Waivermania hits Dept of Education
The law is such an inconvenient thing: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has announced that he will unilaterally override a centerpiece requirement of the No Child Left Behind school accountability law.
Year: 2011
Japan Tsunami Broke Huge Icebergs Off Antarctica
Satellite data has confirmed that the March 11 Japanese tsunami caused icebergs to calf off the Sulzberger Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
Battle over naming a Colorado mountain for John Denver
A battle builds over naming a Colorado mountain for John Denver.
Sadly, everything is politics today.
TSA apologizes for confiscating diabetic pregnant woman’s insulin
And this fixes everything? TSA has apologized for confiscating diabetic pregnant woman’s insulin.
Note that in the very same breath the TSA also denied ever taking the woman’s insulin. Makes that apology somewhat pointless, doesn’t it?
A Department of Innovation logo that can’t work
You can’t make this stuff up: Michelle Malkin points out that the logo created by Smithsonian’s Department of Innovation shows a gear arrangement that simply can’t function in the real world.
Check out the logo. 3 interlocking gears arranged in this fashion will not move in any direction. They are essentially locked in place. Which when you think about it, is a perfect analogy of today’s government!
The comments on the Department of Innovation’s own webpage are hilarious as well:
Perhaps this should be the new logo for Congress….since no motion could come from this arrangement.
Life after the downgrade
An excellent summary of the consequences of a lower credit rating for the U.S. government.
There is a lot of anger at the moment in the US over the embarrassment of the downgrade, as well as shock. I’m most amused by the shock, to tell the truth. S&P didn’t say anything yesterday that was not common knowledge and common sense. If you had to rate a potential investment that had an income of, say, $22,000 a year but had costs of $37,000 per year, a standing debt of $143,000, and contracted future debt that exceeded $1 million, would you give that investment a gold-plated AAA rating and buy their bonds at the lowest interest rate possible, or at all? Of course not, but that’s exactly the fiscal situation of the US, at a 100,000,000:1 scale.
The hockey stick graphs of Obama
Hypocrisy, irony, and the New Civility
Hypocrisy, irony, and the new civility.
More leftwing civility here as well.
Boeing rolls out 787 Dreamliner after years of delay
Boeing unveiled its 787 Dreamliner airplane on Saturday after years of delay.
Harvesting icebergs for water and profit
Danny Kaye and Beverly Sills – Opera parody
An evening pause: With a bit of Brooklyn at the start to set the tone!
Nebraska rare earth mineral discovery to challenge China’s monopoly
A discovery in Nebraska of rare earth minerals appears set to challenge China’s monopoly.
To me these were the key quotes from this article:
The U.S. used to produce rare earths through the Mountain Pass Mine in California, but it was shut down in 2002, primarily because of environmental concerns, including the spillage of hundreds of thousands of gallons of water carrying radioactive waste into a nearby lake.
and
Although studies have shown the U.S. has 13 million metric tons of rare-earth minerals, National Mining Association spokeswoman Carol Raulston said it does not mine any of it – partly as a result of the difficulty of obtaining permits. “One of the key problems that investors tell us about is that the permitting regime in this country is so complicated and time-consuming that it has hurt investments here in the United States,” Ms. Raulston said.
Half of Earth’s Heat from Radioactive Decay
Global warming: Half of the Earth’s internal heat comes from radioactive decay.
A thin belt of antimatter particles enveloping the Earth has been spotted for the first time.
A thin belt of antimatter particles trapped by the Earth’s magnetic field has been spotted for the first time.
Virgin Galactic’s suborbital shuttle: Sydney to London in 4 hours
Virgin Galactic’s suborbital shuttle: Sydney to London in 4 hours.
I’ve been told that there are engineering reasons why SpaceShipTwo could not make this flight. Nonetheless, the possibility is quite alluring.
New NASA moon rocket could cost $38 billion
Maybe this is why NASA has been stalling about releasing its plans: The Congressionally-designed moon rocket, what I call the program-formerly-called-Constellation, is estimated to cost $38 billion to complete.
Cosmonaut Titov becomes the first man to fly in space more than 24 hours
An evening pause: Fifty years ago today Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov became the second Russian to fly in space, and the first to stay in orbit more than one day. During his seventeen orbit flight he also was the first human to experience space sickness and to sleep in space.
The newsreel below is somewhat comical, as the Soviets were not very forthcoming with information. To provide visuals the newsreel used film footage showing a V2 rocket from World War II, as well as a very unrealistic globe with an equally unrealistic spacecraft to “demonstrate the course of an orbit around the earth.”
Nonetheless, because the newsreel is of that time, it illustrates well the fear the west had of the Soviet’s success in space. For a communist nation to be so far ahead of the U.S., which so far had only flown two suborbital flights, was a challenge to the free world that could not stand.
John Cleese – How to irritate people by being considerate
An evening pause: From the 1969 mock documentary by John Cleese, How to Irritate People.
Opportunity now less than 400 feet from the rim of Endeavour Crater
Opportunity is now less than 400 feet from the rim of Endeavour Crater.