Do Californians really choose to be governed by such low-IQ anal orifices, or is just a sign of how rampant the voter fraud is here?https://t.co/DwQRhHQNkV
— Not-So-OK Boomer (@Rand_Simberg) September 16, 2026
Category Archives: Economics
An Interesting Take
If nobody builds AI, everybody dies?
SpaceX Launch Costs
Ozan runs some numbers.
After the Starship $300/kg price floor nonsense made the rounds, the ones who shared the studies started saying there isn't a better model out there to look at. I'd be willing to bet whatever @mach33 has put out is way better, but I've always run my own numbers on this stuff…
— Ozan Bellik (@BellikOzan) September 7, 2026
I don’t understand, though, how you get two flights per pad per day into SSO, at least not if you want the SSO on the terminator, which is where everyone claims to want to be, for continuous sunlight.
[Wednesday-afternoon update]
Investors are stoked about Stoke’s latest announcement.
[Thursday-afternoon update]
The coming tidal wave of new rockets.
The New Dark Ages
The left is dragging us back to them.
The PhD Experts
Well, this certainly kicked off a lively discussion (full of nonsense in replies):
Your occasional reminder that physics PhDs are not engineers. The physics PhDs told us that we couldn't do missile defense. https://t.co/ra7Ybd82G0
— Rand Simberg (@Simberg_Space) August 31, 2026
Boutique Bolshevism
On the lunacy of the DSA and the loons who support it, including apparently the “big tent” Democrats.
[Afternoon update]
Yes, McCarthy was right:
Elon Musk a écrit ce matin une phrase que l’école vous a appris à trouver obscène : « McCarthy was right (obviously). » On vous a enseigné à haïr ce nom comme on apprend une table de multiplication, sans jamais vous dire ce qu’il avait vu, et c’est précisément pour ça que la… https://t.co/en8zp64n3g pic.twitter.com/9KCcChoGsC
— Brivael Le Pogam (@brivael) August 31, 2026
Not clear how to post it in English, but there will probably be an option to translate from the French at the link.
Data Centers: Pro Or Con?
A completely rational, unbiased explanation.
We asked AI to give us the unbiased facts about AI data centers: pic.twitter.com/BCp8pesK0q
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) August 25, 2026
Incompetence And Bigotry
I’m sure the problem is just as bad at Boeing.
As discussed on comments, I’m not sure how much Jared can do about this, except to not give contracts to the legacy contractors.
And I’m also sure that this is a huge problem for the Pentagon, not just NASA. I wonder to what degree Hegseth is aware?
The Business Of American AI
Is it sustainable?
“…the US AI companies remind me a lot of 1970s era Detroit with the Chinese companies today playing the role of Toyota, Honda and so on. At least Detroit had mostly depreciated the majority of its factories and the like and wasn’t in the middle of building massive new ones.”
Not clear to me what this implies for the viability of space data centers.
Starlink Out Of The Cape
Why is SpaceX really ending those flights?
I agree that Elon wants to see more competition in the industry, and it’s time for the other companies to step up. A prevailing theme of Smallsat this week was the seeming dearth of launch opportunities. If I get my new venture off the ground, it will be a personal concern to me as well.