Author: Robert Zimmerman
A reporter finds out the uselessness of Obama’s advice to call the USDA for help
A reporter finds out the naive uselessness of Obama’s advice to “contact the USDA” for help and advice about its new agricultural regulations.
In less than 24 hours, the reporter talked to about a dozen different offices, all of which passed the buck. And here is the final answer the reporter got, from media relations:
Secretary Vilsack continues to work closely with members of the Cabinet to help them engage with the agricultural community to ensure that we are separating fact from fiction on regulations because the administration is committed to providing greater certainty for farmers and ranchers. Because the question that was posed did not fall within USDA jurisdiction, it does not provide a fair representation of USDA’s robust efforts to get the right information to our producers throughout the country.
In other words, PR mumbo-jumbo that says nothing. Read the whole thing, as it is hilarious, tragic, and very very familiar, as we have all had this kind of experience trying to get answers from the government.
EPA arbitrarily declares a couple’s property a wetland
We’re here to help you: The EPA arbitrarily declared a couple’s property a wetland and then threatened them with heavy fines if they didn’t restore the property to its pristine state.
The plot is not connected either to the lake or a nearby creek, though Mike Sackett, 45, says part of the land got “wet” at times in the spring. “We sued because we wanted our day in court to say, ‘This is not a wetland,’ ” he says.
The Sackett’s case is now before the Supreme Court.
Archeologists reap treasures from a newly-discovered POW camp from the Civil War
Archeologists reap treasures from a newly-discovered POW camp from the Civil War.
Camp Lawton’s obscurity helped it remain undisturbed all these years. Built about 50 miles south of Augusta, the Confederate camp imprisoned about 10,000 Union soldiers after it opened in October 1864 to replace the infamous Andersonville prison. But it lasted barely six weeks before Sherman’s army arrived and burned it during his march from Atlanta to Savannah.
Barely a footnote in the war’s history, Camp Lawton was a low priority among scholars. Its exact location was never verified. While known to be near Magnolia Springs State Park, archaeologists figured the camp was too short-lived to yield real historical treasures. That changed last year when Georgia Southern archaeology student Kevin Chapman seized on an offer by the state Department of Natural Resources to pursue his master’s thesis by looking for evidence of Camp Lawton’s stockade walls on the park grounds.
Angst
An evening pause:
Government makes a Smartphone app tell outdoor workers it is hot
Your tax dollars at work: The Obama administration has made a Smartphone app that will tell outdoor workers whether it is hot and humid.
The job boom for government regulators under Obama
The chart of the day, from John Merlune at Investor’s Business Daily:
Merlune’s article outlines in frightening detail how there has been a job boom in only one place during the Obama administration, the government regulatory industry.
Regulatory agencies have seen their combined budgets grow a healthy 16% since 2008, topping $54 billion, according to the annual “Regulator’s Budget,” compiled by George Washington University and Washington University in St. Louis. That’s at a time when the overall economy grew a paltry 5%.
Meanwhile, employment at these agencies has climbed 13% since Obama took office to more than 281,000, while private-sector jobs shrank by 5.6%.
A Chinese launch failure today
Another rocket launch failure today, this time by the Chinese.
Town shuts down yard sale of woman trying to raise money for medical expenses
We’re here to help you: The town of Salem, Oregon has shut down the yard sale of woman trying to raise money for medical expenses.
Family of Marine Killed in Arizona SWAT Raid has sued Pima County for $20 Million
The family of the Marine killed in an Arizona SWAT Raid has now sued for $20 million.
Citizen Journalism Stops a Liberal media lie In Its Tracks
Citizen journalism and the blogosphere stop a liberal media lie in its tracks.
Rats didn’t spread the Black Death
New research has shown that humans, not rats, spread the Black Death in the plague of 1348-1349. Also,
Sloane, who was previously a field archaeologist with the Museum of London, working on many medieval sites, is now attached to English Heritage. He has concluded that the spread of the 1348-49 plague, the worst to hit the capital, was far faster, with an impact far worse than had been estimated previously. While some suggest that half the city’s population of 60,000 died, he believes it could have been as high as two-thirds. Years later, in 1357, merchants were trying to get their tax bill cut on the grounds that a third of all property in the city was lying empty. [emphasis mine]
The American Eclipse of 2017
Time to start making your vacation plans. On August 21, 2017 a total eclipse of the sun is going to traverse the entire length of the continental United States, from Oregon to South Carolina. Kentucky will have the longest view, with totality as long as three minutes.
And astronomers are already thinking of ways to harness the help of the American people in observing this event. In a paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph website, a team of astronomers are proposing organizing something they have dubbed the U.S. Eclipse MegaMovie, whereby they gather together as many images of the totality as possible and assemble them into a single film, showing the evolution of the sun’s corona as it crosses the continent.
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Russian company has unveiled its own space hotel
Competition for Bigelow! A Russian company has unveiled its own space hotel, set for launch in 2016. More here.
Russia has lost contact with a major new telecommunications satellite hours after its launch into orbit
Russia has lost contact with a major new telecommunications satellite hours after its launch today.
Justice Department has begun an investigation of Standard & Poor
Revenge and the abuse of power: The Obama Justice Department has begun an investigation of Standard & Poor.
Space Boat: A Nautical Mission to an Alien Sea
The Titan Mare Explorer: A nautical mission to an alien sea.
If [NASA] green-lights the mission, the capsule will lift off in 2016. By 2023, TiME will be about 800 million miles away in Titan’s north-polar region, home to its biggest lakes and seas. The capsule will take photographs, collect meteorological data, measure depth, and analyze samples. TiME will have no means of propulsion once it is on Titan, so it will float, carried by breezes across the sea’s surface. Then, by the mid-2020s, it will enter a decade-long winter of darkness as the moon’s orbit takes it to the dark side of Saturn, away from the sun and communication. It won’t have a line of sight to Earth to beam back more data until 2035.
Hope and Crosby – The Road to Morocco
An evening pause: Some silliness in these dark times.
Another cave found on Mars
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found another cave on Mars. The cropped version of the image, shown below, shows a remarkably symmetrical crater that probably has more similarities to sinkholes on earth. In the center is a 100 foot wide skylight into a cave. The crater is almost certainly formed partly by material dropping into the cave.
Tennessee Woman Told to Remove American Flag Outside Her Optometry Office
A Tennessee woman has been ordered to remove the American flag she raised outside her optometry office.