I’ve been holding off on this story since I heard it on the WGN (Chicago) News at noon, from the best TV weathercaster in America, Tom Skilling. I was waiting till somebody put up a link to a print story, but nobody has. So you-particularly those of you on the East Coast—can test this for yourself: try to pull up an image, a satellite image mind you, visible light wavelengths, of your area.

Bet you can’t. Because Skilling said that the GOES-East satellite (you’ll never guess what its partner in geosynchronous orbit over the Pacific is called) was supposed to execute a maneuver of some sort yesterday…and hasn’t been heard from since.  Read more 

More fucked up Republican priorities:

NASA’s earth science budget has declined 30 percent since 2000. It stands to fall further as funding shifts to plans for a manned mission to the moon and Mars. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, meanwhile, has experienced enormous cost overruns and schedule delays with its premier weather and climate mission.

As a result, the panel said, the United States will not have the scientific information it needs in the years ahead to analyze severe storms and changes in Earth’s climate unless programs are restored and funding made available.

WTF? Why the focus on Mars? Do the Republicans want to evangelize the Martians, if any?  Read more 

Look, I read and watch too much sci-fi, I admit that. But is anyone else a bit disturbed by this “closed session?” Ahem, some people think Operation Dark Storm would be a very bad idea.

“May there be mercy on Man and Machine for their sins.”

Myself, I like sunshine, and I tend to think the answer is cracking down and getting serious about emissions and pollution, not tinkering with the frakking sky. But what do I know?