As others note, I’m sure that Sarah Palin could explain the meaning of the word to Katie.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Orion
Eric Berger has the latest installment of his series on NASA’s drift (which is likely to become a book, I think):
NASA’s rank-and-file believe America wants a space program pushing outward, and upward.
“We don’t think of our jobs here as white-collar welfare,” Kramer said. “We have a real passion for what we do.”
Of course you don’t. You have to motivate yourself to go to work. But that doesn’t make it untrue.
I weep to think what that billion dollars per year could be doing if applied to something useful.
[Update a while later]
I should note that I have worked on many projects that I considered a pointless waste of money, because it was my job assignment. While I’m probably more cynical than most, I did eventually tire of helping Congress waste the taxpayers’ money, which is why I quit the mainstream industry two decades ago.
Obama And The Democrats
How he marginalized the party.
I used to say in the nineties that the best thing Bill Clinton did was to end the Democrat dominance of Congress. Obama may have finished the job for a while.
Firefly Space
A profile of the new company at Ars Technica.
Interstellar
Just got back from a week in Missouri visiting family, and still haven’t seen the movie. But I see that (miracle of miracles) it’s still playing in IMAX at one theater in LA, just a few minutes away, so going to finally check it out at a matinee today.
[Monday update]
A lot to comment on, but many reviewers have already digested it pretty thoroughly. One comment I haven’t seen is the problem of the psychodynamics of such a long mission with several men and one woman (a problem shared by the original Planet of the Apes movie, though she died en route).
How The Pilgrims Were Saved
…by ending their attempt at Marxism.
It’s an old story, but many remain unaware of it. I doubt that it’s taught that way in school. It certainly wasn’t when I was a kid. We got the old false story about how the Indians taught them how to farm and fish, and all was well.
The Oral Arguments In The Mann Suit
On this day of Thanksgiving I am thankful for my excellent legal counsel:
The “question for the court,” Judge Ruiz summed up toward the end of arguments, is: “Could a jury look at this and determine that this is verifiable fraud?” Hopefully, the court will answer no, holding instead that such subjective and political questions are best arbitrated by the public and not by the legal system. If it does, Mann’s options will narrow dramatically. In the case of a dismissal, Mann would still technically be able to apply for en banc review, or even to petition the Supreme Court directly. The chances of either court’s electing to take up an appeal from him, however, seem slim. And rightly so. Mann is indulging here in a dangerous game — in a petty and quixotic attempt to recruit the nation’s courts to his side and to forestall any criticism of himself and his work. If the First Amendment is to be worth the paper it is written on, those courts should refuse to be co-opted. Rather, they should dismiss the case as soon as is possible, reminding us as they do that, in America, robust public debate is not actionable, but worthy of celebration instead.
Yes.
And a very Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers.
“Seven reasons why I made a Thanksgiving resolution to leave it.”
Most of this crap doesn’t bother me, because I don’t really “use” Facebook much. My blog posts get auto-posted there, but I could count the number of times I’ve manually updated my timeline (if indeed I can recall them, which I can’t) on one hand. I guess that for many less tech literate, Facebook became a substitute for a blog, but I’ve never needed one. And I find Twitter much more useful as a link mine.
Junk Science From The FDA
The new calorie-labeling rules are counterproductive, both because people don’t pay much attention to them (appropriately), and because the whole notion of calorie counting as a means of weight control is nutritionally ignorant.