The first notes in the longest and slowest piece of music in history, designed to go on for 639 years, will be played on a German church organ this Wednesday.
But is it really music?
Tip of the iceberg: The head of the National Weather Service stepped down on Friday in response to an inspector general’s report that accused the agency of giving $43 million in unjustified bonuses and contract extensions.
NOAA officials could not, for example, provide written explanation for why they paid $303,000 in awards on a $10 million contract to upgrade personnel and equipment for a satellite operations control center, the report says. An $80 million contract for the National Weather Service’s river, flood and drought forecasting specified that the contract had to be evaluated annually. But the board assigned to evaluate the contract never met, the report says, nor had a chairperson been assigned. Even so, auditors found that the contract was renewed five times to the tune of $40 million.
Of the nine contractors, NOAA gave eight high ratings, which allowed contractors to reap the “substantial award fees,” the report says. As a result, auditors concluded that NOAA’s pay system “provided little incentive for contractors to excel in executing their contracts.”
As I said earlier this week, this kind of story isn’t the exception but the rule. For years now our culture has condemned anyone who dared raise questions about any of the funding for science, to the point where the funding of science could no longer be questioned at all.
The result: vast sums of money have either been wasted or handed out as payoffs.
It is time we question everything, to the penny. The federal government can no longer afford to spend its money so sloppily, and the world of science community will be better off anyway if they are forced to justify their projects more rigorously.
“This is the most despicable violation of religious liberty that this nation has ever seen.”
Brought to you by Obamacare and the White House.
A graveyard of ships — in the desert.
This environmental disaster in the Soviet Union was caused more by that failed country’s centralized state-run command society than the technological society they were trying to create. Though technology in any kind of society can certainly do harm to the environment, when all decisions are controlled by a single entity — in this case the communist Soviet government — it is practically impossible to adapt and adjust when things start going wrong.
In a free democracy, however, you have many safety valves. No project is ever so big that it effects everything, and if things start to go wrong the chaos of freedom will allow people to choose differently, correcting the problem more quickly.
New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman on Friday suggested on HBO that scientists should get together and lie to the public about a threat of alien invasion in order to create a crisis that will force the public to agree to big government projects.
To quote him:
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How nice of them: The TSA has decided to no longer require the elderly to remove their jackets, belts, and shoes when going through airport security.
My emotional response to the TSA about this are two words not appropriate in mixed company, the first starting with “F” and the second with “Y”. My more rational response is to call for the end of this damn agency so the U.S. can get back to being the home of free and land of the brave.
You can’t make this stuff up: The Democrat mayor of a New Jersey town and his son have been arrested for hacking into the website run by an organization trying to get him recalled from office.
The campaign of political terrorism by the left.
In this post you will hear that audio clip. You will also read about a months-long campaign of harassment carried out by at least three individuals: Ron Brynaert, Neal Rauhauser, and Brett Kimberlin — much of it directed at critics of Brett Kimberlin. This harassment includes repeated references to critics’ family members, workplace complaints, publication of personal information such as home addresses and pictures of residences, bogus allegations of criminal activity, whisper campaigns, frivolous legal actions, and frivolous State Bar complaints.
And finally, you will hear a comparison of one of those men’s voices to that of the man who made the call that sent police to my home. And you’ll read a declaration from a forensic audio expert comparing those two voices.
The phone call falsely claimed that the blogger had shot his wife, causing a swat team to descend on the blogger’s home with their guns raised. As he noted, “When I opened the door, deputies pointed guns at me and ordered me to put my hands in the air. I had a cell phone in my hand. Fortunately, they did not mistake it for a gun.”
That these leftwing thugs are from the left is only relevant in that too many members of the left excuse this kind of behavior. Bad behavior is bad behavior, no matter what one’s political beliefs. These individuals should be shunned by the left, and prosecuted if they commit illegal acts that threaten the lives of their opponents.
“Cronies ‘R’ us,” an illustrative example of why conservatives don’t trust the Republican Party.
As this story points out, the problem in Washington is not merely the fact that the Democrats like to spend other people’s money like water (which they do). It is also because too many established members of the Republican party have been all too willing to join them in this spendthrift behavior.
It is for this reason the tea party movement exists, and why so many established Republicans, like Richard Lugar in Indiana, are getting kicked out of office. The movement isn’t partisan, it is merely focused on making whatever progress it can. Kick out Democrats wherever possible, and do the same for those Republicans who like to be me-too Democrats.
Destroying polio: only three nations left to go.
It is revealing that the only three nations where polio still survives — Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan — happen to be poor, corrupt, and heavily dominated or influenced by Islam. Moreover, the article notes that India just celebrated its first full year free from polio, even though it had been thought that the country would be a difficult challenge given its high population density and what the article calls “poor hygiene.” We shouldn’t be surprised, however. Since India abandoned socialism in the early 1990s and embraced capitalism and freedom, the country has thrived. And with increased wealth comes better education and better living conditions, both of which will aid in getting the population to cooperate in this effort.
Going on a trip? Check out the National Speed Trap Exchange.
We’re here to help you: The University of Arkansas has been forced by the Obama Justice Department to allow a male student permanent access to female bathrooms.
