Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
These are very cool Easter eggs. If you use “Find as you type” in Firefox or Seamonkey, disable it to do this. I am also sure there are more of them, as yet unknown.
The decision to not compete: Why did the builders of One World Trade Center in New York settle on fourth place?
The article includes some nice history about the race in New York in the first half of the 20th century to build the tallest skyscraper.
Ten examples of protest images mocking George Bush that were far more offensive and violent than that harmless rodeo clown whose life is now being destroyed.
Take a look. Though many conservatives did complain about the violence and inappropriateness of these signs, no one on the right ever demanded that the freedom of these protesters should be squelched. Also, there’s this important detail:
These were not just fringe pieces. Some appeared in art galleries and at major film festivals. Left-wing assassination chic means never having to say you’re sorry.
Of course, having noted these facts and thereby defended the constitutional freedom of a rodeo clown to make fun of a leftwing black politician, I (and Michelle Malkin who wrote the post above) therefore must be racists. It’s the only explanation!
Ad astra: Scientists today published a new model that suggests that Voyager 1 actually left the solar system and entered interstellar space in July of last year.
In describing on a fine scale how magnetic field lines from the sun and magnetic field lines from interstellar space can connect to each other, they conclude Voyager 1 has been detecting the interstellar magnetic field since July 27, 2012. Their model would mean that the interstellar magnetic field direction is the same as that which originates from our sun.
Other models envision the interstellar magnetic field draped around our solar bubble and predict that the direction of the interstellar magnetic field is different from the solar magnetic field inside. By that interpretation, Voyager 1 would still be inside our solar bubble.
This new model might very well explain the conflicting data received from the spacecraft, some of which said it was out of the solar system and some of which said it was not.
Assuming the first demo berthing of Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus capsule to ISS goes well in September, NASA has now scheduled the subsequent cargo missions of Cygnus and Dragon for December and January respectively.
The second link above also provides some interesting details about the cargo that Dragon will carry in January.
Russia has concluded its investigation into last month’s Proton launch failure and now says its next launch will be on September 15.
While the investigation pinpointed the problem — the installation of sensors upside down — none of the news reports about this investigation have mentioned what any corrective actions the Russians are taking. Meanwhile, at least one unnamed Russian engineer is questioning the schedule and the thoroughness of the investigation.
The effort by the local government in Rochester, New York, to destroy the fourth amendment rights of renters.
These warrants are generated without suspicion of a crime and do not specify things to be searched. They remain valid for 45 days, permit multiple entries by code officers, and allow officers to film their inspections, which are later publicly available. The whole neighborhood is able to see the letters on a coffee table and the contents of a medicine cabinet. Inspectors are permitted to look through every aspect of a house, wherever there may be violations of “federal, state, county, or city law, ordinance, rule or regulation relating to the construction, alteration, maintenance, repair, operation, use, condition or occupancy of a premises.” Inspectors may look inside “interior surfaces” of closets and drawers to determine if they are “clean and sanitary.”
And then there’s this suspicious fact:
But David Ahl, a board member of the New York State Coalition of Property Owners and Businesses, alleges that the city is engaging in punitive action meant to chill the exercise of the right to deny consent. Through Freedom of Information Law requests he has discovered that city has filed 50 administrative search warrants since 2003, every single one of which target properties owned and managed by members of his organization.
Why is the Rochester government specifically only getting these broad search warrants against members of this particular organization?
“Liberals have targeted this man for personal destruction to create a climate of fear.”
It is beyond disgusting the number of recent witch hunts being instigated by the left against individuals who have merely said things they didn’t like. Unfortunately, what’s worse is the willingness of too many Americans to pay no attention, or make believe it isn’t happening, or to make excuses for this totalitarian behavior merely because of partisan favoritism.
Oppression is oppression, and should not be tolerated by anyone, not matter what the politics.
And then there is the media, which has joined in the effort to target the weak and innocent while protecting the powerful who do commit acts of bigotry and hate.
What racists! True the Vote has found 173 cases of voter fraud in Florida.
These are examples where someone has registered and voted in two different states. According to modern Democratic Party dogma, trying to stop such behavior is clearly racist and an attempt to suppress the vote, which is probably why the IRS as well as other federal agencies aggressively harassed True the Vote for several years.
Working for the Democratic Party: New evidence suggests that IRS official Lois Lerner attempted to hide her work from scrutiny when the IRS began its harassment of conservatives.
For those that might want to hear more of my thoughts about the state of the American space effort, I will be on Coast to Coast with George Noory tonight from 10 to 11 pm (Pacific).
Engineers have identified twelve asteroids that could be captured with today’s technology.
Their number one most easily moved space rock is named 2006 RH120. A single rocket burn in 2021 would be enough to place this roughly 4-meter-wide asteroid into orbit around a Lagrange point by 2026. NASA could then launch people to study this object (which would barely be bigger than the astronauts themselves) and learn about its history.
The competition heats up: Grasshopper flies again, this time both up and sideways.
Video below the fold.
» Read more
The competition heats up: Sierra Nevada has completed ground tow tests of its Dream Chaser engineering test vehicle.
Video at the link. They will now begin flight drop tests this fall.
Comet ISON has come out from behind the Sun, and it looks like it will not produce a grand show for us later this year.
There will be a lot of stupid commentary criticizing astronomers for hyping this comet, all unfair. The comet had the strong possibility of being spectacular. Astronomers pointed that out, being as hopeful as everyone to see a bright and beautiful comet grace our night skies for a few months. That this is not turning out to be so is not their fault.
Rodeo clown forces decimated and on the run!
As every Constitutional scholar knows, the First Amendment includes a clause that strictly forbids mockery of the President of the United States, depending on who it is, and which party he belongs to. It’s in one of the penumbras of the Constitution, or maybe it’s an emanation. I always get those two mixed up.
Once again, the thugs of the Democratic Party are working to destroy someone, merely because that person happened to express a negative opinion about their Democratic president.
Fraud: The federal treasury had a $98 Billion deficit in July, yet the total debt was left unchanged at $16,699,396,000,000.
At the static $16,699,396,000,000 level that the Treasury reported for every day of July, the debt was just $25 million below the legal limit of $16,699,421,000,000 that was set in a law passed by Congress and signed by President Barack Obama.
The total debt has remained unchanged now for almost three months, despite continuing month deficits. In other words, someone is lying and committing outright fraud.
Climate fraud: An analysis of the climate models used by global warming advocates to illustrate the consequences of climate change finds them to be totally useless.
These models have crucial flaws that make them close to useless as tools for policy analysis: certain inputs (e.g. the discount rate) are arbitrary, but have huge effects on the SCC estimates the models produce; the models’ descriptions of the impact of climate change are completely ad hoc, with no theoretical or empirical foundation; and the models can tell us nothing about the most important driver of the SCC, the possibility of a catastrophic climate outcome. IAM-based analyses of climate policy create a perception of knowledge and precision, but that perception is illusory and misleading. [emphasis added]
Fail: A rally today in DC about the threat of global warming, organized by Obama’s Organizing for America, had no attendees.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: A federal appeals court has ruled that the Obama administration has been violating the law by delaying a decision on the proposed nuclear waste facility in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.
This is the typical behavior for this Democratic administration. Whether it involves Obamacare, nuclear waste, environmental rules, gun smuggling, federal appointments, or IRS tax regulations, the White House and President Obama believe themselves above the law, able to do anything they want, regardless of what the law actually says.
But don’t worry, Democrats, Obama will protect you from those evil tea party conservatives who simply want the Constitution followed!
Pigs fly! A climate scientist demands political neutrality from climate scientists.
I believe advocacy by climate scientists has damaged trust in the science. We risk our credibility, our reputation for objectivity, if we are not absolutely neutral. At the very least, it leaves us open to criticism. I find much climate scepticism is driven by a belief that environmental activism has influenced how scientists gather and interpret evidence. So I’ve found my hardline approach successful in taking the politics and therefore – pun intended – the heat out of climate science discussions.
They call me an “honest broker”, asking for “more Dr Edwards and fewer zealous advocates”. Crucially, they say this even though my scientific views are absolutely mainstream.
But it’s not just about improving trust. In this highly politicised arena, climate scientists have a moral obligation to strive for impartiality. We have a platform we must not abuse. For a start, we rarely have the necessary expertise. I absolutely disagree with Gavin that we likely know far more about the issues involved in making policy choices than [our] audience.
She might believe in human-caused global warming, but she also has the sense to recognize the vast uncertainties and political difficulties involved in this issue. The full title of her blog, All Models are Wrong is “All models are wrong, but some are useful. A grownup discussion about how to quantify uncertainties in modeling climate change and its impacts, past and future.”
Modern America: A teacher molests an underage student for three years and, when caught, his fellow teachers come forward to support him, not the student.
At the sentencing hearing seven teachers plus a school board member, stood with the teacher, Neal Erickson, calling for a reduced sentence. The judge’s response?
Judge Michael Bumgartner told Erickson he was “appalled and ashamed that the community could rally around, in this case, you,” according to the Herald. “What you did was a jab in the eye with a sharp stick to every parent who trusts a teacher,” he said shortly before sentencing Erickson to 15-30 years in prison.
The parents of the student are now trying to get these teachers fired, as well as recall the school board member. The local authorities are hesitating out of fear of lawsuits, while hundreds of parents are telling them if they don’t fire these teachers they will pull their kids from these public schools.
The law is such an inconvenient thing: The Obama administration has quietly decided to arbitrarily delay implementation of another Obamacare requirement.
The New York Times first reported on Tuesday that the administration is giving some insurers and employers a one-year grace period to adhere to the limit, which otherwise would have capped individual costs at $6,350 a year. The full requirement will go into effect in 2015, rather than 2014. The change means some employers — namely, those with more than one benefit provider — could use plans with higher limits or no limit at all on out-of-pocket costs during that period. The grace period apparently was granted earlier this year, though was buried in reams of regulatory material and was not publicly reported until now. Department of Labor guidelines published in February had addressed the delay.
As Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) correctly notes, “The president doesn’t get to write legislation, and it’s illegal and unconstitutional for him to try and change legislation by himself.”
By allowing a president to do this kind of thing, we are losing our democracy.
The uncertainty of science: “What causes the Sun’s magnetic field flip?”
The answer: We don’t really know! An excellent article by Mike Wall detailing the unknowns behind the Sun’s magnetic field and the sunspot cycle.
The competition heats up: ATK has joined Stratolaunch, winning a contract to provide solid rocket motors for company’s proposed second stage air-launched rocket.
Stratolaunch’s first stage will take off from a runway, and will be the largest airplane ever built. The second stage, which Orbital Sciences is building and which ATK is now be a partner, will be released from this airplane and then ignite.
From experience, I have learned who to trust in these confrontations over accusations of racism, and sadly nowadays it almost always is not the minority.
Justifying pork: Despite the complete lack of evidence, the Obama administration on Monday blamed floods, wildfires, and power outages on global warming.
Want the real reason the White House is making these doomsday claims? They want to fund $1 trillion in new government spending.
A judge ruled today that New York’s stop-and-frisk policy has been unconstitutional.
It’s a start! The sequester was — and continues to be — a success.
The author details how the sequester has clearly slowed federal spending, and will continue to do so.
And wouldn’t you know, the world hasn’t ended!
