Worse than a bridge to nowhere?

The D.C. school system received almost $4 million in federal funds for educating migrant children when it did not have any, city and federal officials said yesterday.

Here's the full article.

Competition for new mili-bots

Wired reports:

A government solicitation to robot-makers asks for a machine that can both "look into the window of a vehicle" and peek "under a vehicle undercarriage."

That July 17 solicitation kicked off a break-neck competition to award the bot-building contract. "The victor will be crowned Sept. 14 with a contract for 101 robots. The first must be delivered within 10 days," says Defense News.

Less than two months between the announcement and the competition? The military must really need these right now (which isn't surprising given recent events.)

A previous post on military recruitment and robots.

My first letter to the editor

Sent my first letter to a newspaper today. We'll see how the Washington Post responds. I had posted the letter here but I had to take it down since it has to be exclusive. If they don't take it, I'll post it here later. If they do take it, I'll let you know. I wonder how long I should give them (since they don't let you know if they're not going to take it)?

EDIT: I just realized that I put the wrong date for the article I cite in the text of my letter. Darn! At least I have a good excuse if they don't take it. Well, better than it being uninteresting anyways.

Politicians are such easy targets

but it's their own fault. (Or is it ours?) Bryan Caplan with a good find:

Another debate gem: Hillary on energy policy.

CLINTON: ...But this issue of energy and global warming has the promise of creating millions of new jobs in America... So it can be a win-win, if we do it right.

It's hard to interpret this charitably. Hillary really seems to believe that the diverting of millions of people to a new task is a free lunch. Has she never read Bastiat?

Sorry, stupid question.

Dealing with the soldier shortage...

Three SWORDS, the world's first weaponized robot, have been deployed to Iraq. The Army has ordered 80 more of these remote controlled machines. Wow. (To think that I was impressed by the video camera mounted pistol in The Bourne Ultimatum!) See the the Wired article for humorous (?) quotes about development bugs and an amazing video.

Chicago Tribune reports (free registration required) on the army's "quick ship bonus," a $20,000 bonus for new recruits if they are willing to begin basic training within a month of enlisting. I think the promise of a SWORD would be much more effective. I wonder how much they cost?

War and Child Maltreatment

The stress of having an Army spouse in a combat zone leads to a 60% increase in the rate of moderate to severe maltreatment of children by the spouse left behind, researchers said Tuesday.

This is from an LA Times article describing a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. I think too much attention is being placed on the spouses. The stress of having a parent in a combat zone is surely incredible as well. The stress the kids are under may affect their behavior in ways that make them more likely to be maltreated by their remaining parent. The original study seems to miss this point as well.

To be clear, I'm not "blaming the victim" but determining good policies to improve these sorts of things relies on understanding what leads to what.