Well, this is a twofer from Borenstein: Junk science and junk economics.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
NASA Can’t Go To Mars
It’s essentially illegal. My latest column, about NASA in the movies and in real life, at USA Today.
Virgin Galactic
Almost a year after the loss of SpaceShipTwo, Doug Messier has some questions about their switch back to a rubber engine. The answers are unsatisfactory. And there’s this perennial bit:
Despite Richard Branson’s increasingly dire pronouncements (The Time for Climate Action is Now) about how rising global temperatures and sea levels threaten the planet (and his private island home), it looks as if Virgin Galactic will go back to using a carbon spewing rubber hybrid rocket engine to power SpaceShipTwo.
That’s the word from Virgin Galactic officials in Mojave, who say that the rubber/nitrous oxide engine they previously abandoned is now performing better than the supposedly superior nylon/nitrous oxide engine they abandoned it for in May 2014. It’s not entirely certain, but it looks that way.
Branson won’t lose any sleep over this further expansion of his carbon footprint. He never has. Anyone who can passionately advocate for the climate while flying around the world in a private jet, expanding his fuel-gulping airlines, launching three new massive cruise ships, and burning rubber in the upper atmosphere is clearly untroubled by irony or contradictions. Here’s a guy who urges billions in new public spending on climate change while living as a tax exile in the British Virgin Islands.
As Emerson said, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.
A New Desalinization Method
If this works out, it would be huge. It might be useful for Martian water, too.
“Space Exploration”
I hate op-eds like this. They’re meaningless.
I oppose "space exploration." It's a meaningless phrase. I favor space development.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) October 20, 2015
New NASA Human Spaceflight Rules
I have trouble caring about this, given the programmatic unlikelihood of SLS/Orion.
That Mysterious “Stalking” Russian Satellite
Reusable Mars Landers
Yes, throwing them away makes no sense. That’s Apollo-to-Mars thinking.
Creating fully reusable transportation infrastructure will be a key element of my Kickstarter report.
Why People Hate Hollywood “Liberals”
Movies like “Truth.”
When you’ve lost Vox…
Also, reminder. Mary Mapes, still stupid after all these years.
Hillary’s Gun-Confiscation Proposal
…will probably backfire in a big way:
As AP already noted, this is a winning strategy for Clinton in the primary because her base has largely been sold on the idea of things like expanded background checks at the federal level and a national gun registry. (!) How they will react to actual gun confiscation from law abiding owners remains to be seen. But when it comes to the general election, Clinton has a serious storm brewing on the horizon. Regarding a ban on all semi-automatic weapons, including handguns, the public has been consistent in their response for decades. As of last year there was 73% opposition to such a ban, and 63% said that a home was safer if there was a gun in the house.
Those numbers don’t shift when there is a mass shooting. They never do in any significant way. So with all that in mind, I think we need to encourage Hillary to pick up this flag and run with it. In fact, I’m going to go on record as supporting Hillary to be the nominee for the Democrats next year. This is just what the Democrats need and I look forward to her explaining her gun confiscation plans to the public when she debates the eventual GOP nominee.
Yup. And as noted, crime rates, and particularly armed robberies, when up in Australia after the buy-back.