…had been on Facebook. It’s dark humor, and similar to this golden oldie.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Space Access ’13
Humans To Mars
A conference, in early May. What I find interesting is who is not on the schedule. Check out the “Z”s.
I may try to raise money for a publicity event there for my book.
Stray Cancer Cells
A device that finds them in the blood. Early.
Fusion Propulsion
Are we on the verge of a breakthrough? Let’s hope so, but I’ll believe it when I see it. It’s a game changer if it happens.
Elon’s Big Tesla Bet
Life Support
Here’s an interesting schematic that describes how they plan to keep crew alive to Mars and back. Doesn’t look like they’re trying to recover water from feces, but that makes sense if they’re going to use them for radiation protection. And they’re venting methane. I’d think that it would be interesting to consider it as fuel for RCS, but perhaps that’s too high a technology risk for a mission that has to leave in less than five years. I don’t see any power input to the system, but I guess that’s a separate issue.
Here’s the full briefing to FISO.
[Via NewSpace Watch]
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, looking over the briefing, the current baseline seems to be two launches, one for propellant and one for crew, within a couple weeks of each other.
Colorado Representative Diana DeGette
…is a gun-grabbing moron:
“What’s the efficacy of banning these magazine clips? I will tell you, these are ammunition, they’re bullets, so the people who have those now, they’re going to shoot them” says Rep DeGette. According to her, “the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will be shot and there won’t be any more available.”
These people shouldn’t be allowed to vote, let alone be elected to office.
Attack On The Killer Tomatoes
Some thoughts on the war on Monsanto:
Monsanto is just too perfect an issue for a certain class of urbane lefty already inclined to food snobbery and to activism. It harmonizes with his inherent mistrust of corporations, confirms him in the superiority of his lifestyle choices, and accords with the deep strain of Rousseauian anti-modernism that runs through him. Never mind that a world without GMOs would be a hungrier world, a world in which the poor would have to pay something closer to the prices he happily bears for the peace of mind that comes from the politically correct consumption of roughage. As for the rest, well, let them eat cake. Locally sourced, sustainably produced, certified organic cake.
I did note on someone’s FB page the other day that the GMO hysteria is the modern version of “Let them eat cake.” I don’t want to hear one more word about the “Republican” “war on science.” These nutjobs probably think that Norman Borlaug committed crimes against humanity.
More Destructive “Green” Policies
America is poaching European business investment:
American government got out of the way of innovative drilling companies and allowed the shale boom to take off. Europe took the opposite tack, choosing to stick to its green policies and snub shale. As a result, natural gas prices in the US are a quarter of what they are in Europe. And as industry departs, unemployment in the Euro zone is hitting a record high. That’s yet another failure that can be laid at the feet of Europe’s greens.
Just imagine how much better we’d be doing if we had a reasonable (i.e., zero) corporate income tax.