Year: 2013

Scientists in Egypt have found what they think is evidence of a comet impact from 28 million years ago.

10:39 am

Scientists in Egypt have found what they think is evidence of a comet impact from 28 million years ago.

The best part however is this:

At the centre of the attention of this team was a mysterious black pebble found years earlier by an Egyptian geologist in the area of the silica glass. After conducting highly sophisticated chemical analyses on this pebble, the authors came to the inescapable conclusion that it represented the very first known hand specimen of a comet nucleus, rather than simply an unusual type of meteorite.

Assuming this claim is confirmed it is a very significant discovery. As far as I know, no other specimens from a comet nucleus have been identified previously.

0 comments

Obamacare’s biggest problem.

6:52 am

Obamacare’s biggest problem.

As Obamacare rolls out, many current health plans will be cancelled because they don’t meet new ACA requirements,. The people who held these plans will have to purchase a comparable plan on the exchanges. In many cases, the “comparable plan” will be much more expensive.

As people “find out what’s in it” and are horrified by the cost, they will begin to develop a large rage at Obama and the endless lies he told about what this law would do. You won’t get to keep your doctor or your insurance, and everything will be far more expensive, not cheaper, as he claimed. Instead, everything that conservatives and tea party activists have said is turning out to be right.

1 comment

IRS officials, including Lois Lerner, used their private email accounts to illegally transmit confidential tax information.

7:39 pm

Working for the Democratic Party: IRS officials, including Lois Lerner, used their private email accounts to illegally transmit confidential tax information.

“[W]e have uncovered a troubling pattern of IRS officials sending official documents to non-official email accounts as well as the use of non-official email accounts to conduct official business,” the September 30th letter to acting IRS Commissioner Dan Werfil reads. “In some instances, IRS officials have sent taxpayer protected information to non-official email accounts.” The officials were identified as then-IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, Lois Lerner, who headed the office at the center of the scandal, Judith Kindall, and Nikole Flax, who worked in Lerner’s office.

In the letter to Werfil, Issa said that the committee had found over 1,600 pages of emails and documents related to official business in non-official email accounts. Nearly 30 pages of the material contained confidential tax information. The revelation raises serious questions about privacy and the security of the confidential data transmitted to the private email accounts. There is also a question of what might have been done with the data after it was sent to the private accounts. Those records would not be subject to the normal rules of transparency or freedom of information requests.

The only reason I can think of for these IRS officials to do this is because they wished to hide what they were doing, which also suggests that what they were doing was downright wrong.

6 comments

The public appears to be increasingly defiant about the National Park Service’s closure of parks.

7:27 pm

The public appears to be increasingly defiant about the National Park Service’s closure of parks.

Meanwhile, from a commenter here describing the situation at Great Smoky National Park since we left that area on Friday:

I was at the Smokies this weekend (Saturday and Sunday). The parking lot a Newfound Gap was completely open. The road to Clingman’s Dome was open. I did not travel down the North Carolina side of the park. Major trailheads were blocked at the Chimneys and Alum Cave Bluff. Chimneys picnic area closed. All other trailheads along 441 were open and there were plenty of people parked and enjoying the park. Little River Road was closed. We parked a couple of quiet walkways and took some short walks. Never saw an ranger anywhere.

If you are planning a trip to the Smokies then I would say to go for it. You may not be able to access some of the more popular areas of the park but there are plenty of areas that are accessible. I am planning a horseback riding trip (my own horses) in a couple of weeks and I am not going to let the dictatorial government in Washington ruin my plans.

The Chimney Top trail has been closed anyway during the week because of trail work, and the Alum Cave Bluff parking area is located at a spot where road work is presently going on and therefore might have been closed anyway as well.

And then there’s this: Yorktown restaurant owner defies the federal government, “occupying” his restaurant.

0 comments

If you sign up for Obamacare in Maryland you are required to agree to make your personal data available for “law enforcement and audit activities.”

7:11 pm

Finding out what’s in it: If you sign up for Obamacare in Maryland you are required to agree to make your personal data available for “law enforcement and audit activities.”

The terms also note that any emails you send will also fall under Maryland’s Public Information Act, the equivalent of that state’s freedom of information act, suggesting that those emails might also become public knowledge, against your wishes.

1 comment

The government shutdown is forcing House lawmakers to reuse their towels in the House gym.

6:55 pm

The horror! The government shutdown is forcing House lawmakers to reuse their towels in the House gym.

The important question is why this gym is even open, or even exists. I can think of a lot better uses of taxpayer dollars, especially considering how much money these elected officials make.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has decided that the shutdown prevents them from paying the death benefits to the families of military soldiers killed in action.

Compare and contrast.

1 comment

Ramping down from solar maximum

6:55 am

Yesterday, despite the government shutdown, NOAA posted its monthly update of the solar cycle, and as I do every month, I am posting it here, below the fold, with annotations.

My interpretation of this data tells me that almost certainly the solar maximum has ended. We might see some later fluctuations whereby the sunspot number jumps, but the Sun is clearly beginning its ramp down to solar minimum.
» Read more

4 comments
1 … 49 50 51 52 53 … 178