Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Fiddling while the world burns: Two different reports now say that that Iran is just months away from completing its first nuclear bomb.
The National Park Service has now released security camera videos from inside the Washington Monument during the August 23, 2011 5.8 magnitude earthquake.
The Senate has agreed to short term budget deal to fund the government through the end of the week.
Based on the above story, as well as this one, I am honestly not sure what these idiots have agreed to, or whether this Senate deal will pass the House as well. It does appear, however, that they are proposing spending more money that they don’t have.
Want to repeal Obamacare? Well, someone has posted a petition to repeal the law on the White House’s own website.
Essentially, the new White House petition website allows anyone to create a petition. Once it reaches 150 signers it becomes public. Once it reaches 5,000 the administration promises an official response.
What will the White House say if their own website is overwhelmed with signatories to a petition calling for the repeal of Obamacare? To find out I’ve added my name. You should to!
Obama on Sunday at a fundraiser, attacking Rick Perry: “You’ve got a governor whose state is on fire denying climate change.”
Here is another example of a politician making a fool of himself. The wildfires in Texas have nothing to do with climate change. And if Obama thinks they do, he immediately shows himself to be completely ignorant of the science behind the Earth’s climate.
The EPA — after admitted in court papers submitted September 16 that regulating CO2 is “impossible to administer” and “absurd” — will go ahead anyway.
Note also that the Clean Air Act did not give the EPA the power to regulate carbon dioxide.
Another private launch company succeeds: The Russian-owned Sea Launch returned to flight yesterday four years after a launch failure caused the company to restructure it finances.
We’re here to help you! Obama’s EPA plans to shut down 20% of all coal power plants in 2012.
UARS has come to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere at 11:23 pm (Eastern) last night over the Pacific Ocean.
On a 3-2 partisan vote, the FCC voted to regulate the internet on Thursday, despite a court ruling that says it has no right to do so.
Aerospace Corporation has further refined its prediction for the deorbit of UARS. The window now goes from 11 pm to 3 am tonight, with the only land areas at risk being Canada, Africa, and Australia.
NASA now says re-entry will be between 11:45 and 12:45 am (Eastern), putting only Canada and Africa in the satellite’s path.
Eleven Muslim students have been found of guilty of conspiring to disrupt a speech of the Israeli ambassador.
The defendants, who are all in their early twenties, were convicted of one count each of conspiracy and disturbing an assembly and could face jail terms of up to a year, probation or community service at sentencing.
As I’ve said previously, I think it a mistake to prosecute these students for their impolite and disgusting behavior. It only makes them martyrs, something they surely don’t deserve.
Finding out what’s in it: Obamacare requires that everyone’s private medical records be made available to the federal government.
We’re here to help you! The Obama Administration is banning the only over-the-counter asthma inhaler because of environmental concerns.
The most recent prediction now says that the UARS satellite will come down tonight between 9 pm and 3 am Eastern time, during one of four orbits, all of which pass over North America, Europe, and Africa. One orbit also passes over Australia.
Senate rejects House funding bill; shutdown looms.
While we chatter about superficial election debates and a falling satellite, the federal budget continues to crash and burn. What I find disturbing about the events in the Senate is this quote:
Democrats in the Senate, who are in the majority, oppose Republican efforts to roll back “green” energy programs to pay for aid for victims of Hurricane Irene and other disasters. They say disaster aid, usually a bipartisan issue, should not require cuts elsewhere — especially to programs creating green jobs — as the GOP majority in the House now demands. [emphasis mine]
So how do the Democrats expect to pay for this disaster aid? Will the money grow on trees?
The crash time of the UARS climate satellite has now been updated to a window lasting from 6 pm (Eastern) to 4 am (Eastern) tonight.
According to the map at the link, the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Middle East are all potential crash sites.
Even if UARS misses you today, don’t relax! A second large satellite, the 2.4 ton ROSAT X-Ray space telescope, is going to rain debris down late in October or early November.
On its ROSAT website, DLR estimates that “up to 30 individual debris items with a total mass of up to 1.6 tonnes might reach the surface of the Earth. The X-ray optical system, with its mirrors and a mechanical support structure made of carbon-fibre reinforced composite – or at least a part of it – could be the heaviest single component to reach the ground.”
A California couple has been hit with fines for holding a Bible study session in their home.
Astronomers question the legitimacy of the first exoplanet to be directly imaged.
The Times Atlas has backed down on its false claim of a 15% loss to the Greenland icecap due to global warming and has issued an apology.
An international team of scientists said on Thursday they had recorded sub-atomic particles that travel faster than light.
A total of 15,000 beams of neutrinos — tiny particles that pervade the cosmos — were fired over a period of 3 years from CERN toward Gran Sasso 730 (500 miles) km away, where they were picked up by giant detectors. Light would have covered the distance in around 2.4 thousandths of a second, but the neutrinos took 60 nanoseconds — or 60 billionths of a second — less than light beams would have taken. “It is a tiny difference,” said Ereditato, who also works at Berne University in Switzerland, “but conceptually it is incredibly important. The finding is so startling that, for the moment, everybody should be very prudent.”
Repeal it: A new study shows that in Ohio, 790,000 people will lose their private health insurance and premiums will rise 55%-85% when Obamacare takes full effect in 2014.
Long lost Arkansas moon rock found among Governor Bill Clinton archives.
Freedom of speech alert: A high school suspended a student earlier this week for merely saying “I’m a Christian. I think being a homosexual is wrong.”
Coming home in a Soyuz capsule: “I could hear Andrey saying it was like an American amusement park.”
The forecast of when and where the climate satellite UARS will re-enter the atmosphere has been narrowed to the afternoon/evening of Friday, September 23.
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of an ancient shipyard near Rome, “the largest of its kind in Italy or the Mediterranean.”
Whoa! A new poll shows black support for Obama slipping.
If so, the Democratic Party is doomed. Without the kneejerk 90%-plus support that blacks have been giving them for decades, there is a good chance the Democrats would unable to win almost any state- or nation-wide election.
