I’d never seen this photo before. It’s a little weird, because for all I know, my father could be in the waist of one of those planes manning the radio and a gun. I don’t know what missions he flew. I wonder if there’s a way to find out?
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Race And Science
“Stop trying to get me fired for things I didn’t say and don’t believe“:
I thought that writing 5,000 words about what I think genes influence and don’t, how much variation is likely attributable to genetics, and discussing the predictive powers and limitations of IQ would be sufficient to prevent people from deliberately misreading my post as an endorsement of race science. Sadly, that is not the case, and so of course Twitter is accusing me of believing literally the opposite of what the very first lines of the first post said.
The vast majority of (violent) protestors against Charles Murray, who insanely believe he’s a “white nationalist,” have never read a word he’s written. I personally have no opinion about average IQ of various “races,” but I think the notion that something heritable won’t have an effect on a population is the kind of nutty thing that only a leftist could believe. I understand why some are uncomfortable with studying it, but I’ve never understood why the fact that a member of a group that has a certain characteristic must be treated as a member of that group, rather than as an individual. But since leftists hate treating people as individuals, believing only in the collective, I guess that would explain it.
Space Symposium
Frank Morring and Lara Seligman have a long piece describing the coming exciting upheaval in the space industry.
3-D Printing
…with lunar and Mars regolith simulants.
If Congress and NASA were serious about opening space to humanity, this is the sort of thing that NASA would be spending more money on, instead of a monster rocket.
[Update a while later]
Related, I think: Questions that the Trump transition team asked NASA.
Failure Is An Option
Robogames
I’d like to attend this event. Maybe we’ll be through bathroom-renovation hell by then.
SpaceX Progress
Falcon Heavy is getting ready for its hot-fire test in Texas, and LC-40 is getting back in business after the boo boo last fall.
Mimicking An Early Impact In Earth’s Atmosphere
…results in the creation of all four DNA bases. This seems much more significant than Miller-Urey.
The Space Symposium
If, like me, you couldn’t make it to Colorado Springs last week, Calla Cofield has highlights.
[Noon update]
Valerie Insinna has the story on Tory’s choice in engines. Aerojet Rocketdyne has to have fingers crossed in the hope that BE-4 testing doesn’t go well.
Recovering Falcon Second Stages
Dick Eagleson has some interesting speculation.
Meanwhile, is the small-sat launch industry going to be Amazoned?