacles that corrected for nearsightedness. Therefore, around 1450 the ingredients to produce the first telescope were in place but it would be another 150 years before children would trigger its invention and change everything.

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