Falling 25,000 feet

Something should be done

Like maybe deporting those convicted of a major crime.

Prison in Paraguay

You can rent this prison cell for a down payment of $5,000 and weekly rent of $600.

There are three rooms in the cell, including a conference room, library and kitchen. You'll also have had air conditioning, comfortable furniture, an en-suite bathroom and a DVD collection. It was occupied by a drug lord from Brazil.

More mismanagement in Afghanistan

Five years ago we signed a contract with an organization entitled "Afghanistan Integrated Support Services JV" to maintain the vehicles of the Afghanistan army and police force. The contract was for five years and $182,000,000. Well, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) audited the results, such as they were, and concluded that we: (1) made inaccurate assumptions about the capacity of the Afghans to manage the supply chain and conduct maintenance, (2) underestimated the cost of spare parts, and (3) established performance metrics that did not accurately assess contractor performance or progress towards contract goals. These added more than $100,000,000 to the costs of the contract. Furthermore, the performance metrics established by DOD to track contractor performance were vague and unenforceable.

The contract is being renewed as DOD has promised to remedy the problems. The estimated cost over the next several years is estimated to be $1 Billion. 

Presidential Calibre?

Donald called

I've been at Duncaster for 5+ years. Duncaster does not usually change the telephone number associated with a particular apartment. Apparently, the previous resident of my apartment was a Republican. How else can I explain the two telephone calls I received today from Mr. Trump asking for money? I just wish he had not called at 9 tonight.

Six terms, $142,000,000

Joe Arpaio has served six terms as sheriff of Maricopa County.  In that time the county has paid $142 million in legal fees, settlements and court awards, largely due to cases involving racial profiling against Latino residents. And it looks like the county may be on the hook for another $5.9 million in legal fees and expenses for pursuing contempt of court charges against the sheriff. 

Sometimes gimmicks pay off

The Ice Bucket Challenge was the gimmick of 2014. It was a simple gimmick; people (17,000,000 in this case) poured cold water over themselves and posted the video on social media. The aim of the gimmick was to raise money to fight ALS. The gimmick was successful in raising money, $115,000,000. And the money has funded six research projects. One of these projects has identified a gene, NEK1, which appears to hold considerable promise. 

Selling guns the right way

Solar Impulse 2 circles the earth

Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered aircraft landed in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, completing the first fuel-free flight around the world. It took 16 months due largely to problems along the way. The two pilots, Swiss explorers Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, flew the 500 hours required.

The propeller-driven aircraft’s four engines are powered exclusively by energy collected from more than 17,000 solar cells built the plane’s wings. Excess energy is stored in four batteries during daylight hours to keep the plane flying after dark.

Excerpts from the Panama Papers

The Basics of Islam

Truth or Consequences

People collect anything

Here's a sample of what some English artists collect.

The above is the feces of a skunk. You can see it and nineteen other examples of feces at the National Poo Museum, which opened in March at the Isle of Wight Zoo in Sandown, England. It includes the feces of a pigeon, a meerkat, a lion a cowpat and others. 

If you want to start your own 'museum', here's how. In your walks look for animal feces and take interesting ones home. Then, dry it. Then put clear resin in a container like a fish bowl. You're finished when you put in the feces.

Summary of the Republican convention

The Smell of the Crowd

Some supporters of Bernie Sanders will not give up. They are presently compiling a storehouse of beans to be used in a beans supper on Thursday night. They are hoping that the results of the meal will generate the “world’s largest fart-in” during Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic national convention. 

How odd are we?

From DataVisualised

The media has to fill space

They've filled a lot of it this year with word of Trump. Some of the coverage has compared him to dictators and other bad people, such as Hugo Chavez, Augusto Pinochet, Kim Jong-Il, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Hitler, Putin, and, believe it or not, Osama bin Laden. 

Costs of dying

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently studied "Medicare Spending at the End of Life" for 2014. Here are some of their findings:

• More than half of Medicare decedents were age 80 or older in 2014.
• Average total Medicare per capita spending was nearly four times higher for beneficiaries in traditional Medicare who died at some point in 2014 than for those who lived the entire year.
• Higher Medicare per capita spending among decedents than survivors in traditional Medicare is primarily driven by much higher spending on inpatient hospital services.
• Medicare per capita spending was higher for decedents under age 65 in 2014 than for those over age 65.
• Per capita Medicare spending generally declines with age among decedents in traditional Medicare who are over age 65.
• The decline in Medicare per capita spending by age for decedents over age 65 in 2014 was mainly due to lower inpatient spending.

Just Words?