Dale Amon put up a post yesterday, the thirty-fourth anniversary of the day we first left the Moon. A little over three years later, we did it for the last time in a long time (over three decades now), but hopefully not forever. Read the comments.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Don’t Put Your Faith In The State
Dale Amon put up a post yesterday, the thirty-fourth anniversary of the day we first left the Moon. A little over three years later, we did it for the last time in a long time (over three decades now), but hopefully not forever. Read the comments.
Jerry Springer, Call Your Office
Here’s a classic headline blooper. I wonder if they had trouble trying to recruit more sophisticated folks?
Wings Versus Capsules
Kind of like Mothra versus Rodan, we have another round of this ongoing theological discussion in progress. Now, “Publius Rex” takes issue with the piece a few days ago by Jeffrey Bell that shredded many of the arguments for a winged Orbital Space Plane.
I discussed the issue then, but my main point remains that, while these are interesting technical arguments, they’re ultimately irrelevant to our future in space, because given its current philosophy and the politics of the situation, NASA is unlikely to come up with anything that reduces costs or significantly improves safety. That will come only when we stop looking to NASA for our space transportation needs, and increase funding to the private entities to whom those things actually matter.
Risks Of Human Spaceflight
Jeff Faust has a very good rundown on our apparent inability to deal with this subject rationally. As regular readers know, this is one my main hobbyhorses, because it is likely to result in continued flawed policy decisions.
Dribble
I’m going to say this once, and once only.
I’m getting very tired of you droolers out there who, having apparently never seen the word in print, and being unable to aurally distinguish between the bilabial fricative “b” and the labiodental fricative “v,” write “dribble” when they mean “drivel.”
That is all.
Assisted Suicide?
Just as a reminder, while yesterday’s Apollo anniversary was of course much more significant, at least over the long haul, it was also the tenth anniversary of an event that started a very troubling chapter in our politics–the untimely death of Clinton White House counsel Vince Foster.
Joe Farah has a rundown on why, whatever the truth (and it may never be known due to the flawed nature of the investigation), we should remain very skeptical of the official story.
Cue Wagner
The anti-globo morons have come up with some brilliant and practical ideas to deal with the G8’s choice of Sea Island for the next summit.
A posting by the group Food Not Bombs in Berkeley, Calif., said it may build a “a floating food warehouse and communal kitchen to serve delicious vegan meals to participants arriving at the island by kayak.”
Or perhaps protesters could take up a collection to buy one of Sea Island’s 500 “cottages,” which range in price from $1.3 million to $18 million.
“If ten-thousand people chipped in half a grand each, we could collectively own it, and then throw a REALLY BIG HOUSEWARMING PARTY,” wrote a messager using the name “mj,” who included a link to real estate listings on Sea Island’s Web site. “It’d have to be illegal to keep us off the island.”
But here’s my favorite:
One messager using the name “wispy” suggested trying to breach the island with flotilla of boats flying pirate flags and blaring composer Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”
I love the smell of salt-sprayed vegans in the morning.
Cancel The Cosmic Caterer
Looks like the space wedding is off.
I guess that innovative-uses-of-space stuff runs hot and cold in Russia.
Indispensable
Via Geek Press, the ultimate grand list of overused SF cliches. This should be a mouse click away from any aspiring SF writer, if you don’t want to add to the burgeoning pile of turgid and laughable dreck out there, and further decrease the percentage of non-crud in Sturgeon’s Law.
I particularly enjoyed the cliched settings and characterizations:
Cities of future are depicted as though sanitation workers have been on strike from now until then.
Planets with the same exact climate planet-wide (planets without atmosphere excepted).
Alternative Earths where society is just like some society of the past, with some technodoodads added.
Bad guys who miss everything they shoot at.
Beginning warriors who hit everything they shoot at.
All genetically superior humans have an innate drive to rule, conquer, or kill everyone else.
And silly science:
A hole the size of a barn is made in the hull of a space ship; decompression of the ship’s atmosphere takes a half minute or so.
A hole the size of a dime is made in the hull of a space ship; decompression of the ship’s atmosphere takes a half minute or so.
A large nuclear explosion can be obtained by putting several smaller de-vices together.
The same energy beam which causes rocks, buildings and robots to violently explode produces only a puff of smoke and a bit of burnt flesh and clothing when used on a living being.
These are by no means the best–they are merely representative–go read the whole thing.