Year: 2013
How a high school band triumphed over a bureaucracy and union that tried to kill it.
How a high school band triumphed over a bureaucracy and union that tried to kill it.
The kids took to their social media of choice, Facebook, condemning the teacher’s union with harsh, sometimes obscene, language. On the afternoon they were supposed to report to the school library instead of the band room, they staged a mass sit-in on the concrete steps that led to the band room. The local newspaper went wild with letters of complaint from parents and community members.
The union reps went on damage control. Their goal, they insisted, was not to hurt the kids. They told the local volunteer choir director, whose class they had also forced into cancellation, that they did it “for the good of the kids,” arguing that only credentialed teachers should be allowed to teach children.
But here’s where this sad saga turns more sensible. [emphasis mine]
I want to note the anger the teenagers felt toward the union. Seems the union kinda shot itself in the foot. These kids will think badly of unions for the rest of their lives.
Seven horrifying aircraft landings in which no one died.
Seven horrifying aircraft landings in which no one died.
Sunjammer, NASA’s next solar sail experiment.
Sunjammer, NASA’s next solar sail experiment.
Though the article headline focuses on the addition of space weather instruments to this solar sail, the article says very little about those instruments. One, Swan, is described as a “wind instrument”, which probably means it would study the solar wind. The other instrument would study the Earth’s magnetic field. Both instruments are needed to track the effect of the Sun on local space weather, since the one satellite we have to do this, Ace, is now more than a decade past its expiration date.
The Wow! signal: An intercepted alien transmission?
The Wow! signal: An intercepted alien transmission?
Detected in 1977, this short signal has puzzled SETI investigators for decades. The article gives a good overview of the mystery.
Coming: A two-tiered health care system.
Coming: A two-tiered health care system.
As the article notes, this process is only being accelerated by the implementation of Obamacare, and is the result of third-parties interfering in the relationship of doctors and patients. Obamacare, however, will finish the process, condemning most Americans to bureaucratic medicine. slow, inefficient, and badly done.
Heart – These Dreams
An evening pause: A song about dreams.
These dreams
Go on when I close my eyes.
Every second of the night
I live another life.
These dreams
That sleep when it’s cold outside.
Every moment I’m awake
the further I’m away
The House Ways and Means committee request for information from anyone targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is apparently bearing fruit.
The House Ways and Means committee request for information from anyone targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is apparently bearing fruit.
Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, a member of Ways and Means, confirmed to The Washington Examiner on Thursday that the evidence being sent to the committee includes secret recordings with IRS officials. This information comports with legal sources who have clients who believe they were targeted by the IRS because they are politically active conservatives who opposed President Obama’s re-election.
Solar Impulse has completed the second leg of its journey to fly across the United States powered only by the sun.
Solar Impulse has completed the second leg of its journey to fly across the United States powered only by the sun.
The Solar Impulse has broken its own record for the longest distance flight of a solar-powered aircraft following the second leg of its journey across the USA. Solar Impulse touched down in Texas at 1:08 a.m. local time after a flight of 18 hours 21 minutes having covered at least 868 miles (1,397 km). Two different distances have been reported for the flight. The Solar Impulse website says the flight “amounted” to 868 miles (1,397 km). However, according to a Phys.org report, Solar Impulse covered a distance of 1,541 km (which it rounds to 950 miles, though this is not the precise conversion).
It is thought the two distances exist because the plane actually lost ground during part of its flight due to headwinds.
New details about Stratolaunch, its gigantic carrier airplane, the largest ever built, and the rocket that it will carry.
New details about Stratolaunch, its gigantic carrier airplane, the largest ever built, and the rocket that it will carry.
Like SpaceX’s Grassshopper, the goal here is to make the first stage completely reusable, thereby reducing the cost of launch significantly.
The IRS has created eight different offices, as well as an undetermined number of enforcement teams, to enforce the Obamacare regulations.
O goody: The IRS has created eight different offices, as well as an undetermined number of enforcement teams, to enforce the Obamacare regulations.
Despite a demand by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to shut up, the sheriffs of New York have joined a lawsuit against the state’s new gun control law.
Pushback: Despite a demand by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to shut up, the sheriffs of New York have joined a lawsuit against the state’s new gun control law.