Category Archives: Technology and Society

Business, Economics, Space, Technology and Society

Blue Moon

39 Comments

Bezos is supposed to make a major announcement today in DC (half an hour from now), but apparently it won’t be live streamed, and only a few select reporters have been invited. Reportedly, Mark Sirangelo, the new guy at NASA in charge of moon return, is present. Meanwhile, Emilee Speck follows the breadcrumbs.

[Update a few minutes later, but before the event]

Here’s a story from Ken Chang, at the NYT (though I would note that the OST does not explicitly forbid lunar property ownership).

[Update after the news conference]

OK, while many hadn’t heard it before, he started with his standard O’Neillian recitation of why he’s doing all this. The news (as expected) was the unveiling of a mock up of the Blue Moon lander, which he says can put 6.5 tons on the moon by 2024. He also announced a new LOX/LH engine for it, designated BE-7, capable of deep throttling. Tim Fernholz has the story.

Education, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Second Colorado Shooter

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…may be transgender:

This isn’t good for the narrative:

There is a mental health crisis among American kids that is fueled by prescription drugs and the fake news media that thrives on fear-mongering. Until that is addressed, these kinds of events will continue. It’s clear that Erickson held deeply bigoted assumptions about Christians “hating gays” which is constantly repeated by the media and fuels this kind of violence.

The scientific community should be hanging their heads today too. Further research should be done to discover if artificially changing the hormonal structure of human beings increases aggression or psychosis. Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and puberty blockers are given to children who think they are the opposite sex as young as 8 years old. Testosterone is known to be the hormone that regulates aggression. What studies have been done on the safety of administering testosterone to females during puberty? Are there any? According to a PBS report, the studies are few and the long term effects are unknown.

“The bottom line is we don’t really know how sex hormones impact any adolescent’s brain development,” Dr. Lisa Simons, a pediatrician at Lurie Children’s, said. “We know that there’s a lot of brain development between childhood and adulthood, but it’s not clear what’s behind that.”

We’re living in the crazy years.

[Thursday-morning update]

When will we start to deal with the Columbiner subculture? As Glenn notes, it’s blowback in the war on boys.