Category Archives: Technology and Society

Administrative, Technology and Society

Patching Vinyl

26 Comments

I’m sleeping on an aerobed in Florida (the house is basically devoid of furniture while we prep it to sell). It was a fairly cheap one, just a double, low to the ground. It’s developed a leak (two, actually) and I’ve been waking up on a hard tile floor in the middle of the night. I tried patching it with a standard tire kit, and no joy. I went to Walmart to get a vinyl repair kit. No joy. Only thing I can try at this point is to try to clean it with acetone, then try once more, but I suspect that the glues simply don’t work on this material.

Fortunately, I had the foresight to purchase another bed at Walmart, so I guess that’s what I’ll sleep on for the next couple nights.

[Thursday-afternoon update]

OK, a tube of Loctite 60 and duct tape seems to have done the trick. I now have a double-thick mattress. Should be the most comfortable sleep I’ve had since I moved back in here.

[Update a few minutes later]

Oh, fun. I got glue on my index finger, and now my phone won’t recognize my fingerprint. #21stCenturyProblems

Administrative, Law, Space, Technology and Society

On The Road Again

I’m flying to Miami this afternoon, to make more progress on the house in Florida, then I’m off to London on Friday night from there. I’ll be staying with Samizdata people there, then to Vienna on Sunday for the Legal Subcommittee meeting of COPUOS, to see what’s going on in terms of space law and particularly property rights. Not sure when I’ll be back in London after that, but I’ll be back in Florida on the 18th. I’ll be taking devices and try to check in occasionally, but blogging may be light and scattered for the next couple weeks.

Humor, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Satire, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Writing Science Fiction

4 Comments

A guideline to how to woke-ify it, from Frank Fleming (who has a new book out), over at Sarah Hoyt’s place.

[Update a few minutes later]

Yes, this is a problem I’ve always had, too:

This one is going to be harder for some than others. Sarah Hoyt has been pretty good about this, while I have always struggled. But if at all possible, when you sit down to write, don’t be a straight white male. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with being a straight white male — you were born that way, no fault of your own — it’s just that everyone hates you. So stop it.

I don’t think I’m even going to work on that one.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Sarah has some blurbs about the book.

Business, Law, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

End Of An Era

2 Comments

I didn’t mention this at the time he announced it was happening to his staff, but George Nield has retired from the FAA. Not clear what the future holds for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation, or who the next head of it will be, but it’s unlikely to remain within the FAA, given the mood on the Hill. It never should have been there. The entire federal regulatory apparatus needs to be restructured for the coming era in commercial spaceflight, both launch and for on-orbit activities.

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

Repealing The Second Amendment

63 Comments

Good luck with that.

Thoughts from Glenn Reynolds.

[Update a few minutes later]

Yes. There is no chance that two thirds of both houses of Congress would pass such an amendment, and even less that three quarters of the states would ratify it.

[Update a few minutes later]

Related: The ignorant Parkland kids don’t speak for their dead classmates. David Hogg is the new Cindy Sheehan, and her fate will be his when the media tires of him.

[Thursday-morning update]

You can attempt to repeal the Second Amendment, but you can’t repeal history.

As Stephen Green notes, people like Stevens are relying on the ignorance of the American people, deliberately fomented by our public-school system and universities for the past several decades.

[Bumped]

Update a few minutes later]

This seems related somehow: Trump and the great unmasking of the Left:

I think that long before he even dreamed of entering politics, Donald Trump realized that by outraging his opponents, he could provoke them into saying and doing things that would prove harmful to their goals by exposing their motives, assumptions, and real intentions.

Yes, even though they pretend they haven’t been doing it:

In the age of social media, reaching irrelevant conclusions is a competitive sport. Nevertheless, tossing red herrings about like chaff from an aircraft under fire does little to dispute the fact that conservatives have been subjected to an absurd gas-lighting campaign over the last few weeks.

It’s enough to drive you crazy. That is, it would be if you were to take any of this performance art seriously.

I haven’t taken the Left’s performance art seriously for decades.

[Friday-morning update]

Bad link fixed, sorry.

[Sunday-afternoon update]

Yes, they are coming for your guns.

[Bumped]

[Monday-morning update]

New Democrat senator: “A gun ban is not feasible right now. Or ever, in America.

[Update a few minutes later]

Gun control leaves the most vulnerable defenseless. The Australia buy-back myth is particularly pernicious.

[Update a few more minutes later]

Why the Stevens gun manifesto is so irresponsible.

Business, Culinary, Health, Media Criticism, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Junk Nutrition

7 Comments

A mix of good and bad dietary advice.