Genetic factors are the primary ones. Yes, it’s not vaccines.
I also subscribe to the theory that tech hubs have brought people together who might not have met in previous times, and their kids are getting a double dose.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Mike Collins
It was a weird situation, but it wasn’t lonely.
“You put some Samoan on his little canoe out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean at night and he doesn’t really know where he’s going, he doesn’t know how to get there. He can see the stars, they’re his only friend out there, and he’s not talking to anybody. That guy is lonely.”
“I didn’t experience that kind of loneliness,” he said. “So I did not have Mission Control yakking at me for a full two-hour orbit — for 40 minutes or so I was over there behind the moon — but I was in my comfortable little home. Columbia was a nice, secure, safe, commodious place. I had hot coffee, I had music if I wanted it, I had nice views out the window.”
“To depict me as in despair or something and so lonely as in, ‘Oh my gosh, I could hardly wait to get back to the human voice coming directly up from Earth,’ yeah, that’s baloney.”
I always thought it was baloney.
China And NASA
Are they in a race?
Bryan doesn’t mention the (white) elephant in the room: SLS.
The Latest From Elon
Not a lot new here for people who read Vance’s book (or the more recent ones), except he thinks he could put Starship on the moon in two years. From now.
He also describes how he was inspired by Apollo, so that is one good thing that came of it (besides winning a battle in the Cold War).
The Landing
It wasn’t recorded, but NASA has reconstructed what Neil Armstrong saw using LRO.
Recycling Plastics
…is probably bad for the planet.
I still recall the day that I saw a truck come by and threw the contents of both the recycle bin and the trash bin in the same place. But we still separate, for no obvious good reason except, I guess, if not to virtue signal, to at least avoid opprobrium from the neighbors.
NASA’s Next Fifty Years
Thoughts from Bob Zubrin:
If NASA wants to send humans to the Moon or Mars, it should not spend billions on random cost-plus infrastructure projects that supposedly might come in handy if some day there were a program to go. Instead it should just take competitive bids for delivery services. It should incentivize the development of additional systems, including rovers, habitats, life support, power units, space suits and so on, the same way.
It’s pretty clear that, whatever individuals might desire, institutionally, neither NASA or Congress care whether or not they send humans to the moon or Mars, and haven’t since 1972. I do think, though, that despite Bob’s skepticism, the entrepreneurs will get us there.
Aftershocks
They’re getting closer to the Owens Valley and Garlock faults. We should probably stock up.
Transhumanist Parents
…are turning their kids into cyborgs.
This will be a big breakthrough for a lot of people, though (as with all tech advances) it will have its downsides.
The Fiftieth Anniversary
Saturday is the landing anniversary, but today is the anniversary of the launch.
Loren Grush has an article today on how Apollo set NASA back for decades, a subject I’ve written quite a bit about.