Category Archives: Technology and Society

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

The Covington “Scandal”

18 Comments

Thoughts from Neo.

[Mid-afternoon update]

More from Treacher.

[Tuesday-morning update]

Mark Steyn: The drumbeat of the mob.

[Update a few minutes later]

Robby Soave has viewed all of the video, and discovered who the real (ignorant) racist is:

The Native American man says, “Go back to Europe where you came from. This is not your land, you have been here two, three generations compared to us. We’ve been here a million fucking years.” The MAGA teen responds, “That’s not true. Let’s go all the way back to Africa,” and proceeds to tell the story of the land bridge that once connected Asia to North America, which allowed humans to settle these lands some thousands of years ago. (His opponent counters that this a “bullshit theory.”)

Keep in mind, the teen saying that all human beings originally came from Africa is a member of the group of young people initially described by countless pundits as obviously, undeniably racist.

Leftists have to have had their sense of irony excised at birth.

[Wednesday-morning update]

The 48-hour rule. Maybe it should be 72.

[Bumped]

[Update a while later]

What’s happening to those kids is vile.

It is. I was just listening to Glenn Beck on the way back dropping Patricia off at the bus stop. He was playing the audio of the horrific things that the “black Israelites” (or whatever the hell those monsters are) were saying about killing white people and raping women and making them their concubines, that no one in the media seems to think is a big deal. He made the point that Social Justice Warriors don’t give a damn about justice. They’re Social Vengeance Warriors.

[Update a while later]

Lawyer for Covington Catholic gives the media a 48-hour ultimatum.

And “Dear Covington boys: Everyone failed you.” Well, not everyone, but most.

Plus, Ross Douthat debates Ross Douthat.

Business, Economics, Space, Technology and Society

The Stainless-Steel Starship

28 Comments

Elon explains.

I would note, though, that the idea of transpiration cooling has been around for a long time. It’s just never been implemented. But I guess what he’s saying has never been proposed before is the structure also serving as heat shield.

[Update a while later]

New Glenn has been redesigned. Looks like the upper stage is expendable.

Looks like they were inspired in part by Falcon 9. It’s interesting that we’re starting to see spacecraft designs converging, as aircraft designs did in the thirties.

History, Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Technology and Society, War Commentary

Disagreeing With DC Conventional Wisdom

7 Comments

…isn’t a crime, let alone an impeachable offense. It is time to rethink NATO, perhaps past time.

NATO and the EU have been free riding for a long time. It was an organization for a different era and power structure. Putin’s Russia doesn’t have the resources to conquer Europe, especially if they start getting serious about their own defense.

[Sunday-afternoon update]

Yes. Europe was never a true partner in its own defense. They had a (brief) excuse in the midst of the Marshall Plan, but we’ve been indulging them in their own socialism and unwillingness to spend on their own defense for the decades since recovery. Time to rethink it.

And for those who think that Trump is Putin’s “stooge,” did Putin order him to insist that Europeans spend more on their own defense and live up to their NATO obligations?

[Bumped]

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Science And Society, Space, Technology and Society

The End Of Rockets?

28 Comments

No, Futurism:

All that essential, but not actually useful, extra weight jacks up the cost of a mission. Falcon Heavy launches cost $1.2 million USD per ton of payload. Again, that’s a crazy improvement from earlier missions, but that many zeros on a space mission mean these launches will stay out-of-reach for consumers or smaller companies.

No one outside of SpaceX knows what Falcon Heavy costs (and that depends on whether you mean average cost or marginal cost).

And then there is the environmental cost. These souped-up rockets use more fuel, and Falcon rockets rely on what’s basically kerosene and oxygen. Per launch, the carbon these missions spew isn’t that much. But if space flight frequency reaches the twice a month threshold that SpaceX is aiming for, experts think the overall carbon output could reach 4,400 tons a year. If every private space company chimes in with their own launch emissions, that number could climb dramatically.

Not everyone uses kerosene. Blue Origin (and ULA) plan to use liquid natural gas (mostly methane), which has much lower carbon content. And they both plan LOX/LH2 upper stages, whose exhaust is water. And even at a hundred times that amount, it would continue to be dwarfed by the airline industry.

There are also all the potential atmospheric impacts that we don’t understand very well. Burning rocket fuel emits soot and a chemical called alumina, and scientists have started to study how these molecules break down our ozone layer, something we’ve been working hard to restore over several decades.

Again, not all rocket fuel. Methane will produce almost no soot, and hydrogen none. And only solid rockets emit alumina, and only ULA plans to use them (OK, well, NASA will have them on SLS, if it ever flies, but it will hardly ever fly).

No, it will be a long time, if ever, before we need space elevators, even if they’re technical feasible and practical.