This essay by Jared Diamond is a quarter of a century old, but it’s still worth pondering, particularly as we now know much more about just how bad for our health grains are. I think, though, that he misses a key benefit of agriculture — the fact that it has allowed us to produce billions of people. Minds are a resource, even if we poorly utilize most of them. The more people we have, the likelier we are to come up with new true advances. I’m pretty sure that absent agriculture, technology would not have advanced much, and we’d be nowhere near the position we’re in now — about to finally expand off the planet, and attain the capability of preventing a species-destroying event.
Category Archives: Space
Grasshopper
It’s reportedly on the verge of making its first hop.
Trains To Nowhere Over Rocket Ships
California expresses its preference. My thoughts on XCOR’s Texas move, over at PJMedia.
A Point-To-Point Space Transport?
I wonder what the deal is with this company, and who is funding it?
Telstar
Happy fiftieth anniversary to the very first communications satellite. Sadly, I’m old enough to remember the day it happened. That was an exciting year, between Glenn’s flight and it. The space age seemed so young and full of promise to a kid.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s the newsreel. That brings back memories.
[Update late morning]
Speaking of Glenn, Amy Shira Teitel has a story on the Atlas reliability prior to his flight. It was about fifty percent.
It’s A Great Day For Texas
First they get a new commercial space company, and now they’ve rejected ObamaCare. And California continues to swirl the bowl, with Sacramento and the morons who’ve sent people there reaching for the handle to give it another pull.
Virgin Galactic’s Latest Plans
Rob Coppinger has the story, over at Fox News(!?).
I wonder if their orbital stage will be a hybrid? If they do team up with George Whittinghill, it seems likely.
The XCOR Midland Press Conference
It’s not webcast, but here’s a twitter stream for it.
“Greason: “Mojave has been a good for XCOR, but it’s time for us to prepare for the next phase of our plans.” #XCORMidland”
[Update a few minutes later]
Clark Lindsey has the official press release. I’m a little surprised that I didn’t get one — I would have thought I’d be on Mike Massee’s mailing list.
XCOR’s Move To Texas
Jeff Foust reports that it’s not a move — it’s an expansion:
“XCOR sees this as an expansion opportunity,” a source familiar with the deal said in a phone interview today, emphasizing that XCOR would be expanding to Midland, not moving there entirely from Mojave. “They plan on maintaining a presence in Mojave. This is all about growth.”
More details are expected at a press conference Monday at 3 pm EDT in Midland featuring XCOR and local officials. Some open questions about the planned deal include the timing of XCOR’s arrival in Midland and whether Midland International Airport plans to seek a launch site operator’s license (aka spaceport license) from the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, which would be needed if XCOR planned to conduct test of operational Lynx flights from the airport. (There’s also the issue of integrating a flight test program into the normal operations of a commercial airport like Midland’s; one of Mojave’s strengths is that it is well-suited to experimental aircraft and spacecraft tests.)
So it sounds like they’ll keep Lynx development in Mojave, and not disrupt it with a move.
But still, if California wasn’t the worst place to do business in the country, they’d be happy to grow there instead. But until that changes, all of their growth is likely to be into other states. And California will continue to circle the drain economically.
California Chases Out Another Company
XCOR Aerospace is moving to Midland, Texas. I wonder how many current employees are willing to make the move, and who is not? Must have been enough.
[Update a few minutes later]
I wonder where Midland Airport is in their spaceport status? Have they even started the process? The environmental assessment could be a delay. This is a blow to Mojave, but there’s nothing that they can do about it short of Kern County seceding from the state.