The EPA deals in political propaganda, not science...

The EPA deals in political propaganda, not science...  Warren Meyer of CoyoteBlog seems to be surprised by this.

I am not.  I would expect the EPA to pay attention to the science only when it serves their political interests to do so.  That's not very often, actually.

Lois Lerner had a Blackberry...

Lois Lerner had a Blackberry...  That's significant because some of her emails would have been stored on that device.  But the IRS destroyed it, too!

They're just laughing in our faces, now.  They don't even care if we know they're corrupt, lying sons of bitches.  They don't think there's anything that we the people can do about it.

Are they right?

Airstrikes in Libya...

Airstrikes in Libya ... were conducted by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, acting on their own.  They didn't coordinate the strikes with the U.S., or get prior clearance for them.

The U.S. is receding from the forefront of world affairs.  There is no effective leadership.  Tin pot dictators like Russia's Putin, and posturing closet Islamists like Turkey's Erogodan are competing for the role.  I just hope things don't go to hell too fast, so that our next president has a fighting chance to reassert this country's leadership...

The best of Harry Reid...

The best of Harry Reid...  Now there's a sentence I didn't expect I'd ever write!

Ok, he wins...

Ok, he wins ... best ice bucket challenge evah!

Farmers rule!

Think about it...

Think about it...

Barn: initial backfill is complete!

Barn: initial backfill is complete! All the pit run needed is in. Despite our recent rains (over 2" in just the past few days) making a muddy mess of the field, the gravel truck managed to get all the required loads fairly close to the barn's foundation, and the builder shuttled it into the foundation with his loader/backhoe.  In the photo at far right, the builder's son is compacting the backfill down, in preparation for covering it with a layer of fine gravel.  In the other photo, a sprinkler is wetting down the backfill in preparation for that compaction.

The next step is to pour footings for the steel piers that will hold up the center of the roof, along with the second story storage area.  There are two rows of these piers, with three or four (I've forgotten which) piers in each row.  The rows of piers will be topped by a large gluelam beam that in turn will support the interior sections of all the trusses.  This combination of steel and engineered wood is very common these days, thanks to technological innovations in the building industry.  A few decades ago, the choices would have been far more limited – along with far more expensive, and not as strong...

Philae candidate landing sites!

Philae candidate landing sites!  The ESA has released the list of eight candidate landing sites for the Philae lander.  Later this fall, Rosetta will launch Philae for the short trip down to the surface of comet 67P.  As is usual in landing site selection, there's tension between choosing a scientifically interesting site, and a (relatively) safe site.  I don't envy those who must choose...

I recommend RealClearScience...

I recommend RealClearScience...  And this manifesto they've just published nicely sums up why.  The list at the end is in line with my own thinking on a bunch of “controversial” (or at least, unsettled :) science...

Why do I study physics?

Why do I study physics?  Very nicely done!

Triton flyby...

Triton flyby...  The just-released movie at right shows a robotic space explorer's flyby of Triton, Neptune's moon.  If you follow these things, as I do, you might be startled to hear that, as there are currently no explorers anywhere near Neptune!  The movie was made from a collection of still photos taken by Voyager 2, in 1989, as it zoomed past Neptune on its way to interstellar space.  Via APOD, of course...

California leads the way...

California leads the way ... in drunk state Senator driving.  Hueso is from San Diego, not all that far from Jamul...

Once speculation, now admitted...

Once speculation, now admitted...  The U.S. government is now admitting that they do, in fact, have all of Lois Lerner's emails on backup tapes.  They just don't want to take the trouble to retrieve them. 

My, that's very convenient for the (most transparent evah) administration, no?

The Neo-Neocons...

The Neo-Neocons...  This editorial by Bret Stephens, in today's Wall Street Journal, caught my eye both because of the author and the title.  “Neo-Neocon” is one of my favorite blogs; its author is a woman who's gone through a political transformation in part because of the same issues Bret raises in this piece. 

Stephens' piece is focused mainly on a parallel topic: the way that some (many, actually) progressive political figures have changed their attitude toward military intervention against violent fundamentalist Islamic movements.  The emergence of ISIS while Obama was president neatly and cleanly exemplifies this, as Stephens documents...

Why do Nigerian scammers say they're from Nigeria?

Why do Nigerian scammers say they're from Nigeria?  The Nigerian email scams are notorious – the butt of jokes, and everyone knows about them.  So you'd think it would behoove the scammers to stop telling people that they're from Nigeria, wouldn't you?  Au contraire, say researchers at Microsoft: the scammers carefully and intentionally tell you they're from Nigeria.  Why?  Because then they know that any responses they do get are from the tiny percentage of the population that doesn't know about the Nigerian scams...

Seen in the northern Pacific...

Seen in the northern Pacific...  An airline pilot saw these strange lights two days ago, under a thin cloud cover, while flying over the northern Pacific between Alaska and Japan.  He has no idea what they were...

A small step in the right direction...

A small step in the right direction...  The progressive/socialist bastion of Vermont has moved to start treating drug addiction as a health and social problem, instead of as a criminal problem.  It's not the more complete withdrawal from the war on drugs that I'd like to see ... but it's a move away from the war, at least...

Russia is still in denial...

Russia is still in denial...  Ukraine captured Russian soldiers inside Ukraine.  In the face of some rather convincing evidence (including videotaped interrogations of the captured soldiers), Russia has admitted that the soldiers were there – but denies that they're there intentionally.

This is so reminiscent of the verbal games and deceptions employed by Hitler just prior to his invasions of Poland and Czechoslovakia.  We've forgotten the lessons of history, I'm afraid.  Knuckleheads like Putin need to be stopped sooner, not later.  That's not happening, and I am concerned about that...

Really!

Really!  Today's Pepper and Salt, in the Wall Street Journal:

23 years of Linux...

23 years of Linux...  On August 25, 1991, Linus Torvalds made the first announcement of the free, open source operating system Linux.  Torvalds is still the leader of the project, which has now captured a large and growing share of all non-desktop operating systems.  In my recent experience, Linux absolutely dominates the enterprise server market, something that I would never have predicted as recently as ten years ago.  Yesterday Torvalds made a sentimental minor release of Linux, on its 23rd birthday...

Weird flowers...

Weird flowers ... that look like other things, like the Flying Duck Orchid (Caleana major) at right.  Plus, a couple of bugs that look like flowers!  Via my CCPOAA mom...