There was an interesting discussion this afternoon at Council of Foreign Affairs with Lori Garver, John Logsdon, and Charles Miller. The Youtube is now available. Note that they touch on many of the themes in my upcoming paper, on how we have to stop trying to do Apollo again, that SLS is a jobs program, that propellant transfer is a game changer, the need for a competitive private sector, etc. Lori was quite harshly critical of NASA (and Congress).
Category Archives: Economics
The New Commercial Space Bill
Stephen Smith has an analysis. While it’s nice that they slightly mitigated the idiotic language about using SLS/Orion for ISS missions in 2010, the most significant aspect of the bill, to me, is the extension of the learning period. I don’t think the language about mining is all that significant, legally. It simply makes explicit what’s always been customary law since the moon samples.
College Pays Off
“…on average. Your results may vary.”
What, exactly, are we getting for all the money we’re spending on college? “Helping students pay for college” sounds like a fine public policy goal. “Helping people to spend years of their lives taking on debt just to find out that they’re unlikely to get a high-paying job” … considerably less so.
Degree-blind loans are disastrous. They’d never happen if the colleges and banks had skin in the game. They survive only through well-meaning but mindless taxpayer largess.
Vizio Televisions
This is why they’re lower priced. The company makes revenue from selling your viewing habits.
Here’s the thing. I’ve got plenty of video input sources. I don’t want a “smart television.” I don’t even want to waste money on audio amp and speakers. I just want to pour all of my television money into a good-quality picture. But it’s very hard, if not impossible, to find just monitors in the large-screen class.
Space Property Rights
A story on the current state of play, at the WaPo.
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.