All posts by Rand Simberg

General

Wednesday Stella Update

Last night, the prognosis wasn’t good.

The doctor still didn’t know what was wrong, and didn’t think she’d make it through the night without a transfusion. She also didn’t know how well she’d do with one–there was a good chance that we’d either get a test in the morning that indicated something dire and untreatable, or only expensively treatable, or that wouldn’t indicate anything at all. Any of those results would be bad news. She wasn’t hopeful for a test result of something that was easily treatable.

Nonetheless, we decided to, in cryonics parlance, “transport her to the future,” in the hopes of superior medical technology on the morrow, by giving her a two-hundred dollar transfusion, but not spend the extra hundreds of dollars to move her to an emergency clinic overnight, where they might do more extensive (and expensive) tests.

Bottom line–the gamble paid off. She was more alert this morning, and her red cell count was doubled from yesterday. An hour or so later, we got lab results that indicated a blood parasite that had been munching on her platelets, easily treated with tetracycline.

Her underlying health seems to be very good for her age–the doctor says that her liver and kidney functions are those of a much younger cat, and if we can get her through this, she should have more good years left.

Hooray!

I could bring her home tonight, but I’m working long hours right now, and going to Fort Lauderdale this weekend, so we decided to keep her at the vet until Monday, where they can keep an eye on her progress and get the medicine in her.

Hopefully, I’ll have a healthy cat again next week. Thanks you again for all the good wishes–I really appreciate it.

And though I’ve never cat blogged before, I’ll post pics when I get her home, for those who are now curious.

Uncategorized

My Doctor Laura Moment

Some people have pointed out this story as one of love conquers all, to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

They talked about their families and found out that they had both been abandoned by their fathers as toddlers, and both were anxious to build stronger families. Blackwell’s first marriage had collapsed and he had two daughters by two different women, but he insisted he was ready to start again.

Three months after their palace date, Blackwell – fed up with dating across the razor-wire – was already thinking about getting married. “It just felt like the right thing to do,” he says now. “It was something that was more than us. I didn’t want to give up something like that.”

“He doesn’t make plans,” McKee [his mother–ed] adds by way of explanation.

Anyone want to make book on the long-term (or even short-term) prospects for this marriage?

Uncategorized

Nomination Race Over?

I see that Kerry is winning TN and VA today, which makes his eventual ascendancy almost inevitable. It looks like Terry McAuliffe got his wish for an early candidate.

He should have been careful what he wished for. I find it amusing that, in their rush to find someone “electable,” the Donks are nominating someone who hasn’t yet demonstrated an ability to take a punch, since all of the other candidates were beating up on each other instead of him.

It will be interesting to see the Bush strategy–whether they start hammering him soon, let it dribble out over the next eight months, or save the good stuff for the fall. Certainly, from the war-criminal accusations, the Jane Fonda love fest, the throwing someone else’s medal over the White House fence, the contradictory votes, the faux populism, the hypocrisy on special interests, the “Do you know who I am?”s, etc., there’s a wealth of ammunition for Karl Rove to work with, as the economy improves and we shift responsibility for Iraq to the Iraqis through the summer and fall.

Uncategorized

Stella Update

Boy, this has become kind of an internet version of a kid in a well, but I’ve had so much interest and well wishes in the situation that I’ll provide an update.

I just got a call from the vet, and the short answer is that she doesn’t know what’s going on, except that the red cell count is down to ten percent, which is below the level at which they normally transfuse.

There’s no fever, and in fact she’s hypothermic, so they’re keeping blankets on her. No problems with kidney or liver function. She’s wondering if it’s some kind of parasite, but won’t know until they do an outside lab test. She’ll probably need blood, and at least an overnight stay tonite, neither of which are available at her current facility, so I’ll have to move her (or have them do it).

That’s all she knows for now.

Uncategorized

They Had A Plan

Lileks has a devastating case against those who say that Bush had a plan to invade Iraq before 911 (hint, he wasn’t the first, or only president…)

?If Saddam isn?t stopped now,? the AP story said, quoting Clinton,?He will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction. And someday, someway, I guarantee you, he?ll use that arsenal.?? Thus spake Clinton in 1998. He went on to note that the strikes planned could not possibly destroy Saddam?s arsenal, because A) they didn?t know where everything was, and B) they didn?t want to kill Iraqis by unleashing clouds of toxins. And it gets better: a sidebar noted that this war plan ? Desert Thunder ? had been prepared weeks before, in case Saddam stiffed in the inspectors.

Bill Clinton had a plan to go to war before the crisis flared! What does that tell you? Obviously, he was looking for any excuse! Halliburton! We all know about the ties between Clinton and Halliburton ? he gave them a sweet no-bid contract after his Balkans war, you know.

You’ll have to scroll through some blogging about (potentially apocryphal) ancient racist popular music first, though.

General

And Speaking Of My Sick Cat

Stella is fifteen (which is probably pretty geriatric in cat years). Which makes me feel old, because I’ve had her since she was a kitten, and I wasn’t any spring chicken when I got her.

She lives for three things–lying in my lap, clawing expensive furniture, and food.

Yesterday, she didn’t show up for dinner. In fact, she didn’t show up for lap, either. I didn’t see her at all.

When I got home from work today, she wasn’t upstairs complaining about being fed late. Indeed, she wasn’t upstairs at all. I found her downstairs, lying on the floor in the middle of a bedroom.

I picked her up, and carried her up to the kitchen. Normally, she’d be crying by the cabinet in which the cans of food are kept, but she seemed indifferent. I opened a can and put food into the bowls for her and Jessica (the younger cat). She didn’t eat.

I couldn’t get her to drink, either. She wandered out of the kitchen, and seemed to be walking quite wobbly. She’s spent most of the evening lying on one of the stairs.

I don’t have a good thermometer for taking her temp, but I’m wondering if she’s come down with something. It seems too sudden for her to just be getting old.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Update on Tuesday morning]

Per the advice (and I’m sure I’d have done it anyway) she’s ensconced at the vet. No word yet on what the problem is. Thanks for all the good wishes.

Uncategorized

Speaking Of My Sick Furnace

Maybe some of my smart readership can help.

It quit working the other day. I went in and looked at it, and the wiring from the thermostat had lost all its insulation and was extremely oxidized–it looked like a long, anorexic green worm. I figured the problem was that it had quit conducting, and replaced the bad sections with new wiring.

No joy.

I’ve an electronic thermostat (about ten years old or so), and it indicates that it’s working (the temperature LCD flashes when it’s supposedly telling the furnace to burn). I’ve always thought that the voltage on these things is supposed to be 24VAC, but when I disconnected the wiring and measured it, it was only fourteen. Is this indicative of a problem? Is it possible that the wiring was OK, and that I have a different problem? Like a bad thermocouple?

Does anyone have any theories, and experiments I could run?

Space

Chock Full Of Space Policy Goodness

Too busy to blog (I’m working overtime, have a sick furnace and a sick cat), but fortunately, Henry Vanderbilt over at the Space Access Society is picking up the slack. He’s very upbeat, and has an update on X-Prize progress, a smart analysis of the president’s space initiative, and the new House legislation on launch regulation, a subject that I still haven’t had much time to analyze.

As part of his new space policy analysis, he also has a powerful argument against the “Bush space policy hoax” folks.

…we think this new plan is very unlikely to be
what many are claiming, mere election-year feelgood puffery. Were
it so, the Administration would be making promises left and right,
jobs for everyone and a contract in every district, and not worrying
overmuch whether the Congress would fund it all once the election’s
over. Instead, the White House and NASA HQ have been notably
reticent about reassuring the established NASA manned space Centers
and contractors that they’ll all have major roles in the new
initiative. Refusing to promise job security is a poor way to win
votes. It is, however, a good way to keep options open to implement
the sort of major restructuring NASA will need to meet the new
program’s ambitious goals within relatively modest budget increases.

It’s long, but read the whole thing.

[Update on Tuesday morning]

There was one specific other item of note from Henry’s report that I would have mentioned last night if I hadn’t had the cat and furnace problems. Pioneer Rocketplane apparently has funding to build their suborbital vehicle, thanks to tax credits from the state of Oklahoma. Mitchell Burnside Clapp, founder and president, told me about this over a year ago, but it’s public information now.

I think that 2004 will continue to be a very interesting year for the new emerging space transport industry.

Space

Hit And Run

With regard to Josh Marshall’s uninformed hit piece, Keith Cowing makes a good point:

I call this hit and run policy analysis. Here is how it works: the practitioner makes some wildly unsubstantiated comments based on a few microseconds of analysis – usually on a topic about which they know nothing. They then throw in some wild cost estimates to scare folks, link a series of unrelated items together to suggest a trend (or usually a conspiracy), and then end the piece with a global pronouncement. Since the practitioner is a popular commentator and talking head on TV, most people just take him at his word. The net result: a complex issue is left lying by the side of the road in people’s minds without ever having a chance to explain itself. The fact that this flimsy analysis appears in a publication that touts itself as being “for and about the U.S. Congress” ought to have a few people at NASA’s Office of Legislative Affairs concerned.

At the risk of violating Instapundit’s trademark, indeed…

[Update on Tuesday morning]

Welcome to any first-time readers from Instapundit. I apologize for the little foofaraw in the comments section–it’s actually quite unusual.

Keith, thank you for the kind and helpful comments on the cat. I’ll continue to visit NASA Watch, and to encourage my readers to do the same, for whatever it’s worth, because I think that it is a valuable website, but judging from several comments, I do think that you’re machine gunning yourself in the foot here.

It would be nice to end this pointless (albeit mild) flamefest and actually have a few comments on the substance of the post.