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Should Taxpayers Pay Twice For Weather Data?

Posted by timothy on from the decaptivation dept.

theodp writes "Thanks to O.M.B. Circular A-130, taxpayers now enjoy free access to SEC, Patent Office, and IRS data over the Internet. Now the Bush administration must decide whether to order the National Weather Service to make taxpayer-funded weather readings freely available on the Net, ignoring complaints from an industry trade group that doing so violates pre-Internet era agreements."

15 of 359 comments (clear)

  1. Ooh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is gonna kick up a storm.

    1. Re:Ooh by kesler · · Score: 1, Funny

      I would say that there's a 70% chance of this passing; 30% chance of scattered showers.

    2. Re:Ooh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      The National Weather Service has issued a severe snowjob warning....

  2. That long silence you hear... by AvantLegion · · Score: 5, Funny
    ... is people trying to figure out how they can bash Bush over this.

  3. Judging by other Bush Admin decisions... by Senjutsu · · Score: 5, Funny

    They'll skip options one and two and head straight to Option Three:

    Declare the weather a matter of national security, and order that it be classified as sensitive material immediately.

    1. Re:Judging by other Bush Admin decisions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      dubba: Have you rounded up the latest group of terrorists?
      SS agent: Yes sir, We have. *hand over ear* send them in
      *a group of rag tag individuals are lead in.*
      dubba: so what did the old man do?
      SS agent: Sir, he was revealing classified security information to his neighbors... It seems his leg aghes whenever it's going to rain, so this terrorist had to be brought to a stop
      Dubba: good send him to guantanamo, what did the old lady do.
      SS agent: same crime different method, she was using tea leaves to predict major storms..
      dubba: good send her too, the little girl?
      SS agent: she was chanting 'it's raining it's pouring the old man is snoring' durring a rain storm in a public school.
      dubba: good send her off too.

  4. Re:James Fallow's Article in today's NYT by YU+Nicks+NE+Way · · Score: 3, Funny

    Uhh...ebag? The article referenced in the submission is the Fallows article, republished through CNet.

    I guess we can at least look forward to a Michael Sims finding a way to dupe this using the original NYTimes. I wonder -- do the editors get a cut of the ad revenue that is generated by each of the articles they sponsor n the front page?

  5. Re:Uh oh..? by ravenspear · · Score: 1, Funny

    The result is lots of dead pilots and boaters every year

    How can better access to weather information result in more deaths? I find that a rather ridiculous assumption. Would you care to provide some evidence of that?

  6. Ooh-Gone with the tin. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    "This is gonna kick up a storm."

    Hopefully no trailer parks will be harmed.

  7. Sorry, Lando by Dachannien · · Score: 2, Funny

    ignoring complaints from an industry trade group that doing so violates pre-Internet era agreements

    I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

  8. No way by ch-chuck · · Score: 5, Funny

    If Wx data were publically available, we run the risk of weathermen like this instead of the highly trained media professionals we have now.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  9. Re:slashdot.org.us? by Peter+La+Casse · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's slashdot.org.us. In American English, though, the ".us" is silent.

  10. Re:Article summary is hyper-incorrect, as usual by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 4, Funny
    perhaps an incorrect triplicate story should be referred to, appropriately, as "tripe".
    Actually I think tripe probably describes a wider selection of Slashdot content than that.
    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  11. The world's best research by handy_vandal · · Score: 2, Funny

    The world's best research sees its first incarnation on bar napkins across the globe.

    Bar napkins in strip joints, if we're lucky.

    -kgj

    --
    -kgj
  12. Re:slashdot.org.us? by jason+ward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ah... how I wish the us was silent sometimes....

    --
    Bloggy Goodness