Category Archives: Technology and Society

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

SpaceX’s Latest “Failure”

24 Comments

Thoughts on why it was a spectacular success, from Bob Zimmerman.

By the way, the podcast of my talk on The Space Show is available.

Also, I’ll be on John Batchelor’s Hotel Mars segment tonight, at 6:30 PM PDT.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here’s the video, though it doesn’t show the tipping over.

[Afternoon update]

OK, here’s the best video yet. Looks like they may not get much back. Note the top thruster trying to keep it vertical, but lacking adequate thrust.

[Update a few minutes later]

Whoops. If you missed it, you missed it. They just made it private. But I think plenty of people saw it, so not sure what the point of hiding it is now.

[Update a few more minutes later]

OK, I’ve update with a new one that seems to have come back on line.

[Late-afternoon update]

Slow motion, color corrected. This looks official (I got it from Elon, via Amanda Stiles).

Business, Space, Technology and Society

The SpaceX Launch

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You can follow live here. Weather is looking good half an hour before liftoff, with no technical issues.

[Update after the launch]

Perfect primary mission, but they landed on the ship too hard to survive, according to Elon.

[Update almost an hour post launch]

[Update a little over an hour after the launch]

Thoughts from (SpaceX investor) Steve Jurvetson.

[Update a while later]

Lee Billings has the story over at SciAm.

[Update a while more later]

And here‘s the Space News report.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Climate Activists Versus Skeptics

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I know you’ll be as shocked as I am to learn that social media has failed to bridge the gap. Actually, though, they buried the lede:

…tweeters with climate sceptic views are no more likely to post offensive comments than those who accept the basics of climate science.

Sceptics have long been accused of trolling, but Williams said the study indicated their minority status meant they were just more likely to interact with users they disagreed with.

“We found a lot of negativity, but when you crunch the numbers you find out they are no more likely to be negative than anyone else,” he said.

“There is a popular perception that sceptics must be irrational or unreasonable but this study doesn’t support that at all.”

You don’t say.