File this in your X File: ABC News — not a supermarket tabloid — is reporting that a UFO seen in China’s skies forced Xiaoshan Airport to cease operations for one hour earlier this month. Their report even has what are alleged to be pictures: (Could it be “birthers” doing a shift change here on earth, heading back home?)

When I first started my Twitter account, I referred to “Tweets” as “Twits.” A few people emailed me noting that a Twit had a different definition, and by golly it did. Your Dictionary explains: ….a foolish, contemptible person Sarah Palin has created a mini-political firestorm with her Tweets about a Muslim mosque being planned in NYC. And, yes, these qualify as…Twits.

As I write this, BP and government scientists were still monitoring extended pressure tests and seismic probes on the site of the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Bob Cavner, the oceanic engineer who is becoming a media star explaining the capping process, said the pressure of 6,700 pounds per square inch (psi) is below what Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s on-site commander, hoped to rise to 8,000 psi or better....

You might be surprised to learn that the return rate for Apple’s iPhone4 is less than a third of the return rate of the prior iPhone3GS, given all the press about that devil’s spawn, The Antenna. That’s one of the tidbits from today’s press conference that you might or might not see in a mainstream news story. Even if it’s there, I doubt it would be the lede. I thought I’d mine...

So BP has apparently stopped the oil leak — for now. And not a dead sea turtle too soon. (Seriously, click on this link to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which is posting “daily wildlife collection reports” as part of its oil spill response. It’s sad and depressing and terrifying.) Thanks BP! You’re the best! ********** No, not really. You’re not the best. And the...

Tainter makes this observation; substantial increased costs occurred late, shortly before collapse and were incurred by a population already weakened by a pattern of declining marginal returns. It was not a challenge that caused the collapse but a system that had been unproductively complex was unable to respond. Tainter says that the only solution for over complexity is simplification but complex systems are...

I have been waiting patiently as most of the civilized world that ought to give a damn should on whether this latest attempt to cap the BP oil blowout is successful. What is critical is not that the cap has plugged the gusher 5,000 feet under the Gulf of Mexico. But the pressure tests as to the well’s integrity 8,000 feet below close to the reservoir holding billions of barrels of crude. Lose pressure, and...

The saga of the disappearance of Iranian nuclear researcher Shahram Amiri appears to have ended, with his arrival in Iran to a hero’s welcome. But reading between the lines of this news item from Iran’s state-run Kayhan newspaper, which calls this a ‘ fascinating but inevitably obscure story,’ it appears that the Tehran regime would rather not address open questions on whether he defected...

With Consumer Reports concluding in a report released yesterday that the iPhone 4 antenna problem is a hardware issue, not a software issue as Apple has claimed, Cult of Mac’s Leander Kahney is reporting that a recall Is inevitable: “Apple will be forced to do a recall of this product,” said Professor Matthew Seeger, an expert in crisis communication. “It’s critically important....

Stan Cox argues in the Washington Post today that cutting down on the use of air conditioning is a solution to global warming, and the stress of contemporary life in general:

The NYTimes has been on something of a robot kick lately. Today, robot teachers: In a handful of laboratories around the world, computer scientists are developing robots like this one: highly programmed machines that can engage people and teach them simple skills, including household tasks, vocabulary or, as in the case of the boy, playing, elementary imitation and taking turns. So far, the teaching has been...

Has Dmitry Medvedev learned all the wrong lessons from 20 years of Russian capitalism? According to Gazeta columnist Yulia Latynina, the Russian president’s recent visit to California will be for naught if he follows in the footsteps of his communist forbears and creates a state-guided version Silicon Valley near Moscow. For Gazeta, Yulia Latynina writes in part: Like any major official venture, China’s...

I like to think I try to be “green”.  But I’m guilty of being a hypocrite when the thermometer rises in the summer.  Here in the Pacific Northwest summer suddenly hit us after a cool if not cold spring.  It was 67 on Monday, 87 on Tuesday and 97 today. I’ve lived in the Portland area for most of my 64 years but  moved into my first house with central air conditioning...

It has long been argued that the United States has too much influence over the Internet. But abroad, a recent proposal making its way through the U.S. Senate has raised the debate to a fever pitch. The proposal drawn up by Senator Joe Lieberman would give the U.S. president the authority to ‘shut down’ the Internet for 90 days without Congressional authorization. Columnist Vittorio Emanuele Parsi...

No one who’s been paying attention these past few years could have failed to notice the increasingly strident challenge Beijing is mounting against the U.S. over issues that Washington and the Pentagon once considered sacrosanct. Once such topic is American surveillance of Chinese military activity. According to this warning shot across America’s bow from the state-controlled China Daily, by conducting...

Here’s an interesting report just posted by the BBC. Iran is accusing England, Germany and the UAE of refusing to provide fuel to its passenger aircraft. The allegation comes after the UN Security Council imposed additional sanctions on Iran for its failure to halt its nuclear enrichment program and just days after President Obama signed into law new unilateral sanctions. According to the BBC: The US sanctions...

Since we have been discussing, in various threads here at TMV, the extension of unemployment benefits for about two million Americans who have been jobless for six months or longer (my ex-husband is one of these), and since we have, in addition, been discussing, in various threads here at TMV, the absolute outrageous lawlessness of asking British Petroleum to put $20 billion ($20 BILLION! Can you imagine that?)...

Joe Gandelman, my brother Larry, my sister-in-law of another brother, my cousin Pete Ellsworth and longtime friend Steve Casey all called me this morning asking what the hell was I doing in Scotland and asking for $1,500 to get home. Well, sports fans, I got hacked. For those of you on my email address book who got the strange email written by some foreigner not versed in English grammar, sorry. For those of...

To be frank with you, I never thought about it, but now that the question has been raised—and the answer given—I feel very naïve for not having been more inquisitive. Apparently, Alan Poindexter, a NASA commander, was asked during a visit to Tokyo, whether astronauts are allowed to have sex aboard the International Space Station, ISS. According to The Telegraph, Poindexter answered, “We are a group...

People are willing to pay for content. They just want the price to be fair, reasonable, and just. When content holders try to charge monopoly rents, even the most law-abiding individual is tempted to become part of the “information wants to be free” sloganeering hordes. If that’s correct, we can expect Rumblefish’s Friendly Music service to be widely embraced by the public. The NYTimes: For...

Mary at The Leftcoaster discovered this fascinating factoid. Although we have been referring to the catastrophe in the Gulf as Deepwater Horizon accident it’s BP code name was the Macando Prospect named after the town featured in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Well perhaps they should have read the book. After wandering aimlessly in the jungle for many days, the founding...

Some time in the last 24 hours, MoveOn.org has eliminated all traces of its infamous ad slamming Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray-Us”.  The cover-up is probably in response to President Obama’s selection of Petraeus as the new head of his signature national security campaign in Afghanistan.  But the cover-up also raises disturbing questions about MoveOn.org and its supporters.  How...

Alison Kilkenny makes a discovery:

Exploit This Tragedy by Tina Dupuy Before the tar balls had a chance to touch down on the white sands of the Gulf Coast – the message from the oil-soaked Republican Party was clear: “Don’t exploit the disaster…if you’re a Democrat.” But if you’re a member of the GOP, feel free to exploit this endless spill for political gain. Use it as a battering ram against the president. “Obama’s Katrina.”...

A local newspaper, the Press-Register, has the story: