Giant Freakin Robot

Astronomers have discovered a supermassive black hole at the center of an “oddball” galaxy, and it’s thought to be the most massive black hole yet discovered.

According to UniverseToday.com, as part of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Massive Galaxy Survey at the University of Texas in Austin, astronomers have discovered a giant black hole at the center of the “NGC 1277″ galaxy, which is estimated to be the equivalent of 17 billion solar masses — in other words, it’s 17 billion times the mass of our own Sun. The galaxy is 220 million light-years away, in the constellation Perseus.

As a relatively new writer for this magnificent website, I don’t know if I’ve ever made clear that I’m ignorant in some of the staples of science fiction, while maintaining a wild interest in science that never existed at a time when education was of easy access to me. But I love pork. These two thoughts aren’t necessarily related, but I would even offer that kind of damaging confession in order to avoid naysaying the belly-swaying powers of pork.

Consumer Reports, the most significantly honest company to ever exist, consumerly reported that raw pork, in both the ground and chop variety, contain some of the same bacteria that other raw foods contain. I hope your heart attack medicine was nearby. Admittedly, there are more than the usual suspects.

Yersinia enterocolitica infects about 100,000 Americans yearly, causing diarrhea, fever and stomach hurties, and it showed up in 69 percent of the 240 pork samples analyzed. Salmonella, staphylococcus aureus, or listeria monocytogenes were found in three to six percent of samples. Enterococcus indicates fecal contamination and can cause urinary-tract infection, and was in 11 percent of the samples.

The history of hoaxes and psuedo-science shows that the subject matter central to a claim goes through stages. The first stage involves physical “proof,” manipulative visual or aural evidence. When that either runs out or is proven false, the claimants go for something headier, replacing anything tangible with words rooted in scientific jargon, thinking that the average layperson can’t possibly refute science terms. One need not look any further than crypto-zoology to find examples of this. I can’t believe I’ve been writing for this site for a month and a half and I’m already on my second “Bigfoot is real” story. Watch your step, as my hope for humanity has drained out of my body and pooled at my feet.

Five years in the making, a research study of over 100 samples of “Bigfoot” DNA is currently awaiting peer review. What are they reviewing? Only indisputable proof that Bigfoot does exist, and it’s a hybrid crossing humans and some other form of primate. The study was led by veterinarian Melba S. Ketchum and her team at the DNA Diagnostics facilities in Nacogdoches, TX. She posits the hybrid creature was the result of a “humans bumping uglies with animals” event some 15,000 years ago.

For the first time since 1972, NASA is planning to go back to the Moon. According to the European Space Agency, two trips are being planned, with the first one an unmanned mission in 2017. Assuming that one is successful, the first manned mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 will take place in 2019.

The European Space Agency is currently developing an Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle for deep space exploration for NASA. The module is based on the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, a drone built to haul cargo to the International Space Station. It’s believed that NASA would use the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle for these two lunar missions.

Why is NASA looking to the ESA for a space module? Apparently it’s to save money and cut costs. For the first time in NASA history, the space agency is looking outside of the US to “develop a critical technology for a manned space flight program.” NASA had been working with contractor Lockheed Martin to design an Orion service module, but they halted those plans when the ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle proved it could be repurposed for NASA’s needs.