Breakfast Links: Gnome World Tour, Unmanned Fighter Wing & Hobbling the Endangered Species Act
After several harrowing months of being missing a grandmother’s garden gnome has finally been returned to her. (via) Not only that but he was accompanied by an anonymous photo album showing how he went around the world with the “bear” - 48 photos and stamped immigration permits to places like South Africa, Cambodia and New Zealand! Pretty great. If the Bear would like to steal me for a few months I will be happy to pose for pictures abseiling down the side of a mountain. Or eating delicious vegan delights around the world.
Also warm and fuzzy like gnomish world trips, the U.S. Air Force is - for the first time - converting a fighter wing from being a fully manned wing to a fully unmanned wing with the cuddlely named MQ-9 Reapers as the unmanned aircraft in question. These can stay in the air for 14 hours and get great fuel economy! They’re kinda like the Prius’ of the armed forces. But rest assured this is not yet the vanguard of Skynet’s army, they still require pilots on the ground. Soon, though, that movie that I and at least 2 other people saw, Stealth, will most likely come true. Fortunately we still count Jamie Foxx amongst our airborne defenders.
Lastly, attempting to put an end to all warm fuzzies who are already close to their end, Bush is hobbling the Endangered Species act as one of his own last acts. (via) Rushing to get this passed before he’s out so that even should the next administration like to it will be a long time before they can unwind the effects. And those effects? He’s decided that independent evaluation of projects’ impacts on the environment are unnecessary. Instead the evaluation will be performed by the same agency that is trying to develop the project. Whaaat? There’s no… uh… conflict of interest there? Unbelievable. We honestly, honestly simply can’t get rid of him fast enough.
