On a day that over a dozen sherpas were lost in an avalanche, thoughts from Keith Cowing on the parallels between Everest expeditions and space exploration. I discuss this in the book.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
Procrastination
This looks like an interesting article, if I ever get around to reading it.
Is anticrastination doing something immediately?
3-D Printed Guns
Should we be afraid of them?
…should we be afraid to live in a world where anyone can afford the equipment to manufacture a gun in his or her basement? I hope not—because that’s the world we live in now. Guns are comparatively simple devices. In fact, plenty of custom firearms are manufactured today using equipment that wouldn’t be out of place in a basement. Just as the sets of “plastic guns” and “3D-printed guns” are not identical, the sets of “3D-printed guns” and “homemade guns” are not identical. At the moment, virtually every homemade gun is constructed using some technology other than 3D printing.
Yes, as with most hoplophobia, this is silly.
Idiot Education Administrators
This time, it’s not a public school, but college.
And as Glenn Reynolds notes, these morons now outnumber faculty on campus:
I’d sue all of these people personally, and make their lives a living hell until they left or were fired. And they should have to go through a forced psychiatric evaluation, too, to look at their tendency to abuse power and trust.
Yes.
Conservatives In The Mist
It’s perennially amusing to see these people leave their bubble occasionally and get shocked by these strange and surprising creatures.
Brain Dead, Or Just Resting?
Unsurprisingly, we don’t know as much about vegetative states as many think they do. Unfortunately, as with cryonics, a lot of the medical profession take the easy way out, ethically speaking.
Mad Men
What is all the belly aching about?
We enjoy the show, but some people have been taking it a little too seriously. I hope Megan doesn’t end up Sharon Tated, but I expect Sally to go to Woodstock.
South California
If this really happens, I’d definitely want to pull up stakes and head across the border to Orange County.
We Once Landed On The Moon
Forty-five years later, does it matter?
To the degree that people have learned the false lesson from it that we cannot go beyond low earth orbit without building giant rockets, it was a setback.
High-School Science Teacher
Suspended for teaching science:
One of the most important lessons kids learn in public schools is that school administrators are usually autocratic imbeciles.
Yes, but they shouldn’t have to be so maleducated in other ways to learn that.
There’s a petition drive to reinstate him.