Category Archives: Technology and Society

Education, General Science, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

The Science-Correction Process

1 Comment

It’s as broken as peer review.

As with civil (and military) space, we have a 20th-century system in place for the 21st century.

Update a few minutes later]

Related: Why scientists hide their doubts about global warming from the media.

[Update a cuple minutes later]

Sorry, HTML was broken for first link, should be fixed now.

Business, Economics, Space, Technology and Society

SpaceX Plans

10 Comments

Jeff Foust has the highlights of what Gwynne said at the conference yesterday (I flew back last night, got in about midnight).

Not covered: I asked her the status on crossfeeding Falcon Heavy. She said definitely not first flight — they want to get the thing flying first (which makes perfect sense), but want to get there, maybe in the next two years. She also said that they had no current customer for a “sixty-ton(ne) payload.” Parenthesis because I don’t know if she meant English or metric, but either way, that’s the first time I’ve heard that number. The original stated payload (with crossfeed) was fifty-three tonnes (I think, have to double check, might have been tons), but that was also in expendable mode. I can imagine with the improved performance of the new larger densified Falcon cores, it would go up, but it’s not clear what the flyback penalty is. I may follow up with her in email.

[Update a few minutes later]

30th Space Wing is planning for a Falcon landing at Vandenberg this year.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

#ProTip To Climate Scientists

3 Comments

When you say “the science is settled,” you are arguing for an end to your research funding.

Oops.

This is all part of the Democrats’ war on science:

Looking forward to a new U.S. President next year, whether the Democrats or the Republicans are in power, I don’t expect a continuation of the status quo on climate science funding. The Democrats are moving away from science towards policy – who needs to spend all that funding on basic climate science research? Global climate modeling might be ‘saved’ if they think these climate models can support local impact assessments (in spite of widespread acknowledgement that they cannot). If the Republicans are elected, Ted Cruz has stated he will stop all funding support for the IPCC and UNFCCC initiatives. That said, he seems to like data and basic scientific research.

Heh.

[Update a few minutes later]

“It’s a bit complicated.”

You don’t say.