The Alien Invasion Began Last Night

Ken AshfordScience & TechnologyLeave a Comment

There were strange lights and "booms" from the sky last night, observed from North Carolina to Maryland:

Robert in Sunbury, NC: At 9:38 PM, I watched a meteor cross over Sunbury, NC. It was traveling from the West towards the East. My wife and our friend also saw this event. Very exciting!!!

Diana in Virginia Beach: At around 9:45 pm I was driving, almost to my house and saw the bright streak of light. It lit up the whole area. I thought it was just lightening because it branched out in the sky like lightening. Then I arrived at home, put some stuff in the house and went back out to help my roommate who was bringing stuff into the house too and that's when we both heard the explosion, but honestly, the noise was heard about 15 minutes after I saw the streak. In fact I had just finished telling my roommate that I saw some strange lightening when we heard the explosion. We thought it was fireworks or something. But the noise occurred at least 10-15 minutes after the light. Weird!

Viewer in Corolla, NC: From Corolla about 300 ft from the beach. Light seen shortly after 9:30 PM tonight. Looked like debris, the kind seen on 4th of July. Felt nothing, heard nothing, just saw the bright lite which seemed to explode in the end and disappear.

Sandi in Virginia Beach: I am commenting on the flash seen in the sky, my husband and I heard a big bang and our house shook and both our computers went crazy… all these ads and pop ups showed up and started loading web sites on it's own! One of the computers shut down. i live in virginia Beach in the Great neck area!

No one’s sure what caused last evening’s flashes in the sky.

The National Weather Service said today it has seen no evidence of any naturally occurring phenomenon to explain reports of a bright flash of light in eastern Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.

“Nothing meteorological that we can see,“ said a spokesman at the service’s regional office in Wakefield.

Reports of a bright light and in some places, an explosion-like sound, poured into law-enforcement offices across eastern Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina last night.

Mteorologist Sonia Mark at the National Weather Service’s Wakefield station said last night the phone was “ringing off the hook.“  Suffolk police were looking into “reports of great balls of fire landing on the ground.“

Mark said efforts are under way to determine the source of the disturbance.

All of the reports dealt with incidents that occurred about 9:45 p.m.

One motorist who saw the lights while driving east of the Staples Mill Road exit of Interstate 64 described it as similar to “what falls away from big fireworks” but “much bigger” and “from much higher up.“

Several calls came to Richmond International Airport, but tower personnel did not see anything unusual related to aircraft, airport spokesman Troy Bell said.

“It was very, very bright and lasted less than a second,“ said Richmond resident Jay McNamara, who was returning home with his wife on River Road when they saw an object in the southeastern sky. “It was smaller than the moon and a white or yellow color."

But It Works So Well For Jack Bauer

Ken AshfordWar on Terrorism/TortureLeave a Comment

Right wingnuts must be unhappy to read this:

When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets out of him.
The methods succeeded in breaking him, and the stories he told of al-Qaeda terrorism plots sent CIA officers around the globe chasing leads.
In the end, though, not a single significant plot was foiled as a result of Abu Zubaida's tortured confessions, according to former senior government officials who closely followed the interrogations. Nearly all of the leads attained through the harsh measures quickly evaporated, while most of the useful information from Abu Zubaida — chiefly names of al-Qaeda members and associates — was obtained before waterboarding was introduced, they said.

Funnier/disturbinger still is the revelation that Zubaida, who Bush touted as "al-Qaeda's chief of operations," wasn't even a member of al Qaeda.

My Antipode

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

If I were to dig a hole straight down to the center of the Earth, I would come out in the Indian Ocean, several thousand miles west of Perth, Australia.

Anitpode
Good to know….

Bachmann, Again

Ken AshfordRepublicansLeave a Comment

Matt Yglesias says all that needs to be said, but the bottom line is this: Sen. Michele Bachmann does not see the difference between China making a recommendation about what currency to use as the reserve currency, and the institution of a sinister One World currency, outlawing the dollar.

It was a mistake she made two days ago, when she read about China hoping to switch to a different reserve currency.  You would have thought that someone on her staff, or perhaps someone in the Republican leadership, would have taken her aside and explained to her that she's showing her ignorance.

Making The Classics Better

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

To be released on April 8:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies features the original text of Jane Austen's beloved novel with all-new scenes of bone-crunching zombie action. As our story opens a mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. What ensues is a delightful comedy of manners with plenty of civilized sparring between the two young lovers and even more violent sparring on the blood-soaked battlefield as Elizabeth wages war against hordes of flesh-eating undead.

And you have to love the book jacket, too:

B747_pride_and_prejudice_and_zombies

Today’s Favorite Lede Paragraph Of A News Story

Ken AshfordCrimeLeave a Comment

AP:

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Police in Connecticut say a woman attempting to reconcile with her husband handcuffed herself to him as he slept and then bit him on his torso and arms.

Yeah.  Um.  Yeah.  For some strange reason, her attempt at reconciliation didn't work.

Ok, ok.  Here's the 911 call…

I Salute The Texas School Board

Ken AshfordEducation, Science & TechnologyLeave a Comment

Dallas News:

AUSTIN – In a decision watched by science educators across the nation, the State Board of Education on Thursday narrowly turned aside a last-ditch effort by social conservatives to require that "weaknesses" in the theory of evolution be taught in science classes in Texas.

Board members deadlocked 7-7 on a motion to restore a longtime curriculum rule that "strengths and weaknesses" of all scientific theories – notably Charles Darwin's theory of evolution – be covered in science classes and textbooks for those subjects.

The tie vote upheld a preliminary decision by the board in January to delete the strengths-and-weaknesses rule in the new curriculum standards for science classes that will be in force for the next decade. That decision, if finalized in a last vote today, changes 20 years of Texas education policy.

Because the standards spell out what must be covered in textbooks, science educators and publishers have been monitoring the Texas debate closely. As one of the largest textbook purchasers in the nation, Texas influences what is sold in other states.

The science standards adopted by the board also will figure into questions used on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

Voting for the requirement were the seven Republican board members aligned with social conservative groups. Against the proposal were three other Republicans and four Democrats. Critics of evolution managed to add a few small caveats to the curriculum, but none as sweeping as the strengths-and-weaknesses rule.

It's a tad disconcerting that the vote was so close, but a victory for education is a victory for education.

Utah High School Drama Department Puts On SMUT!!!

Ken AshfordSex/Morality/Family Values1 Comment

Think of the children!  How can we allow our public high schools to put on such raunchy musicals like…… Brigadoon?

Actual letter to the editor:

Dear Editor,

We saw the high school play “Brigadoon” on Saturday.

It was impressive to see all the effort that goes into such a production – it was evident that there was a lot of hard work, from costuming and creating props to memorizing lines and rehearsing music.

With all that effort, it was a great disappointment to discover that the play was not worth seeing. Although there were many fine actors and great music, there was lewd content in this “family entertainment” that prevents us from bringing our children to see it, or from recommending it to others. With out suggestive movements, let alone songs, it could have been so much cleaner and more appropriate. We were saddened that such attitudes and actions would be encouraged among our youth in this way.

Ben and Julie Flake

Indeed.

Below is an excerpt from an old high school production of "Brigadoon" starring a then-unknown Kelly Clarkson.

I've blurred it so that you won't be offended, but it's still probably NSFW.

The Republican Alternative “Budget”

Ken AshfordEconomy & Jobs & Deficit, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Today was the big day where Republicans were going to come out with the alternative budget proposal, because Obama was all like "Oh, yeah?  You got some better ideas??  Let's see them!" and the Republicans were all like "Okay, We will!"

So the only problem with their budget, released this afternoon to much ballyhoo and hype, is that it isn't a budget.  There is an appalling lack of things that make it resemble a budget — not just things like deficit projections, income projections, etc. – but also things like, uh, numbers.

That's right… it's a "budget" with almost no numbers.  I'm no economist, but one would expect a budget to have lots of those.  Shit, even Bush famously said, when he revealed the first budget of his presidency, "It's clearly a budget.  It's got a lot of numbers in it."

So what does the GOP alternative have?  Well, it's 12 pages of generalities, mostly criticizing the Obama budget (things we've heard), and giving bland statements about what the GOP would do better.

They will "undo" the stimulus bill, they say.  I don't know how you do that.  The stimulus has passed and the money is out the door and on the way to states.  But, whatever.  They will under it.

Oh, and they call it a "stimulus" bill — in air quotes.  I guess they don't want to acknowledge that it will stimulate the economy.

What does it offer?  Oh, here's a surprise.  Tax cuts.  Tax cuts.  Mostly for the wealthy.

Predictable.

But best of all, you get helpful graphics like this, explaining the Republican budget considerations for health care.

Repubchart 

That's either a really bad flowchart, or the beginnings of a molecule.

Anyway, it's a bit devoid of specifics.  Kinda like this.

But it ain't no budget.

I Love Michelle Bachman

Ken AshfordCongress, Constitution, Economy & Jobs & Deficit1 Comment

This is why.  She presses Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner on the Constitiutional authority for the Treasury to give out TARP money, apparently not understanding that Congress, of which she is a member, passed a bill which provided not only the TARP money, but the authority of the Treasury to dole it out.

In an interview with after the hearing, Bachmann said, “My intent to the line of questioning is legitimate because I have a number of constituents that ask me ‘Can they do this?’”

Geithner is understandably confused at the stupidness of the question.  It's kind of like asking "Where in the Constitution does it say we have to sit on chairs?" 

Still Geithner answered the question, saying "the laws of the land, of course", which is technically correct.  Article I, Section I grants Congress the right to legislate, and the TARP funds were legislated to give authority to the Treasury.  Article I, Section 8 would have been a good answer, too.

Bachmann also asked if the United States was giving up the dollar. “I’m wondering would you categorically renounce the United States moving away from the dollar and going to a global currency as suggested this morning by China and also by Russia, Mr. Secretary?”

Of course, China and Russia were not advocating a "global currency".  They were merely suggesting that the international community use something other than the dollar as its reserve currency.