Category Archives: Media Criticism

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Space

Reaction Engines Hype

34 Comments

The UK investment into Reaction Engines is drawing some hilarious stories. First, it should “keep Elon up at night“:

Skylon, thanks to BAE investment and backing, has the chance to become the first true space plane that can take off from an airport, fly into space, and then safely return to the atmosphere and land on the same tarmac where it took off. From there, the path to further space exploration can be achieved. For the time being, SpaceX has not yet been able to produce an effective disposable rocket.

This incident, together with the loss of the Progress rocket last April and Cygnus in 2014, are likely to cause some logistics problems for the ISS. Had SpaceX’s launch been successful, it would have marked a significant milestone for the future of space travel. However, this is not yet the case. Despite SpaceX’s reassurances, there is evidence the company may need to make significant changes or abandon ship.

And yet, interestingly, no such “evidence” is provided. #ProTip: A rocket that has successfully delivered payloads to orbit nineteen consecutive times, and which continues to sign up launch customers, is an “effective” rocket, disposable or otherwise.

This is what happens when airplane designers try to build a launch system (I saw this with North American people during the NASP program as well). They don’t understand how launch systems work, they don’t understand the source of the cost, and they think that the solution is to build an airplane, because everything look like a nail. No one actually familiar with the launch industry would write a silly article like this.

And then there’s this:

The 24-hour slog from Sydney to London might soon(ish) be a thing of the past, thanks to the UK government.

The Brits have just pumped £60 million (USD $92.40 million) into a next-generation engine that — its makers claim — will make low-cost space travel possible for commercial customers.

But you and I might not be stepping abroad this super-plane for a while yet. The new ‘Sabre’ engine — a hybrid rocket and jet propulsion system which theoretically allows travel anywhere on Earth in four hours or less — is still at least a decade away, the Independent reported.

And if and when it happens, tickets will be a million dollars each.

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Fred Thompson

1 Comment

Rest in peace. My condolences to Jeri and the family.

He was my top pick in 2008, and it was a disappointment that he had to drop out. The “fire in the belly” thing is one of the stupidest modern reasons to not pick a president. We shouldn’t want someone to run the country who wants the power that badly. Ideally, we’d draft someone who didn’t want the job, but was abundantly competent and would accept it out of patriotism (original example, G. Washington; much more recent one, Paul Ryan).

It’s interesting to note that if he’d been elected, and re-elected, he’d have died in office. Of course, in that alternate history, he might still be alive.

[Late-evening update]
More thoughts from Michael Ledeen.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Climate-Change Religion

10 Comments

French mathematicians are not impressed:

There is not a single fact, figure or observation that leads us to conclude that the world’s climate is in any way ‘disturbed’. It is variable, as it has always been, but rather less so now than during certain periods or geological eras. Modern methods are far from being able to accurately measure the planet’s global temperature even today, so measurements made 50 or 100 years ago are even less reliable.

Concentrations of CO2 vary, as they always have done; the figures that are being released are biased and dishonest. Rising sea levels are a normal phenomenon linked to upthrust buoyancy; they are nothing to do with so-called global warming. As for extreme weather events – they are no more frequent now than they have been in the past. We ourselves have processed the raw data on hurricanes.

We are being told that ‘a temperature increase of more than 2ºC by comparison with the beginning of the industrial age would have dramatic consequences, and absolutely has to be prevented’. When they hear this, people worry: hasn’t there already been an increase of 1.9ºC? Actually, no: the figures for the period 1995-2015 show an upward trend of about 1ºC every hundred years! Of course, these figures, which contradict public policies, are never brought to public attention.

Of course not.

[Via Steve Milloy]

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Wayward Aerostat

29 Comments

AKA the Blimp of Death.

Between that and the CNBC debate, it was not a day of glory for the media.

I do not understand why the RNC (and Priebus) continue to play Charlie Brown and the football with people who hate them.

[Update a few minutes later]

More linkage from Ed Driscoll, here and here. Yes, attacking the media is perfectly appropriate, and plays well to the base. Everyone knows these people are going to vote for whoever the Democrat nominee is no matter what the candidates do or say, and it won’t hurt in the general election. Most people can’t stand these unctuous Democrats with bylines.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Yes, both CNBC and Jeb Bush committed political suicide last night. I don’t know which of Bush’s advisers told him it would be a good idea to attack Marco Rubio on his (non)voting record, but it backfired on him spectacularly.