Big Bang Discovery Opens Doors to the "Multiverse"
Gravitational waves rippling through the aftermath of the cosmic fireball, physicists suggest, point to us inhabiting a multiverse, a universe filled with many universes...
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
That means... one tiny atom... in my fingernail could be like... could be one little... tiny universe!?!
FORMER PENTAGON INSPECTOR GENERAL: Obama Administration Riddled With Deceit
Yes, government waste, fraud and abuse are the triplet children of incompetence, greed and unbridled ambition.

Joseph E. Schmitz, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Defense, says the Obama administration doesn’t like watchdogs looking at it.
Schmitz, who served as inspector general of the U.S. Department of Defense from 2002-05, in an interview with Watchdog.org said, “no political party has a monopoly on waste, fraud and abuse and corruption.”
But he said he has seen some troubling patterns of deceit in the Obama administration.
Exhibit A, according to the attorney: Benghazi.
“I still represent whistleblowers, and I see the people in this current administration just blatantly lying — lying to American citizens, lying about people trying to redress grievances,” Schmitz said. “These huge scandals start with dishonesty.”
Conservatives have been critical of the Obama administration’s handling of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, an assault that killed four Americans — including a U.S. ambassador.
A Senate Intelligence Committee report released in January criticized the Hillary Clinton-led U.S. State Department and the intelligence community for not preventing the attacks.
The long-delayed bipartisan report asserts the State Department failed to increase security, although it had been repeatedly warned to do so, and it faulted intelligence agencies for not sharing information.
“The attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya — to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets — and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the panel said in a statement.
The report was released a year after Clinton, in aggravation at a Senate committee hearing on Benghazi, asked U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., “What difference does it make?”
“Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night and decided they’d go kill some Americans,” Clinton said. “What difference — at this point, what difference does it make?”
Schmitz, like myriad other conservatives, said the State Department’s actions, or lack thereof, made a big difference in the outcome of the attacks.
“From my standpoint, whoever wrote those fallacious talking points that (then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations) Susan Rice repeated to citizens in government, those blatantly dishonest talking points that were propagated by senior officials. And nobody has been held accountable,” the former inspector general said.
Larwyn's Linx: We Trashed The Health System For A Supposed 5 Million Enrollments?
Nation
We Trashed The Health System For A Supposed 5 Million Enrollments?: RWNThe San Francisco Democrats Finally Rule the Roost: Erick Erickson
Obama To Stab Backs of Military Again By Reducing Pensions 10%: CFP
Romney Shreds Obama’s Failed Leadership, White House Butthurt Ensues: JWF
Democrat Bullies Against School Choice: Betsy McCaughey
Spring Clean Government: John Stossel
Obama rewrote FOIA to suppress politically sensitive docs: Mark Tapscott
New York Protestors Burn “Assault Weapon” Registration Forms: Bob Owens
The Taste of Crow: Christian Mercenary
Economy
Report: Premiums rising faster than 8 years before Obamacare combined: DCThe UAW against democracy, free speech in Chattanooga: DC
Liesman: Dumb and Dumber: Karl Denninger
A $1.2 Tril Corporate Welfare State Lurks In U.S. Budget: IBD
Is there wage stagnation?: Walter Williams
Fast-food protests hit Chicago as workers target 'wage theft': ChiBiz
Scandal Central
Obama’s Latest De Facto Amnesty and the Push to Delegitimate Deportation: Heather Mac DonaldGuess what Obama is telling Hispanics in order to get them to sign up for Obamacare?: YoungCons
SEIU Hit With Second-Biggest Campaign Finance Fine in Michigan History: WFB
The Joke's on Us: Cold Fury
Patriot Lawsuit Demands Money From IRS: WND
License To Wait: CA Conceal Carry Applicants Told to Wait Two Years: TR
Climate & Energy
Lawsuit Challenges Use Of Endangered Species To Stop Energy Boom: IBDArctic blast coming to Eastern US: coldest opening to calendar spring in at least 50 years?: WUWT
Which Gov’t Agency Is Becoming an ‘Organ to Play the Music of Karl Marx’?: Blaze
Media
ABC's 'Nightline' Skipped ObamaCare for 123 Days, Gossips Over 'Bootleg Butt Injections': NBThe End of Obama’s Presidency? : Keith Koffler
Obama Hasn’t Changed Since Columbia University: Blaze
World
Is Hillary Clinton on the Missing Malaysian Airlines 777?: Erick EricksonTop Russian laughs at US sanctions, calls Obama a ‘prankster’: BPR
Russia formally moves to swallow Crimea: USA Today
Snowden Marks Russia's Aggression by Disclosing Another American Intel Operation : PJM
Boeing Believes Flight MH370 Is In Taliban Territory in Pakistan: Sara Noble
What if MH370 was (mistakenly or purposely) shot down?: Aviationist
Obama Retracts Jewish Identity of Israel: Leo Rennert
Did Russian Intelligence Promote Obama from Lieutenant to Colonel?: Oleg Atbashian
The Brand New, And Shocking, Third Largest Foreign Holder Of US Treasurys: ZH
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
Target Breach: Where The Weak Points Were: Dave KearnsSharing what’s up our sleeve: Android coming to wearables: Official Android
A Closer Look at the Cisco-Google Alliance: NoJitter
Cornucopia
“Obama wants people to quit bashing his jeans”: Protein WisdomOf Friendly Lawsuits and Potemkin Protests: Ed Driscoll
MH370: Hiding in Plain Sight?: Winter Soldier
Image: Chris Floyd: Car Trouble: Tarnished Icons and Imaginary Friends
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: FreePAC Kentucky - April 5th, 2014
QOTD: "Sanctions and modest help to the Syrian rebels have failed to halt the slaughter; if anything, the killing worsened as negotiations dragged on. The White House was taken by surprise by Vladimir Putin's decisions to invade Crimea, but also by China's increasingly assertive declaration of exclusive rights to airspace and barren islands. Neither the economic pressure nor the cyberattacks that forced Iran to reconsider its approach have prevented North Korea's stealthy revitalization of its nuclear and missile programs. In short, America's adversaries are testing the limits of America's post-Iraq, post-Afghanistan moment." --New York Times
Bonus QOTD: "As if Bracket Week wasn't a natural distraction as is, now Quicken Loans has decided to offer a billion dollars -- well, a half billion up front, or a bunch of millions every year thereafter — for a perfect bracket.
The odds of you picking a perfect bracket are roughly one in 9 quintillion, and no, I'm not making that up. As David Sarno puts it, "If all 317 million people in the U.S. filled out a bracket at random, you could run the contest for 290 million years, and there'd still be a 99 percent chance that no one had ever won." Then again, if you just end up with one of the twenty most accurate brackets in the Quicken Loan contest, you get $100,000, and that's not bad." --Jim Geraghty
DEMOCRATS AND THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT ALLY TO CRUSH CONSERVATIVES: Part One of a Three Part Series
Series Abstract: Karl Rove’s targeting of Michigan Congressman Justin Amash as “the most liberal Republican” in Congress signals the GOP Establishment’s plan to cull out the most conservative Republican office-holders from the GOP herd. The bipartisan nature of that effort is illustrated in the Democrat funding behind the (Republican) Main Street led by former nine-term Republican Congressman Steve LaTourette.
Part I: The GOP Establishment targets Tea Party candidates for defeat
The tension between the conservative and moderate wings of the Republican Party that began soon after the 2010 midterm elections has now escalated to open political warfare.
In the run-up to the 2012 elections, the conflict was largely clandestine, with the exception of the dust-ups surrounding a few Republican Senatorial candidates, including Todd Akin of Missouri and Christine O’Donnell of Delaware.
But, in 2012, other largely unreported scraps between the GOP Establishment and Tea Party-friendly candidates happened at the county, state and national levels of the Republican Party apparatus. A Tea Party website prominent in Texas documented several of those engagements in Michigan, Texas, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and in Western and Eastern states.
Now, as the 2014 midterm elections approach, the tension between the dueling wings of the GOP has advanced into open political warfare, in large part thanks to Karl Rove.
Back in August 2012, we asked here: “Who appointed Bush’s Architect the GOP Gatekeeper?” We can now answer that question: Significant business interests that push their candidate preferences with political donations, often to Political Action Committees (PACs) and Super PACs, coupled with the lobbying efforts of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Along those battle lines, The Hill reported on November 10, 2013 that, “Business leaders [referring to seven persons in Grand Rapids, MI] are plotting to take down Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) as part of a broader effort to punish lawmakers over the government shutdown.”
In reality, though, the issue isn’t the government shutdown. It’s about national governing ideology and raw political power.
The video clip below is from the 2013 Aspen Ideas Festival last June where Rove targeted Michigan (3rd Dis.) Republican Congressman Justin Amash for defeat in 2014. Four months later, in mid-October 2013, a GOP Establishment-backed candidate surfaced to challenge Amash.
Rove Transcript: “National Journal put out its ratings of the most liberal-to-conservative Republican: The most liberal Republican is Justin Amash of Michigan. Far more liberal than any other Republican. And why? Because he is a one-hundred present purist Libertarian. And if it’s not entirely perfect, I’m voting with Nancy Pelosi, which is how he gets up with all these liberal ratings. I vote ‘No’ because unless my side has something that’s completely one-hundred percent perfect, I’m voting with the bad guys.”
So, according to Rove, Amash is an oxymoron – a liberal libertarian. Like a jumbo shrimp.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
DEMOCRAT LAWMAKER: Vermont's single-payer health care system will destroy the state
BURLINGTON, Vt. – In 2011, while the rest of America argued the merits of the president’s Affordable Care Act, Vermont jumped the progressive curve, promising to launch the nation’s first health single-payer system, in which state government pays providers to care for all residents.
Now, even Democrats say that plan, called Green Mountain Care, isn’t ready for its proposed 2017 rollout, and Rep. Jim Condon told Vermont Watchdog it’s time for Gov. Peter Shumlin to shelve the ambitious plan immediately.“The deadlines for proposing financing have been missed two years in a row now, so to me that’s very disappointing. It’s becoming clearer and clearer that there is no financing plan,” Condon told Vermont Watchdog.
As Vermont Watchdog reported, an independent report by the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Avalere Health concluded that the costs of Green Mountain Care would require Vermont to raise tax revenue roughly equal to the state’s tax collections from all sources today.
Condon, a Democrat from Colchester, said he thinks a single-payer system in Vermont would “cost more” than a couple of previous estimates. Those estimates pegged the cost for single-payer at anywhere from $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion annually.
“It’s a government program [so] I think it’s going to cost more than that. Given that, I think it would be in the best interest of Vermonters to redirect our energies away from single-payer health care to trying to improve the system we’re in now,” Condon added.
WARMAL COLDING TO SLAM U.S. AGAIN NEXT WEEK: Coldest Opening to Spring in at Least 50 Years
I've done a lot of reading and research over the years on "global warming", "climate change", or whatever it is they're calling it these days.Another massive cold wave headed for Eastern US next week to put temperature 20 degrees below normal
Senior WeatherBell Meteorologist Joe Bastardi commented:
I am 58.. never seen anything close to this for late March... [The] pattern next week has as much extreme potential for the time of the year as I can find. Coldest opening to calender spring in 50 yrs at least.
Weather forecast models such as the ECMWF and NCEP, both of which have had good track records this year in identifying polar vortex outbreaks in advance, are now forecasting a massive cold blast for the beginning of spring...
It's a scam, plain and simple. It's a conspiracy by the United Nations (in the form of its highly conflicted IPCC panel) to control huge swaths of the world economy. I liken it to the U.N.'s criminal "Oil for Food" program, only on a much grander scale.
As far as I can tell, the people promoting this fraud are either Marxist radicals, deluded drones, or scientists looking for government handouts.
And if I ever see Al Gore on the street...
Misunderstanderers of Islam call for car bombs in U.S. cities
A section entitled “Open Source Jihad” asserts it is a “resource manual for those who loathe the tyrants; includes bomb-making techniques, security measures, guerrilla tactics, weapons training and all other jihad related activities.” As with previous messages, the section continues to encourage jihadists to conduct local operations as opposed to assuming risk via overseas travel.
The section on "Car Bombs Inside America" states, “Inspire Magazine's goal is to empower Muslim youth. And what is empowerment without being strong, powerful and intelligent? In this section, we give you strength, power and intelligence. Believe me, using car bombs gives you all that. It is absolutely simple. And we will make it simpler for you, biidhnillāh (meaning: by Allah’s [God’s] will), so that every Muslim, who loves Allāh and His Messenger, and wants to accelerate Islam's victory, becomes prepare to make, even if this is the first military mate- rial his eyes has set on. This recipe gives you the ability to make a car bomb even in countries with tight security and surveillance. The reason is: primary materials easily available and they do not raise suspicion. These materials are not explosives in nature. But after you have assemble and prepare them, they become a bomb ready for destruction, biidhnillāh. This type of car bomb is not usually used to destroy buildings, but is very effective in killing individuals. The merit of this method is that you can prepare a car bomb in a few hours during the availability of the primary materials. So there is less worry about your personal security.”
A section captioned “Car Bomb Field Data” states, "Choosing the place and time is a crucial factor to success in any operation. Choose targets in your own country. You know the enemy better, you are within. We will point out some general and specific targets as an example.” Identifying “general targets,” the segment continues, “America is our first target, followed by United Kingdom, France and other crusader countries. As for the field target for the car-bomb, you have places flooded with individuals, e.g. sports events in which tens of thousands attend, election campaigns, festivals and other gathering. The important thing is that you target people and not buildings.” The section then lists specific target areas within the US, UK and France.
Larwyn's Linx: Western Arrogance and Decline
Nation
Western Arrogance and Decline: Bruce ThorntonAn annotated chart about why Presidential approval ratings matter: Moe Lane
For President Obama, It's Lonely at the Bottom: Stephen Green
Hundreds of Gun Registration Forms Burned In Protest: MenRec
Convicted al-Qaida spy works for IRS: Allen West
Chinese Outsmart Mexicans In Prop. 209 Struggle: Steve Sailer
Make Democrats Pay for Obamacare and Obamanomics: David Limbaugh
Facts and Factions: Thomas Sowell
Rick Perry Fail: Throws Support Behind Mitch McConnell: Times
Economy
Premiums up 39%-56% under Obamacare, $2,604/mo. in Cali: ExamVermont Single Payer System: Taxes to Double: Daniel Greenfield
Obamacare Is Dying? It Never Lived: Karl Denninger
East Baton Rouge School System Basically A Criminal Conspiracy: HayRide
Current Job Market for Teens is the Toughest on Record: United
Democrats Must Run on Obamacare in November: Daily Beast
Scandal Central
Police Point Guns At People At Massive I-270 Road Block: OutcastPa. AG shuts down corruption sting when too many fellow Dems caught redhanded: Unyielding
Gun store thanks supporters after raid: ‘We’re not down on our knees begging for mercy’: BPR
Climate & Energy
Wow, even MSM reporters want to see Michael Mann’s UVa emails now: WUWT“Unusually Late” Winter Storm Buries D.C.: Cove
NASA: Earth Is Going To Burn By 2099: Cove
Media
How Mainstream Media Pretends U.S. Finances Are Improving: OutcastThe Obama administration wishes to wreck your quiet enjoyment of March Madness: Moe Lane
Mark Levin SCHOOLS intolerant atheist caller: Scoop
Networks Ignore Latest North Korean Missile Launches; Cover Fashion Designer's Death: MRC
Nitwit Stupak: I got double-crossed on the contraception mandate: Hot Air
Nate Silver on the Launch of ESPN’s New FiveThirtyEight, Burritos, and Being a Fox: Joe Coscarelli
World
Plot by Islamic jihadists to hijack passenger jet may relate to missing airliner: JihadWatchPilot of the Missing Flight Was a Follower of a Jew-Hater, Israel Tightens Security: Sara Noble
Finally, A Plausible Scenario Of What Happened To Flight 370: ZH
Homeland Security Chair: Missing Plane May be in Hands of Terrorists: CNS
Vladimir Putin and the Lessons of 1938: Garry Kasparov
Crimea Vote: 123% Turnout: TR
Virginia Honors 9/11 Mosque: IBD
‘Many Feisal Shahzads are residing inside America…yearing to fulfill duty of jihad’: Creeping
Isolated Hamas Contemplates Returning to Iran's Orbit: IPT
Air Force sacks two commanders in Europe: Adam L. Mathis
Sheriff in Virginia tells CAIR to take their friggin' $15,000 bribe and shove it: LibertarianRepublican
Navy SEALs board mystery tanker Morning Glory near Cyprus. No one hurt, Pentagon says.: WaPo
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
Facebook's working on facial verification that's 'nearing human-level performance': VergeiHear Wants To Make Personalized Hearing Aids Available For Everyone: TC
Astronomers Discover First Direct Proof of the Big Bang Expansion: Gizmodo
Cornucopia
“CriMeA” River: MOTUSThe Empire Strikes Back Against Tattooed Cruz: Moonbattery
AP Study: The Least Transparent Administration: TR
Image: Vladimir Putin and the Lessons of 1938
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: FreePAC Kentucky - April 5th, 2014
QOTD: "… the op-ed columnists at the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal are probably the most hedgehoglike people. They don’t permit a lot of complexity in their thinking. They pull threads together from very weak evidence and draw grand conclusions based on them. They’re ironically very predictable from week to week. If you know the subject that Thomas Friedman or whatever is writing about, you don’t have to read the column. You can kind of auto-script it, basically.
It’s people who have very strong ideological priors, is the fancy way to put it, that are governing their thinking. They’re not really evaluating the data as it comes in, not doing a lot of [original] thinking. They’re just spitting out the same column every week and using a different subject matter to do the same thing over and over.
It’s ridiculous to me that they undermine every value that these organizations have in their newsrooms. It’s strange. I know it’s cheaper to fund an op-ed columnist than a team of reporters, but I think it confuses the mission of what these great journalistic brands are about." --Nate Silver
Monday, March 17, 2014
OH, MERCY: Democrats Retaliate Against Tattooed Cruz Poster!
OH, MERCY: Democrats Retaliate Against Tattooed Cruz Poster! @AdamBaldwin @MelissaTweets #WhatIsSeenCannotBeUnseen pic.twitter.com/XqsZ7iw6za
— Doug Ross (@directorblue) March 18, 2014Related: The Empire Strikes Back
PATHETIC: Rick Perry Endorses Mitch McConnell
Texas Gov. Rick Perry threw his support behind U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell on Saturday, telling 300 fellow Republicans that the minority leader will win re-election.
McConnell finds himself in a GOP primary fight with wealthy businessman Matt Bevin, who attended the event but wasn’t allowed to speak.
“I love the number six,” Perry told the crowd at the Lincoln Reagan Dinner of West Kentucky. “Sam Houston was 6 foot 6 inches tall. And Mitch McConnell is going to be in his sixth term as United States senator.”
Hey, Rick: isn't 30 freaking years enough?
Isn't 30 years of Beltway banditry including a track record of duplicity, support for Amnesty, and outright hatred of conservatism sufficient?
I've got a better idea.
I say we fire the hapless, feckless, unprincipled, marble-mouthed Mitch McConnell, a man who absolutely loathes Reagan conservatives and who possesses all the charisma and eloquence of a wilted shrub.
It's time for a Kentucky conservative. I support Matt Bevin for Senate. I hope you will too.
RED SCREEN OF DEATH: White House Plans to Turn Over Control of Internet to Totalitarian Regimes
Error 404: U.S. officials plan to relinquish federal control over the administration of the Internet to something called the "global Internet community," which is full of tyrants to whom the free flow of information is a threat.
In the wake of the NSA surveillance scandal, some might not be inclined to defend federal involvement in anything related to the flow of information between individuals.But the decision announced Friday by the Commerce Department to give up next year its oversight of Icann, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, to the "global Internet community" is a bad idea.
Under a Commerce Department contract, Icann has issued domain names since 2000. But the Los Angeles-based nonprofit has worked, encouraged by states and groups not necessarily dedicated to free expression, to transform itself into a global organization free of U.S. ties.
Since at least 2004, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has tried repeatedly to wrest power from Icann. During a meeting in Dubai last year, the ITU, the telecom branch of the United Nations, demanded rules governing the Internet be rewritten. It proposed inspection authority that would allow it to monitor and censor otherwise encrypted content on the Internet.
"Most Transparent Administration Ever" Rejected Record Number Of Freedom of Information Requests
One upon a time everyone got a hearty chuckle when Obama declared, on the very first day of his ascension to the throne, that his administration would be the "most transparent in history." And if they didn't then, they certainly will now following news that it is none other than Obama's own administration - made infamous for spying on everyone who uses electronic communication courtesy of one whistleblower - that it has refused a record number of Freedom of Information (don't laugh) requests on the basis of, drumroll, national security. So between the NSA, whose job is to ensure national security, and all those pesky meddlesome investigators, whose only curiosity is to peek behind the secrecy of the Obama administration, there should be precisely zero acts of terrorism on US soil. Like last year's Boston bombing for example. Oh wait...
From AP:
The Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.
The administration cited more legal exceptions it said justified withholding materials and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. Most agencies also took longer to answer records requests, the analysis found.
The government's own figures from 99 federal agencies covering six years show that half way through its second term, the administration has made few meaningful improvements in the way it releases records despite its promises from Day 1 to become the most transparent administration in history...
...Last year, the government denied 6,689 out of 7,818 requests for so-called expedited processing, which moves an urgent request for newsworthy records to the front of the line for a speedy answer, or about 86 percent. It denied only 53 percent of such requests in 2008.
The U.S. spent a record $420 million answering requests plus just over $27 million in legal disputes, and charged people $4.3 million to search and copy documents. The government waived fees about 58 percent of the time that people asked, a 1 percent improvement over the previous year.
Sometimes, the government said it searched and couldn't find what citizens wanted.
And yes, if you were wondering, the government did spend thousands on "How to Google... for Idiots" classes for its employees.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose top official has testified to Congress repeatedly about NSA surveillance programs disclosed by contractor Edward Snowden, told the AP it couldn't find any records or emails in its offices asking other federal agencies to be on the lookout for journalists to whom Snowden provided classified materials. British intelligence authorities had detained one reporter's partner for nine hours at Heathrow airport and questioned him under terrorism laws. DNI James Clapper has at least twice publicly described the reporters as "accomplices" to Snowden, who is charged under the U.S. Espionage Act and faces up to 30 years in prison.
Likewise, Cook, departing as the editor at Gawker, was exasperated when the State Department told him it couldn't find any emails between journalists and Philippe Reines, Hillary Clinton's personal spokesman when Clinton was secretary of state. BuzzFeed published a lengthy and profane email exchange about the 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi between Reines and its correspondent, Michael Hastings.
"They said there were no records," Cook said of the State Department.
The snide tone in the AP piece is amusing: it is almost as if the AP thinks it is justified in its berating of America's most totalitarian regime. One would almost think the AP had scores of its phone lines tapped directly by the Department of Justice. Oh wait, we did it again.
Larwyn's Linx: The Worst Is Yet to Come
Nation
The Worst Is Yet to Come: Ed LaskyThe Mafiaization Of American Politics: Bob Belvedere
Slip Sliding Away...: Derek Hunter
*More* Democratic House retirements this week?: Moe Lane
Obama makes "ideological declaration of war" against private schools: John Lott
US foreign policy and midterm elections: Rich Baehr
Connecticut: We’re Not Winning the War: TTAG
Gun Confiscation: Organized, Sanctioned Terrorism: Christian Mercenary
No Knock Police Raids: NoisyRm
TV Station Exposes Voter Fraud in Florida: RWN
The Chicago Way: Buying the IL-8 Congressional District: Clash
Kaifesh accuses Goel supporters of vote-buying: Illinois Review
Economy
Cali Owes $1 Trillion But Wants to Give Illegals Free Healthcare: Sara NobleCommon Core kindergarten math homework stumps DAD WITH Ph.D.: DC
Groups sue CA Gov. Brown over mortgage settlement funds: LAT
Scandal Central
Does the White House Know How Many People Have Paid Obamacare Premiums?: Peter SudermanFast and Furious echoes in CIA-Senate fight: Politico
Democrat’s Nazi salute at meeting causes outrage in FL: media omits party affiliation: BPR
Warrant application shows Ares Armor referenced in wider investigation: David Codrea
NSA’s Phone Data Collection Program May ID Who Owns Firearms: GSL
Gun control supporters turn to new front: Ben Goad
Climate & Energy
U.S. Energy, the Ukraine, and Russia: Alan CarubaSurprise! Warmist Wants “Denier” Scientists Jailed: Cove
EPA chief criticized for remarks about Interior Alaska: News-Miner
Media
Feminists and Their Vaginas; Also, Guess Who’s Talking About ‘Forced Procreation’?: R.S. McCainThe real reason the Blagojevich tapes won’t be unsealed: IP2P
Clinton White House memo: Doctors irrational for resisting health reform and are greedy: DailyMail
Onward into the Night: Fred on Everything
An Obama Shirt Goes Up in Flames: MB
‘This is brilliant!’ David Limbaugh shares Obama administration ‘scandal brackets’: Twitchy
World
Pro-Russian rioters kill and maim Ukrainians in Donetsk: CubeObama Fails To Attend National Security Meeting Over Ukraine…Again: WZ
McCain: ‘Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country’: DC
Russian TV Host: Russia Only Country Cabable of Turning US into “Radioactive Dust”: GWP
Watching the Russians... Off Florida's Coast: Information Dissemination
West: Obama Thinks “Beards, Turbans, and Hijabs” More Important Than Vets: Scoop
Obama Admin. Admits Contact with Terrorists - to ‘Support People of Egypt’: PJM
The Israelis Understand Obama: Keith Koffler
Israeli doctor: Syrian snipers deliberately paralyzing children: Times of Israel
Oberlin College Prof Threatened by Muslim Colleague: CI
Chilling Video - Maduro's Venezuelan National Guard Abduct HS Girls Off The Street: JoshuaPundit
Fidel Obama?: Gorges' Grouse
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
Ex-Bush admin official: Internet giveaway weakens cybersecurity, opens door to Web tax: DCUS Navy Strategists Have a Long History of Finding the Lost: Slashdot
Hijacked Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 shadowed other airliners to escape detection?: Aviationist
Cornucopia
REVEALED: The Face(book) Behind The Mysterious Ted Cruz Posters!: Caleb HoweMexican Drug Lord home after being raided: imgur
If We Ban Bossy, Will They Take Their HOPE and CHANGE and Go Away?: MOTUS
Image: Lauren Conrad
Sponsored by: Want to fire John Boehner? Support conservative J.D. Winteregg.
QOTD: "If you hate the sexism that comes with women fielding the sorts of questions that men simply don’t even have to confront, then this gif is for you.
Lauren Conrad of past “Laguna Beach” fame (but has since totally made it on her own as a clothing designer and editor of the ever-informative self-named website) totally takes a big step forward for females who are so over society’s inclination towards treating women like sexualized objects, incapable of any additional value.
When asked the question, “What’s your favorite position?” during a radio interview, Conrad barely bats an eye (and certainly doesn’t take the opportunity to treat the Q&A sesh as some ongoing Cosmopolitan quiz).
Instead, she responds: CEO." --Acculturated
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Crowd-sourcing website Tomnod.com lets users search for missing flight
In the unusual case of the missing Flight 370, [mapping firm] DigitalGlobe is gathering as much human-created data as possible through the crowdsourcing model.
"On Tomnod.com, any person can go and just look at photos in the grid, and you're supposed to flag anything that looks interesting," Hardman said. "The problem is, humans can see lots of things, but they might not always be the right things. For example, someone may see something they think is unusual, but it's really just some floating garbage or a whitecap wave that may look a little suspicious.
"So what [DigitalGlobe] does is get the input of many thousands of people, run it through big data filters on the back end that say things like: 'Are there areas of the Indian Ocean where a lot of people have flagged an item of interest?' They then do cluster analysis on that. Then, experts in search-and-rescue may say, 'There's a hot spot, go fly over this.'"
As of 2 p.m. Pacific time March 15, the free-to-use Tomnod.com site indicated that 421,338 photos -- each showing an area about 1,000 to 2,000 feet wide of the Indian Ocean -- have been produced and entered into the analytics engine... "I don't know what size grid that ends up being, but it's a wide, wide area of the western side of the search," Hardman said.
As of March 15, the search was still on, with many thousands of human eyes -- and a very high-powered photo/data analytics engine -- trying to solve the mystery of the missing airliner.
Rather than using brute force crowd-sourcing, the U.S. Navy has an excellent track record of employing a diverse team of experts to find the lost:
...naval strategists have been unraveling lost-at-sea mysteries as far back as the U-boat battles of World War II, and perhaps most dramatically in 1968, when an intelligence team found the submarine Scorpion, which sank in the North Atlantic after losing contact under equally baffling circumstances. "The same approach we used with Scorpion could be applied in this case and should be," says John P. Craven who helped pioneer the use of Bayesian search techniques to locate objects lost at sea.
... forecasters draw on expertise from diverse but relevant areas — in the case of finding a submarine, say, submarine command, ocean salvage, and oceanography experts, as well as physicists and engineers. Each would make an educated guess as to where the ship is, based on different scenarios: the sub was attacked; a torpedo activated onboard; a battery exploded. Craven's work was instrumental in the Navy's search for the missing hydrogen bomb that had been lost in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain in 1966 and this is how Craven located the Scorpion. "I knew these guys and I gave probability scores to each scenario they came up with," says Craven. The men bet bottles of Chivas Regal to keep matters interesting, and after some statistical analysis, Craven zeroed in on a point about 400 miles from the Azores, near the Sargasso Sea. The sub was found about 200 yards away.
One can only hope and pray that the plane is found and that the passengers are safe.
Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News
As Obama fine-tunes his NCAA brackets, Russian state television is showing mushroom clouds
Ominous: Russian state TV invoking mushroom clouds RT @lauraphylmills pic.twitter.com/EASS9eGa1K #Ukraine
— greg white (@whitegl) March 16, 2014To repeat: "Obama Did Not Attend The Meeting."
Larwyn's Linx: "Obama Did Not Attend The Meeting"
Nation
"Obama Did Not Attend The Meeting": Tyler DurdenSchumer to GOP: Pass Amnesty or Dictator Obama Will do it Anyway: TPNN
Dems Panicked About 2014: William Bigelow, Breitbart
Events Are Coming To A Head: Federale
The 2016 Candidate the Media Has Forgotten About: Rick Jensen
Rand Paul Gets It: Michael Reagan
Looking at the current 2014 Senate map.: Moe Lane
Dumbass CT Governor unaware Constitution isn't up for a vote: Intellihub
Mike Lee Endorses Dan Bongino In MD 6 Congressional Race: CHQ
Economy
Dependency Uber Alles: Tom BlumerUAW’s King Responds To VW Employees’ Federal Lawsuit: LUR
Every Chart You Should Be Tracking But Were Too Afraid To Find: ZH
Scandal Central
Issa to Cummings: You’re wrong. We can hold Lois Lerner in contempt: DCIssa: Cummings an ‘Obstacle to Congressional Oversight’ in IRS Probe: TPNN
DOJ Now Actively Promoting Vote Fraud in Florida: WZ
BREAKING: Ares Armor Raided by ATF: TTAG
Former NSA Official: We Are in a Police State: VictoryGirls
HHS: Insurers’ Coverage For Same-Sex Couples Must Match Traditional Marriages: WaPo
Media
AP Writes Dishonestly of Pro-Choice Rally; Stealth Corrects Later: AceObama: The Selective Promise Keeper: MOTUS
"Hide Your Schools, Hide Your Homes, Hide Your Children, Cause He's Wrecking it All": HySci
NY Times: Democrats Worried About Obama Factor: RWN
Ms. Magazine Runs Mock Cover Highlighting Child Brides in Islam: DC Clothesline
A Furious Chris Matthews Calls on Dems to 'Scare,' 'Anger' Liberal Base: 'Time to Attack': NB
World
Malaysia Jet Reminder: Terrorism Is not Dead: Walter Russell MeadPilots become focus of Malaysia Airlines investigation: Fox
Al-Qaeda Calls for Car Bomb Attacks on American Cities, Targets Abroad: Breitbart
Frightened by Kerry "Ultimatum," Russian Troops Move out of Crimea... into Ukraine: DiploMad
Dumbest John Kerry Statement Ever: Paul Mirengoff
Israeli officials slam Kerry for remarks on Jewish state recognition: JPost
Ukraine or Russia? Crimea votes in controversial referendum on its future: EuroNews
Vote to join Russia could leave Crimea without water, electricity: Fox
Because There Is Absolutely Nothing Else We Need To Be Concerned With at the Moment: Ricochet
Sci-Tech (courtesy BadBlue Tech News)
This Will Be The Only Chair You’ll Ever Need To Stay Fit At Work: Hello BeautifulGlassholes: at least you know who they are: Stephen Shankland
US Surrenders Control of the Internet to the Global Community: Sara Noble
Cornucopia
Sunday morning feel good story: This Ain't HellAOSHQ Food Pyramid: Ace
"Asian-American Backlash" Over Affirmative Action In California: Steve Sailer
Image: Photo says it all about US-Russia relations. Amb. Samantha Power at UN
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Happy with John Boehner? Support conservative J.D. Winteregg.
QOTD: "Silly talk and posturing, the making of grand-sounding statements, and drawing erasable "red lines" all have consequences. One, of course, is that Russia is not likely to undo its actions in Crimea. The Russians, furthermore, have sanction-like weapons of their own such as the messing about with US banks and debt noted above, but not limited only to that. They are major suppliers of gas to Europe and in the past have shown a willingness to interrupt supplies for political purposes.
So while we gut our military, refuse to buy Canadian oil, or become energy independent and a major supplier of energy to Europe, we prattle on and on about sanctions and international law and solidarity with the Syrian opposition Ukraine. As noted before, we could neutralize Russia's leverage in the world very swiftly, without ever mentioning the word "sanctions." That, however, requires something we do not have, to wit, patriotic, committed, focused, and decisive leadership.
We have Obama." --W. Lewis Amselem
Saturday, March 15, 2014
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, ILLUSTRATED: The EPA and DDT
References:
• DDT: Genocide in Green
• DDT: Rachel Carson's Deadly Fantasies
19 Signs That the American Consumer is Tapped Out
You can't get blood out of a rock. Traditionally the United States has had a consumer-driven economy, but now years of declining incomes and rising debts are really starting to catch up with us. In order to have an economy that is dependent on consumer spending, you need to have a large middle class. Unfortunately, the U.S. middle class is steadily shrinking, and unless that trend is reversed we are going to see massive economic changes in this country. For example, in poor neighborhoods all over America we are seeing bank branches, car dealerships and retail stores close down at an alarming rate. If you didn't know better, you might be tempted to think that "Space Available" was the hottest new retailer in some areas of the nation. On the other hand, if you live in San Francisco, New York City or Washington D.C., things are pretty good for the moment. But as a whole, the condition of the U.S. consumer continues to decline. Incomes are going down, the cost of living is going up, and debts are skyrocketing. The following are 19 signs that the U.S. consumer is tapped out...
#1 Real disposable income per capita continues to fall. In the fourth quarter of 2012, it was sitting at $37,265. By the time that the fourth quarter of 2013 had come around, it had dropped to $36,941. That means that average Americans have less money to go shopping with than they did previously.
#2 In January, real disposable income in the U.S. experienced the largest year over year decline that we have seen since 1974.
#3 As disposable income decreases, major retailers are closing thousands of stores all over the country. Some are even calling this "a retail apocalypse".
#4 From September 2013 to January 2014, the personal saving rate in the United States dropped by a staggering 16 percent.



















