Category: Behind The Black

The memoir of a substitute teacher during a teachers strike

12:02 pm

The memoir of a substitute teacher during a teachers strike. Key quote:

After the first week the phone calls in the evening began. After the first call, I had to not allow my children to answer the phone, as when the first call came, my seven year old answered and she heard an earful of cursing and threats that put her into tears. From that point on, we did not answer the phone in the evening unless I designated my husband to the task.

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Science budget map

2:16 am

Want to know whose getting what? The journal Science has put together this nice interactive table showing the various proposed budgets for the various science agencies in the federal government.

Though the magazine is undeniably pro-spending for science, the information is useful, as it shows clearly that even if every Republican cut is approved, the amount of money for most of these agencies will not be, on average, much different than what was spent in 2008. And it seems to me that in 2008 there was plenty of money for science in the federal government. Probably too much.

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Update in Wisconsin

10:38 pm

Hotair has this nice summary of today’s madness in Wisconsin. Key quote:

Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald said he decided to adjourn the Assembly this evening because Gov. Scott Walker called minutes before lawmakers took the floor to tell him to get his caucus members and staff out of the building because their safety could no longer be assured.

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House rejects extra $22 billion in additional cuts

9:40 pm

The House today rejected an extra $22 billion in additional cuts, proposed by the tea party members of the Republican party.

Though this is extremely disappointing, especially considering the large number of Republicans who helped defeat these cuts, it really only indicates the long and winding road that lies before us. Getting the federal budget under control is going to take time and determination. And it won’t be a straightforward path, always ahead. There will be defeats along the way. The important thing is to keep up the budget pressure, pushing one cut if another fails.

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Holdren of the Obama administration:
Deniers no, Ignorant yes!

7:14 pm

The following story is why the advocates of global warming are losing the debate: At House hearings yesterday, Obama’s science advisor John Holdren admitted that using the term “deniers” to describe scientists who had doubts about global warming is inappropriate. “It was not my intent to compare them to Holocaust deniers, and I regret it,” he replied. “In the future I will find other terms to use.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Shortly thereafter, however, during the same hearing, Holdren then said this about a list of 100 climate scientists [word file] who remain skeptical about global warming:

“I haven’t seen the list,” Holdren began. “But in the past, most of the names on such petitions have turned out not to be climate scientists, and one could assume that they had not spent much time reviewing the literature.”

Without any knowledge, he slams these scientists, accusing them of being ignorant of the science.
» Read more

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Federal judge lowers the boom on the Obama administration on drilling permits

11:12 am

The law is for everyone: A federal judge has lowered the boom on the Obama administration over its refusal to issue permits for drilling oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Key quote:

In issuing the directive to the government, Feldman, who sits on the District Court for the Eastern District of Louisian, noted that “it is undisputed that before the Deepwater Horizon disaster, permits were processed, on average, in two weeks’ time. In stark contrast, the five permits at issue have been pending from four to some nine months.”

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More Webb budget troubles

10:56 am

According to its manager, the budget troubles of the James Webb Space Telescope will likely keep it on the ground until 2016.

This is terrible news for space-based astrophysics. Until Webb gets launched, NASA will have no money for any other space telescope project. And since all the space telescopes presently in orbit are not expected to be operating at the end of the decade, by 2020 the U.S. space astronomy program will essentially be dead.

Then again, there is the private sector, as Google Lunar X Prize is demonstrating.

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Boehner says spending must be cut, but Senate Dems won’t budge

10:51 pm

The Republicans in the House are insisting that there must be some spending cuts before they will agree to a continuing resolution. Senate Democrats are refusing any compromise.

The result will be a government shutdown. And the fault, as far as I am concerned, will lie with the Democrats, who are the ones screaming shutdown almost like they can’t wait for it to happen.

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To be a Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin means facing threats of violence

9:11 pm

To be a Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin means facing threats of violence. Key quote:

[Republican state senator Randy] Hopper has received threatening phone calls and e-mails. These are threats of a physical nature. “We are working with law enforcement in my district. They are watching my home and my business.” Other Republicans have had their homes and businesses threatened, too. The unionists have demonstrated outside those homes and businesses.

A menacing old phrase comes to mind (and has been used by others, in talking about events in Wisconsin): We know where you live. [emphasis in original]

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The future ups and downs of government spending in space

8:55 pm

A new report says that government spending on space will flatten worldwide over the next five years. Some key quotes from the news story however suggest all is not going downhill:

A total of 692 satellites will be launched by governments in the coming decade, up 43% from the previous decade. This is a direct reflection of the increasing number of new space-capable countries across the globe. Civil agencies will launch roughly 75% of these satellites, a significant increase compared to the last decade during which they accounted for 67% of all government satellites launched.

Also, while certain areas will show a decline (the U.S. manned program) others appear robust.

Access to space (launch capability) investments reached $4.6 billion in 2010, and should be sustained in the coming years as more governments see independent access to space as a top priority of their space programs.

In both of the above examples, the areas where space activity will increase is because of the arrival of new space-faring nations (India, Japan, China to name only the most obvious), what I have been calling the new colonial movement. I also believe that as these new countries begin to show their stuff in space, their success will further fuel the competition, and the older space-faring nations will come back to life in order to stay in the game.

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Squeals from the media

4:56 pm

Squeals from the media. Key quote:

Now that budget battles have begun in earnest all around the country, those advocating spending cuts, Democrat and Republican, had better not expect any help in furthering their cause from the mainstream news media. In fact, the news media might be their most formidable foe. How so? Well, now that we know the targets of the cuts, the news media, suckers for a sob story, are already throbbing with carefully orchestrated, heart-rending tales about what devastation those cuts will cause.

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