It's Patricia's birthday. We're up to the Mendocino coast for the weekend. See you Monday. Hope all goes well with the war.

Since our host hasn't tooted his own horn AFAIK, everybody check out this article at MIT Technology Review wherein he is quoted:
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/chandler0403.asp

Eric, that's premium content for those of us who are not subscribers. Can you provide the quotes (in fair use)?

Oops, I hadn't scrolled down far enough to notice. It should become available to all after the issue is off the stands, so don't forget to give a mentiona next month.

Lemme find that dead tree copy and see where it was. On page 49, in the wrap-up section:
Private Push
Despite its poor track record with rocket planes, NASA remains a serious long-term competitor. But the agency's somewhat leisurely timetable has left the field wide-open for the private sector. And excitement about the potential for small companies to actually produce a reusable rocket craft is growing. An X-Prize victory by one of them would dispel skepticism and jump-start investment, too. "It's a psychological step," says Rand Simberg, an aerospace engineer and consultant. "The little companies are going back and doing it like it should have been done in the first place."

Is this writer a NASA brown-noser or what? Competitive? How can a a government entity that doesn't tolerate the existence of other agencies doing similar work be called competitive. IT's like calling the Soviet Union a publicly owned corporation.