Category Archives: Technology and Society

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society, War Commentary

Space Force

36 Comments

Yes, we need one, or at least some entity dedicated to space. I don’t understand why they keep saying a “sixth branch of the armed services,” though. Are they calling the Coast Guard an “armed service”? I don’t think that’s right.

[Update a while later]

Only Nixon could go to China, and only Trump could go to space.

Not sure he’s being entirely serious.

[Update late Sunday evening]

OK, one more: How we can own the libs on space.

By the way, Jim Bennett’s analogy in comments is useful, and I did a Twitter thread on it.

BTW, for those who corrected me legally in comments on whether or not the USCG is an armed service, my concern is that by lumping it in, it fails to make crucial distinctions. It’s certainly a uniformed service with an academy, but it is more intrinsically civilian.

General, General Science, Space, Space Science, Technology and Society

In For A Penny, In For A Pound

5 Comments

It’s about 0230 EDT, and I’m still up, planning home renovations for tomorrow. But I’m in south Florida, about fifteen minutes from the swamp to the west, and the sky is clear for both the Perseids and the Parker Solar Probe Delta IV launch in an hour, 150 miles north-northwest of me. So I might as well stay up a little longer. Hoping I’ll see the Milky Way for the first time in a long time.

[Sunday-morning update]

Well, saw half a dozen meteors, one of them right next to the ascending rocket. No Milky Way, though.

[Update Sunday night]

Given my recent failed attempts to see it, I’m wondering (slightly depressed) if it’s an age-related vision decline. It was very distinct in my youth, but it seems like there are a lot fewer stars than there used to be.

General, General Science, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Lions In The City

1 Comment

A new mountain lion has been spotted in the Verdugos. It’s interesting that LA is so big and geographically diverse that it can have not just parks within it, but a wilderness. Unfortunately, urban encroachment is going to make it harder and harder for these animals to make it there. They’re building a tunnel under the 101 to allow them to move back and forth between the Santa Monicas and the mountains above Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, but I’m not sure if it will be sufficient, and it looks like they need one under the 210 to allow safe passage between the San Gabriels and the Verdugos.

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

Sarah Jeong

19 Comments

Her hire by the NYT editorial board seems to have become the story of the day. Thoughts from Robbie Soave.

[Friday-afternoon update]

The New York Times stands by its decision to hire Josef Stalin as part of its editorial board.

I have to say that the Babylon Bee is giving The Onion a run for its money lately.

[Bumped]

[Update a few minutes later]

No, it wasn’t just a few hateful tweets. She seems like kind of an awful person. And hey, NYT, you want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump.

[Update a couple minutes later]

And more thoughts from Andrew Sullivan. Yes, she is a racist, easily recognizable as such by anyone not insanely leftist. Or if she’s not, she certainly does a great impersonation.

[Update Saturday morning]

Jim Treacher: The NYT has the right to hire racists. Yes, they’re finally being more transparent.

[Sunday-morning update]

Sarah Jeong is a sign of something very wrong with the Left:

Jeong was just exploring the space of this privileged position, secure that she could say just about anything without fear of blowback. Indeed, she had many defenders who refused to even acknowledge the possibility of another point of view about what she’d said. When you start from the premise that one group of people can’t be offended, you naturally wind up at the conclusion that anyone who says otherwise is being dishonest.

And that, leftists, is how you get more Trump. I’ve observed for decades that white men, and particularly Christians, is the last acceptable form of bigotry. Except they’re not accepting it any more.