Marina Koren talked to Christina and Andy. I just hate to see this.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Heart Function In Monkeys
…has been restored with human stem cells.
Faster, please.
Blue Origin
They’re serious about the moon, even if NASA and Congress aren’t. They plan to start colonizing within half a decade.
Agriculture
Was it a mistake?
No; it enabled modern civilization, but it did so at a cost to human health. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, it’s long.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, I got all the way through it. She doesn’t really address the health effects of a grain-based diet.
Facebook’s “Fact Checking”
You’ll be as shocked as I am to learn that it’s one sided. I wonder if all this social-media censorship will revivify the blogosphere?
[Thursday afternoon update]
Facebook’s algorithm removed the text of the Declaration of Independence as “hate speech.” Because of course it did. I mean, Jefferson was a slaveholder.
How To Defeat Facial Recognition
Ummm…no thanks.
Dinosaurs And Gravity
I saw an interesting postulation on Twitter that the reason the dinosaurs could grow so large was that there was less gravity during the Mesozoic. My response:
All I know is that, if earth’s gravity was really less for the dinosaurs, it’s one less excuse for them to have not had a space program that could have prevented them being wiped out.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) July 4, 2018
The Hockey Stick Emails
An appeals court is compelling the University of Arizona to (finally) release them.
The sixth anniversary of the blog post that launched Michael Mann’s lawsuit against me and Mark Steyn is coming up next week.
Laws Of Space Resources
At some point, I think it will be important to distinguish between resource utilization for personal use (living off the land), for commercial use in space (e.g., selling propellant), and terrestrial use.
Commercial Spacesuits
Suni Williams reviews both the Boeing and SpaceX designs. Note that these are flight suits, not EVA, which still needs a lot of improvement. Also, I assume that these won’t be required for passengers on BFR. At what point will they have sufficient confidence in Dragon to not require them?