Is it closing in on the kill for America?
I’m sure it hopes so. It’s always hated the very idea of it.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Charles Koch
…and the Republic of Science.
There are few people in public life so misunderstood and/or mischaracterized as the brothers Koch.
[Update a few minutes later
Check out this amusing bit of projection:
“We really see higher education as the first cog in their political machine,” said Kalin Jordan, a co-founder of UnKochMyCampus. “They see themselves as creating the next generation [of libertarian thinkers] and in creating a next generation, they’re really pushing out any other thought on campus. They’re not interested in creating diversity of thoughts.”
Translation: “They’re fighting back against our successful decades-long fight to push out any thoughts on campus that aren’t leftist.”
The Real Donald Trump
I have no idea who it is, but the private one is clearly different than the public one. Profoundly ignorant in both cases though, on the issues of the day, and the narcissism comes through in bot cases as well.
Risk And Ethics In Commercial Spaceflight
Sara Langston has a new paper out. I haven’t read it yet, but it looks interesting (I may not agree with it entirely, but really don’t know).
Hillary On Trump
It’s scary because it’s true: She’s right about his foreign “policy” “positions.”
She’s also right that he’s a con man and a charlatan who took advantage of people who couldn’t afford his scams with regard to Trump U. And no, I’m not going to vote for her under any circumstances.
When A University Asked An Alumnus For A Donation
I hope a lot more respond like this. What a scam higher ed has become.
The New Space Race
The WaPo has a nice survey of all the passenger vehicles coming down the pike (so to speak). I’d note that it’s not just the Lynx Mark II that may not be built, it’s the Lynx Mark I as well.
Elon’s Mars Plans
He wants to send humans in less than a decade.
That's about when NASA plans to redo Apollo 8, probably at ten times the cost. https://t.co/JUiqNVc6Ue
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) June 2, 2016
Guns, Gorillas, And Moon Missions
Thoughts on the futile attempts to make us perfectly safe.
Gee, someone should write a book about that.
Bezos Versus Musk
They are both trying to open up space to humanity, but they have fundamentally different philosophies:
“Let me assure you, this is the best planet. We need to protect it, and the way we will is by going out into space,” [Bezos] told Recode Editor at large Walt Mossberg. “You don’t want to live in a retrograde world where we have to freeze population growth.”
Bezos says tasks that require lots of energy shouldn’t be handled on Earth. Instead, we should perform them in space, and that will happen within the next few hundred years.
“Energy is limited here. In at least a few hundred years … all of our heavy industry will be moved off-planet,” Bezos added. “Earth will be zoned residential and light industrial. You shouldn’t be doing heavy energy on earth. We can build gigantic chip factories in space.”
Solar energy, for instance, is more practical for factories in space, he said.
“We don’t have to actually build them here,” he said. “The Earth shades itself, [whereas] in space you can get solar power 24/7. … The problem with other planets … people will visit Mars, and we will settle Mars, and people should because it’s cool, but for heavy industry, I would actually put it in space.”
This is the O’Neillian vision (which drove the founders of XCOR, and I continue to share, after all these decades. Mars isn’t the goal; allowing people to go wherever they want, including Mars, should be the goal. Elon’s vision (and that of the Apollo to Mars contingent) is actually quite blinkered. He is a romantic, and a planetary chauvinist (who, by the way, opposes space solar power, or at least thinks it won’t work).
But I’m happy to see them both pursue their visions. Competition is good.