Why does Obama want to do it?
Category Archives: Business
The Mouse
Is it going extinct?
From my cold, dead hand. Just like my keyboard.
Those Jobs Numbers Last Week
Everyone was right. They were screwy, but still better than expected.
The Age Of Commercial Spaceflight Begins
The Orange County Register has an editorial favorable to commercial space, with quits from Yours Truly.
Wake Up, America
The Real WARN Act
An employer tells his employees what will happen to them if Barack Obama is re-elected.
For Fools Who Think Cutting Government Spending Hurts Economies
Here’s an old, but still valid post:
Lots and lots of papers* have now studied this question and the evidence is rather clear: the types of austerity that are most-likely to a) cut the debt and b) not kill the economy are those that are heavily weighted toward spending reductions and not tax increases. I am aware of not one study that found the opposite. In fact, we know more. The most successful reforms are those that go after the most politically sensitive items: government employment and entitlement programs. Lastly, there is evidence that markets react positively when politicians signal their seriousness by going against their partisan inclinations. In other words, the most credible spending reductions are those that are undertaken by left-of-center governments. So slash away, Mr. Obama!
My emphasis. But don’t hold your breath on that one.
Obamanomics
…is an abject, miserable failure.
SpaceX’s Engine Failure
Why it could be good news. My piece at Popular Mechanics.
More On The SpaceX Anomaly
…from Alan Boyle. I don’t think this is quite right, though:
What caused the engine’s sudden pressure release, which was apparently strong enough to blow off the fairing?
I think this is a misstatement of the issue. I could be wrong, because we’re still awaiting clarification from SpaceX, but my understanding is that when they shut the engine down, and there was no pressure field coming from the nozzle, the differential pressure resulting from Max Q resulted in it “imploding” inward and breaking off (and perhaps taking the nozzle with it, but that’s less clear). All that is clear is that SpaceX claims that the powerhead itself wasn’t damaged, because they continued to receive telemetry from it.
I should note that if this is the case, it eliminates any earlier concerns about the upper-stage engine causing a catastrophic failure, though questions remain about about why Orbcomm is in the wrong orbit. This is clearly a second-stage issue.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Here’s the current story from Joe Pappalardo at Popular Mechanics. I’ll probably be elaborating on it after getting more info from SpaceX.