SAR #14013

The number of people in dire poverty today is greater than the carrying capacity of the earth.

Continuing Irresolution: Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor predicts the House will pass a stopgap continuing resolution that will put off a government shutdown for... three days after the Wednesday deadline.

Comes The Dawn: The Fed has finally noticed that businesses base their investment decisions on the potential for profits, not on how low the interest rates are. Nearly 70% of those surveyed said they did not expect any decline in interest rates would induce more investment. Seem's Ben's been pushing on a string.

Pride: FBI director James Comey, channeling J. Edgar, says that the NSA's 24/7 monitoring of Americans is exactly “what the founders intended”, that it is “the product of our government working as designed”, and that the FBI did a better job at breaking the law 40 years ago.

Reading Assignment: A study found that 10% of college student-athletes are mostly athletes and not so much students, in that they read below the third-grade level. The University of North Carolina, where the research was done, had no comment, saying they hadn't yet read the study. Or couldn't. Somebody did, though; the researcher got death threats.

All This And More: Ford is quickly explaining that an executive's claim that they could track bad drivers and record speeding violations through the GPS systems in Ford vehicles was only “hypothetically”. Actually, it's not hypothetical, it is entirely possible. It's not just Ford, all modern cars have computers that file stuff away. NSA gets the same info by tracking your cell phone.

Good Question: Why has nuclear power become so important to Saudi Arabia? Fifty words or less, none of which can be 'oil', 'petroleum', 'depletion' or 'peak oil'. Usual prizes.

Bless The Lawyers: An anti-abortion group and a Tea party group are delighted that the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear their argument that they have a right to knowingly lie in their campaign against abortion and pro-choice political candidates. Free speech, y'know. Makes for an interesting discussion at the coffee shop.

Consistency: In his new book, Robert Gates says that in 2009 the US tried to rig the Afghan elections to oust Hamid Karzai. Couldn't even do that right.

Snide Effect: Japan’s health ministry accused 11 drugs firms, including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and others of falsifying data during clinical drug trials of an Alzheimer's medication. The pharmaceutical companies said it never happened, or if it did they didn't remember...

Porn O'Graph: Side by side.

The Parting Shot:

Solitary Disc Coral, Scolymia wellsi.