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NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory will begin its mission to the Red Planet Saturday, with a launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is scheduled to occur during a one-hour and 43 minute window opening at 15:02 UTC (10:02 local time). [...]

The US Army aids and abets the Islamic war on free speech and bans Atlas without explanation. Meanwhile I am sure that real hate sites, like that of Hamas-linked CAIR, are easily accessible. An Atlas reader sent me these two emails: Just FYI... I work for the US Government and noticed that your web site http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/ has been blocked. Not CNN, FOX, or any other site, just yours. I checked with our FireWall team and they said a Tasker was put out to block it. I find this interesting considering we are getting closer to elections and your site, the...

"Recent satellite images of Greenland make it clear that there are in fact still numerous glaciers and permanent ice cover where the new Times Atlas shows ice-free conditions and the emergence of new lands," they say in a letter that has been sent to the Times. "We do not know why this error has occurred, but it is regrettable that the claimed drastic reduction in the extent of ice in Greenland has created headline news around the world. "There is to our knowledge no support for this claim in the published scientific literature."

Leading UK polar scientists say the Times Atlas of the World was wrong to assert that it has had to re-draw its map of Greenland due to climate change. Publicity for the latest edition of the atlas, launched last week, said warming had turned 15% of Greenland's former ice-covered land "green and ice-free". But scientists from the Scott Polar Research Institute say the figures are wrong; the ice has not shrunk so much. The Atlas costs £150 ($237) and claims to be the world's "most authoritative". The 13th edition of the "comprehensive" version of the atlas included a number of...

Greenland glaciers have had a hard time of it lately, what with all the warming and disintegrating, and in their latest edition, the folks at the Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World have decided to illustrate the island’s new look: as you can see above, lots and lots less white. The warming has even created a new island off the east coast: look closely just under the “Gr” in “Greenland Sea,” and you can see the words “Uunartoq Qeqertoq (Warming I.)”

Jesusopatriot crusader Anders Breivik (aka Andrew Berwick) comes to the defense of Our Lady of the All Caps Screech, Pam Geller and friends in his Manifesto (p. 625): I have watched, for the better part of a year, a number of decent human beings including, but not limited to, Pamela Geller, Paul Belien, Diana West, the Baron and Dymphna from the Gates of Vienna blog and many others, being at the receiving end of a vicious smear campaign from Charles Johnson and Little Green Footballs which is unlike anything I have seen in my life.

In a column about the revolving door between big government and the lobbying world, here’s what the irreplaceable Tim Carney wrote about the waiver process for folks trying to escape the burden of government-run healthcare. Congress imposes mandates on other entities, but gives bureaucrats the power to waive those mandates. To get such a waiver, you hire the people who used to administer or who helped craft the policies. So who’s the net winner? The politicians and bureaucrats who craft policies and wield power, because this combination of massive government power and wide bureaucratic discretion creates huge demand for revolving-door...

This is a link to a free viewing of a very interesting documentary about a doctor in Texas who seems to have discovered an amazingly effective tool to fight cancer. I am in the middle of watching it, but just watched an undeniable Atlas Shrugged moment that moved me to post it here.... It will only be free to view until midnight tonight. Thought provoking stuff here, and I will be interested to hear what ya'll think.

In the beginning it was a dream. I would own a restaurant in East Hampton. It would be a warm, beautiful place with great food and wonderful service. advertisement It would become one of the most popular restaurants in the Hamptons. It would be a place my entire family— my kids, their spouses, my grandkids and our friends—would enjoy scrumptious feasts where we would all sit and just revel in our love for good food and each other. Like I said, it was a dream. But then, it happened. In 1993 I was part of a group that bought a...

The Hollywood Reporter notes surprising-to-the-industry success for the launch of Atlas Shrugged Part One: "Shocking," one executive said about the healthy business the low-budget film has been doing considering its "awful" marketing plan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8MVFoiw-dw&feature=feedu Fantastic video clip of Dagny telling off a union boss

Just found this on the web! It was just released. It's the scene where Henry comes home and presents Lillian with the gift of the bracelet. And his brother demands money, but doesn't want Henry as the donor. Very cool scene. Mark

The trailer for Atlas Shrugged Part 1 has finally been released!

A FOCAL Mission into the Oort Cloud by Paul Gilster on November 15, 2010 After all this time, IÂ’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea of massive objects in space as lenses, their distortion of spacetime offering the ability to see distant objects at huge magnification. On Friday we saw how the lensing effect caused by galactic clusters can be used to study dark energy. And consider the early results from the Herschel-ATLAS project, conducted by ESAÂ’s Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel is scanning large areas of the sky in far-infrared and sub-millimeter light. Many of its...

I can say—not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots—that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world. Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It America’s founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more—and nothing less. The rest—everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything “noble and just,” and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history—was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle. The first consequence was...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHrTsMLh1sw

In what can only be described as a milestone in the breakdown of Western values and principles, the website of the EDL (English Defense League) was shut down, removed from the web. This is, essentially, self-enforcement of sharia (Islamic) law. Slander in Islam does not mean what it means in the West. Slander in Islam is anything that a Muslim decides is an "insult" to Islam. And they are relentless and violent in their imposition of this seventh century tenet of Islam. This violation of free speech is an outrage. In a rational world, it would propel free men to...

The fate of a Senate bill that would revamp the nation’s financial regulatory system could hinge on a Republican centrist from Maine. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) may end up being the deciding vote next week on a Democratic Wall Street reform plan touted by the White House. While Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) attracted the spotlight during the healthcare reform debate, Collins is the one being wooed by Republicans and Democrats on financial regulatory reform. A GOP aide said Collins is the only Republican senator who has not signed a letter promising to filibuster a motion to proceed to the bill...

This is a new and excellent podcast. Pete Ferron's new podcast -- The Shrugging Out Podcast -- is building momentum and listeners as people are learning about Pete's engaging style and the informative substance of each 30-40 minute presentation.

New and excellent podcast. Where "Atlas Shrugged" meets modern Survivalism: How to achieve practical independence from the "Dependency Culture" in America while protecting your family and helping the people you care about.