Am interesting interview over at Forbes.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Failing Well
…is the American way. Michael Barone reviews Megan McArdle’s new book
[Update a couple minutes later]
This bit is interesting:
Her advice is to avoid enterprises that are in long-term decline, such as General Motors starting in the 1970s. In business and public policy, try to learn from well-conducted experiments — but recognize that successful trials can’t always be replicated on a large scale.
I think that also applies to NASA human spaceflight as practiced for the past fifty years.
The Space Transportation Conference
Marcia Smith has a good description of the highlights, including the discussion on space safety on Tuesday afternoon, at which I felt like the elephant in the room that no one talked about. It was an excellent conference.
Another Book Review
From John Walker.
He found a misspelling that I’ve been missing. Guess it will have to remain for the next revision (the first one will be available this week).
Green On Green
California environmentalists may not be very happy with Jerry Brown and his high-speed train to nowhere.
High-Risk Sports
Some ruminations on the possibility of death. As I note in the book, many extreme sports, not just motorsports, carry such danger, but it’s not regulated by the government. The commercial space industry will need to develop its own standards for different risk levels and activities.
Crowdfunding
Traditional capital flows from nonprofits to investment banking are being disintermediated. People, causes and businesses that need capital have access through the internet, social media and crowdfunding platforms to capital that they simply could not access before. As this trend grows, crowds will demonstrate a different sort of wisdom, sometimes funding causes that foundations wouldn’t or entrepreneurs that VCs wouldn’t.
The JOBS bill was one of the few bi-partisan things that Congress had done recently that will actually help the economy and provide more opportunities for true wealth and job creation.
Ceres
…may have more fresh water than on all of earth. Seems in many ways more habitable than Mars.
Space Casualties
…are a necessary tragedy.
My column on this week’s anniversaries, in historical perspective. Actually, it’s a 500-work summary of the book.
[Update a few minutes later]
Right on cue, some idiot comes up in comments with the usual, “End human spaceflight. If you want science, send a robot.”
Of course, the word “science” didn’t appear in the piece.
Beings Making Space Livable
Clark Lindsey critiques Kenneth Chang’s article about the difficulties of living in space.