A recommendation of Steve Kwast.
General Kwast has read my book, and I’ve heard that he occasionally quotes it.
Category Archives: Business
The New Launch Rules
“It’s almost as though the Russians or Chinese wrote them.”
ITAR was supported by the big companies, too, because they had the infrastructure to deal with it, while the upstarts didn’t.
BE-4
Progress in testing it seems to be steady, and Bezos just sold another $1.8B of stock to support it and Blue Origin’s other goals.
Newsmax
From what planet was this written?
The truth is, America already has a capable new rocket that dwarfs the capabilities of the Saturn V rockets that took our astronauts to the moon. The Space Launch System will be online and ready later this year.
…Real and robust competition pushes all participants to perform their best. But SpaceX has so far been able to avoid real competition. Without any real requirement that it ultimately succeed, SpaceX has been a technological failure, even while Musk has managed a public relations success and gotten paid based on his public relations campaign, more than actual accomplishment. To make it to Mars we must encourage real competition, not Elon Musk’s fake version of competition where he gets paid regardless of what he produces.
Sure, Jan.
[Update a while later]
I guess I needed a link for those last two words.
Yes, it was written by George Landrith.
Paul Krugman
Thoughts on his “most evil idea.”
I don’t know, I think there’s stiff competition for that. Also, my understanding is that a lot of the stuff he writes is prompted by his wife.
But yes, envy of the long-lived is just as sinful as envy of the wealthy.
College
…does not make you a better person.
I’m reading a review copy of an interesting new book from Bob Zimmerman on the history of slavery in America. One of the points he makes is that one of the things that created the cultural environment for it was the nature of how the Cavaliers founded Virginia, with the class bias and denigration of physical labor they brought from England.
Trump’s Attack On Baltimore
A friend of decades was murdered there a couple years ago, stabbed in the neck while walking her dogs. There remains no suspect, and no motive.
[Update a while later]
Yes. It is (as always, since the founding of their party) the Democrats, not Trump, that are the racists.
[Wednesday-morning update]
Al Sharpton is on his way to save Baltimore from Trump.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Trump is absolutely right about con-man Al Sharpton.
One of the many reasons I can’t take Democrats seriously on race is the fact that they feel the need to kiss that corrupt grifter’s ring to get their party’s nomination.
[Update a few minutes later]
Trump has forced the Democrats to defend Al Sharpton. His superpower is to show them to be the corrupt anti-Semitic racist grifters that they are.
ISS R&D Conference
I’m taking a red eye to Atlanta tonight to attend it. I’ll be taking laptop, so I’ll probably be blogging, but I’ll have a lot of networking to do there. Also, it will be the first time I’ve ever been in the city. I’ve been through Hartsfield a lot, but never in Atlanta proper.
[Monday noon update]
Arrived about 7 AM, and was able to get an early check in, so I got a few hours sleep.
My first impression is that Atlanta seems to have recovered somewhat from the war, but it’s had 155 years.
Hopper Hopped
Eric Berger was there last night.
And if you have the time, a good explanation of the Raptor engine design.
An “Anti-Space” Event
He doesn’t realize it, but “anti-space” events are really anti-humanity events. And as always, I am not impressed by people who think they are better arbiters of how other people should spend their money than those who are spending the money.