Three astronauts safely returned from ISS today.
Three astronauts safely returned from ISS today.
Year: 2013
Seventeen of the nation’s largest healthcare insurance companies now say premiums will rise from 100 to 400 percent under Obamacare.
Finding out what’s in it: Seventeen of the nation’s largest healthcare insurance companies now say premiums will rise from 100 to 400 percent under Obamacare.
The key reasons for the surge in premiums include providing wider services than people are now paying for and adding less healthy people to the roles of insured, said the report.
Now ain’t that a surprise? The rates go up when you require insurance companies to provide more services while simultaneously requiring them to insure more sick people! Who wudda thunk it?
Actually, every Republican and conservative in the nation, as well as millions of Americans at townhall meetings in 2010, were screaming these basic facts of reality to the Democrats. They just refused to listen.
Documents now show that IRS officials in Washington DC and California were also involved in targeting conservative organizations.
Working for the Democratic Party: Documents now show that IRS officials in Washington DC and California were also involved in targeting conservative organizations.
IRS officials at the agency’s Washington headquarters sent queries to conservative groups asking about their donors and other aspects of their operations, while officials in the El Monte and Laguna Niguel offices in California sent similar questionnaires to tea-party-affiliated groups, the documents show.
The IRS tried at first to make it sound as if only low level employees in Ohio were involved. That lie isn’t standing up very long.
“We’re not going to have any health care.”
The state of Obamacare in Hawaii: “We’re not going to have any health care.”
The article is a compilation of stories from Hawaii about the train wreak that is Obamacare and the difficulties it is causing to the healthcare industry there.
SpaceX is about to finalize a deal with the Air Force to launch satellites on both its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
SpaceX is about to finalize a deal with the Air Force to launch satellites on both its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets.
For the Dscovr mission, scheduled for late 2014, a Falcon 9 will be used to launch an Earth and space weather satellite to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1, a location approximately 930,000 mi. from Earth. The Dscovr program, which will provide warning of space weather events, is a joint effort between the Air Force, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The STP-2 mission, which is targeted for launch on a Falcon Heavy in mid-2015, includes two space vehicles: the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate-2 (Cosmic-2), designed to monitor climate behaviors; and the Demonstration and Science Experiments (DSX), which will conduct radiation research. [emphasis mine]
The big story here is that even before it has flown the Falcon Heavy once SpaceX already has a customer for it.
There is also evidence that the IRS illegally leaked the tax records of conservative groups to its opponents.
Working for the Democratic Party: There is now evidence that the IRS illegally leaked the tax records of conservative groups to their liberal opponents.
Mickey Kaus notes that this abuse did not have to be ordered by the big bosses in the Democratic Party. The people at the IRS are mostly Democrats, and will do it naturally if they simply feel that their bosses will look the other way.
The engineering test prototype of Dream Chaser has been shipped to California for drop tests this summer.
The engineering test prototype of Dream Chaser has been shipped to California for drop tests this summer.
Checking the cracks on the first Orion capsule to fly.
Checking the cracks on the first Orion capsule to fly.
Remember Romney supporter and businessman Frank VanderSloot?
Remember Romney supporter and businessman Frank VanderSloot? First attacked by the Obama campaign, he was then subjected to two audits, from the IRS and Labor.
Gee, I wonder why?
And here’s a story describing five other examples of the IRS being used to punish opponents of the Democratic Party.
In replacing a pump during today’s spacewalk it appears the astronauts have fixed the coolant leak.
In replacing a pump during Saturday’s spacewalk it appears the astronauts have fixed the coolant leak.
A report to be released this week says that senior IRS officials knew that agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011, even as they were denying that this was happening.
A report to be released this week says that senior IRS officials knew that agents were targeting tea party groups in 2011, even as they were denying that this was happening.
Increasingly it appears the Obama administration used the IRS as a tool for harassing its opponents.
Ten crazy and unconstitutional demands made by the IRS to conservative organizations in its effort to harass opponents of the Democratic Party.
Ten crazy and unconstitutional demands made by the IRS to conservative organizations in its effort to harass opponents of the Democratic Party.
All of the examples above are taken from actual IRS correspondence received by ACLJ’s 27 clients. There were many versions of the in-depth questionnaire sent to different organizations, suggesting there was more than one agent or one office involved. Though IRS officials blamed “low-level” employees in the Cincinnati office, which is the central IRS office in charge of tax exemptions, French said the abuse was far more widespread. ACLJ’s clients dealt with inquiries from IRS offices from “coast to coast.” Of ACLJ’s 27 clients, 15 finally had their status approved after 6-7 months with legal help. There are 12 groups whose status remains in limbo.
The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S.
What could possibly go wrong? The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S.
Astronauts will replace a pump tomorrow on their spacewalk in the hope this will fix the leak in ISS’s solar panel cooling system.
The astronauts will replace a pump tomorrow on their spacewalk in the hope this will fix the leak in ISS’s solar panel cooling system.
The spacewalk has still not been approved, though it seems likely it will happen.
Update: As of this morning the spacewalk has been approved, set to begin at 8:15 am (Eastern).
In a science fair project that came in third, a fourteen year old has discovered that the magnets inside IPADs can interfere with heart devices like implanted defibrillators.
In a science fair project that came in third, a fourteen year old has discovered that the magnets inside IPADs can interfere with heart devices like implanted defibrillators.
The IRS admitted today that it targeted conservative political organizations during the 2012 election campaign.
The IRS admitted today that it targeted conservative political organizations during the 2012 election campaign.
Organizations were singled out because they included the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their applications for tax-exempt status, said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, which violates IRS policy in most cases, she said.
The IRS also claimed that this action was “initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias.” And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell them.
Is Tim Tebow being blackballed because of his religious beliefs?
Is Tim Tebow being blackballed because of his religious beliefs?
A high energy laser beam destroys a rocket from a distance of a little less than a mile.
A high energy laser beam destroys a rocket from a distance of a little less than a mile.
Reagan was right: His proposed SDI laser-based defense system was a reasonable proposal, despite the ridicule of the leftwing elites in the 1980s. I have posted the video of this test below the fold.
» Read more
Astronauts today spotted an ammonia coolant leak in ISS’s left-side power truss.
Astronauts today spotted an ammonia coolant leak in ISS’s left-side power truss.
They are monitoring it, but have so far not made any decision about what to do about it, if anything.
This problem is a perfect illustration of why a flight to Mars is more complicated in terms of engineering than first appears. We might at this time be able to build that interplanetary spaceship (with the emphasis on the word “might”) but could its passengers maintain it millions of miles from Earth? Right now I’d say no. We need to learn how to build an easily repaired and self-sufficient spaceship. ISS is neither. It is also not a very good platform for testing this kind of engineering.
Update: The astronauts on ISS are preparing for a possible spacewalk on Saturday to deal with the problem. More details here.
The International Space Station has switched all its computers from Windows to Linux.
The International Space Station has switched all its computers from Windows to Linux.
I love this quote:
“We migrated key functions from Windows to Linux because we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable.”
I’ve been on Linux for almost six years, It crashes, but that is usually user error.