Is it doomed?
Frankly, if so, I won’t shed a tear. I’ve never been a fan of companies that require government subsidies (as opposed to government contracts, as is the case with SpaceX) as critical to their business model. My only concern is any effect a Tesla bankruptcy would have on SpaceX, but there’s not reason in theory that it should, unless Elon has been continuing to fund it with his own money, which seems unlikely.
His (unlawful, unconstitutional) environmental agenda is at risk.
Good.
We drove back to Columbia today from west of Ann Arbor, after visiting family and friends up there. Initially took back roads, not the freeway, as we were trying to catch the last of the fall colors. I took Route 12 from south of Manchester all the way to Coldwater, through the Irish Hills which, despite having been raised in southeast Michigan, I’d never done, so if I had a bucket list, I’d cross that one off. Lovely (but looking a little depressed in off-season), and Michigan International Speedway was impressive from a distance.
From there we headed south to Fort Wayne, went east on 24 across northern Indiana. The plan was to go to Peoria, then continue down to Hannibal, but we realized that we would run out of light (and butt stamina in the car) long before we ran out of road, so we bailed not long after getting into Illinois, and took 57 south to 72, then 55 south to 270, then 370, then 70 west to Columbia. Got in about 7:30. Always nicer to gain an hour from the time change than losing it (we got into Michigan about 10 PM when we drove up Friday).
Anyway, here until Friday when I fly to Seattle for a book signing at the Museum of Flight on Saturday. Hope locals can make it.
It’s like a bicycle, or swimming. Once you learn you never forget.
I, too, still double clutch on downshifts. No way back into first gear of a sixties British sports car without it.
The first one has been approved by the FDA. Expect more.
Faster please.
It’s been one year since the launch failure.
Three days later, SpaceShipTwo would be lost, killing its co-pilot. It was a rough week for commercial spaceflight.
French mathematicians are not impressed:
There is not a single fact, figure or observation that leads us to conclude that the world’s climate is in any way ‘disturbed’. It is variable, as it has always been, but rather less so now than during certain periods or geological eras. Modern methods are far from being able to accurately measure the planet’s global temperature even today, so measurements made 50 or 100 years ago are even less reliable.
Concentrations of CO2 vary, as they always have done; the figures that are being released are biased and dishonest. Rising sea levels are a normal phenomenon linked to upthrust buoyancy; they are nothing to do with so-called global warming. As for extreme weather events – they are no more frequent now than they have been in the past. We ourselves have processed the raw data on hurricanes.
We are being told that ‘a temperature increase of more than 2ºC by comparison with the beginning of the industrial age would have dramatic consequences, and absolutely has to be prevented’. When they hear this, people worry: hasn’t there already been an increase of 1.9ºC? Actually, no: the figures for the period 1995-2015 show an upward trend of about 1ºC every hundred years! Of course, these figures, which contradict public policies, are never brought to public attention.
Of course not.
[Via Steve Milloy]
Sounds like a maintenance problem to me. There’s no excuse for a fuel leak in an aircraft like that.
…live longer on lard than they do on fish oil.
I’d say the science on saturated fat is settled.
An interesting article on going back to pre-industrial wheat.
It isn’t clear the degree to which grain is intrinsically bad for us, and to which it’s been made much worse by the current varieties and processing methods.
I found this an interesting statement: “The giant band of wheat that stripes the center of America is a byproduct of the industrial age.”
That could be said of many unhealthy things, including the public school system.