“Coronation” rock, Mars
NASA Mars Science Laboratory — This close-up image shows the first target that NASA’s Curiosity rover zapped with a lazer beam on Aug. 19, for the purpose of analyzing the glowing, ionized gas, called plasma, that the laser excites. The fist-sized rock, called “Coronation,” is the first rock on any extraterrestrial planet to be investigated with such a laser test. Curiosity’s “ChemCam” instrument hit Coronation with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivered more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second. ChemCam caught the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzed it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target. This initial use of the laser on Mars served as target practice for characterizing the instrument but may provide additional value. Researchers will check whether the composition changed as the pulses progressed. If it did change, that could indicate dust or other surface material being penetrated to reveal different composition beneath the surface.
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59 Responses to Mars Rocks!
Now on The Trail
Woo Woo.
So…the “aliens” send a robot, and the first thing it does after landing is fire a laser.
This is what happens when kids who want to go to MIT read H.G. Wells.
How appropriate, Craig. Welcome all Martians and newcomers to the blog.
And next week, during Mormon Rockwell week at the repugnant convention, I wish I were hiding under that rock.
I know that Wall Street is supporting Mitt Romney but that is like biting the hand that feeds you. Wall Streets executives should be in jail but the Obama Administration took good care of them.
Blue Chips Near a Five-Year High
By MATT JARZEMSKY, Updated August 17, 2012 9:54 PM EDT
During the Obama Administration all Domestic industries’ Corporate profits with inventory valuation adjustment are up 75.7% but is at a 2.1% deficit from their record 2006 profits. During the Obama Administration the financial sector which includes finance, insurance, banks and other holding companies has increased by 270.5% but is at a 7.4% deficit from their record 2005 profits. For the same periods the nonfinancial sector increase profits by 45.5% during his Administration and are virtually equal to there 2006 CPI-U adjusted peak. The financial sector, you know that bunch that caused the worst recession since the Great Depression, have increased their profits under Obama by over 5.9 times that of the nonfinancial sector.
The preceding is based upon the Table 6.16D Corporate Profits by Industry GDP data release on July 27, 2012, CPI-U adjusted to annual average for 2012 and seasonally adjusted at annual rates.
OMG!
I see Jesus dying on the cross on that rock…
Purple-IT:
No matter how much they got, they want MORE, and they know Romney-Ryan will give it to them.
Nash you are correct. I should have known.
RR the problem is you can’t sell the cross with the Jesus to some sucker on the Internet if it is on Mars.
Jeeze louise --the first thing we do when we got to visit is blow something up…i wish I could find the link to a very funny email that has the caption four photos from mars…the last one is a bunch of martians with signs saying “go home”
And in non-news Republicans continue to be revealed as hypocrites and slugs
A REPUBLICAN delegation to Israel was caught out behaving badly and Eric Cantor is trying to say HE took care of the problem…lol
What did he do --shake his finger at the guy who went skinny dipping --
Once again if this had been democrats — we would be hearing about it until forever and they all apologized.
This happened ONE YEAR AGO and the apology is only coming now??? what’s up with that Eric…did the cover-up not work
Martian to neighbor: “Not even two weeks and the humans already blowing up stuff” http://t.co/WlPAfy8d
Scott McKenzie passes away at 73
Interesting choice of name in “Coronation”. The article I saw only said
-- Is there a Brit on the NASA Mars team or are they going for some reason for a crowning achievement.
Aha Moment (New Webster definition just this year http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/fbomb-sexting-among-100-d_n_1774070.html). Just found this piece of info on BBC News
The Yank/Brit coalition may have just blown up a Mars rock in honor of QE II. Talk about “special relationship”. (Sorry about that Craig)
The correct scientific term what they did on Mars is a “destructive test.”
This refers to an experiment where you partially or completely destroy something in order to increase your understanding of how it works.
This is what the GOP wants to do with Medicare.
Watched the show myself last night
Ah so true, just as long as they would be even handed. Do you really believe this President would be the President today if the news media had been more probing with its questioning during 2008? Had the news media not cowered down early on with fear of being labeled with all sort of smear tactic words, I personally believe HRC would be occupying the WH, the Dems would not have lost the House in 2010, and jobs would have been #1 on HRC’s agenda, then followed up with health care in her second term.
Thumb up +1
I think this deserves a special comment commendation
Jamie, damn Brits
Offline for a while headin to Orlando where i’ll be covering GOP show. Close enough to feel the heat (without the radiation).
Right now I have a front yard full of turkeys… under our bird feeders and apple trees. There’s at least 30… it’s kinda hard to count. There’s four full grown hens and the rest are youngsters of various ages.
I do see four with fuzzy heads… they’re very young.
My cats just sit there and watch them. They know better than to get too close to those talons.
Craig…
enjoy the show and your parents…
Hey, Mr. Crawford,
It would be cool if you covered some alternatives to Obama/Romney, i.e “third-party” candidates. No, they won’t win, but it would be great to hear what their platforms are. Just a suggestion, thanks.
Here’s a list of them all. The Green Party has females in both POTUS and VP positions, and Roseanne Barr is running with Cindy Sheehan for another party. That’s kind of interesting.
http://www.politics1.com/p2012.htm
Craig,
We live about 6 miles north of the Tampa Bay Times Forum headquarters. Not only will we get the heat and the radiation, we also get the fallout.
Actually, Coronation probably isn’t much different in size than the 530+ carat rock (spelt diamond) in HM’s Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross.
I wonder how much thought went into naming the Mars version? Heads may roll and all that sort of rot.
Three Hollywood deaths in one day!? Phyllis Diller has passed away at 95
The more of these pictures I see the more Mars looks like the Copper Basin--back in the day--
Adele Parody
Romney Has It All
Jamie… ROFLMAO!!!
oh yeah… I wanna be his voting whore too…
Re: British involvement in Mars expedition:
There’s a dentistry joke in there somewhere, and the old me would have found it!
Summertime blues for drivers: Gas at August record
By Sandy Shore, August 20, 2012 2:25 PM EDT
Thank you President Obama for your appointments of regulators that don’t believe in government regulation of the “Free Market” and find excuses for not regulating and permitting self regulation. This lack of regulation has cost all of us hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
President Obama has allowed his appointment for chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Gary Gensler, the former Goldman Sachs partner at 30, anti-regulation, and derivatives cheerleader, the latitude to refuse to implement the mandate from the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill to curb speculators’ abuses in the $5 trillion physical commodity futures contracts including oil and gas. Failing to provide effective oversight of speculation, policy makers allowed the enrichment of Wall Street speculators through financialization of commodities like oil, at the expense of the real economy on Main Street.
Eliminating pure speculation on oil futures is a question of fairness. The choice is between a world of hedge-fund traders who make enormous amounts of money at the expense of people who need to drive their cars and heat their homes, and a world where the fundamentals of life — food, housing, health care, education and energy — remain affordable for all.
A study conducted by the nonpartisan consumer advocacy group Consumer Federation of America found that speculation caused the average American household to spend an additional $600 in gasoline expenditures during 2011. The report also concluded that in 2011 excessive speculation added about $30 per barrel to the “market” cost of oil. The total $200 billion price tag of excessive oil speculation is equal to over 1 percent of gross domestic product and 2 percent of consumer spending. Moving that purchasing power from consumers to speculators on Wall Street puts a severe drag on the economy. A 2% reduction in consumer spending on goods and services results in the loss of thousands of jobs. Gasoline is less than half of all oil products consumed in the U.S. Oil speculation is costing the airline and trucking industries $39 billion a year that are passed to the consumer.
Today, speculators dominate the trading of oil futures. According to Congressional testimony by the commodities specialist Michael W. Masters in 2009, the oil futures markets routinely trade more than one billion barrels of oil per day. Given that the entire world produces only around 85 million actual “wet” barrels a day, this means that more than 90 percent of trading involves speculators’ exchanging “paper” barrels with one another.
Federal legislation should bar pure speculators entirely from commodity exchanges in the United States. And the United States should use its influence, where possible, to get European and Asian markets to follow its lead, removing speculators from the world’s commodity markets
kgc,
http://www.kjct8.com/GOP-lawmakers-reprimanded-after-swim-in-Sea-of-Galilee/-/163252/16193166/-/10tn0se/-/index.html
also from above
sorta puts into question certain endowment
Everyone know the US Debt is fast approaching $16 trillion, but what is even more alarming and seldom if ever receives any attention, Total Personal Debt: Roughly $15.8 trillion.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
This is what the Debt Clock looked like on this date in 2000.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/2000.html
http://craigcrawford.com/2012/08/20/mars-rocks/#comment-295345
Purple,
Thanks so much for your informative links..Yes President Obama has been a dud as President and his tenure is especially awful for the everyday American trying to get by..Ugh, awful choices coming up in November..
Purple you may be interested in a monthly report published by the Commodity Futures Trade Commission, titled, “Commitment of Traders in Commodity Futures”. You have 3 categories: Large Speculators, Large Hedgers, and Small Traders And with in each, are the long and short positions. This report could cause you to scratch your head…several time, but the one to watch the ones who move all commodity markets are the Large Speculators.
http://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/index.htm
The goops are trying to throw out Aiken for saying exactly how most of them voted — no exceptions for rape.
At least he had a reason — however stupid — for believing women who are raped would not have to complete a pregnancy
Rancid Getoffthebus is a complete and total maroon
Oh no Rancid just called Erin Burnett a liar
and rancid most women are prochoice
Ryan plan hardest on the disabled
Even Darwin wouldn’t like this guy.
I cannot wait for gooper fest
I’m making popcorn -- with a sprinkling of cheddar cheese powder and I need a good drink for the convention — something vodka based something fruity
I wonder what musical groups will be playing
who is hosting hospitality suites — are there naming rights for example the Koch Brothers Keynote Speech or
Chevron Closing Benediction
Craig
We expect you to run down the craziest of the crazies for our daily entertainment -- Sort of a convention “Jaywalk” -
Eve Ensler to Todd Akin: An Amazing letter from a truly beautiful woman all to familiar with rape on a global scale.
I think Aiken and his tea party buddies should tell the country clubbers to take a hike. Why should he get out for saying something stupid — it’s not like he went out drunk skinny dipping while representing the US in the middle east
All he said was he thought women who were raped were biologically protected from conception — which tells you how much we need health education in the US — how is that worse then some of crap coming out of Ryan’s faux catholic mouth Ryan apparently had health education and he still doesn’t think women should have the right to choose…so who is worse…I pick Ryan
Let Aiken run! I invoke a modification of the Hruska rule
in Aiken’s case it would be even dumbasses have the right to hold office And I bet the people of Mo still want him — they probably already knew he was a maroon and voted for him anyway — he is their choice. I don’t see how rancid can tell the local folk what to do — Aiken should do a poll before he gets out…
Stand up fo Aiken — he is being sacrificed to present a false image for goopers.
Jamie, the victims of rape need not be beautiful nor even attractive. They simply need to be there and relatively defenseless.
Okay, I’m ready for Tampa. A small snifter of brandy lasts me 2-1/2 hours. If I can maintain that slow pace during their antics, I can handle anything.
I really don’t understand how people swimming is news.
Hey, I went skinny dipping once in Cancun and got yelled at by the hotel watchman. Stop the presses!!
Renee, May I add to your list of dickheads and goofs the name Dick Morris, young or old?
I’ve heard that there are more tapes of interviews of people bain cap screwed, and that they are very inflammtory. Boy, I hope so and that they save them till the end of october. I’m convinced that there is a blade prepared to come slamming down on O’s neck, and they had better be prepared.
Tony and Purple, If you think O isn’t the best we could get,
I hope you will consider imagining how mitty would be. If he got a good congress, there would be a scotus of 9 -- count ‘em- nine thomases, alito, and scalia. Think of how they could re-write the constitution without changing a word.
One thing is for sure that would create jobs for investigators of women and their sexual hygiene. C’mon guys.
Oh, yeah. I blame this whole mess on the dnc, ted kennedy, donna brazile, howard dean, oprah winfrey, and caroline kennedy. God, how I hate the dnc.
On a domestic note, Andrea got to Charles DeGaulle Airport way too early to get Steph, so she drove on to Paris, found a
parking space close to the Eiffel Tower and took the boys to see sst. they didn’t go in, just checked it out and the boys were agog -- 8, 6, and 3. I think that’s going to be Liam’s birthday party, lunch at a restaurant in the
Tower. He is a gourmand, you know.(honestly) Kitty still looks a little distressed.
From wikipedia on 2012 GOP convention:
“While water guns have been banned during the week of the event, handguns will be permitted outside of the Convention Center.[31] Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn requested that authorities be allowed to ban guns from downtown Tampa during the convention.[32] Governor Rick Scott rejected the request.[30]”
They are banning waterguns but allowing firearms. Try and wrap your head around that ^$&%.
“The city of Tampa has banned puppets from downtown during the convention, a decision which some puppet-makers say violates their civil liberties. Police say that puppets can be used to conceal weapons—at the 2000 RNC, charging a gang of puppet-makers in Philadelphia with conspiracy to resist arrest.[34]”
Those dirty-damn puppeteers. I’m all for freedom, but we can’t have puppeteers running around wantonly, that’s just anarchy.
Tonyb,
I just can’t vote for the con man Obama that I voted for in 2008. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
I am going to vote for Joe Biden for Vice President! I like Joe, even with his foot in mouth problem.
Movingon,
Thanks for the link. I did commented on the October 2011 Rule Making. I became nauseated reading the minutes and their total disregard for what they were responsible for.
IxC,
I use puppets myself, and have been a member of the National Puppet Association since the day before I announced my candidacy.
Also, I’ve handled small varmints with puppets at least twice.
IxC,
I am nominating you for the Nobel Prize in Humor. You are a shoe-in to win.
Let Aiken Run!
ha! Something no Trail Mixer knows about me…I was the spectroanalysis man at an aluminum foundry for a year just after I finished college. I would analyze the metals composition to ensure the mix was right before the metal pusher could move the molten aluminum to the holding pots for the molders to perform their craft, which was making aluminum doorstops mostly, and many other cast aluminum products as well. Having that in my past, I would have loved to have seen the readouts of the Martian rock.
I just can’t get past this story about Ryan posting that his fave band is Rage Against the Machine. What the hell? Does he not know “the machine” is HIM?
http://theinterrobang.com/2012/08/ratms-tom-morello-blasts-romneys-vp-pickunlikely-rage-fan/
Purple-in-Tampa: I agree with you about Biden. Although he made that overarching law that we cannot defend ourselves against corrupt Police Officers in the 90s, I am still a fan. But I have to vote for Obama, this is going to be a close race, and all hands have to be on deck, ladies and gentlemen. I do not even trust California to stay blue with low turn out for the democrats.
Bethyboo -- I am not quite sure what you mean regarding your hatred for the DNC, Howard Dean, Oprah Winfrey, Caroline Kennedy. I personally preferred the DNC under Howard Dean. He was sending money all over the place. He was making the red states a little more purple because people finally felt as though they were being heard. Because of the money and work that his DNC did, Obama was able to scoop up teams down there to be able to go toe-to-toe with the Clinton Machine. It was only Obama and his lackeys took over the DNC that they pulled the money back and put the money into very safe districts…which led to a vacuum that had to be filled by something…When no one will hear you, people turn desperate. Unfortunately, people turned too desperate and listened to the tea party. As always when in doubt…blame the Republicans or Obama because they have a knack for fucking up.
Best wishes sent out to Rosie, and thank God she at least took some aspirins even if she did not call an ambulance after she suffered cardiac arrest. She nearly died because she simply could not believe she was having a heart attack at 50 years of age.
http://blog.sfgate.com/dailydish/2012/08/20/rosie-o%E2%80%99donnell-suffers-heart-attack/
Ringo Rocks too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATQ9KcELAJQ
Be cool, Rosie.
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