I know it’s been down since last night. My provider apparently had a major SNAFU, and the whole farm was down. Just came back on line a few minutes ago.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
My “Ending Apolloism” Talk At Space Access
I’ve uploaded the Powerpoint to the site.
It’s an outgrowth of my “SLS Roadblock” project, which I’m figuring out how to either wrap up or extend.
[Update a while later]
Erratum: At the time I originally created these charts, for the FISO telecon at the end of January, Dana had proposed the Space Settlement bill. He has since actually introduced it.
Vivaldi
Five reasons to switch to the new browser.
I’m going to try it, but not sure there’s an rpm for it, so may have to build.
Peer Review
It almost always provides a false sense of validity of a scientific paper.
The SLS Disaster
Eric Berger writes that Congress is forcing NASA to eat its seed corn for the #JourneyToMars.
Yes.
#ProTip: If SLS made any sense at all, Congress wouldn't have to make it illegal for NASA to not build it. https://t.co/lK4mnV3ugO
— Apostle To Morons (@Rand_Simberg) April 22, 2016
[Update a while later]
This is a key point:
Since Tuesday, I have been asking communications officials in NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate for clarification on what this extra funding will be used for and whether it’s needed. I haven’t received a response.
Because they don’t have a response. It is programmatic insanity to just throw hundreds of millions of dollars at a manager and expect them to spend it sensibly in a single year.
A Civil Rights Victory In Tennessee
Ending “gun-free” zones.
An “Interesting” Day For SpaceX?
Wonder if there was a problem in McGregor?
Well, that’s why they have test sites, and do tests.
The Latest In Apolloism
A defense of the SLS over at an Alabama news outlet. Let the fisking commence: Continue reading The Latest In Apolloism
Those Space Mice
Eric Berger has the story, including the fact that we’ve done absolutely no research in partial gravity, which will be necessary if people want to procreate on Mars.
I’d note that while it’s never officially been confirmed, it seems unlikely, given the nature of astronauts, that no one has ever done it in space.
Shuttle had very sensitive accelerometers. It's likely that Houston was aware of any rhythmic orbital exertions. https://t.co/RNnYSfnCyi
— SafeNotAnOption (@SafeNotAnOption) April 21, 2016
“Denialism”
Does it exist? It’s hard to say:
It’s possible that with a lot of work, some extreme corner of the behavior spectrum could be isolated via specific criteria, which then merits labeling as ‘denialist’. But in truth the characteristics of our ‘proto-denialists’ above are radically different to expectations from the current framing, a framing which may have tainted the term beyond redemption. Nor is this approach a great plan even without that taint, because it tends to mask uncomfortable yet crucial truths, especially those in f) and g). So along with other errors we may end up fooling ourselves that there’s a nice clinical division between skeptics and ‘denialists’. Via naïve assumption of cause from a basic categorization of rhetoric, this is exactly the trap I believe Diethelm and McKee have fallen into. Hoofnagle goes further, dishing out labels of ‘dishonest’ and ‘crank’ yet without proper theoretical grounds; despite his noble motives many of these are bound to stick onto the wrong people. Some dishonesty and crankiness will ride any cultural wave, or backlash to such a wave, or backlash to an evidential cause that is perceived as cultural encroachment. But this does not mean that cranks and liars drive the main action; they do not. Nor can the touted methods reliably distinguish crankiness from cultural influence, or skepticism from either.
I would note (as always) that “denial,” and “denialism,” and “denialist” are not scientific terms. They’re religious ones.
[Update a while later]
Bill Nye epitomizes the Left’s authority complex.