I’m sick to death of people who are sick to death of it.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
The New Launch Rules
“It’s almost as though the Russians or Chinese wrote them.”
ITAR was supported by the big companies, too, because they had the infrastructure to deal with it, while the upstarts didn’t.
BE-4
Progress in testing it seems to be steady, and Bezos just sold another $1.8B of stock to support it and Blue Origin’s other goals.
A U.S. Space Force
Well, this is interesting. The Acting Secretary of the Air Force is advocating to amend Article X to create a U.S. Space Force as a separate service.
Newsmax
From what planet was this written?
The truth is, America already has a capable new rocket that dwarfs the capabilities of the Saturn V rockets that took our astronauts to the moon. The Space Launch System will be online and ready later this year.
…Real and robust competition pushes all participants to perform their best. But SpaceX has so far been able to avoid real competition. Without any real requirement that it ultimately succeed, SpaceX has been a technological failure, even while Musk has managed a public relations success and gotten paid based on his public relations campaign, more than actual accomplishment. To make it to Mars we must encourage real competition, not Elon Musk’s fake version of competition where he gets paid regardless of what he produces.
Sure, Jan.
[Update a while later]
I guess I needed a link for those last two words.
Yes, it was written by George Landrith.
The Religious Beliefs Of Ants
Lileks has a very strange mind.
Paul Krugman
Thoughts on his “most evil idea.”
I don’t know, I think there’s stiff competition for that. Also, my understanding is that a lot of the stuff he writes is prompted by his wife.
But yes, envy of the long-lived is just as sinful as envy of the wealthy.
Frankenstein
An insightful essay for the 21st century, on the 200th anniversary of the first modern science-fiction novel.
ISS R&D Conference
I’m taking a red eye to Atlanta tonight to attend it. I’ll be taking laptop, so I’ll probably be blogging, but I’ll have a lot of networking to do there. Also, it will be the first time I’ve ever been in the city. I’ve been through Hartsfield a lot, but never in Atlanta proper.
[Monday noon update]
Arrived about 7 AM, and was able to get an early check in, so I got a few hours sleep.
My first impression is that Atlanta seems to have recovered somewhat from the war, but it’s had 155 years.
Another Life
Bryan Preston isn’t impressed with the latest SF series, despite Katie Sackoff:
…in Another Life, only Sackhoff’s Niko and her AI sidekick (Samuel Anderson) are fit for this mission. The rest fill every negative millennial stereotype in the galaxy. They are whiny. They are grouchy. They scream obscenities at each other — all the time. They never fail to crack under the least amount of pressure. One is immediately mutinous. Another cannot ever think before opening their pie hole and saying things any rational adult knows they will immediately regret. Collectively, they perpetually can’t even.
But they’re sent out to save humanity anyway.
Ouch.