How bad journalism works
How bad journalism works: the history behind the utterly false story that Brett Favre was being considered for “Dancing With the Stars?”
Category: Behind The Black
Austrian Court fines speaker for describing Islam accurately
Bad news for freedom: An Austrian court today convicted Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff for speaking out against Islam. Key quote:
It seems the case turned on the judge’s reasoning that her statement that Islam’s prophet Mohammed was a “pedophile” was defamatory since his child bride Aisha (age six at the time of marriage and nine at the time it was consummated) remained his wife when she turned 18.
More details at Gates of Vienna.
Congressman condemns Obama’s NASA budget for not sticking to authorization
The war over NASA pork begins: Congressman Bill Posey (R-Florida) condemned Obama’s NASA budget today for not giving the program-formerly-called-Constellation more money.
Sun releases most powerful solar flare in four years
The sleepy kitten awakes! The Sun released its most powerful solar flare since 2006 last night.
USA Today calls Obama’s budget cuts lame
USA Today calls Obama’s budget cuts lame.
That a mainstream newspaper like USA Today is calling for more cuts than Obama suggests strongly that the Republicans in Congress have all the momentum and should push hard for every cut they can.
The chances of a government shutdown increase
The chances of a government shutdown increase. This is good news, as far as I’m concerned.
In Jeopardy!’s Man Vs Machine the first round is a tie
It’s a tie after the first round of Jeopardy!’s computer vs human competition.
Tough-talking Chris Christie plans D.C. rollout
This should be fun: Tough-talking Chris Christie to speak in D.C. tomorrow. Key quote:
Like Christie himself, the message he’ll deliver Wednesday at the conservative American Enterprise Institute is unorthodox and straightforward: he accuses both parties, Democrats and Republicans alike, of “timidity” in the face of the coming fiscal calamity.
NPR thanks Obama for budget ‘vote of confidence’
Squealing from government-financed “journalists:” NPR thanks Obama for proposing an increase in their budget.
A retraction
Concerning Obama’s proposals for NASA’s 2012 budget, a closer look by me since yesterday has caused me to reconsider my earlier post. I think I spoke too soon, before I had time to review the Obama budget proposal entirely.
Though the Obama administration has pulled back somewhat from its initial 2011 budget proposals for commercial space, it does appear that they are not abandoning that effort as I had thought at first. Their 2012 proposal ($850 million per year) is still significantly higher than what Congress had authorized ($500 million), which suggests a willingness to fight for this program.
As for the program-formerly-called-Constellation, however, it does appear that this pork program is going forward. Instead of trying to cancel it like last year, the administration now appears to have become resigned to its existence, and this year includes significant funds for its construction.
Regardless, considering the insane state of the federal deficit, it seems to me both unrealistic and foolish to fund either of these programs at this time. Pork politics unfortunately will probably help keep alive the funding for the program-formerly-called-Constellation, while the lack of a powerful constituency for commercial space leaves these subsidizes very vulnerable to Congressional trimming.
Science an Early Budget Winner … But Fight Has Just Begun
Await the squeals from scientists: The journal Science notes the differences between the budget proposals coming from the House Republicans (cutting funds to science) and Obama (increasing funds to science) and hopes for the best. (You can also get a good idea about the increases to science that Obama proposes by going to this ScienceInsider story and scanning down the various articles.) Key quote:
Both conservatives and liberals agree: the main pressure pushing the federal deficit is entitlements; the discretionary budget is dwarfed by mandatory Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security spending. And yet neither the House of Representatives Republican appropriators’ proposal to tackle the deficit starting in 2011 nor Obama’s new budget for next year tackles the real challenge of entitlements. Instead, both pick and choose the discretionary cuts they want to start with.
From my mind, we should accept the cuts from both sides, then go after the entitlements.
First images from Stardust of Comet Tempel 1
The first images from Stardust of Comet Tempel 1 have been released. More to come later today.
Update: some glitch is delaying the download of the images. Instead of arriving as programmed, they are arriving in the order taken.