I’ll be on The Space Show at noon PDT to talk about the 56th anniversary.
Category Archives: History
Science Fiction
What if it’s our best window to the future? A discussion with David Brin.
He’s more down on lunar resources than I am, but I agree with his critique of Artemis.
Gettysburg
Today is the anniversary of the third day of the battle.
The Battle of Gettysburg: Day 3 đź§µ
— Manifest History (@ManifestHistory) July 3, 2025
1/ On July 3, 1863, Gettysburg reached its climax, with 140,000 troops locked in a desperate struggle. From Culp’s Hill to the fields south of town, Day 3’s battles—culminating in Pickett’s Charge—produced over 15,000 casualties, deciding the… pic.twitter.com/jVvFZhHIQR
Vicksburg fell the next day, on the Fourth of July, marking the beginning of the end for the South. Vicksburg refused to celebrate the holiday for seven decades.
AI, Emerson, The Diamond Age, and Education
Thoughts on how to make kids more self reliant, from Neils Stephenson and Ferguson (except the latter is a Niall).
Male Novel Readers
…are not fiction.
There seems like a huge opportunity here for a publishing house that serves them.
Trump’s Past Two Weeks
…were very consequential.
The Late Bill Moyers
An Elmer Gantry of the new age.
If he was still active, he’d be one of the people whose funding got cut off by DOGE.
The Global Baby Bust
Three long-shot ways of solving it. One of them is space.
Unconditional Surrender
A history of our fecklessness since the end of WW II.
The problem with Trump is that, despite his talk about “getting tired of winning,” he, like the pseudo-pacifist Democrats (I say “pseudo,” because they aren’t really anti-war–they’re just on the other side) doesn’t want to win wars, but to “end” them. I get that he doesn’t like wars, but sometimes they are necessary, and the only way, ultimately, to end them is to win decisively, in a way that the combatants either no longer exist, or are no longer willing to continue to combat. It remains to be seen whether that’s the case in Iran, but I fear that they are just biding their time.
We Knew It
…and now they’re proving it.
A righteous rant from Jeffrey Carter on the lies and preening condescension of the “elite.”