The latest on the fiscal insanity, from the LA Times. This is driven by religion, not rationality.
Category Archives: Economics
Space Property Rights
A (relatively) new paper. If the space-settlement bill has hearings and is discussed on the floor, this will become a key issue.
Is Barack Obama A Socialist, Or A Fascist?
Yes:
One of the reasons why both pro-Obama and anti-Obama observers may be reluctant to see him as fascist is that both tend to accept the prevailing notion that fascism is on the political right, while it is obvious that Obama is on the political left.
Back in the 1920s, however, when fascism was a new political development, it was widely — and correctly — regarded as being on the political left. Jonah Goldberg’s great book “Liberal Fascism” cites overwhelming evidence of the fascists’ consistent pursuit of the goals of the left, and of the left’s embrace of the fascists as one of their own during the 1920s.
Mussolini, the originator of fascism, was lionized by the left, both in Europe and in America, during the 1920s. Even Hitler, who adopted fascist ideas in the 1920s, was seen by some, including W.E.B. Du Bois, as a man of the left.It was in the 1930s, when ugly internal and international actions by Hitler and Mussolini repelled the world, that the left distanced themselves from fascism and its Nazi offshoot — and verbally transferred these totalitarian dictatorships to the right, saddling their opponents with these pariahs.
The real act that broke the Left from Hitler was when he betrayed Stalin.
[Update a while later]
Obama: “No difference between communism and capitalism.” Well, if you ignore the tens millions of citizens murdered by their governments, sure.
[Sunday-morning update]
The Illinois Constitution
…is a suicide pact.
No federal bailouts, at least without a rewriting of the state constitution.
Ivanpah’s Problems
…could end concentrated solar in the US.
And the birds and pilots rejoiced.
Commercial Supersonic
Here’s the latest entry. They seem to have persuaded Virgin into buying ten planes.
They don’t seem to be addressing boom, no mention of transcontinental flight. I have a lot of trouble believing they can do trans-Pacific non-stop. But I’d like to find out more.
An SLS “Explainer”
This is very disappointing, from Popular Mechanics. A real “explainer” would explain why SLS is not in fact going to get astronauts to Mars, and why “power” is not the most important figure of merit for a rocket. Instead, they just regurgitate BS from NASA.
Greenfail
So much for the 10kW-hr Tesla Powerwall.
The SEDS Act
Dana has been talking about this for a year, but he’s finally introduced it:
To require the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to investigate and promote the exploration and development of space leading to human settlements beyond Earth, and for other purposes.
Development and settlement demand low cost of access to space, while NASA is forced by Congress to pursue a giant rocket that has exactly the opposite effect. I wish they’d left the E word out, because that’s implicit, and it allows people to maintain the status quo: “Well, the first thing we have to do is exploration, before we can think about development and settlement. And we can’t do exploration without SLS!”
I have a query in to Tony DeTora as to how this differs from the 1989 bill, because I still see no teeth in it regarding what to do if the administrator ignores it and doesn’t submit reports.
[Update a while later]
Related: A new book of essays and stories on the spiritual aspects of space
Turning Bubble Wrap Into Satellites
Rob Hoyt told me about this when I was up in Seattle in November:
BOTHELL, WA., 17 March 2016 – NASA has announced that its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program has selected Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) for award of a Phase II contract to develop “Customizable, Recyclable ISS Packaging” (CRISSP). CRISSP is a suite of recyclable packaging materials, such as bags, bubble-wrap, and 3D-printed containers that are designed to cushion and protect equipment and supplies during launch to the International Space Station (ISS) and then be processed into 3D printer feedstock to support in-space manufacturing of tools, satellite components, and replacement parts.
TUI creates its patent-pending CRISSP materials using high-performance plastics that are chosen based upon their safety for use in space missions, their ease of recycling, and their suitability for use in 3D printing. “One really exciting aspect of the project is that 3D printing has enabled us to build novel vibration damping features into CRISSP,” said Dr. Rachel Muhlbauer, Principal Investigator on the SBIR effort. “Our Phase I effort demonstrated the ability of the CRISSP materials to absorb launch vibrations up to ten times better than traditional foam packaging materials, and the Phase II effort will develop and qualify a process for rapidly designing and manufacturing protective packaging that is customized for each payload.” To recycle CRISSP materials aboard the ISS, NASA will use TUI’s Positrusion™ Recycler, a suitcase-sized system that safely and automatically processes plastic waste into very high-quality filament for 3D printers.
“We are very excited to continue collaborating with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s In-space Manufacturing Project to develop a sustainable in-space manufacturing ecosystem for the ISS and future manned missions,” said Dr. Rob Hoyt, TUI’s CEO and Chief Scientist. “A typical cargo mission to the ISS carries about 25 pounds of packaging material. Currently, that’s 25 pounds of waste they have to dispose of. But with launch costs around $10,000 per pound, that material is worth roughly a quarter million dollars. The combination of CRISSP packaging materials and our Positrusion Recycler will enable NASA to transform this waste on the ISS into valuable feedstock to help manufacture and operate the next generation of exploration systems.”
Just think if the money being wasted on the giant rocket was going to more of this sort of thing.