Transterrestrial Musings

According this article in Wired, PCs aren’t PC on TV. The good guys use Macs, and the Evil Ones use PCs.

Gee, and I thought the good guys used Linux…

Romanians are giving each other plots of land on the Moon as Valentine’s gifts.

While few gift recipients probably really care, these deeds are almost certainly worthless in practical terms, if for no other reason than they are in violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which effectively forbids private property rights in space (or at least any declaration of national sovereignty, which is almost a de facto requirement for enforcement of such rights).

Say, as long as we’re taking a fresh look at Kyoto and the ABM Treaty, maybe the environment is getting ripe for a fresh look at the OST. It was written at a different time, and the political planets may be coming into alignment to revise it to encourage, rather than discourage, free enterprise off the planet, as well as on it.

Romanians are giving each other plots of land on the Moon as Valentine’s gifts.

While few gift recipients probably really care, these deeds are almost certainly worthless in practical terms, if for no other reason than they are in violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which effectively forbids private property rights in space (or at least any declaration of national sovereignty, which is almost a de facto requirement for enforcement of such rights).

Say, as long as we’re taking a fresh look at Kyoto and the ABM Treaty, maybe the environment is getting ripe for a fresh look at the OST. It was written at a different time, and the political planets may be coming into alignment to revise it to encourage, rather than discourage, free enterprise off the planet, as well as on it.

Because of the news about the copycat, the Fox All Stars are discussing cloning. They all think that human cloning is a bad idea, and Tony Snow just cited a poll showing varying levels of public support for cloning various classes of animals, with humans having a low of 7%. In my opinion, such polls probably indicate nothing except the abysmal ignorance of the American people on matters biological specifically, and matters scientific generally.

The argument was made by Bill Sammon that we already have too many cats, many are being euthanized every day, so why are we cloning them? Well, Bill, because a) it helps us learn how to clone higher mammals (a concept he and the others are obviously against), and b) it allows us to make copies of animals that, for whatever reason, we find pleasing or useful. It’s really no different than breeding for desired traits, except it’s much more precise.

Fred Barnes thinks that any cloning is a slippery slope toward human cloning, so therefore we have to outlaw all cloning. At least someone had the sense to point out that there’s no practical way to do this worldwide. As usual, none of them are able to articulate a reason as to why cloning humans is a bad thing.

This is happening often enough that it’s getting quite irritating. I think I’m going to asterisk the links to the left that are blogspotters, so people don’t have to waste time trying to go there when it’s down.

We really shouldn’t have so many quality people reliant on a single provider–it remains a single-point failure. Maybe if I banish you folks to my link ghetto you’ll get serious about your blogging service (he said, as though this site actually provides that much referral…)

This time, Jack Kelly tees it up against the Europeans, with a graphic analogy.

The fat kid in the band wants to play quarterback. He won’t lift weights or run wind sprints, and he shies away from contact. But he thinks he should call the plays.

That’s the headline over at Space.com (subscription required for link), at least in my email notification. I guess the government’s not messing around about this military space stuff any more–they’re putting someone competent in charge. Sort of gives a whole new meaning to “faith-based initiative.”

Actually, as you might have guessed, it’s a general with the last name of “Lord.”

Boy, it must be a big day for beatings. One woman pummeled another in the grocery store parking lot because she had thirteen items in the twelve-or-fewer express lane.

The new Afghan Minister for Transportation and Tourism was beaten, perhaps to death, by an angry mob at the Kabul airport after a rumor swept through the crowd that he was going to cancel the flight of the plane that was to take them to Mecca for the Hajj.

This may be a first. I actually almost agree with Tom Daschle and disagree with the Administration. He’s calling for hearings into the intelligence failure of 911. In theory, this should certainly be done.

I just wish that I had some confidence that the Congress is competent to do this. Based on the Enron situation, it doesn’t look promising.

As usual, even if the Plurality Leader is doing the right thing, it’s almost certainly for the wrong reason–I suspect that it’s just a new and desperate political ploy to try to pin it on this Administration, while abvolving the last one, leading up to the elections in the fall. After all, if one of the Republicans’ strongest issues is national defense (which is what spins the voters’ propellers these days) then weakening their image in this area would be helpful to the Dems in November.