“This soil appears to be a close analog to surface soils found in the upper dry valleys in Antarctica,” Kouvanes said. “The alkalinity of the soil at this location is definitely striking. At this specific location, one-inch into the surface layer, the soil is very basic, with a pH of between eight and nine. We also found a variety of components of salts that we haven’t had time to analyze and identify yet, but that include magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride.”

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DoD
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2008 – A network of land-, air-, sea- and spaced-based sensors confirms that the U.S. military intercepted a non-functioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite which was in its final orbits before entering the earth’s atmosphere, defense officials announced in a press release.
At approximately 10:26 p.m. EST today, a U.S. Navy AEGIS warship, the [...]

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The military is studying ways to shoot down, or more accurately break-up an intelligence satellite that failed [we think] to function properly and is losing altitude. It will soon enter the atmosphere and large portions of it may reach the ground. Aviation Week
DoD
An uncontrollable U.S. experimental satellite which was launched in December 2006 is expected [...]

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DAHLGREN, Va. (Jan. 28, 2007) Particle debris ignites as a test slug exits the Office of Naval Research 32 MJ (megajoules) Electromagnetic Railgun laboratory launcher during a test at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. U.S. Navy photo John F. Williams

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On 140 acres of unused land, 70,000 solar panels await activation as the first third of the solar photovoltaic array gets commissioned Oct. 12 with the other 66 percent of the panels scheduled for activation in the next two months at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Base officials and SunPower Corp. finalized a commission of [...]

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This topic has nothing, despite the name, to do with Congress. Although it does involve hot air.
A very cool weather phenom.
NASA
Those giant waves—”undular bore waves”—were photographed Oct. 3rd flowing across the skies of Des Moines, Iowa. (Credit: KCCI-TV Des Moines and Iowa Environmental Mesonet SchoolNet8 Webcam.)
“Wow, that was a good one!” says atmospheric scientist [...]

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DoD
The Department of Defense announced today that it intends to stop procuring Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites with the capability to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals.
This capability, known as Selective Availability (SA), will no longer be present in the next generation of GPS satellites.
[...]

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Yesterday I wrote a short piece about the aging infrastructure of our cities, and posted the events of last week in Rochester where an aging fire protection water supply system caused some flooding.
Here is some of what I have found about the Holly Fire Protection and Water System. More at the links.
ASME International
Concerned about the [...]

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Democrat & Chronicle
Sen. Hillary Rodman Clinton will be in East Rochester on Monday to visit the newly installed fuel cell at the Each Rochester School District, her staff confirmed today.
Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, also will announce recommendations from a “green” building conference she held in Rochester last fall.
She is expected to [...]

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If you’ve felt a little unsteady lately in the Missouri / Tennessee border region, here’s why:

Blame it all on George Bush’s attempt to steal the Senate races in both states.

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