A story on the current state of play, at the WaPo.
Category Archives: Economics
Space Settlement And Starships
Kim Stanley Robinson says they’re impossible.
I call Clarke’s Law about distinguished scientists, even though he’s just a fiction writer.
ULA’s Shot Across McCain’s Bow
When they said they couldn’t bid GPS without RD-180s, they meant it.
Climate Science
Thoughts from Bob Zimmerman on the tremendous uncertainty.
The models are worse than worthless as a guide to policy.
A Vegan, Liberal Environmentalist
How he went from climate promoter to climate skeptic.
It’s amazing how pathetic the warm mongers’ “arguments” are. It’s one of the ways you can tell it’s not science; it’s ideology and religion.
[Update a while later]
Bjorn Lomborg on the trivial effects of current climate proposals. But the economic impacts would be far from trivial.
Desalinating Water
I wonder if there’s a catch? If not, this would be revolutionary.
Tethers Unlimited
Just had an interesting visit there, where they’re working on a lot of tech that will reduce (to the limited degree it exists) the justification for large-fairing launch payloads, with new orbital-assembly techniques, including 3-D printing. They’re working on (among other things) ways of building large lightweight trusses for orbital structure, that could lead ultimately to assembly hangars. They’re also developing ways to recycle a lot of plastic goods (like bubble wrap and zip locks) into cord to feed 3-D printers at the ISS. Very exciting stuff.
ObamaCare Continues Its Collapse
“’I’m an advocate for the health care law,’ said Ms. Jackson, who lives in Harlem. ‘And if I can’t navigate this, who can?’”
“It’s as if the whole ObamaCare thing was just a politicized Potemkin village.”
Yup.
ObamaCare
…is dead:
The fact is that Obamacare has fallen apart without Republicans’ dismantling it. Almost all of its basic promises have failed, it is an economic shambles, and it is a political mess: Unsurprisingly, people still don’t like it. Less than a third of Americans support the individual mandate, three-fourths oppose Obamacare’s tax on high-end health-care programs, and more voters oppose the law categorically than support it. A quarter of voters say the law has hurt them personally. The question isn’t why Republicans haven’t gotten around to repealing and replacing it — the answer to that question resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a while, still — the question is when Democrats will get around to admitting that, purity of their hearts notwithstanding, they and they alone — not one Republican voted for Obamacare — have created a mess that has introduced nothing to American health care except chaos.
"Dead" is such a harsh word, @KevinNR. We prefer the phrase "metabolically challenged." https://t.co/UsB0Zmpvmd
— HealthCaliphate (@HealthDotGov) November 4, 2015
[Update a few minutes later]
Surprise! Rates going up three times as much as reported.
Tesla
Is it doomed?
Frankly, if so, I won’t shed a tear. I’ve never been a fan of companies that require government subsidies (as opposed to government contracts, as is the case with SpaceX) as critical to their business model. My only concern is any effect a Tesla bankruptcy would have on SpaceX, but there’s not reason in theory that it should, unless Elon has been continuing to fund it with his own money, which seems unlikely.