[Rhodes22-list] NOAA weather privatized?

Sat Jun 4 19:07:40 EDT 2005

Bill, 

Santorum's bill is about the stupidest idea I've heard
of in a long time - consider the source.

I use NWS sometimes when I think our in-house people
are being a bit too optimistic.  One of our pilots
compiled a whole lot of info on this site -
www.dixwx.com - which is specific to our ops but has
some other useful stuff for everyone, like
flighttracker. Be sure to watch the videos.

Santorum is an idiot.  Why don't you take him sailing
and have an "accident" at sea?  Just make sure Trent
Lott and John McCain are on board and are lost trying
to save him.

Brad

--- Bill Effros <bill at effros.com> wrote:

> New York Times Editorial, Today:
> June 4, 2005
> 
> 
>   Overcast in Pennsylvania
> 
> Far from just talking about the weather, Senator
> Rick Santorum is doing 
> something dank and cloudy about it: he is proposing
> to squelch the 
> National Weather Service's growing role in the
> information age.
> 
> The Weather Service provides a priceless flow of
> nonstop measurements 
> and readings that commercial forecasting companies
> package and sell to 
> the public. Lately, the Weather Service itself has
> been trying to make 
> all its information more accessible to anyone who
> wants it. But Mr. 
> Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, has
> introduced legislation 
> that would basically require the service to give
> much of its data only 
> to those private weather forecasting companies. A
> dozen of those 
> businesses happen to be located in Mr. Santorum's
> home state, Pennsylvania.
> 
> "It's not an easy prospect for a business to attract
> advertisers, 
> subscribers or investors when the government is
> providing similar 
> products for free," the senator said, somehow
> overlooking that taxpayers 
> finance this round-the-clock national resource in
> the first place.
> 
> Senator Santorum, who is running for re-election, is
> vowing to protect 
> hundreds of Pennsylvania weather company jobs. But
> timing is everything 
> in both politics and weather, and his case was not
> helped by the fact 
> that two days before the bill was introduced, his
> campaign accepted a 
> $2,000 donation from one of the weather companies
> lobbying for 
> protection. This was dismissed by the senator's
> supporters as a 
> small-beer coincidence in a $25 million race. But as
> they say on the 
> weather segment, it's a lingering disturbance on the
> Doppler.
> 
> 
> Mark Kaynor wrote:
> 
> >Slim,
> >
> >Hoo boy. Another one that's a bit tricky to explain
> w/ out speaking Geek.
> >Like they say, it's all Geek to me....
> >
> >XML stands for Extensible Markup Language - it's a
> markup language (kind of,
> >but not really like HTML), that's primarily used to
> describe and contain
> >data for publishing on the WWW. Unlike HTML,
> however, which uses predefined
> >tags, the programmer defines XML tags, making it
> very powerful for handling
> >data - like weather or Amazon or eBay, or insurance
> info, etc. I know that
> >sounds a bit obtuse, so I did a quick Google search
> and came up w/ this site
> >which probably says it a bit better:
> >http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp
> >
> >And here:
>
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/xml/article.php/3473531
> >
> >Mark
> >
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
> >[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On
> Behalf Of Steve Alm
> >Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2005 2:03 PM
> >To: Rhodes
> >Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] NOAA weather
> privatized?
> >
> >Mark,
> >
> >What is an XML interface?
> >
> >Slim
> >
> >On 5/19/05 8:00 AM, "Mark Kaynor"
> <mkaynor at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >  
> >
> >>Folks,
> >>
> >>I've been hearing about this for a couple of weeks
> and thought I'd 
> >>pass it along.
> >>
> >>Mark
> >>
> >>The National Weather Service recently began
> publishing weather data to 
> >>the public via an easy to access XML interface.
> Previously NOAA 
> >>released data in an arcane and complicated format
> created over 40 years
> >>    
> >>
> >ago.
> >  
> >
> >>This is a great boon for everyone, as the XML
> feeds allow for 
> >>integration of weather data into personal
> homepages & computer 
> >>applications, and makes it easier for scientists,
> meteorology students 
> >>and people interested in the weather to use
> industry-standard tools to
> >>    
> >>
> >access weather data.
> >  
> >
> >>Well, its not great for everyone, particularly
> companies like 
> >>Accuweather, who make their money reselling
> weather data to the public and
> >>    
> >>
> >media outlets.
> >  
> >
> >>Apparently they managed to lobby Senator Santorum
> of Pennsylvania to 
> >>introduce a bill, S.786.1, which would prevent the
> National Weather 
> >>Service from competing with for-pay weather
> companies. The language of 
> >>the bill is very broad and if passed may
> jeopardize the XML Data Feed, 
> >>the NOAA website, and even NOAA weather radio.
> >>
> >>The following link makes sending a letter to your
> senators easy - 
> >>please take the time to do so if you want NOAA to
> be able to continue 
> >>to provide free services (the ones we already pay
> for with our taxes).
> >>
>
>>https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr003=uio7mzb8p1.app
> >>8a&pag
> >>e=UserAction&cmd=display&id=123
> >>
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> >>
> >
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> >  
> >
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