Every Picture of Abraham Lincoln Known to Exist
An evening pause: On the anniversary of his death.
Category: Behind The Black
Bolden says Orion to be scaled back
Surprise! NASA administrator Charles Bolden told lawmakers on Monday that with the new budget the Orion capsule had to be scaled back somehow.
Watch over the next few years as Orion and the new heavy-lift vehicle (the program-formerly-called-Constellation) slowly evaporate, even as both cost us billions in money we no longer can afford.
China finds SpaceX’s launch prices challenging
Competition! China finds SpaceX’s launch prices low — and a challenge to meet.
Declining to speak for attribution, the Chinese officials say they find the published prices on the SpaceX website very low for the services offered, and concede they could not match them with the Long March series of launch vehicles even if it were possible for them to launch satellites with U.S. components in them.
TSA security looks at people who complain about … TSA security
So you think you have freedom of speech? The TSA specifically singles out people who complain about TSA security.
SWAT Team Sent In to Confiscate 13-Year-Old Over Unneeded Medication
Our land of freedom: SWAT team sent in to confiscate 13-year-old over unneeded medication.
“Our current unfunded entitlement liabilities run about $100 trillion.”
Federal funding for IPCC back in budget
The pigs win: Funding for the IPCC restored to budget in 2011 budget deal.
No deal
No deal. Key quote:
If Democrats are not going to do even minor surgery on Medicare and Medicaid and Republicans are not going to raise taxes, there is no hope of big budget deal to cut a deficit now running at 11 percent of gross domestic product.
And that raises another question. How long can the Federal Reserve continue financing these deficits? China, choking on U.S. debt, is reportedly beginning to divest itself of U.S. bonds. Japan will need to sell U.S. bonds to get hard currency to repair the damage from the earthquake and tsunami. And the Fed is about to end its QE2 monthly purchases of $100 billion in U.S. bonds. Where is the Fed going to borrow the $125 billion a month to finance this year’s deficit of $1.65 trillion, and another of comparable size in 2012? Bill Gross’ Pimco, the world’s largest bond fund, has sold all his U.S. bonds and begun to short U.S. debt. Pimco is betting that the value of U.S. Treasury bonds will begin to fall.
We may be about to enter a maelstrom.
Useful idiot hanged by Palestinians
Useful idiot: Pro-Palestinian activist murdered by Islamic Palestinians.
Air Force and NRO ink deal with SpaceX
Who says there aren’t customers for the new rocket companies? The Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office have inked a deal with SpaceX, preliminary to using the company’s rockets to launch military satellites.
Congress removes wolf from endangered list
Congress removes the wolf from the endangered list. From Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana):
“Right now, Montana’s wolf population is out of balance and this provision will get us back on the responsible path with state management. Wolves have recovered in the Northern Rockies. By untying the hands of the Montana biologists who know how to keep the proper balance, we will restore healthy wildlife populations and we will protect livestock. This provision is best for our wildlife, our livestock and for wolves themselves.”
I don’t know if Tester’s description of the situation in Montana is accurate (though I tend to rely on local expertise in these matters). However, to get an opposing viewpoint the article above goes to the Center for Biological Diversity, an organization I do know something about. In caving matters relating to white nose syndrome, CBD has pushed extremist and outright ignorant policy positions (trying for example to have all caves and mines on all public lands closed in order to protect bats, even though there is literally no evidence that such an action made sense). I would not trust their opinions under any condition.