California environmentalists may not be very happy with Jerry Brown and his high-speed train to nowhere.
Category Archives: Business
Virgin Galactic’s Engine Issues
George Whitesides responds to Tom Bower’s accusations (sort of), and Doug Messier analyzes.
I’ll simply repeat my long-standing belief that hybrids have been dramatically overhyped. If VG is smart, they’ll be trying to migrate away from them as quickly as possible.
Falcon 9-R
Photos taken by several local people from a public road in the vicinity of the test site – some of which were provided to L2, while others were posted openly on the internet – provide a glimpse of the landing leg structures that appear to be closely based on the hardware that SpaceX is expected to employ when they actually fly with legs on a Falcon 9.
…limitations at the Texas site result in an AGL (Altitude above Ground Level) ceiling for Grasshopper of 2,500 feet.
Once GH2 arrives in New Mexico, it will be able to fly to much greater altitudes.
Gywnne said at ISPCS in October that they hoped to be flying out of New Mexico by the end of the year, so it looks like they’ve slipped that schedule. I was going to ask her at a meeting I had with her a couple weeks ago, but we were interrupted before I had a chance.
The Oil-Export Ban
Will it finally be lifted?
It was always an economically idiotic policy.
If You’re So Rich, Why Aren’t You Smart?
The billionaires are starting to line up behind Hillary.
Of course, it’s not necessarily stupid. There’s no intrinsic reason that plutocrats would give a damn about the country.
National Review
No, it’s not going to go under from this frivolous and meritless lawsuit.
High-Risk Sports
Some ruminations on the possibility of death. As I note in the book, many extreme sports, not just motorsports, carry such danger, but it’s not regulated by the government. The commercial space industry will need to develop its own standards for different risk levels and activities.
Crowdfunding
Traditional capital flows from nonprofits to investment banking are being disintermediated. People, causes and businesses that need capital have access through the internet, social media and crowdfunding platforms to capital that they simply could not access before. As this trend grows, crowds will demonstrate a different sort of wisdom, sometimes funding causes that foundations wouldn’t or entrepreneurs that VCs wouldn’t.
The JOBS bill was one of the few bi-partisan things that Congress had done recently that will actually help the economy and provide more opportunities for true wealth and job creation.
Book Reviews
Just a reminder, we only have two of them at Amazon, so for those of you who have read it, it would be nice to see some more, even if they’re not five stars (as the first two are).
Employer-Based Health Insurance
Time to make it taxable.
I agree.