…and why he will ultimately fail. An interesting Boydian analysis of the race.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
SpaceX
Chris Bergin has the latest on the next flight, which has been delayed due to issues with the slush LOX. I wonder if they’re running into problems at the Cape that they didn’t encounter in McGregor, due to the different environment.
Democrats
Thoughts from Bob Zimmerman on their increasing disconnect from reality on guns.
[Update a few minutes later]
Related: The Democrats’ compassion gap on terrorism.
They reserve their compassion for the enemy.
[Update a while later]
Here’s an example. Yes, the Obama administration nixed a probe into the California jihadis.
[Update a few minutes later]
And this: Whistleblower says Obama more concerned with rights of Islamists than with protecting the American people. That’s pretty obvious.
Scientology
I admire this woman’s sentiment, if not her approach:
After officers realized McMurtry was the hit-and-run driver, she admitted to her dangerous ride and asked if anybody was hurt, police said.
When cops told her there were no injuries and she smashed through the church’s lobby and nursery, McMurtry replied, “That’s too bad.”
McMurtry tried to justify her religious fender bender by claiming Scientology was evil because its members blackmail people, cops said.
You don’t say.
NASA’s Budget
The omnibus bill provides a boost, and full funding of Commercial Crew, for the first time ever. It also allows NASA to apply Soyuz payments for 2018 flights to the program, to get it flying in 2017 (I still think they could fly next year if they were serious about it). Loren Grush has more. Unfortunately, it also increases the SLS budget.
On the milspace side, it also lifts the restriction on the RD-180, which McCain is going nuts about on the floor right now, according to Twitter. He’s lambasting Shelby and Durbin by name.
[Update a while later]
The worst part of the NASA budget is that it overfunds SLS at the expense of (as usual) technology.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here‘s the McCain story. Nutty.
“The 1%” “Escaping” To Mars
A dumb piece at Newsweek.
On the other hand, here’s a smart piece from Eric Berger: We’re going back to the moon, with or without NASA. Absent a major change of attitude in Congress, probably without.
The Clinton Email Saga Continues
I’m sure you’ll be just as shocked as I am to learn that the State Department can’t find the emails or backups of the guy who set up Hillary’s server and pled the Fifth.
XCOR News
They say they’ve closed the loop on the propulsion system for the Lynx. Sounds like they still have to improve it to get needed performance, but that’s a breakthrough. One of the long poles, as well as the wings.
Galloping Gertie
This is interesting. After all these decades, it turns out that the Tacoma Narrow Bridge failed due to flutter, not resonance. They’ll have to rewrite a lot of texts.
I find it amusing that they note it “only” cost $0.75 to cross. That was actually a lot of money in 1940. Comparable to modern bridge tolls of $5 in the Bay area.
“Assault Weapons”
Support for banning them reaches a twenty-year low.
Part of the problem is that the nimrods who want to ban them can’t even consistently explain what they are, or understand what a semi-automatic gun is. And you’re a complete numbskull if (like Barack Obama and Josh Earnest) you imagine that terrorist attacks are going to make us more eager to be disarmed.