…why can’t they do it to Biden?
The Democrats never seems to think ahead to what happens when the Republicans decide to play by their new rules.
“The Adults are Back In Charge”
Time for a factory reset at the Pentagon.
We’re not going to get one until we get a new president.
Prospects For Nuclear Power
ULA
Can it get its mojo back?
I think that partially, even largely depends on whether it can get a better owner than the current ones.
[Update a while later]
I have more thoughts over at X.
[This is a good history from @SciGuySpace, but there’s a word missing in it: Starship. Tory’s problem is that he thinks that he’s competing against Falcon, but Elon is going to obsolesce Falcon ASAP. How will Vulcan or New Glenn compete against a fully reusable heavy lifter?
The thing about Elon is that he never faces the Innovator’s Dilemma. His first instinct is to obsolesce his own product line before a competitor can. Anyone who wants to seriously compete against SpaceX has to compete against his future plans, not his current business.
If space launch was just a business for Elon, he’d be as complacent as any other businessman in his position, but it’s not a business; it’s a passion, and he wants to get thousands of people to Mars. So he’s going to continue to out-innovate the competition.
Imagine a world in which SH/SS is flying daily (or more often) on regularly scheduled trips to ELEO at a cost of tens of dollars a pound. Propellant would be cheap enough to deliver a payload to anywhere in cislunar space for much less than the cost of a traditional launch. That is what ULA and BO are going to have to compete with if they want to stay in the launch business.
I know, “But there’s not enough demand for that level of launch activity!” Believe me, at those prices, we will finally see the kind of price-demand elasticity that will drive it through the roof. People will be doing things dreamt of for decades, held back only by launch costs.
So good luck to ULA (and BO) on their upcoming maiden flights this year, but I don’t predict a long future for them. Not to mention SLS…
I feel like I should write a book about this.
[Monday-morning update]
ULA had a successful maiden flight, but there’s an anomaly with Peregrine.
[Bumped]
The Justified Backlash Against DEI
On how it expanded from the hothouse of the universities to society at large.
Off The Air
I’m flying to Orlando in the morning to attend AIAA SciTech. I won’t get in until evening, and am having dinner with my niece who lives there, so I may not check in until late, or from the conference on Monday.
ChatGPT
Can it reason?
How Hamas Hid Their October 7th Planning
I often wonder what country the State Department is working for.
What Next For Harvard?
Having Gay step down as president doesn’t solve the problem.
[Update a few minutes later]
A Gay fisking (cue whining from Paul in comments that he doesn’t like fisking, so he’s forewarned).
[Update a couple minutes later]
It occurs to me that one of the absurdities that the DEI religionists attempt to impose on normal people (successfully at places like the NYT and AP) is to capitalize “black” as though it is some special privileged status. How does one determine whether a person is worthy of such a prestigious designation? Is Rachel Dolezal? As with being a man or a woman, is it simply a matter of claiming one’s status?
I refuse.
[Update a while later]
Carol Swain’s attorney demands answers from Harvard.
Apropo of nothing, I had lunch with Carol Swain in the fall of 2020 in Omaha (same event where I met Jay Bhattacharya).
[Update a few more minutes later]
Claudine Gay and the great DEI grift.
[Late-morning update]
The real scandal of the Harvard/Gay affair.
Yes, the lengths they were willing to go in defending the indefensible (almost) solely because they couldn’t bring themselves to provide a “victory” to a political opponent is sort of amazing.
Elon Musk
…is not understood.
A long, but thorough defense from Casey Handmer.