I’d need an extra large. No brag, just fact.
OK, actually, just kidding.
Except when, you know…interested. For now I think I’ll just stick with a little loose.
Category Archives: Popular Culture
Developing Laser Weapons
Snow-Melting Satellites
Patrick Collins, a PhD economist who lives in Japan, has been a long-time promoter of space tourism, but he has also been interested in solar-power satellites. Many have promoted them as a means to mitigate greenhouse gases, but three years ago, he presented a paper in Nagoya on their use in preventing the next glacial advance, which would be much more catastrophic than any of the climate frights conjured up by the warm mongers. He writes:
The webmaster of spacefuture.com [presumably, Peter Wainwright] refuses(!) to put this paper into the Space Future library which we founded together! Living and working in NYC seems to have made him “politically correct” (i.e. unscientific) – and also “warmist”! This despite the fact that any arguments that once existed for the theory that human emissions of CO2 could lead to catastrophic “global warming” (now morphed into “climate change”) have been totally destroyed by ever-growing scientific evidence – including notable work by Burt Rutan.
This evidence has grown by leaps and bounds in the three years since this paper was written. For a taste of the power of private citizens dedicated to scientific truth, and armed with the Internet and Freedom of Information laws, wattsupwiththat.com is hard to beat.
When we wrote this paper, neither of us had read Fallen Angels
, in which Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn – back in 1991 – prefigured both the key ideas: that the coming of the next Ice Age is a far greater threat than any possible warming, and that solar-generated microwave beams from orbiting satellites offer a unique means of combatting the spread of glaciers. NB it will require a massive “crash program” to ramp production up to a scale that could save western civilisation – a cool 1 million square kilometres of solar panels in various orbits! Sadly they were also prophetic about the degeneration of the US government. Perhaps holding back the glaciers could become the trigger to wake people up and develop space at last? Their book receives honourable mention in the follow-up paper being published soon.
I’ve uploaded the paper to my own site, for anyone interested, despite Peter’s truculence in that regard.
Mars One
They’ve announced their selection criteria for Barsoomanaughts.
I think that this is a more realistic plan than any proposed government missions.
“A Wilderness Of Dragons”
Thoughts on Peter Jackson’s latest movie, from Wretchard.
I haven’t read the Hobbit since I was a teenager. I’ve read so many mixed reviews that I haven’t decided whether or not to see it in the theater yet, though I am tempted just by the thought of the high-speed high-res film.
Who To Believe?
Charlie Sheen says that Tony Villar is lying. I mean, they’re both so intrinsically credible.
Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Nonlack Of Regrets
…and the sugar content of Trix. An eclectic Bleat today.
I have no recollection of the Bugs/Trix interaction. But it’s amazing in retrospect how much sugar I ate in cereal as a kid, and didn’t get fat. Though I think we were more active than a lot of kids today.
The Rose Parade
We’re sitting in the grandstand at Colorado and Orange Grove, across from the Norton Simon museum. It’s the beginning of the route. I may tweet pics @Rand_Simberg.
Les Miz
I agree with Roger Simon:
…it’s always been a mystery to me how this tuneless musical was a success in the first place…
Yes. Patricia took me to see it at the Pantages about twenty years ago for my birthday, and my reaction was “Meh.” I read the book when I was young, and it’s a great story, but I think it is a failure as a musical, though I know this is heresy to many. For one thing, it’s not a musical — it’s an opera, and I’ve never been an opera fan (Phantom had good enough melodies that I got past that). And there is very little in the way of memorable songs in it. It’s just continuous singing. Even a mediocre Rodgers and Hammerstein song is superior to the most famous song of Les Miz, “I Dreamed A Dream.” Plus, I thought it overglorified the June Revolution which, like all French revolutions, was the antithesis of one promoting actual human freedom, all of them, from the Terror on, being led by the intellectual offspring of Rousseau.
So no, I have no plans to see the movie.
A Death Star
…would make a great stimulus and green energy project.
From my point of view, just think what the demand for that much material lifted from earth would do for launch costs. Unless they used SLS, of course.