China readies its first space station
China’s first space station module, Tiangong-1, has been shipped to the launchpad for final checkout, in preparation for its launch later this year.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Thank the Gods for Climategate
Thank the gods for climategate.
We are certainly in a far different world vis-a-vis global warming than 21 months ago. The [global warming] climatologists are, to a very large extent, being ignored. Yes, there is an IPCC coming up, and perhaps we should wait until that is over. But I will predict that no matter what hoohah comes out of it, it will not have 50% of the energy of the previous IPCCs, because governments just aren’t listening with baited breath anymore. If there is any place where the mojo counted, it was with governments. But it ain’t there any more.
CERN collider sees tantalizing hint of Higgs particle
The CERN Large Hadron Collider has seen a tantalizing hint of the Higgs particle.
Did Obama refuse a bipartisan deal on the debt ceiling?
From Ed Morrissey: Did Obama refuse a bipartisan deal on the debt ceiling?
Over-optimism in Forecasts by Official Budget Agencies and Its Implications
Science discovers the obvious: Government agencies are routinely over-optimistic in their budget forecasts. From the abstract:
The paper studies forecasts of real growth rates and budget balances made by official government agencies among 33 countries. In general, the forecasts are found:
- to have a positive average bias
- to be more biased in booms
- to be even more biased at the 3-year horizon than at shorter horizons.
This over-optimism in official forecasts can help explain excessive budget deficits, especially the failure to run surpluses during periods of high output: if a boom is forecasted to last indefinitely, retrenchment is treated as unnecessary. Many believe that better fiscal policy can be obtained by means of rules such as ceilings for the deficit or, better yet, the structural deficit. But we also find [that] countries subject to a budget rule, in the form of euroland’s Stability and Growth Path, make official forecasts of growth and budget deficits that are even more biased and more correlated with booms than do other countries. [emphasis mine]
In related news, it is now more than 800 days since the Democratically-controlled Senate has passed or even proposed a budget, as they are required to do by law.
Opportunity closes in on Endeavour Crater
Opportunity has cut the distance to Endeavour Crater to only 3,600 feet.
“With the Obama administration, it just seems to be relentless.”
The emptiness of the Democratic debt ceiling “plans”
The emptiness of the Democratic debt ceiling “plans”.
On Wednesday evening, I noted the absurdity of Associated Press coverage characterizing the 5-page document with 3-1/2 whole pages of text issued by the “Gang of Six” as a “plan” — 12 times, plus in the item’s headline. Though I didn’t bring it up then, an obvious point to make about any of these items floating around Washington is that if the Congressional Budget Office can’t score it, it can’t be a plan. A month ago, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf told a congressional committee, in response to a question about President Obama’s April proposal, that “we can’t score speeches.”
And then there’s this:
Obama … claimed to have a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan. The court eunuchs of the press corps were impressed, and went off to file pieces hailing the president as “the grown-up in the room.” There is, in fact, no plan. No plan at all. No plan whatsoever, either for a deficit reduction of $4 trillion or $4.73. As is the way in Washington, merely announcing that he had a plan absolved him of the need to have one. So the president’s staff got out the extra-wide teleprompter and wrote a really large number on it, and simply by reading out the really large number the president was deemed to have produced a serious blueprint for trillions of dollars in savings. For his next trick, he’ll walk out on to the stage of Carnegie Hall, announce that he’s going to play Haydn’s Cello Concerto No 2, and, even though there’s no cello in sight, and Obama immediately climbs back in his golf cart to head for the links, music critics will hail it as one of the most moving performances they’ve ever heard.
The only “plan” Barack Obama has put on paper is his February budget. Were there trillions and trillions of savings in that? Er, no. It increased spending and doubled the federal debt.
The Russian orbiting radio telescope has unfurled its 10 meter dish
The Russian orbiting radio telescope Spektr-R has successfully unfurled its 10 meter dish.
FAA goes into a partial shutdown and nobody notices. Or they do, because they pay less in taxes!
FAA goes into a partial shutdown and nobody notices.
Or they do, because they pay less in taxes!
“This is Obama at his most sanctimonious, demagogic, self-righteous and arrogant.”
An Obamacare provision appears to force middle-class families to either buy unaffordable healthcare or pay a penalty
Repeal it! An Obamacare provision appears to force middle-class families to either buy unaffordable healthcare or pay the penalty for going without.
I wrote “appears to force” above because the issue at hand is so complex I don’t think anyone either in or out of the Obama administration truly understands it, another indication that the healthcare law is a disaster that needs to be ceremoniously dumped, and as quickly as possible.