Iraqi government declares Christmas a ‘national holiday’
Good news: The Iraqi government has declared Christmas a ‘national holiday’.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
This news report, confirmed by no other source, claims that the spacewalk this week was cut short because of water in the astronauts’ spacesuits.
This news report, confirmed by no other source, claims that the spacewalk this week was cut short because of water in the astronauts’ spacesuits.
I report this story but am very puzzled. If a water leak was the cause of the shortened spacewalks, I would have expected others to report that fact as well. No one has, however. (See this nasaspaceflight.com article, for example, which outlines the entire engineering situation quite thoroughly but says “both suits performed well during the EVA.”) Moreover, the ABC particular story above is written by someone who is not a space reporter, and contains some incongruities that reflect that, making me even more skeptical.
“An apparent double standard in President Barack Obama’s unprecedented crackdown on unauthorized leaks.”
Disclosures by lower-level officials have been vigorously pursued. For example, seven Navy SEALs were reprimanded for disclosing classified material to the makers of a military video game. Moreover, the administration has prosecuted a record number of intelligence community personnel for leaking.
Rarely, however, has the administration taken criminal action against senior officials for leaking.
Yesterday’s spacewalk on ISS, though successful, was cut short because of spacesuit discomfort issues unrelated to the earlier water leak problems.
Yesterday’s spacewalk on ISS, though successful, was cut short because of spacesuit discomfort issues unrelated to the earlier water leak problems.
No story on the spacewalk is entirely clear on the issues. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio was cold, but it seems he also had other problems that have not been outlined clearly. Interestingly he was not using the spacesuit that flooded in July. Michael Hopkins was using that suit and apparently had no problems.
In order to resize the spare suit on the station for Mastracchio they have delayed the next spacesuit for one day.
Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery comes to life!
Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery comes to life!
Read it and weep.
Another way for the young to avoid the absurdly expensive Obamacare insurance plans.
Another way for the young to avoid the absurdly expensive Obamacare insurance plans.
Today’s spacewalk on ISS to replace a coolant pump is ahead of schedule.
Today’s spacewalk on ISS to replace a coolant pump is ahead of schedule.
The link gives live updates.
Update: the spacewalk is over and a complete success, with no problems.
Another court today ruled against the Obamacare contraceptive mandate.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: Another court today ruled against the Obamacare contraceptive mandate.
The top ten states for job growth.
The top ten states for job growth.
There isn’t a clear common political thread here, but it is worth noting that all of the top five and seven of the ten have all-Republican governments.
It isn’t the party that matters, it is the philosophy of the members of that party that matters. And you are more likely to find politicians who support freedom, competition, and capitalism in the Republican Party.
A Christmas prank.
It seems Curiosity’s wheels are wearing out faster than expected and engineers want to know why.
It seems Curiosity’s wheels are wearing out faster than expected and engineers want to know why.
The increasedwear recently appears to be because the rover was traveling over rougher terrain. Nonetheless, JPL engineers are going to monitor the rover’s travel and wheel damage more closely in order to gauge that wear better for future travel.
A Muslim woman graduates at the top of her class, in medicine, in Israel.
A Muslim woman graduates at the top of her class, in medicine, in Israel.
But how can this be? Israel an apartheid state, according to numerous leftwing political activists.
Actually, it is the freest and most diverse state in the Middle East. The left is merely lying, as they have a habit of doing.
NASA and Orbital Sciences have set January 7 as the launch date for the Cygnus cargo mission to ISS.
NASA and Orbital Sciences have set January 7 as the launch date for the Cygnus cargo mission to ISS.
They did some rescheduling at Wallops Island to allow the Cygnus launch to happen earlier.
New security issues revealed for the Obamacare website.
New security issues revealed for the Obamacare website.
Worse, the Obama administration had been warned about these problems but decided to make believe they didn’t exist.
Scientists admit that second-hand smoke causes zero cancer deaths.
Scientists admit that second-hand smoke causes zero cancer deaths.
The article notes that this fact has been known for years.
Jyoti Patel, MD, of Northwestern University School of Medicine said the findings were not new. … “Passive smoking has many downstream health effects—asthma, upper respiratory infections, other pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular disease—but only borderline increased risk of lung cancer,” said Patel. “The strongest reason to avoid passive cigarette smoke is to change societal behavior: to not live in a society where smoking is a norm.”
In other words, the power hungry who have been imposing these regulations on us have been lying about why they want to do it. They aren’t protecting anyone, they are simply trying to impose their will. And succeeding.
India has set January 5 as the launch date for its next attempt to launch is home-built GSLV rocket.
India has set January 5 as the launch date for its next attempt to launch is home-built GSLV rocket.
A 3D printer comparison guide.
Advice for Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty.
I posted this Andrew Klavan commentary back in January 2011, shortly after the Tucson shooting when the left was accusing the right of causing the shooting because of the so-called “incivility” of their speech. It was all lies, merely intended to stifle the speech of anyone who dissented from liberal orthodoxy.
I think it bears viewing again, as it provides good advice and council to Phil Robertson and the entire Duck Dynasty family. It also once again outlines quite starkly how oppressive and fascist the American left has become.
As Klavan concludes, “Whatever you do, don’t shut up.”
The eerie, alien, and abstract World War II monuments of Yugoslavia.
The eerie, alien, and abstract World War II monuments of Yugoslavia.
Very strange. They all look like something out of the weird Yugoslavian science fiction animated film community of the 1960s. Somewhere I’ve seen the one listed as #1 (though it isn’t the first in the story), though I can’t remember where.
The Obama administration has announced another eleventh-hour exemption to Obamacare.
Chaos: The Obama administration has announced another exemption to Obamacare.
The Obama administration, in an 11th-hour change just before the holiday break, announced a major exemption in ObamaCare that will let people who lost coverage and are struggling to get a new plan sign up for bare-bones policies. The move Thursday to allow potentially hundreds of thousands of people to sign up for “catastrophic” coverage plans was blasted by the insurance industry as a shift that would cause “tremendous instability.”
I thought these “bare-bone” policies were “garbage plans” that only a few weeks ago Democrats were telling us we should be happy were cancelled.
It also appears from the above article as well as other sources that the insurance companies are very hostile to this announcement. (Read the second link especially. It outlines the many problems this new ad-hoc exemption causes.)
In a word, this law doesn’t work, it never has, and it should be repealed now.