When questioned by Congress, Donald Rumsfeld today upped his estimate of the cost of Iraqi occupation to $3.9 billion per month, double the previous estimates. To put that in perspective, $4 billion dollars would pay the monthly salaries of one million teachers.
Oh, and that doesn’t include reconstruction costs. Of course not.
The Washington Post has a well-written article on suppressing the work of a grad student because it might compromise national security. The twist here is that the student is reorganizing publicly-available data using mapping techniques. Nothing proprietary, no espionage involved. So where’s the risk? Only that it makes government and corporations nervous.
More commentary on this in a moment. I need to have breakfast.
UPDATE: I’ve included my thoughts in the extended entry below.
Continue reading
We’ve known from the beginning that the PATRIOT act was bad news. Luckily, we’re not alone. Apparently cities around the country are calling on law enforcement to resist the PATRIOT act by refusing to cooperate with activities it authorizes that would otherwise be unlawful.
If you’ve wondered how it is that Homestar Runner gets produced (and paid for), Wired News has just the interview for you. I’m glad that the Brothers Chaps are able to fund the whole thing themselves; it looks like they have the right attitude toward it.
Thanks to Deana for the heads-up.
By now you may have heard of the discovery of a new planetary system that looks a whole lot like our own. It’s 90 light years away, but as a wise man once said, “that’s peanuts to space.” Seriously, 90 light years is the kind of distance we’ll be able to travel in a few months (relative) once we get the basics of interstellar flight taken care of.
Even better, seeing a solar system like our own so close to home makes it even more likely that we’ll find one with Earth-like life sometime fairly soon. That’s why I like reading this:
ESA is leading the way with its Darwin mission to analyse the atmospheric composition of Earth-like planets. This flotilla of six space telescopes will launch in around 2014.
How very 21st century!