Another article about the medical and ethical issues. Too bad it doesn’t point out the need for a gravity lab.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
A Pressing Question
Thought Exercise: Dinosaurs never went extinct, became dominant species. How expensive would it be to send dino Neil Armstrong to the moon?
— Political Math (@politicalmath) April 3, 2015
@politicalmath Have to specify species. They come in different sizes. Also, do we have to bring him back?
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 3, 2015
@Rand_Simberg OF COURSE YOU HAVE TO BRING HIM BACK! YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE A DINOSAUR ON THE MOON!
— Political Math (@politicalmath) April 3, 2015
@politicalmath Well, you just made the problem a lot harder.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 3, 2015
@politicalmath Who are you to say I can't leave a dinosaur on the moon? There's nothing about it in the Outer Space Treaty
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 3, 2015
@politicalmath Anyway, the answer is "yes," but you couldn't do it in a single launch. Dinosaur to orbit first, then propellant separately.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 3, 2015
@politicalmath Do you want to know total program cost, average cost, or marginal cost? How many lunar dinosaur missions are we talking here?
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 3, 2015
@Rand_Simberg I'm assuming a single mission, no research costs. Cost of materials / life support based on modern day human-based prices.
— Political Math (@politicalmath) April 3, 2015
@politicalmath Life-support costs would depend on whether or not you think dinosaurs are warm blooded.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) April 3, 2015
Anyone want to take a WAG at it?
SpaceX
…is starting to get busy.
The Paleo Diet
The results of a controlled metabolic study:
Even short-term consumption of a Paleolithic-type diet improved glucose control and lipid profiles in people with type 2 diabetes compared with a conventional diet containing moderate salt intake, low-fat dairy, whole grains and legumes.
Color me unsurprised.
Claire Berlinski On The Iran Deal
Me, neither.
The simplest explanation is that the president has sustained his delusions on this issue from at least 2008.
Integrated Vehicle Fluids
A nice video, from Frank Zegler at ULA.
[Update a few minutes later]
Why SLS is insane.
Fake Meat
An interesting story on the state of the art. It’s still terrible.
I think he’s too pessimistic, though, and ignores the technology that will probably create the breakthrough: 3-D printing.
The Hugo Awards
Some thoughts on taking back SFF from the SJWs, from Brad Thorgersen, and Sarah Hoyt:
I lived in fear, unable to associate normally or make friends with anyone. It was like being spied on all the time and knowing the worst construction would be put on my actions and words, even if the actions and words were not political, even if I just forgot what the week’s hate and the week’s cause was.
I got tired. I got really tired. I know authors who walked away after one or two books because they simply couldn’t take it anymore. I know others – gentle souls – who didn’t realize they’d been blacklisted on suspicion of being – dropped voice – conservative. This was particularly true of Libertarians (and libertarians) who never thought of themselves (I still don’t) as “conservatives” and couldn’t understand it when I tried to explain it.
All this was justified, you see, because in the minds of the establishment and establishment hangers on, conservatives are creatures shown as “right wing” on movies and tv (none of whose writers would know a true conservative, much less a libertarian if one bit them in the fleshy part of the *ss [and libertarians might.] They give conservatives (which again is everyone to the right of Lenin) informed attributes never found in the real creature: conservatives, in their crazy little heads, are people who are racist, sexist, homophobic, ultra-religious in a medieval fashion or a crazy-evangelical (there are some, but not many) one.
This kind of thing isn’t the only reason I haven’t been reading much in the past few years, but it doesn’t help.
[Afternoon update]
Michael Z. Williamson: “I am not a ‘real fan’.“
The Iran Deadline
Hearing that they’re extending it to tomorrow. Which means, as I noted on Twitter, that they’ll have to extend to Thursday, otherwise people will think that whatever they come up with is an April Fools joke.
An Israeli Cancer Vaccine
…may prevent or cure 90% of cancer types.
Funny how you never hear about stuff like this coming from Islamic countries.