Here you see Larry Page's public Google+ page. And that he hasn't updated it in a month. Now, granted, he could very well be having a Plus Party for his Circles in there, but given the recent drop in public activity... Not a good look. [NetworkWorld] More »
KH-9 Hexagon Spy Satellite Makes a Rare Public Outing (Photos and Video)
"With virtually no advance notice, the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar Hazy Center put a KH-9 "Hexagon" spy satellite on public display today. The display is up for one day only. Word of this display only leaked out late on Friday. No media advisories were issued (or they did not send me one). I could not get NASM officials at the exhibit to comment on the short notice or why the satellite was there. But all you had to do was go inside and see that a large party was being set up for the 50th anniversary of the National Reconnaissance Office. Reception tables and chairs were being set up under the SR-71 and Space Shuttle Enterprise. This is a little odd for a long-time Washingtonian such as myself given that the name of this organization was secret until 1992. Once secret, they now throw lavish parties."
Paki Men "milking the system" producing multiple children on the welfare rolls through polygamy
From Eric Dondero:
Baroness Flather is a Conservative Party member of the British House of Lords. She represents Windsor in the Royal County of Berkshire. Her family are originally from the Punjab province of India.
Excerpt from the UK Daily Mail, "BARONESS FLATHER: Polygamy, welfare benefits and an insidious silence" Sept. 16:
As I said in Parliament this week, there is now a growing wealth of evidence that the generosity of the welfare state encourages some Muslims from these two regions — along with plenty of white families — to produce ever larger families in order to claim extra payments and publicly-subsidised housing. And it’s something the system seems to allow too easily.
For example, a Pakistani man contracts a marriage in his native country, and then brings his wife to England to start a family. Because they have been married only under Islamic law, she isn’t legally registered by British authorities as his wife. Even so, they are able to claim child benefit for any children they have.
But the state handouts do not end there, for under Islamic Sharia law, polygamy is permissible. So a man can return to Pakistan, take another bride and then, in a repetition of the process, bring her to England where they also have children together — obtaining yet more money from the state.
Because such Islamic multiple-marriages are not recognised in Britain, the women are regarded by the welfare system as single mothers — and are therefore entitled to the full range of lone-parent payments.
As a result, several ‘families’, fathered by the same Pakistani man, can all claim benefits as they are provided for by the welfare state, which treats them as if they are not related.
UPDATE: Solved by Kristian at 1:14
YAY! Looks like we’re back on track for the weekly riddle. You missed me, didn’t you? I know you did; admit it. I apologize for the abrupt “vacation”, but it truly could not be helped.
My DSL is spotty, so it may take me a moment or two to respond to your guesses. Hang in there. I’m around — I’m just trapped under a pile of collapsed internet.
So, let’s get to guessing! You’ll look to the real world to find the answer to today’s riddle, although you could also find it in fantasy and fiction.
.
Early man probably knew today’s answer, but it took a while to figure out its true nature.
This shows evidence of quite a violent early life.
For some reason, this is warm where it should be cool, and cool where it should be warm.
My favorite gemstone -- the aquamarine
To us, this is a giant — but among its own kind, it’s something of a pipsqueak.
Its arrangement is very much like a cherry.
In theory, this is a place where water gets weird.
I bet when this object was a child, it got teased about its name.
Speaking of names, something around this should make you think of British playwrights.
You will have read about this in the “Cthulhu Mythos”.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot and Junior - NASA
There you have it, nice and tidy and ready for you to solve. Remember, if it takes me a minute or two to answer, I’m just digging my way out of a smoking pile of crashed internet. Good luck!
It looks a little far out, but the Tropism Well is welcome in my neighborhood park. Designed by Poietic Studio, it senses the approach of an individual and bows to grant them the gift of hydration. More »
Man Ban at some events in Australian towns wins support
From the Sydney Herald-Sun, "Men banned as Muslim women win council backing" Sept. 18:
MAN bans are spreading as two more council functions are declared off-limits because it is "not appropriate" for men to mix with Muslim women.
And in a surprise twist, VCAT backed the latest bans, declaring there was no discrimination and councils no longer needed to apply for exemptions.The Darebin City Council ban will be in force for a music concert to be held in December, while another female-only event to mark the end of Ramadan was cancelled last week.
Editor's comment - Sorry Crocidile Dundee. Better cover up that exposed chest of yours, so as not to offend the sensitivities of Muslim immigrant women.
Cryos, a Danish network of international sperm banks and the largest one of its kind, has officially stopped taking sperm from redheaded guys. Despite an overall increase in donations, the demand for ginger sperm just isn't that high. Sorry, Matt. More »
Supporters of the 'O' more prone to commit crimes?
by Clifford Thies
Dateline - Boston. Parole officer Kevin Devlin thought it a bit odd. Why did Edward Corliss who had previously been given a life sentence for murdering a store clerk in 1971, have an Obama bumper sticker on his car?
Then it happened: on December 26, 2009, a man in the act of robbing a convenience store, murdered the store clerk, Surendra Dangol, a 39-year-old immigrant from Nepal, and was caught on video tape leaving the scene of the crime in a car with an Obama bumper sticker. Same bumper sticker. Same car.
From the Boston Herald "Obama bumper stick led cops to killer" Sept. 15:
A paroled killer’s “Obama” bumper sticker was the break that helped cops nab the man accused of the cold-blooded murder of a Tedeschi’s convenience store clerk, jurors in Edward Corliss’ murder trial learned yesterday.
“It struck me as odd,” state parole officer Kevin Devlin testified yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court about the campaign sticker plastered on the back of parolee Corliss’ white Plymouth Acclaim.
“He’s a guy from Somerville, so I was surprised he was supporting Obama,” Devlin said.
With the suspect identified, the police were able to assemble other evidence sufficient for conviction.
It seems Obama paraphernalia is quite common amongst the criminal element (see photo montage).
But please don't jump to any hasty conclusions. Remember the old saying: All criminals may be Democrats, but not all Democrats are criminals.
by Clifford F. Thies
In a forthcoming book it will be revealed that twenty-four years ago an attractive unmarried female sports reporter, who was then and still is white, had some kind of a relationship with a handsome unmarried male basketball player, who was then and still is black. When asked about it, the woman, who later married another man, with whom she has had five children, had no comment. The man, who later married another woman, with whom he had one child, would only say that she was a sweetheart and respectful.
The thing that makes the story interesting is fact that the woman, then Sarah Heath, is none other the amazing Sarah Palin, which is not to disrespect the man in the story, Glen Rice was "only" a three-time NBA All Star, led the University of Michigan to an NCAA national championship and, along with fellow players Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant and others, and legendary coach Phil Jackson, won an NBA championship.
So, Sarah before she was Palin had some kind of relationship with Glen Rice. Why am I not surprised?
How does this compare to Barack Obama's snorting coke when he was a young adult? Or, George W. Bush driving under the influence? Well, those are bad things. If at all true, what's wrong with an unmarried woman having a relationship with an unmarried man? Would this have something to do with the fact that they were differentially pigmented?
Just how insipid are liberals nowadays?
by Clifford F. Thies
Continuing deterioration of conditions within Syria, the massing of forces at the border with Turkey, and criticism of the regime's brutal suppression of the people of the country are certainly sufficient reason for evacuation.
Up to now, the tanks of the Syrian army have been quite effective against unarmed civilians. Hospitals and schools, homes, marketplace and mosques have proven no obstacle to the advance of Syrian forces. On the other hand, were the Syrian armed forces to confront a military force, it could be another story.
The last time the Syrian military was tested in battle against another military was during the 1982 Lebanon War. In that war, the Israelis decimated the Syrian air and ground forces. Since then, Syria has been re-equiped by the Soviet Union/Russia, and can be suspected to be reinforced by Iranians. A confrontation between Syria and Turkey could be dicey, even though Turkey's armed forces are far superior to those of Syria.
Source: Trust.org/news
Top picks Italian seismologists are being accused of manslaughter for not predicting the L’Aquila quake. Great feature by Stephen S Hall The dark side of the placebo effect: Alexis Madrigal looks at instances when belief can kill Wonderful Robert Krulwich post about “extreme tidying up” “Victor may have cerebral palsy, but cerebral palsy does not [...]
Closeted Randian CEOs at Ford corp hq?
From Eric Dondero:
Destined to go viral. And for good reason. Perhaps that was the plan for Ford marketers.
And we here at Libertarian Republican are proud to give them some free advertising.
Good job Ford folks! Buy (Free Market) American.
In July, NASA alarmed much of the entrepreneurial space community when it announced it was considering shifting from a Space Act Agreement (SAA) approach to a something closer to a conventional contract for the next round of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. The first two rounds of CCDev, as well as the earlier Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to develop cargo vehicles for the International Space Station (ISS), all used SAAs and were well-received by both NASA and industry. However, NASA’s proposal to use a hybrid between an SAA and a conventional contract based on Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) raised concerns among some in industry that it would create a greater bureaucratic burden for companies and increase costs.
On Friday, NASA held a follow-up forum on its plans for the “Integrated Design Phase” of CCDev, organized on only a few days notice and apparently to a modest in-person audience at the Kennedy Space Center (with a larger audience presumably watching via webcast). At the forum NASA officials confirmed that, even after getting considerable feedback from industry on the use of SAAs versus FAR-based contracts, it was still pressing ahead with its original plans to use a SAA/FAR hybrid for the upcoming CCDev competition.
“Why did we end up going to a contract when many of our partners in industry would prefer a Space Act Agreement?” asked Brent Jett, deputy manager of the Commercial Crew Program at NASA. He explained than one purpose of the CCDev program was to certify commercially-developed vehicles to fly NASA astronauts to the ISS. He said that the focus of the upcoming Integrated Design Phase was to have a mature “end-to-end” crew transportation system at the critical design review (CDR) level, as well as a plan on how to certify that system to meet NASA’s requirements in later development phases. “When you look at that objective, it’s clear to me that the purpose of the Integrated Design Phase is directly for the benefit of the US government and NASA,” he said. “When you talk to procurement and legal experts, they will tell you that since that is the purpose of this phase, that we cannot use a Space Act Agreement.”
That analysis hinges on exactly when NASA or other government agencies can use so-called “Other Transaction Authority” (OTA), which in NASA’s case is a Space Act Agreement. OTA gives government agencies the flexibility to use alternative, streamlined agreements with the private sector, but to avoid their being used to get around conventional procurement regulations, there are limitations on when such agreements can be entered into. At a Women In Aerospace presentation this summer not directly related to CCDev, an official from NASA’s Office of General Counsel described when SAAs can be used. The presentation noted that a contract is required when the purpose of the activity is to acquire goods or services for the direct benefit or use by the government. NASA’s argument—one that is not likely shared by many in industry—is that the Integrated Design phase will be primarily for the benefit of NASA, hence some form of contract, rather than an SAA, much be used. (As for previous CCDev phases, NASA argues it has been primarily helping industry accelerate their technologies for commercial crew systems that serve multiple customers, and thus is not primarily for the benefit of the government.)
Jett, as well as Phil McAlister of NASA Headquarters, emphasized that the contract that they’re proposing would retain many of the desirable elements of an SAA. The contract, while FAR-based, will include milestone-based payments, and allow companies to propose their own detailed statements of work for this phase of the effort. Companies will be exempt from Cost Accounting Standards (and the bureaucratic overhead associated with them) in this contract phase. There will also be a “balanced approach” to intellectual property, without going into greater detail, Jett said.
NASA is planning to release a draft RFP for the next CCDev phase next week, with a requirements workshop and industry day planned for October 4 and 5, respectively, at the Kennedy Space Center. The final RFP is due out by the end of the year.
NASA is not the only one who has been scrutinizing the use of SAAs for the CCDev program. In the report accompanying its fiscal year 2012 commerce, Justice, and Science appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee was critical of NASA’s use of such agreements for CCDev. While giving NASA $500 million for CCDev in 2012, one of the strings it attached was language limiting the use of SAAs in future CCDev rounds. “The Committee believes that the current practice by NASA has gone beyond what is cited under NASA’s own policy directive” for using SAAs, the report states. “Such misuse of these authorities undermines the oversight of NASA in the procurement process and threatens crew safety. For future rounds of commercial crew competitions and acquisitions, NASA shall limit the use of funded Space Act Agreements as stated in the directive in order to preserve critical NASA oversight of Federal funds provided for spacecraft and launch vehicle development.”
The question now facing companies currently involved or interested in CCDev is whether this shift from a pure SAA to a FAR-based contract with some elements of an SAA—but also likely with some greater overhead—is worth the promise of federal funding to develop crew transportation systems.
You can already rent movies on Facebook. Now, according to the New York Post, Mark Zuckerberg will be showing off his plan for bringing Hulu and possibly even Netflix into the fold at the upcoming F8 conference. More »
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Representative Ron Paul what we should do if a 30-year-old man who chose not to purchase health insurance suddenly found himself in need of six months of intensive care. Mr. Paul replied, “That’s what freedom is all about — taking your own risks.” Mr. Blitzer pressed him again, asking whether “society should just let him die.”
And the crowd erupted with cheers and shouts of “Yeah!” -- Paul Krugman, NY Times editorial, "Free to die" Sept. 15
by Clifford F. Thies
At the recent Republican presidential candidate forum the question was posed should a person who refuses to pay for health insurance nevertheless be administered medical care. Ron Paul, a medical doctor and a principled libertarian, was trying to say he could not imagine that such a person would be refused. But some in the audience said "no."
The question is sophomoric. Let me give the supposed ultimate killer question to a libertarian: If a baby is observed starving to death on another person's property, would you commit trespass in order to feed that baby? Of course you do. Pending a hearing, you would also take the baby and make sure he or she was not abused or neglected.
The purpose of law, after all, is to protect us in our rights, and those who need their rights protected the most are the most vulnerable among us, infant children, persons enfeebled by old age, those who are least able to make good choices in the marketplace. Government protects us all from the violent criminal element, but government also protects us from neglectful and abusive family members and from fraudulent businessmen.
But, what about adults, presumably capable of making their own decisions, who decide badly; who take physical or financial risks, or who just plain act stupid. Who drive motorcycles without a helmet, smoke cigarettes and eat Big Macs, who promiscuously engage in homosexual acts, or who go to Michael Moore movies. What about them?
Well, says Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times, they are to be treated like children, and be taken care of by the government. Instead of dealing with the question posed to Ron Paul, to which the audience answered "no" and Ron Paul hesitated to answer, Krugman said that because we would not let a child make a very bad decision, we shouldn't let any adult.
Pretty brave words from somebody now famous for Space Aliens and 9-11 Truther conspiracy. But, what will Krugman say when the police come after him?
First, they went after those who smoke marijuana, and I said nothing because it's been years since I did any of that shit. Then they went after the members of the Church of Scientology, and I said nothing because I'm into the New Age. Then they went after the Austrian economists, and I said nothing because I'm a Keynesian. Then they went after me and there was nobody to protect me.
First of all, if health insurance were a good deal, almost everybody would freely buy it. But, it's so damn expensive, because of the cross-sbsidies, the practice of defensive medicine, the "one size fits all" mentality of the country when it comes to medical care, and the fact that it's not health insurance but merely third-party reimbursement. If we reformed our health insurance so it operated the way health insurance works in Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, it would be a tremendous bargain.
Secondly, if somebody shows up without insurance and it really was because they decided to not pay and used the money other people use for health insurance in order to buy other things, then it depends on whether they happen upon somebody like Ron Paul, who is a kind and decent man, or somebody like the members of that audience that said no. You gotta ask yourself, punk, do ya feel lucky?
Dr. Thies is a professor of economics at Shenandoah Univ. in Virginia
The maniacs at Melbourne Skydive Centre are still falling off things with style. I've only ever gone cliff-diving once, and it was nothing like this. This looks shades of terrifying and exhilarating that I can hardly imagine. More »
Even though it's unclear when Google Wallet will officially debut, Google decided to jump back to 1998 to give George a lesson in why wallets are a thing of the past. You can hear Larry Page's cruel laughter in the background. More »
This is brilliant. The Hermetus Bottle Opener and Resealer belongs in your pocket right now because it both opens your favorite beer and hermetically reseals it for future enjoyment. Perfect for any beer aficionado. More »
Eknath Easwaran on how patience can be a valuable ally in the journey of self-transformation, which has to do with hope.
