Category: Main

Obamacare is offline ‘for a few hours’ each night this weekend for repairs [UPDATED x4]

Obamacare is offline ‘for a few hours’ each night this weekend for repairs [UPDATED x4]

| October 4, 2013 | 7 Replies

Late news today (Friday, October 4th) that the Healthcare.gov site will be taken down for repairs: Bedeviled by technology glitches that frustrated millions of consumers, the Obama administration is taking down its health overhaul website for repairs this weekend. Enrollment functions of the healthcare.gov site will be unavailable during off-peak hours, the Health and Human […]

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Obamacare and the Thermocline of Truth

Obamacare and the Thermocline of Truth

| September 26, 2013 | 14 Replies

[This post was written several days prior to the launch of Healthcare.gov on October 1, 2013 — I’d say that most of my predictions have been borne out, particularly in Update #3] For nearly 20 years, my professional focus has been on large-scale IT projects: why they succeed and why they so often fail. One of […]

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<strike>Three</strike> Four must-read Friday links

Three Four must-read Friday links

| September 20, 2013 | Reply

  First, Megan McArdle: “Banking without risk is impossible“: The fundamental fact of a banking crisis, which is different from a crisis in any other industry, is that if people believe a financial institution to be bankrupt, it actually is bankrupt. As Arnold Kling puts it, banks exist to reconcile the desire of households to […]

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Lookout, Hollywood — GTA V makes $800 million in 24 hours

Lookout, Hollywood — GTA V makes $800 million in 24 hours

| September 18, 2013 | Reply

Over the past decade, I have found it interesting that Hollywood continues to be portrayed as a glamorous, serious business, while the video game industry is seen as a haven for nerds at best, and a cause of real-life violence at worst. What that overlooks is that the video game industry is more lucrative than […]

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FEMA blocks flood mapping effort in Colorado

FEMA blocks flood mapping effort in Colorado

| September 16, 2013 | Reply

Via Slashdot comes this slap-your-forehead story over at TechDirt: As you may have heard, Boulder, Colorado has been hit by massive flooding over the past week, and it’s been something of a mess. A local company, Falcon UAV, makers of special drones which are built for the government, approved by the FAA, and specialize in […]

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The myth of the noble, objective scientist

The myth of the noble, objective scientist

| September 16, 2013 | 1 Reply

There is deeply ingrained in American culture — particularly nowadays on the Left — the stereotype of the scientist as pure in intent and action, caring only for the Truth, let the chips fall where they may. The scientist works readily with other scientists (except when s/he is working alone, late into the night, thinking […]

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Speaking of horror….

Speaking of horror….

| September 13, 2013 | Reply

  …I can’t do any better than point you at Mark Steyn explaining how thoroughly Putin has punked Obama: Charles Crawford, Britain’s former ambassador in Serbia and Poland, called last Monday “the worst day for U.S. and wider Western diplomacy since records began.” Obama set it in motion at a press conference last year by drawing […]

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Quelle horreur!

Quelle horreur!

| September 12, 2013 | Reply

Hat tip to Reason for pointing to this CBS-2 exposé of illegal underground dinner parties in New York City: Clandestine dinner parties like the one Leitner attended have become more common in New York City. And insiders told Leitner they are completely unregulated. When asked at the dinner, “do you ever worry about getting caught?” […]

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NSA: now gunning for college professors who blog

NSA: now gunning for college professors who blog

| September 11, 2013 | Reply

  Via Michael Swaine (on Facebook) comes this Guardian story about the NSA apparently trying to silence a computer science professor blogging about possible encryption compromises: This actually happened yesterday: A professor in the computer science department at Johns Hopkins, a leading American university, had written a post on his blog, hosted on the university’s […]

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In Memoriam: Ronald Paul Bucca (May 6, 1954 – September 11, 2001)

In Memoriam: Ronald Paul Bucca (May 6, 1954 – September 11, 2001)

| September 11, 2013 | Reply

Ronald Paul Bucca [This year, as with previous years, I am posting a memorial for Ronald Paul Bucca, the only NYFD Fire Marshall to die the course of duty — that duty being helping to save people in the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. I can add nothing to this tribute by his mother, […]

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