Why we’re having problems getting enough.
We’re not really adapted to the industrial age. Our bodies still expect to go to sleep when it gets dark, perhaps wake during the night for a couple hours, then sleep more until dawn.
Every motel room we’ve stayed in on this trip has extraneous electronic lights. Twice, the VIZIO television has “VIZIO” lit in yellow beneath the screen, even when turned off. Only way to darken it is to unplug it.
The latest update, with thoughts on the SpaceX mission failure.
General Shelton versus Senator McCain.
They’re both wrong. We don’t need an RD-180 replacement; we need an Atlas replacement. And ULA wants to build one. They know that a re-engined Atlas isn’t going to be competitive with SpaceX. But there’s not enough graft in that for some on the Hill.
By referring to Clarence Thomas as “a clown in blackface,” George Takei has taken away nobody’s dignity but his own.
Why is it okay for a Japanese man to use such racist language against a black man? Because of their relative positions in the hierarchy of grievances. Sure, Thomas is black, and therefore he’s a designated victim. But he’s also a conservative, and he’s explicitly rejecting the narrative of victimhood that underpins the entire “social justice” movement. Therefore, the black dude is trumped by the gay Asian dude. Takei can spew as much racist garbage as he wants, and he’s protected because he not only embraces his own victimhood, but he treasures victimhood itself like the purest gold. Without it, he’s just another washed-up actor from a schlocky old show about spaceships.
Not that I doubt Takei means what he says. He really is a huge racist.
Indeed.
[Saturday morning update]
Posted without comment.
…as with settlements anywhere else, you start small, and grow them.
…has a piece at Time about SpaceX and commercial space.
Oklahoma is going to court over it.
I think this case will have a better chance than the one that wasn’t ripe in the DC Circuit.
Meanwhile, why does the EPA hate blacks and other minorities so much?
Still “no one theory consistent with the data.”
[Update a while later]
Here are more details from Stephen Clark.
Some thoughts from Iain Thomson:
SpaceX doesn’t have those issues; it’s a single company that conceived, designed, built, and flies the Falcon rockets. Finding fault is going to be a lot easier under such circumstances because there’s a single data set and everyone knows everyone else.
The company is packed with highly motivated individuals and has a very flat management structure. Mistakes made are owned up to, and when the issue that caused the loss of the Falcon is identified, you can bet it will be dealt with quickly.
The current SpaceX resupply missions are on hold while this process is worked through. But you’re not going to see the kind of dithering that left the Space Shuttles grounded for 32 long months. If I were a betting man I’d guess the next Falcon will fly in 32 weeks, and maybe sooner.
Very likely sooner, I think. In fact, I think they’ll either figure it out quickly, or not at all. If they can’t figure it out at all, they have a huge dilemma, as I told Leonard David yesterday (he’s working on a piece with quotes from me and others).
[Update a while later]
Some thoughts (and links) from Bob Zimmerman on the media negativity about space.
Thoughts from Rick Tumlinson on the venality of Congress.