Category Archives: Law

The Lie That Was Covid

Bob Zimmerman lays it out:

Since day one of the epidemic practically every policy decision by government and the largely Democratic academic community has been based on lies. And those lies caused the initial response to COVID to be wrong and misguided. It was panicked, thoughtless, based on very flawed models rather than the actual data, and did far more harm than good. The later and continuing mandates requiring the COVID shots and masks to keep one’s job, to fly on airplanes, to cross borders, to even go to school or attend public events, are even more insane, based not on the now long-known facts but on lies and fear and the urge by those in power to wield that power corruptly.

It is long past time for everyone to stop buying into these lies.

Indeed.

Elon’s Thursday Starship Presentation

What Eric Berger is hoping to learn.

[Thursday update]

It’s at 2100 EST, on Youtube.

[Bumped]

[Update a few minutes later]

Bob Zimmerman will be live streaming it as well.

[Friday-morning update]

Here is Eric Berger’s report.

What I heard last night that was new to me (maybe he’s said this before) was that it was less than a million per flight on the margin, and it could deliver 150 tons to LEO (I had thought the number was a hundred tons). That’s a fifty percent increase, and a one-third reduction in cost per pound.

[Late-afternoon update]

A report from NASA Spaceflight.

[Bumped]

[Saturday-morning update]

More on Musk at Politico, in which Yours Truly is quoted and cited.

The Power Habit

Can politicians quit it?

When the history of the Covid-19 pandemic is written, the names of many drugs — Paxlovid, fluvoxamine, sotrovimab — will be mentioned. But the account will be incomplete if the distorting effect of the most powerful and addictive drug of all, political power, is omitted. The public, out of fear, gave politicians enormous power. What we’re about to see, the world over, is whether they can take it back.

We are in dangerous times.

Leaded Aviation Fuel

How to survive the transition to unleaded.

As more airfields adopt this policy, it could cause affect flight plans and significantly impact aircraft owners and pilots, especially those operating high-performance models.

Much like Tesla owners who now plan road trips based on the availability of charging stations along the route, flight plans will need an additional layer of forethought to ensure refueling at an airport still distributing 100LL.

The stakes are considerably higher with aircraft, as one does not simply pull over and wait for AAA to arrive with a portable charger when reserves dip dangerously low.

You don’t say.