government

December 1, 2011

Watching Build It Bigger’s Battle Machines episode, I was reminded of a troubling thing: American “defense contractors” and their subcontractors who have little to no experience and bid on projects that come down to life or death for our soldiers in combat … and call themselves capitalists and patriots. Tweet

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Get Your Energy Soundbites In Order, Folks

October 25, 2011

Before you read on, consider this: Much like with patients and doctors in the case of the healthcare debate, neither folks who have to live in the filth nor those who actually work in the energy industry get a say in the policymaking. In other words, this conversation is held at all the wrong levels. [...]

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Now Showing At Homeland Insecurity Theater

October 18, 2011

Remember when TSA had this program and then cancelled it? Yeah, they’re resurrecting it. I would say Hallelujah but who knows whether it will make it out of the (second) trial? Pilot Starts at Select Airports to Further Enhance Security The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) [on October 4th, 2011] announced that it began testing a [...]

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Words Of Interest

October 11, 2011

In Space Dust: Your Tax Dollars At Work, Boing Boing’s Maggie Koerth-Baker interviews Attila Kovacs, a University of Minnesota astrophysicist. Kovacs is spot on about the cost of doing science and the altered scientific priorities of once-great corporate research labs, and his final words sum up why I support the government funding of science. Basic [...]

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Not Preventing Terrorism, But Preventing Blame

August 19, 2011

After boarding a couple dozen flights in the last few months, I am an old hand at the opt-out and full body pat down. One doesn’t have to be a statistician or a mind-reader to figure out why underpaid TSA hands “randomly” pick me for the millimeter-wave scanner. These workers are so used to passengers robotically [...]

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Reverse Boot Camp

August 5, 2011

From Bloomberg: President Barack Obama is proposing expanding tax credits and a “reverse boot camp” to help veterans find jobs and adjust to civilian life as part of an effort to curb veteran unemployment. I hear “Reverse Boot Camp” and this recent Oatmeal graphic is all I see. I’d make a great drill instructor. Tweet

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This Week In Online Absurdity

July 21, 2011

Never mind that Swartz is a researcher, JSTOR makes it difficult for users to download articles to which they have rightful access and the government (your taxpayer money) pays for much of the research that ends up in journals not made available to you. Culture is anti-rivalrous as the great Nina Paley likes to point [...]

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Texan Whiplash

July 15, 2011

Yesterday’s Houston Chronicle: Texas’ main electric grid operator is warning customers to reduce their usage during the peak power demand hours of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. today as high temperatures and unexpected power plant outages will stretch supplies. Today on Capitol Hill: An amendment from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) defunding the Energy Department’s standards for [...]

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