Herbert Meyer says that one of the reasons that we don’t have as many jobs is that we punish entrepreneurs.
All posts by Rand Simberg
How Does This Account For Paris Hilton?
A German researcher says that s3x makes you smart.
He added that the added injection of endorphins and serotonin that resulted from an org@sm strengthened self-confidence – giving the body a mental as well as physical work out.
What Would You Do?
Dennis Powell talks about the unpleasant choices potentially facing a president, given our disastrous space policy for the past few decades, that has resulted in our relative impotence as a space-faring nation.
Pictures Of The X-43A Flight
Can be seen at the Langley website.
A Wonderful Weekend
Not.
It was one of those household projects where one thing turns into another.
I’m getting the California house ready to rent, and finally getting around to fixing up all the little things that I haven’t gotten around to for years that make it a little more aesthetic and livable. One of these was replacing the faucet and handles on the downstairs bathtub which, due to the hardness of our water, had become so encrusted with various minerals that they were starting to resemble some of the more active parts of Yellowstone Park.
Of course, that meant that they were also difficult to remove. When I tried to pull the handle off the cold-water faucet, it decided to break off the end of the valve stem, rather than sliding off the spline as designed. This occurred, of course, after I’d already been to Home Depot. In addition, the new spout that I’d purchased turned out to be for a half inch pipe, while removing the old one revealed a three-quarter inch outlet.
What had been merely an upgrade in looks had just turned into semi-serious plumbing. I turned off the water, and tried to remove the valve stem. Unfortunately, whoever had tiled the tub had embedded it in grout and mortar, so I spent a not inconsiderable part of the afternoon cold chiseling around it enough to get a socket on it, while being careful not to damage any visible parts of the tile. I eventually unscrewed it until it was turning freely, but it was still bound by too small a hole, so I had to chisel some more, and finally remove it like a recalcitrant tooth.
Back to Home Depot to exchange the spout, and buy a new valve stem. It’s installed now, and I’ve got water back on, so now it’s time to steam an artichoke for dinner. All this by way of explanation of light blogging. I am also working on a piece for Tech Central Station on hypersonics.
Industrial-Grade Irony
Is it just me, or does the title of this post seem appropriate for the title of this NYT piece?
This, from the man who thinks that discussions of his voting record, or congressional testimony after Vietnam, are “attacks.”
Steyn On Clarke
Here it is.
Having served both the 42nd and 43rd Presidents, Clarke was supposed to be the most authoritative proponent to advance the Democrats’ agreed timeline of the last decade – to whit, from January 1993 to January 2001, Bill Clinton focused like a laser on crafting a brilliant plan to destroy al-Qa’eda, but, alas, just as he had dotted every “i”, crossed every “t” and sent the intern to the photocopier, his eight years was up, so Bill gave it to the new guy as he was showing him the Oval Office – “That carpet under the desk could use replacing. Oh, and here’s my brilliant plan to destroy al-Qa’eda, which you guys really need to implement right away.”
The details of the brilliant plan need not concern us, which is just as well, as there aren’t any. But the broader point, as The New York Times noted, is that “there was at least no question about the Clinton administration’s commitment to combat terrorism”.
Yessir, for eight years the Clinton administration was relentless in its commitment: no sooner did al-Qa’eda bomb the World Trade Center first time round, or blow up an American embassy, or a barracks, or a warship, or turn an entire nation into a terrorist training camp, than the Clinton team would redouble their determination to sit down and talk through the options for a couple more years. Then Bush took over and suddenly the superbly successful fight against terror all went to hell.
Richard Clarke was supposed to be the expert who could make this argument with a straight face.
Forty-Five Minutes Till Launch
You can follow the progress of today’s Hyper-X test here, starting at noon Pacific time.
[Update at 12:23 PST]
Fox News says they’re going to cover it, if you want to see it on television instead of your computer.
[Update about 1 PM]
As Hefty notes in comments, the B-52 is in the air. Listening to Fox is a little irritating. First they have the PR guy from the program on, and he’s talking about how this will enable a five-hour trip to Japan. That’s nonsense. First of all, you don’t need scramjets to do that–supersonic flight will. A scramjet flying at this speed would do the job in an hour and a half. But there’s nothing about this technology that deals with the real issues of supersonic/hypersonic flight–the drag and the sonic boom. This is a military technology, first and foremost, and its first application, if there is one, will almost certainly be in hypersonic cruise missiles. It’s also unlikely that it will be used in launch vehicles for a very long time, for reasons that I explained here, with responses to criticism of that article here.
I’m also irritated that they reflexively go to John Pike as their “expert.”
[Update at 4:45 PM PST]
The test appears to have been successful. Leonard David has the story.
The Terrorist Connection That Won’t Go Away
With Terry Nichols’ trial opening up soon, LA Weekly reporter Jim Crogan remains on the case of linkage between OK City and the Middle East.
And I wasn’t aware that Jayna Davis is coming out with a book on the subject in a couple weeks. This could have unpredictable effects on the presidential race this fall. It certainly won’t do anything for Mr. Clinton’s legacy.
The Terrorist Connection That Won’t Go Away
With Terry Nichols’ trial opening up soon, LA Weekly reporter Jim Crogan remains on the case of linkage between OK City and the Middle East.
And I wasn’t aware that Jayna Davis is coming out with a book on the subject in a couple weeks. This could have unpredictable effects on the presidential race this fall. It certainly won’t do anything for Mr. Clinton’s legacy.