Will Astronomers Ever Find Another Earth?

By Phil Plait

One of the biggest questions in astronomical research right now is quite simple to ask but extremely difficult to answer: In the depths of space, is there an Earth-like planet somewhere orbiting a Sun-like star?

The answer is rather surprising: almost certainly yes. We haven’t found a precise twin of Earth yet, but we’ve come mighty close. In fact, it’s likely that there are millions, perhaps billions, of planets like ours in the Milky Way alone. But right now, at this moment, we only know of one for sure: ours.

So when will we actually see that blue-green dot in our telescopes?

The search for alien worlds orbiting other stars—exoplanets—has gone on a long time. Quite a few were thought to have been seen, but they were on the thin, hairy edge of what the technology could do and were later shown to be false positives.

Things changed in 1992. Using sophisticated timing techniques, scientists found the very first confirmed planets, which were orbiting a pulsar, the ultradense core of an exploded supernova. That turns out not to be the most hospitable place in the Universe, what with the pulsar spewing out enough X-rays to thoroughly fry surrounding space. Planets they are, Earth-like they are not.

But then in 1995 came the big announcement: A planet had been found orbiting the star 51 Pegasi. The star is similar to the Sun, but the planet was a shock: It had 0.4 times the mass of Jupiter (150 times the Earth’s mass), but it orbited the star a mere 8 million kilometers (5 million miles) from the star! It screamed around the star in just 4.2 days, a far smaller and shorter orbit than had been thought possible.

The method used to find this planet is called the Doppler technique. When a planet orbits a star, its gravity tugs on the star. The planet makes a big circle while the star makes a smaller one. As the star approaches us in that cycle, its light gets compressed a bit, shifting it to shorter wavelengths. When it recedes from us, the opposite happens. This is essentially the same physics that makes a motorcycle make that “EEEEeeeeeeooooooooowwwwwww” sound as it passes you, what scientists call the Doppler effect.

Read the rest here.

Should Rand Paul Really Be Dissing Bill Clinton Over Intern Monica Lewinsky?

Rand Paul took a shot at Bill Clinton on "Meet the Press" this past Sunday. He said:

[Bill Clinton] took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and an intern in his office.There is no excuse for that and that is predatory behavior. …We shouldn't want to associate with people who would take advantage of a young girl in his office. If there was somebody in my community who did that … we would disassociate from [them].

A careful observer of Rand Paul and Ron Paul Inc. called me to point out that those words may come back to bite Rand. He reminded me that there are rumors that an "intern problem" may exist within Ron Paul Inc that also includes suggestions of payoff(s?).

Why Heroin Use Is Skyrocketing Across The U. S.

It's the unintended consequences of a government crackdown on prescription drugs.

Pamela Engel explains:

Health officials and drug experts have started noticing that heroin use has been exploding as states crack down on "pill mills," which get people addicted to Oxycontin and other pain killers even when they don't have a medical need for them.

David DiSalvo writes in Forbes that the increase in heroin use has overlapped with a decrease in pain killer abuse. He notes that the number of new non-medical users of pain killers dropped from 2.2 million in 2002 to 1.9 million in 2012: 

The reason may come down to basic economics: Illegally obtained prescription pain killers have become more expensive and harder to get, while the price and difficulty in obtaining heroin have decreased.  An 80 mg OxyContin pill runs between $60 to $100 on the street. Heroin costs about $9 a dose. Even among heavy heroin abusers, a day’s worth of the drug is cheaper than a couple hits of Oxy.

As states crack down on pill mills, fewer people will be able to obtain the drugs through a prescription and supply will be cut off. Pain pills become less available and more expensive.

Christie to Speak at Chicago Economic Club Feb. 11

The fat man is getting out there. First, it was news that he is going to speak at CPAC, now this.

Gov. Chris Christie will take questions next week following  a  speech in Chicago, AP reports.

Christie is to speak to the Economic Club of Chicago at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 11, and is expected to field questions moderated by a chief executive of Motorola Solutions, Inc. Christie also plans to later hold private meetings with donors and headline a fundraising dinner.

The Art of The Steal

By, Chris Rossini

Lyndon Baines Johnson - White House Address - Jan. 15th 1964

“We are going to try to take all of the money that we think is unnecessarily being spent and take it from the 'haves' and give it to the 'have nots' that need it so much.” (emphasis added)

Barack Obama - TV Ad - 2012

"I believe the only way to create an economy built to last is to strengthen the middle class. Asking the wealthy to pay a little more so we can pay down our debt in a balanced way. So that we can afford to invest in education, manufacturing, and homegrown American energy for good middle class jobs." (emphasis added)

Over the course of 50 years, the gang of thieves have polished their approach. They've perfected The Art of The Steal.

---

Chris Rossini is on Twitter, Facebook & Google+

Will Walter Block Be On Firm Libertarian Principle If He Sues NYT?

Walter Block writes:

Dear Folks: I am contemplating suing the New York Times for libel.

He is doing so after NYT incorrectly wrote that he said slavery was "not so bad," and after NYT editors refused to make a correction (SEE: OUTRAGE: If Only Walter Block Was Governor of New Jersey). But would Block be on firm libertarian ground by suing?

This is what he wrote in his very important libertarian book, Defending the Undefendable:

It is easy to be an advocate of free speech when it applies to the rights of those with whom one is in agreement. But the crucial test concerns repugnant speech--statements which we consider vicious and nasty. and which may, in fact, even be vicious and nasty[...]

Now, there is nothing more repugnant or vicious than libel. We must, therefore, take particular care to defend the speech rights of libelers.

So can Block sue NYT while waving his libertarian credentials and waving his book, which defends libel?

Of course, he can! I hold that governments and their agents have no rights. In other words, I am generally against the activities of the military. However, if say, the US Marines, suddenly used their force to battle, say, the DEA or prevent ObamaCare operatives from coercing us into ObamaCare, I would cheer on the Marines, probably buy myself a big bucket of popcorn, sit in front of the TV and anxiously await  reports from CNN about battlefield activities.

What does this have to do with NYT?

Lew Rockwell has taught us:

Fascism is the system of government that cartelizes the private sector, centrally plans the economy to subsidize producers, exalts the police State as the source of order, denies fundamental rights and liberties to individuals, and makes the executive State the unlimited master of society[...]If fascism is invisible to us, it is truly the silent killer. It fastens a huge, violent, lumbering State on the free market that drains its capital and productivity like a deadly parasite on a host[...]Government under fascism becomes the cartelization device for both workers and the private owners of capital. Competition between workers and between businesses is regarded as wasteful and pointless; the political elites decide that the members of these groups need to get together and cooperate under government supervision to build a mighty nation[..]Under fascism, society as we know it is left intact, though everything is lorded over by a mighty State apparatus. 

If one contemplates the  nature of NYT, in light of Rockwell's analysis, one realizes that NYT is not operating as a private sector entity, but as a propaganda machine for the state. Indeed, there is little doubt they have in the past and continue to have CIA agents that pose as reporters.

Ralph Raico has pointed out:

The Newspaper of Record, “All the news we see fit to print,” continues its honorable tradition of pro-state lies. I recall their D. C. correspondent Judith Miller’s role in promoting the lie of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. What’s your guess on how much blood she, and the Times, have on their hands for that? But this tradition for our Newspaper of Record goes back to the 1930s. Then its Moscow correspondent, Walter Duranty, did a good comrade’s job denying the very existence of the Stalinist terror famine in the Ukraine and the North Caucasus that led to the death of many millions. The Old Gray State Whore would be a better name for that paper.

Under the government manipulated economy that we live in, certain "private" entities must be considered agents of the state. Goldman Sachs comes to mind, but so does NYT. Note well, although NYT has refused to issue a correction about their mischaracterization of Block, they had no problem rushing to make a correction for the statist, Chris Christie. Since NYT is an agent of the state, I consider full force harassment of NYT a noble act. I say it would be heroic for Block to turn the government court system against the government's lead propaganda machine. Go Walter, go!

The Government Versus the Private Sector: Super Bowl Chaos

Met Life Stadium was packed for the Super Bowl, just like it almost always is during a regular season home football game for the New York Giants and the New York Jets, both teams call Met Life Stadium home.

But there was one difference for the Super Bowl, the Department of Homeland Security labeled the championship game a " a level one national security event." This meant that instead of the regular stadium security being in charge, DHS got to throw its weight around.

For some bizarre reason, the DHS, obviously clueless of traffic patterns and public transportation capabilities during game days, told those attending the game that it would be best that they take public transportation rather their own cars to the game. This resulted in not only huge delays getting into the stadium, which could have been expected, given the security theater that all fans were forced to deal with, but also after the game, when fans tried to exit. 

Lew Rockwell has the full story of the post-game madness: Super Bowl Chaos.

Here are some of the idiotic quotes from officials post-game:

A New Jersey Transit official said that 25,000 people had been moved only to Secaucus Junction by midnight, two hours after confetti started raining down on the field, and called the operation a ‘tremendous success.’ 

This is worse than if Peyton Manning called the Super Bowl a major success. Secaucus Junction is only a stones throw from the stadium. These people wanted to get to NYC and beyond. They still had a full train ride ahead of them, at midnight! The irony of getting stuck like herded animals in Secaucus was probably not lost on all since, in the old days, most New Yorkers thought of Secaucus as nothing but pig farms.

Here's another gem via LRC:

Scoreboard announcements inside the stadium begged people to stay inside the gates to ease congestion and the New Jersey State Police bizarrely advised fans via Twitter to ‘enjoy the stadium atmosphere until congestion dissipates.’

I repeat all this went on at a stadium where the same size crowds regularly come and go from games.

But this is what happens when the government over-rules the private sector.

In one sense DHS was correct, it was a level 1 disaster. A level 1 traffic disaster caused by the DHS .

NYT: More Bitcoin Regulation Is Inevitable

From NYT's Dealbook, Peter J. Henning, a professor at Wayne State University Law School, ad the author of “The Prosecution and Defense of Public Corruption: The Law & Legal Strategies,” writes:

The next phase in the development of virtual currencies like Bitcoin was highlighted at a hearing last week conducted by Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York State’s top banking regulator. The question is not whether there will be greater regulation of firms developing new methods of transmitting payments with nongovernment currencies, but how much regulation they will face.

The idea that Bitcoin could be an alternative to traditional money that would allow users to conduct transactions anonymously beyond the pale of intrusive government regulators has proved to be little more than a pipe dream[...]It would not be a surprise if one tool would require those who control or trade over a certain threshold amount of a virtual currency to report their holdings to the government. This approach is much like the rules requiring the owner of 5 percent of the shares of a publicly traded company to disclose any transactions to the Securities and Exchange Commission[...]The days of anonymous transactions in Bitcoin and operating an exchange with no outside interference are over. As virtual currencies develop, firms devoted to aiding trading, and perhaps even their users, will encounter greater government regulation, along with the costs that come with compliance.

In other words, bitcoiners who choose to remain anonymous will have to deal with the likelihood that if the government discovers who they are, they will be prosecuted.

A Small-Businessman on the Common Sense Impact of the Minimum Wage

Richard Duncan, president of Rich Duncan Construction in Salem, Ore, tells WSJ:

As we close the gap between minimum wage and a firm’s starting wage, we lessen the ability to hire younger untrained talent.

When the minimum wage increases, we put more demands on the outcome and performance of the new emerging workforce. This leaves youth and the entry-level workforce less opportunity to enter, as the job description will have to match the pay scale. Our current workforce will have to do more work with fewer employees to share the workload, especially in the competitive small-business world, as it takes more than guts to hire additional employees.

If an additional person costs more to bring on, it will just be that much longer before a firm will next hire. Therefore yes, the impact will be significant.

Presidential Hubris in the State of the Union Address

 More email from Richard Ebeling:

Dear Bob,

I have a new article on the news and commentary website, "EpicTimes," on "Presidential Hubris in the State of the Union Address."

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama focused on his intention to follow a policy of micro-management. At one level this means that since he cannot expect to gain Congressional approval for his "big" legislative goals, he will go around Congress to use "executive orders" to implement marginal changes in society that he wants.

Which gets to the second level of his micro-management. Every element in his address focused on his arrogant belief that he knows how people should live their lives in a wide variety of policy areas.

He shows himself to be what Adam Smith, long ago, called "the man of system" -- the social engineer -- who believes himself fit to move people about as if they were mere pawns on "the great chess-board of society." The full article is here:

http://epictimes.com/article/304999/presidential-hubris-in-the-state-of-the-union-address

Will Bitcoin's "Emerging Price Stability" Cause the Next Bitcoin Price Crash

TechCrunch writes:

The gist is simple: For nearly the entire month of January Bitcoin has traded in the 900s, with minor exceptions in 1,000s. For a currency that until very recently could see 50% of its value drop in a day and not have that day stand out all too much, it has been something of a calming of the seas.

Why does it matter if Bitcoin is seeing increasing price stability? Essentially the more wild the swings in its value, the less useful Bitcoin is as a tool of commerce. This goes both ways: The more real uses there are for Bitcoin, the smaller the percentage of speculative trades in the currency; and, the smaller the changes in its price, the more people may start to accept Bitcoin as a payment option. It’s a self-reinforcing cycle.

Bictoin fanboys fail to understand two important things, a month of price stability does not imply a future of price stability. There are plenty of stocks that have been stabled for months, but then start to fluctuate significantly. Projecting price stability for Bitcoin based on one month of price activity is absurd. It flies in the face of Austrian economic thinking, which says that price history does not forecast future prices. It's amateur night to think 30 days of history has major long term significance.

Indeed, when it is considered that a large chunk of Bitcoin holders bought for upside potential, they are going to get real bored if price stability does set in. They may not all sell at the same time, but to the degree there is "price stability," it will eventually develop into slow steady selling pressure of bitcoins. Thus, inherent in current price stability is the seed of future downward price action as Bitcoin fanboy boredom sets in. Hot money gets bored very quickly.

ABSOLUTELY MIND BLOWING: This is How San Francisco General Hospital Works...

Since it fills a chunk of its beds with homeless, who aren't credibly ill, but for which the hospital can bill the city. Staff waste their time on these non-sick, and the care for the truly ill declines.

The most shocking example of this is the recent death at San Francisco General Hospital of patient Lynn Spalding, who was found dead on a hospital stairwell two weeks after she disappeared from her hospital bed. A new report is out on the death. You really have to read this to understand the tragic circus act this hospital has become. (As I learned during my own personal stay at the hospital)

The SF Chronicle writes (my highlights):

San Francisco General Hospital nurses failed to act on a doctor's order that Lynne Spalding be watched around the clock before she walked away from her room last fall, and at least one sheriff's deputy who was told to search the hospital stairwells said he understood it to be something he could do if he had "free time," according to a federal agency's investigation into her death.

Both the hospital and the Sheriff's Department share in the blame for the death of Spalding, whose body was found in a stairwell more than two weeks after she vanished from her room Sept. 21, investigators concluded. The stairwell where she was found was never searched before a worker stumbled onto her body during a routine check[...] It found "systemic" failures at the hospital and said officials there never worked out an emergency plan with the Sheriff's Department. That created the risk of a "chaotic and poorly coordinated" response such as the one that led to Spalding's death, the report said[...]Haig Harris, the Spalding family's attorney, said the report revealed a startling number of breakdowns.[...]The probe concluded that the hospital's inability to upgrade security alone resulted in the death of Spalding, 57, who had been admitted for treatment of a bladder infection and for being disoriented.

But the hospital itself bears plenty of blame for what happened to Spalding, the report said, starting with nurses' failure to carry out written orders two days before she vanished Sept. 21: "NEVER leave patient unattended."

Hospital officials told the investigators that they have long wanted to replace the Sheriff's Department and contract out for better security, but have been barred from doing so by the Board of Supervisors every year since 2009[...]On the morning of Sept. 20 - when there apparently was no monitor at her bed - Spalding wandered into the nursing station, saying she worked at an airport. Later that morning, a doctor specifically told a nurse that Spalding was to be watched around the clock, according to the federal report, which does not name any of the hospital or sheriff's employees involved in the case. 

Despite the order, nurses' notes outlining Spalding's care said only that she was to be kept under "close observation," investigators found. The nurse who had spoken with the doctor conceded that she "did not get a chance" to update Spalding's care instructions, the report said, so the order for around-the-clock monitoring was "inadvertently discontinued."[...]That was far from a unique situation at San Francisco General, the report found. An audit done in November found that out of eight cases selected at random in which doctors ordered patients to be monitored full time, nurses failed to do so in two cases. In other cases, one monitor was assigned to several patients.

In lieu of a monitor, "close observation" meant Spalding was to be checked every 15 minutes, the federal report said. On the morning she disappeared, however, the staffer assigned the job was called away at 8:30 a.m., and no one took over. Spalding was discovered missing at 9:55 a.m.[...] 

Several deputies told investigators they were never ordered to look for Spalding the day she vanished. A supervisor insisted he had done so, but that he had not specifically told deputies to look in the hospital's 10 stairwells.

He told deputies they were looking for a black woman, although Spalding was white. He told federal investigators that he knew Spalding was Caucasian and had no explanation for his misidentification.

Many major metropolitan hospitals are a wreck, now. But wait until ObamaCare kicks-in.

Stay healthy, my friends.

Super Bowl Security Theater: "This is exactly what the planners of the first mass transit Super Bowl had in mind."

WSJ reports on the security theater that the Super Bowl crowd had to deal with going to the game:

Long security lines and heavy crowds caused delays for football fans heading to MetLife MET -1.47%  Stadium in New Jersey on Sunday afternoon, transit officials said, a rocky road for what organizers had called the first "mass transit Super Bowl."

Officials overseeing the event had engaged in an aggressive campaign to encourage most of the expected 80,000 attendees to use public transportation.

The system of trains and buses ferrying fans to East Rutherford, N.J. lent the event part of its unique New York City area flavor, along with the cold weather.

And the system functioned smoothly, passengers and officials said, until about 2 p.m., when a crush of fans swarmed NJ Transit trains.

The situation was most crowded at the Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station in Secaucus, a busy transfer point for trains to the Meadlowlands Sports Complex.

Riders there were forced to go through a security checkpoint before changing trains, and they complained of long lines and overwhelming heat. Medics were called in, and security officers tried to calm down angry crowds, said passenger Lucy Checketts, 60.

"We were just herded on these stairs, and it was quite scary," said Ms. Checketts. "If someone would have fallen, it would have been terrible."

An NJ Transit spokesman said the delays were short-lived and "relatively minor in nature." He said water was provided to riders who had to wait in Secaucus.

"New Jersey Transit this evening safely and efficiently transported more than 27,000 customers to a level 1 security event," said the spokesman, John Durso, referring the security designation given by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "This is exactly what the planners of the first mass transit Super Bowl had in mind."

OMG Claim: Minimum Wage Increase Is a Feminist Issue

Under the headline, Minimum Wage Increase Is a Feminist Issue, Paula Dwyer writes for Bloomberg:

The latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is very helpful in breaking down the demographics. It shows that about 3.6 million people were paid at or below $7.25 an hour in 2012.

One popular misconception is that most minimum-wage earners are relatively well-off teenagers working part time in coffee shops and college book stores. But it isn't true. Teens make up only 24 percent of the total, while those 25 and older comprise 49 percent.

Another popular belief is that minimum-wage workers are mostly part-timers looking to supplement the earnings of a spouse (read: wife) or other householder. Here, the data are partially supportive. Two-thirds of minimum-wage earners hold part-time positions. And indeed they are mostly women. Females make up two-thirds of the part-timers. But among low-paid women, more than half had never married and only 15 percent were married and living with their spouses.

Looking at the U.S. labor force overall, women are almost twice as likely as men to be paid at or below $7.25 an hour (6 percent versus 3.34 percent). White women make up the largest chunk (50 percent) followed by Hispanic women (11.9 percent) and black women (9.9 percent).

Here's another surprise: Minimum-wage earners aren't mostly high-school dropouts, not by a long shot. More than 70 percent have at least a high-school diploma. More than 34 percent have had some college, and 8 percent have at least a bachelor's degree.

Get the picture? The composite of a minimum-wage earner is a woman who lives in the South, works part time in fast-food or retail and has at least a high-school degree. Next time you walk into a McDonald's south of the Mason-Dixon, wish her well.

Dwyer, herself, seems to spill the beans on what is going on when she mentions McDonald's workers. It is not that women are paid less for the same work, it is that often women chose jobs where there obviously is a lot of labor competition (otherwise the wages wouldn't be so low). And, for the same work, McDonald's most assuredly pays male workers the same as female. There is no "feminist" issue here at all. It is all about basic supply and demand economics. The real issue here is ignorance of basic economics by a feminist.

Matt Damon's Miami Waterfront Home

For a save the earth type guy, Matt Damon sure does use a lot of wood in his bathroom and bedroom.

More pics here.

And the quality of his acting has gone down hill since this performance in Good Will Hunting:

It's Done: Yellen Is Fed Chair

Janet Yellen has taken the oath of office as Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The oath was administered by Governor Daniel K. Tarullo in the Board Room.

Yellen’s term as Chair ends February 3, 2018, and her term as a member of the Board ends January 31, 2024.

Bill Clinton Sent His Ark State Troopers to Savagely Beat Gary Johnson in June 1992

By Robert Morrow
Phone: 512 306-1510

Gary Johnson was both the lawyer of Clinton nemesis Larry Nichols and the neighbor of Gennifer Flowers - a potent combination.

 Go to  the 47:30 minute mark of the Clinton Chronicles and watch Larry Nichols interview his former lawyer Gary Johnson who was beaten into a pulp, almost murdered by Bill Clinton’s inner circle Arkansas state troopers attempting to cover up the Bill/Gennifer Flowers affair which the Clintons were still lying about in 1992. This occurred 2 weeks before the Democratic national convention that year.

 Go to 47:30 minute mark.

 Raymond Buddy Young and 2 other Arkansas state troopers were the ones who savagely beat and nearly killed Gary Johnson. These were the same Arkansas state troopers who went public in 1993, humiliating the Clintons, especially Hillary, because they were not given high paying federal jobs. Privately they have admitted to this heinous crime, but publicly they have not been willing to incriminate themselves in this heinous crime.

   \        

 Gary Johnson today is a broken and terrified man; his life was ruined because of this savage Bill Clinton-ordered assault. In 1998 an investigator for Paula Jones found Gary Johnson. He was extremely afraid the Clinton Administration and was in fear for his life. The Clintons are psychopaths: Bill is charming, but he will murder you if he needs to.