Legislation has been introduced in the Senate that proposes to severely
hamper access to NWS data. The bill is S.786, The National Weather
Service Duties Act of 2005.

I have a petition setup at....

http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/SaveTheNWS

Please check this out and sign it! I plan to distribute the results to
the responsible legislators.

Thanks!

Michael Harpe
Sellersburg, IN

IMO this is clearly an attempt by a Senator from PA to line
the pockets of a well known private company in his state,
at the expense of the public welfare. Has he no shame?

Cheers,
Russell

In article .com,
says...
IMO this is clearly an attempt by a Senator from PA to line
the pockets of a well known private company in his state,
at the expense of the public welfare. Has he no shame?


Given that he's previously brought up the subject of "man on dog" sex in
an interview, I thought that question had already been answered.

(see http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...4-23-santorum-
excerpt_x.htm, near the bottom.)

Harold
--
Harold Brooks
hebrooks87 hotmail.com

ROTFLOL

Cheers,
Russell

On 21 Apr 2005 13:07:19 -0700,
, in
.com wrote:
+ IMO this is clearly an attempt by a Senator from PA to line
+ the pockets of a well known private company in his state,
+ at the expense of the public welfare. Has he no shame?

Of course not. It's called "bringing home the bacon". The other 99
senators would do the same if that certain well-known private company
where residing in *their* state.

In fact, I suspect that several of them will support the bill simply
because they have certain not-so-well-known private companies that
would also benefit.

The notion of paying twice for data? no thanks, I'll pass.

James
--
Consulting Minister for Consultants, DNRC
I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow
isn't looking good, either.
I am BOFH. Resistance is futile. Your network will be assimilated.

I have just read the Senate bill at;
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/.../~c109Wu4LQQ::

And at no point does it restrict access to NWS data.

What is does do, is curtail the from continuing to encroach on what had long
been the arena for private meteorologist in the U.S., with more and more of
their value-added products. As a creator of value added products,
I must support such a measure to stem the out-going tide of my income.

If I read the fine print correctly, it will also stop universities from
posting value added products too (at least I hope that is what it says).

David Salmon
doing business as "Weather Derivatives";
deriving useful information for sound business decisions from
weather data.

So, you don't think this is a pure political ploy to line the pockets
of one of his state's companies? I have a bridge you'll want to buy,
David. :-) And why shouldn't universities, or anyone else for that
matter, have the right to post value added products? Are you
suggesting that weather information should not fall under the free
speech provisions of the Constitution? What ever happened to the
entrepreneurial spirit in this country? Are you saying that private
meteorologists can't beat the almost universally maligned lazy
government bureaucrats or a bunch of ivory tower egghead
professors and wet-behind-the-ears students at their own game. ;-)
If your reading of the proposal is correct, it sounds like it would
make it illegal for undergraduate students I know to operate their
public service weather phone and e-mail forecast service, which
gives them a chance to practice their forecasting skills. What
punishments are in the proposal for them? sarcasm Yeah,
let's jail some meteorology students for trying to learn, that will
be good for the profession. Maybe give 'em the death penalty
for daring to encroach on the domain of almightly dollar and the
almighty free enterprise system. /sarcasm As you can see, I
have little sympathy for such proposals. I say this as someone
who has been on all sides of the public, academic, and private
fences at various times in my career (sometimes on two sides at
once), and as someone who desires the good of the profession,
and also as someone who was around DC long enough to spot
the signs of a political mugging.

Cheers,
Russell

On 22 Apr 2005 12:10:38 -0700,
, in
. com wrote:

+ Are you saying that private meteorologists can't beat the almost
+ universally maligned lazy government bureaucrats or a bunch of ivory
+ tower egghead professors and wet-behind-the-ears students at their
+ own game.

No. And for the same reason that proprietary software producers are
feeling the Free Software pinch: for as many smart people you can hire
and employ, there are 100 times as many out there that you *can't*.

It's a matter of numbers, and they haven't got them. And there's a
multiplicative factor if those 100x as many can collaborate together.

If we can see a bit further than those that have come before us, it is
because we stand on the shoulder (and not the necks) of giants.

James
--
Consulting Minister for Consultants, DNRC
I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow
isn't looking good, either.
I am BOFH. Resistance is futile. Your network will be assimilated.

I R A Darth Aggie wrote:

On 22 Apr 2005 12:10:38 -0700,
, in
. com wrote:

+ Are you saying that private meteorologists can't beat the almost
+ universally maligned lazy government bureaucrats or a bunch of ivory
+ tower egghead professors and wet-behind-the-ears students at their
+ own game.


Note the omitted ;-) in your quote of what I wrote.

Cheers,
Russell

No. And for the same reason that proprietary software producers are
feeling the Free Software pinch: for as many smart people you can hire
and employ, there are 100 times as many out there that you *can't*.

It's a matter of numbers, and they haven't got them. And there's a
multiplicative factor if those 100x as many can collaborate together.

If we can see a bit further than those that have come before us, it is
because we stand on the shoulder (and not the necks) of giants.

James
--
Consulting Minister for Consultants, DNRC
I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow
isn't looking good, either.
I am BOFH. Resistance is futile. Your network will be assimilated.

--
Russell Martin R. L. Martin and Associates, Consultants in
Science and Technology
http://www.rmartin.com

All too often the study of data requires care.

David Salmon wrote:
I have just read the Senate bill at;
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/.../~c109Wu4LQQ::

And at no point does it restrict access to NWS data.

What is does do, is curtail the from continuing to encroach on what had long
been the arena for private meteorologist in the U.S., with more and more of
their value-added products. As a creator of value added products,
I must support such a measure to stem the out-going tide of my income.

If I read the fine print correctly, it will also stop universities from
posting value added products too (at least I hope that is what it says).

David Salmon
doing business as "Weather Derivatives";
deriving useful information for sound business decisions from
weather data.

I believe the output on that site is dynamic, thus your
link will not point anywhere. But if you go to thomas.loc.gov
and enter National Weather Service as keywords, the bill
pops up.

Speaking as someone who works at a university that puts out
value-added products (GOES cloud winds, for example), but
who does not speak for that university, I'm not sure how
curtailing our data stream would help anyone.

Scott