It’s a little harder to mount a suicide naval attack using cheap boats now. The US Navy is using remote control machine guns. This technology on land vehicles improved force protection in Iraq too.
All posts by Sam Dinkin
Are You Better Off?
| Year | US Life Expectancy at Birth |
|---|---|
| 1905 | 47.8 |
| 1975 | 72.5 |
| 2005 | 77.9 |
Five and a half years extra life expectancy after 30 years. Not bad. An extra 30 after 100 years. Nice. I guess the combination of stress, pollution, moral decrepitude, corroded job protections, declining medical care and all the other crises of the day are actually coincident with increased lifespan. Don’t be optimistic about it; it’s not fashionable.
Disecting Sciam Solar Case
Scientific American published a grand plan for nationwide terrestrial solar power generation system in the January issue. Its highlights:
- A massive switch … to solar power plants could supply 69 percent of the U.S.
Solution of High-Priced Milk
Milk prices hit $3.84/gallon in September which was about a buck more than gasoline. My solution: put ice in milk glasses, then add 15% ethanol to the milk to be required by law. The solution’s also known as (White) Russian.
— Update 12/21, 9:00 PM CST —
Ethanol should be mandated for 15% of the rocket fuel used in US rockets. That might get ADM to stump for more launches.
Reclaiming the First Amendment
Ron Paul’s supporters and a former Federal Election Commissioner are turning the operation of political speech inside out by turning individual donors into political organizations and the delivery vehicle (pun intended) into a for-profit universal-access media company. Bravo! Or as On the Media puts it:
…a campaign reform loophole as big as the Ron Paul blimp.
Expect ever tighter epicycles from the FEC to try to hold back the Internet and the innovative business processes that low transactions costs make available via personal computers and the Internet. They will nullify all limitations on free speech.
Zero G Found to Cause Cluelessness
Marc Kaufman of Washington Post finds that in zero g, “Microbes May Threaten Lengthy Spaceflights[;] Immune Systems Of Astronauts Found To Be Weakened”. I guess the whole spinning-like-a-carnival-ride thing is far too obvious a solution even if the problem is not worthy of a “crash program or anything like that”.
Bad Case for Aerospace Plane
I disagree with more than Simberg in Snead’s presentation of a case for an aerospace plane and space based solar power (SBSP):
At $100 per barrel, America
Moses of Space Exodus Entrepreneur of the Year
Inc. names Elon Musk Entrepreneur of the Year (via spacetoday.net):
The goal of putting people on Mars is no joke. Musk believes that over the four-and-a-half-billion-year history of planet Earth, a dozen or so events have truly mattered. Edging forward in his chair, he ticks off a few: “There was the advent of single-celled life, multicelled life, the development of plants, then animals,” he says. “On this time scale, I’d put the extension of life to another planet slightly above the transition from life in the oceans to life on land.”
Or in Biblical terms, Genesis, then Exodus. As Moses says, “Let my people go”. Musk is putting his growing fortune and celebrity on the line to make space settlement happen. Musk’s history of the world sounds like the preamble to Rand’s Passover-style celebration of when we first left the planet, Evoloterra. Rand, ever thought of expanding Evoloterra into a full religion?
Gotcha Cancellation Policy
I recently canceled my account with Vonage and on behalf of Space Shot canceled our contract with Custom Weather upon switching to AccuWeather which is free. It took about fifteen minutes to navigate all of the extra offers that Vonage wanted to make me to try to retain me. It may be good short-term business, but I felt their hard-sell tactics alienate me. I draw the line if an organization asks me “are you sure?” after I have already said I don’t want something, I complain to their customer service for being rude. They may be retaining a few extra customers, but I’ll remember how long it took to cancel the service and be less likely to buy again given the “exit tax”. These last few customers seem sub prime.
Space Shot also canceled its contract with Custom Weather. What do you think this term in my contract with them says?
…this Agreement will continue for further successive one year periods until it is terminated by either party giving to the other not less than 90 days written notice prior to the end of the initial one year period or on any subsequent anniversary of the Effective Date…
I think it means Space Shot can cancel with no notice on its second and subsequent anniversary with no notice. Space Shot also requested early termination of the current year contract which is in no way prohibited and a refund which is also consistent with policy as reported in the contract. Not acknowledged.
Custom Weather CEO, Geoff Flint wrote me:
I apologize if our lawyers did not make that clause clear enough since the “or” that you refer to is associated with the last verb which was “giving” in the clause “giving to the other not less than 90 days written notice.”
One Stupid Waste Deserves Another
Taylor Dinerman worries about sufficient support for the International Space Station in today’s The Space Review:
The ISS is humanity