Category Archives: Technology and Society

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Victory In Europe

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It’s the 70th anniversary.

There was a simpler time, when we recognized enemies waging war on us, declared war on them, and soundly defeated them.

[Update]

Here’s a round up at the WaPo of today’s war bird flyover of the Mall. When I was a kid, there used to be an AT-6 Texan parked at Bishop Airport, in Flint. It wasn’t that old at the time. I’d note that one of the planes had to make an emergency landing at DCA, disrupting air traffic there. It looked like a P-40.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Remembering Okinawa.

There was a reason we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and it wasn’t because we were racists. That saved hundreds of thousand of lives, both of American troops and civilians in China.

[Update a couple minutes later]

“’All told, Okinawa killed 12,500 Americans and wounded approximately 50,000. It was the U.S. Navy’s biggest killer, with 4,907 sailor deaths and 4,874 wounded. Japan lost an estimated 75,000 military dead. As for civilians? Estimates run from 50,000 to 110,000.’ Today, America is afraid of offending a few savages with cartoons.”

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Technology and Society

The UK Elections

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In addition to Labour and the Liberal Democrats, the big losers were the pollsters. I wonder if this will presage our own elections next year?

[Update a few minutes later]

Seeing reports that the vast majority of British Jews voted Tory, only about 20% for Milliband. I’m totally unshocked. Nice to see the Brits starting to come to their senses. Maggie Thatcher’s Britain still stands.

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

The First Woman To Be Raped In Space

16 Comments

…has already been born.

As Glenn notes, this seems to be gender feminism’s major contribution to spaceflight.

I ruffled some feathers this weekend at Space Access by having the temerity to point out that there will be some people who will oppose our expansion into space, because they don’t trust us to do it “right,” and with “social justice.” So much will they oppose it that they may even get violent about it. They do, after all, call themselves “warriors,” and they use a lot of eliminationist rhetoric, like “Smash patriarchy.” I got an email or two about it.

My quick take: Saying that I am “picking a fight” with these people is like saying that the New York Times was picking a fight with the Japanese by reporting that they had bombed Pearl Harbor. As I noted in my talk, they went after the gamers, and the SF community. They’re already on their way to go after the space settlers, as the above linked piece indicates.

I’ll have a longer take at Ricochet or PJMedia.

[Update a few minutes later]

Sort of related: Why Joss Whedon left Twitter.

[Update a while later]

Here’s one hot off the press (Monday) from D. N. Lee (the Scientific American blogger whose tweet I highlighted in my talk). This is much more mild than the tweet, but it gives you an idea of what we’re up against.

Space, Technology and Society

Regenerative Life Support

10 Comments

Listening to an interesting presentation on challenges of closing the cycle on ISS, particularly water. Not seeing any real surprises, but I think that this will be a very useful result of having the station for improving systems. They’re learning about life of various system elements, and getting some surprises, with some failure years before expected, and some lasting much longer.