If we don’t figure out how to treat it, that will be the consequence of an aging population.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
The Future Of Human Spaceflight
…thirty years on. A little history from Marcia Smith.
I disagree that the NRC “Pathways” report was “excellent,” though.
The Bird 9
SpaceX explains its rocket using the most commonly used thousand words in the English language.
Dealing With Climate Change
No, it’s not like going on a diet:
Even when people aren’t directly invoking the carbon diet in their language, they often echo its principles by suggesting that everyone needs to cut back. But it falls apart—and starts to seem downright sinister—when you look at its priorities. Most of the world does not need a carbon diet. Three-quarters of the global population uses just 10 percent of the world’s energy, 1 billion people lack access to electricity, and 3 billion cook their food over dung, wood, and charcoal, leading to millions of early deaths. These people are energy starved—and they need a feast, not a diet.
These people are essentially advocating mass murder.
High-Speed Rail
California goes full boondoggle:
IF the internet doesn’t change the way people work, reducing both commuting and the demand for business travel, IF the giant project doesn’t mimic almost all similar projects and develop gigantic cost overruns that make a mockery of the initial cost elements, IF resourceful NIMBY groups and their lawyers don’t find too many endangered species in its path or otherwise tie it up in endless litigation, IF self driving cars don’t make rail travel obsolete, IF the fares aren’t so high even with subsidies that passengers shun it, and IF unlike almost all other passenger rail service in the U.S. it doesn’t lose buckets of money, this project could look like a smart move.
IOW, it’s insane.
The Anti-Biotic Drought
…is over?
The experimental drug, which was isolated from a sample of New England dirt, is called teixobactin. It hasn’t yet been tested in people, though it cured all mice infected with antibiotic-resistant staphylococci bacteria that usually kills 90 percent of the animals, according to a study published today in the journal Nature. Bacteria appear to have a particularly difficult time developing resistance to the drug, potentially overcoming a major problem with existing antibiotics.
They’re probably a little overoptimistic on that one, but it’s good news in the short run at least.
SLS, And ARM
I can’t even start to describe how insane this is.
How do they propose to do two SLS launches for a mission when they are only planning one every couple years? And why in the world would they need one to launch crew?
How Science Goes Wrong
A good survey from The Economist why we can’t blindly accept the “authority” of “science” or scientists:
Too many of the findings that fill the academic ether are the result of shoddy experiments or poor analysis (see article). A rule of thumb among biotechnology venture-capitalists is that half of published research cannot be replicated. Even that may be optimistic. Last year researchers at one biotech firm, Amgen, found they could reproduce just six of 53 “landmark” studies in cancer research. Earlier, a group at Bayer, a drug company, managed to repeat just a quarter of 67 similarly important papers. A leading computer scientist frets that three-quarters of papers in his subfield are bunk. In 2000-10 roughly 80,000 patients took part in clinical trials based on research that was later retracted because of mistakes or improprieties.
It’s a mess.
Sanctuary In Space
It’s (at long last) coming to an end. The notion that space can be a sanctuary from weapons has always been a unicorn fantasy, that survived for far too long from the sixties. Space is just a place.
Doug Mohney Attempts To Educate Colebatch
The American Spectator has published a response, but Colebatch remains clueless.
It's a strange world in which we have to explain the advantages of private enterprise over Chinese communism to "conservatives" at @AmSpec.
— US Rocket Academy (@RocketAcademy) January 7, 2015