…is the new sixty.
I’m glad that I don’t feel my age. I was having some new lower-back pain, probably sciatica, in the spring, that I was afraid was going to be a permanent feature of life, but it seems to have healed.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
A 3-D Laser Printer
GE is building the world’s largest one:
The prototype Atlas printer, announced on Wednesday, can print objects up to one meter long using titanium, aluminum, and other metals instead of the plastics, resins, and filaments that many commercial and consumer 3D printers use. That means it could print an entire engine block for a car or truck, for example, replacing the specialized machines and tooling that are currently required to make those types of products in a factory.
GE said it plans to unveil the Atlas in November. The prototype can only print objects up to one meter in two directions, such as length and width, but once the production version is ready next year, it will be able to print objects up to one meter in any direction.
Seems like just the thing for cheap rocket engines.
Gwynneth Paltrow’s Latest Nuttiness
This is pretty funny. NASA calls BS on it.
Heroism
The sailor who chose to “save his kids” by dying. In my book, I point out that in the Navy, saving the ship, not “safety,” is the highest priority. There will be stories like this in the future about spaceflight.
Thirteen Years Of No Space Tourism
Today is the anniversary of the first spaceflight of SpaceShipOne. At the time, everyone expected its successor to be flying passengers before the decade was out. As we now know, that was over-optimistic, for a variety of reasons. But here are my blog posts from the event at the time.
The Second Amendment In DC
In the wake of last week’s multiple-assassination attempt, a Congressman wants to do something common sense: Extend civil rights to the District. I’m pretty sure that DC’s current gun laws remain in violation of it. In fact, I wonder if a federal law requiring reciprocity across state lines would pass Constitutional muster?
Cats
How they domesticated humans thousands of years ago.
[Update a few minutes later]
Another take on the same subject.
The #JourneyToMars
…seems to be pretty much dead.
#JourneyToMars was never alive.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) June 20, 2017
The Y2K Bug
I think it was Reagan who said there was no eternal life, except for a govenment program. The Trump administration is apparently making America great again by ending work on fixing something that didn’t happen seventeen years ago.
Cancer Metastasis
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have figured out how to slow it, with existing approved drugs.
Faster, please.