All posts by Rand Simberg

War Commentary

A Hero Of My Lai

It’s not the best sourcing, but if this post is valid, Hugh Thompson has died.

My Lai means different things to the different people. I still remember the Life magazine cover with Lt. Calley on it. To the left, it was big news, because it was emblematic of the war, and validated their belief that US soldiers were wanton baby killers, and that they’d finally gotten caught in the act. To others, it was big news because it was so anomalous and out of character for American troops. The actions of Hugh, and others, who put an end to it when they discovered what was going on (and the fact that Calley was court martialed) would seem to me to be much stronger evidence for the latter thesis than the former.

But the myths of My Lai continue to permeate thought and discussion of the war that we’re in now, almost four decades later, and were a backdrop to John Kerry’s despicable 1972 Senate testimony that was in itself part of the context of last year’s campaign, even if many wanted to brush it under the carpet.

[Update at 2:50 PM EST]

Here’s the story. RIP

War Commentary

Progress In Iraq

Even the Sunnis are now starting to blame Al-Zarquawi and Al Qaeda for the bombings, in the latest attempt to create a “Tet” offensive:

“Neither the Americans nor the Shiites have any benefit in doing this. It is Zarqawi,” said Khalid Saadi, 42, who came to the hospital looking for his brother, Muhammed. Saadi said he hoped that sympathies in the city, considered a hotbed of support for the Sunni Arab insurgency, would turn against al-Zarqawi’s faction.

The question I have is, is this really news, or is it just the first time that AP has found it worth reporting?

Space

Hyperdrive Hype

The topic for this post is “Space,” but it could also be “Media Criticism.” New space blogger Eric Collins emails:

You may have noticed the post on HobbySpace about the so-called hyperspace drive. The linked-to article from the Scotsman is annoying on several different levels. I was really disappointed that this article was making it onto several highly visible blogs (including slashdot).

I was preparing a long blog rant about this incredibly speculative, bordering on crackpot, theory when I finally came across a link to the original article posted at New Scientist. This article is much more informative and manages to sufficiently address the speculative nature of the proposal. So, rather than blog about it myself, I decided that I would just try to make sure people were aware of the New Scientist article. And, since your blog is much more visible than mine, I figured you could probably get the word out much more effectively than I could.

Yes, I was going to post something about this, particularly after Glenn picked up on it, but I haven’t had time, so thanks to Eric.

The strangest thing (of several strange things) that jumped out at me about the Scotsman article to me was this paragraph:

…if a large enough magnetic field was created, the craft would slip into a different dimension, where the speed of light is faster, allowing incredible speeds to be reached. Switching off the magnetic field would result in the engine reappearing in our current dimension.

Huh?

Even ignoring the mumbo jumbo about magnetic fields and different dimensions, this is the equivalent of saying “the solution to land-based transportation is to raise the speed limit from seventy MPH to 500 MPH,” ignoring the fact that no one has a car that can drive this fast. There is no description in here of how one goes faster than our “dimension’s” speed of light, even if the speed of light is faster. The problem isn’t speed limits, it’s propulsion. Hell, if we could approach the speed of light here, that would be a huge breakthrough. Once we figure out how to do that, then we can start worrying about how to increase the speed of light.

This is another example of how science and technology stories can get mangled by reporters who don’t have any idea what they’re writing about. And the New Scientist piece is, indeed, much more interesting (and describes what actually is a new form of propulsion, by converting electromagnetic forces to gravitational forces), to those who (unlike the Scotsman reporter) are numerate and literate in basic physics.

Space

Emptying The Belfries

I haven’t had time to read the NPRM from the FAA on the new space passenger regulations, or formulate any inputs, but Jeff Foust has done a little research and come up with some amusing examples of people who have.

I will say that I think that it’s a little premature for the FAA to be worried about smuggling on commercial space transports, disarming the universe, or especially people on a spacewalk throwing things at the planet.

As for the concern about requiring that space transport pilots be licensed aviation pilots, I doubt if the FAA considers that to be a sufficient condition, but it’s certainly not unreasonable to make it a necessary one.

Meanwhile, over at Space Law Probe, Jesse Londin has more serious thoughts on it.