I haven’t read the article yet, but this looks like a big breakthrough, space elevators or not.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Babying Mars
Is it time to stop worrying about contaminating it?
As I’ve often said, wannabe Mars colonists’ biggest fear should be the discovery of indigenous life there.
Neil Tyson’s Latest
“Hey, you just have to trust me on all that stuff I made up“:
Eyewitnesses are a good thing. And if you believe Neil deGrasse Tyson is your lord and savior, his eyewitness testimony is of course sufficient for verifying, for instance, that George W. Bush quote.
But what about those of us who are not in the Tyson faith-based community? Are we “anti-intellectuals” to not trust in his unverified claims? I suppose that will be the continued approach by many in the media, some folks in the Wikipedia community (whose trust in Tyson puts the most devout religious piety to absolute shame), and the other fanboys.
I’ve never been as impressed with him as those who consider themselves my intellectual superiors have been demanding, but wow, he really is a piece of work.
[Update a while later]
Tyson finally admits that he botched the Bush quote:
Tyson claims to be a man of science who follows the evidence where it leads. The evidence here clearly shows Tyson screwed up. Whether knowingly or not, he regularly repeated a false account in order to cast aspersions on another public figure. The only proper thing to do is recant and apologize. That is what a person of integrity does.
I won’t be holding my breath.
Peter Thiel
I didn’t link it at the time, but he had an interesting Q&A on Reddit the other day.
Space Property Rights
I haven’t read it yet, but this looks like an interesting paper, from Cato.
Gun Control
How it made England the most violent country in Europe.
Bash Shellshock
Well, actually, I’m not sure it’s everything. I’m doing a full update on my system, but not sure that will solve it.
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, you may think you’ve patched, but you haven’t yet. Not clear how long it will take to fix it.
Jerry Pournelle
He’s posted a brief but complimentary review of the book (it’s buried deep in the post, after his lengthy discussion of his computer tech upgrades):
Safe Is Not An Option, by Rand Simberg is a reliability expert’s look at the space program. The book is discussed at length on its own web site. Those interested in the space program should read it: the book is quite critical of current space policies. It has endorsements from both astronauts and space policy analysts.
His general thesis is that NASA’s obsession, born of the days when “ours always blow up” and brought back with a vengeance by the Challenger disaster, is eliminating all human risk from spaceflight. That doesn’t work and the obsession is a huge obstacle to progress. There will always be risks, and we will always have heroes.
Simberg is an aerospace engineer with considerable experience and his analyses of various space incidents such as the Challenger Disaster are spot on, which is to say, I agree with them. Recommended.
Thanks!
#GamerGate
Not being a gamer (and/or part of that community) I haven’t really been paying attention to this, but it appears to be pretty ugly. Unsurprisingly, it’s driven by leftist “journalists.”
Plantar Fasciitis
A new technique to cure it.
I had a bout with it last summer on my left heel. I bought some orthotics at the drug store, and it went away after a few weeks, but if it recurs, I’ll try this.