Should Taxpayers Pay Twice For Weather Data? 359
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."
Re:Uh oh..? (Score:2, Interesting)
Incumbent weather providers.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Highlighted by a recent incident where heavy rain fell, a river rose, and 700 people were evacuated at 1am in a camp ground. On the news a 10yo kid recounted how the water was ankle deep in his tent, when the family was woken for evac. Some hours later only the tent tops were visible.
The commercial weather incumbent couldnt warn these people. A camper in the internet cafe might of.
Re:Twice? (Score:2, Interesting)
That the data can be provided to the tax payer for personal benefit is just a nice side-effect.
FUD? (Score:3, Interesting)
Is it just me, or does this sound like scare tactics? Would the National Weather Service hire fewer meteorologists or invest less in necessary equipment, instead spending the money on these public services? Or could public appreciation of the services actually mean better funding for the NWS, recouping the costs?
If anyone knows, has there been real criticism concerning the tsunami and the weather service? And secondly, what's the cost of these public services compared to the total budget?
I think this is just FUD, but if anyone has facts that say otherwise, I'll listen.
Re:Tough shit (Score:2, Interesting)
what if...one step further... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Judging by other Bush Admin decisions... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, now-adays it's rarely "classified" it's just "sensitive." You see, sensitive doesn't have any accountability. You can actually get in trouble for classifying something that shouldn't have been.
Want an example of "sensitive"? Look up the Barlow case regarding the TSA. All details concerning airport security are considered "sensitive." This includes things such as "as a TSA examiner, are you encouraged to look for drugs?" (which would be illegal).
There's far more than that. Also, the FOIA compliance rate has gone way, way down under this administration. I believe the ACLU has hard numbers on that (not surprising, given how many FOIA requests they make).
An argument could be made that "sensitive isn't classified" and it would be correct, but it belies the reality that "sensitive" is effectively "classified."
Actually (Score:4, Interesting)
It's kicking up some cool innovation. If you use Firefox, you can use the WeatherFox extension that uses this service. Now, I have nifty icons in my status bar and other information telling me my weather forcast.
This is very helpful for me, as I'm on a farm where weather changes are very important to know. I'm quite happy I no longer have to look at weather.com and its horrid layout.
Re:Part of their mission statement (Score:3, Interesting)
"The NWS will not compete with the private sector when a service is currently provided or can be provided by commercial enterprises, unless otherwise directed by applicable law."
TV stations are a form of private weather. What's the difference between a doppler radar operated by TV stations and by the NWS?
Also, the article talks about the NWS being distracted by certain responsibilities and they would do a better job issuing warnings if they weren't distracted.
For what it's worth, there's already a lot of data from the NWS not distributed in an easily viewed form. Try, for example, looking through the NWS sites for a radar image of radial velocity or storm relative radial velocity. You'll find the raw level 3 data on an FTP but you won't find an image.
Re:Your an idiot (Score:2, Interesting)
2: ??????
with that one.
That presumes you have a wallet to vote with. And remember that the one with the biggest wallet wins - who gives a jot about the peons, I only care about what JP Morgan says. In a truly free market you get to hand your wallet to JP Morgan or any of the other robber barons that used to dominate America. Don't like working 80 hours a week for $1 a day - tough shit that's the free market (shoot all those commie-loving unionists right now). Like being able to return a crappy product for a refund - that's the government (waranty shmaranty - caveat emptor!).
Re:Actually (Score:3, Interesting)
As to the story, I don't see what the big deal with providing internet access is when there is already a national weather radio service broadcasting this. I mean most people use weatherbug even though it is scary ad bedecked, slow, and when better options exist. Yet they do. So most likely accuweather shouldn't worry.
Re:The tax payers shouldn't have to (Score:2, Interesting)
The only party that will put this country back on track is the Libertarian Party, no other parties will do diddly fucking squat about the economical problems in the US because they're being controlled by Corporate America and Special Interest Groups, and don't give a fuck about individual rights.
Yes, I did say "Libertarian Control", but at least they go by the constitution, if anyone is against the Libertarian Party, they are against the Constitution itself because the other parties pick and choose from the constitution and discard what they don't like. Again, Libertarians are the only ones that really care about individual rights and freedoms, not the fucktard Republicrats.
Re:Judging by other Bush Admin decisions... (Score:3, Interesting)
They did that with a hurricane in 1943, actually. It blew through Houston and shut down the refineries producing aviation fuel. After the storm passed nearly all weather records related to it were destroyed.
It can still change and Accux wants the status quo (Score:1, Interesting)
The technical point is NWS traditionally diseminates their stuff in some pretty complex formats that require a good amount of code to decode into something useful. Some of these formats - some are even mandated by international treaty - go back decades (WMO requires the use of ALL CAPS for example ... a throw back to the age of teletype machines).
Now technologies like XML come along that lower the cost for someone to do something cool that might make a profit or do a public service.
If you are Accuwx, you might be a bit pissed that all that money spent writing decodes might go down the john.
So what they are really trying to do is stifle other private sector companies from getting in on the action.
IMHO, lowering the cost of entry will only improve service to everyone.
Re:Uh oh..? (Score:3, Interesting)
If any pilot takes off without obtaining accurate and timely weather information for his route and destination, he might as well spin the chambers of a loaded gun and take his chances.
Having to pay for good information is wrong, BUT, flying is expensive anyway - why not grumble and for the moment pay the extra ? - it may well be the difference between life and death.
Re:That long silence you hear... (Score:4, Interesting)
I suppose you are just loving the return to that era, huh? So American, so Patriotic, so 1984...