Remember, when it comes to the Clintons, it’s always everyone else who’s lying.
Commercial Crew
There’s going to be an announcement at 4PM on NASA TV. Jay Barbree says it’s going to be Boeing and SpaceX. Which if true means two capsules, no wings.
[Update a while later]
Here‘s another similar report from the WaPo.
[Update a few minutes later]
Joel Achenbach has more, including the (bizarre, to me) part of the story about ULA getting a new engine for the Atlas from Blue Origin.
[Late-morning update]
OK, now James Dean is reporting that there will be two full awards, not “leader-follower.” I wonder if they have the money for that with a CR?
[Update just before noon]
Alex Brown has a story at National Journal. Annoyingly, everyone is calling them space “taxis” when, at least for NASA, it’s more of a rental-car model (if you insisted on a new car every time you rented). Also, everyone’s regurgitating NASA’s 2017 date. I’d at least note that SpaceX could possibly fly as early as next year, unless there is something else on the critical path than abort tests. Final point:
Boeing’s program is reported to be further along in its development goals.
I think that Pasztor story is BS. How can Boeing be in the lead when they haven’t even flown anything? I love this:
But people familiar with the process said Boeing, with its greater experience as a NASA contractor, appears to have become the favorite partly because it has met earlier development goals in the same program on time and on budget.
Everyone hits their budget. It’s a fixed-price contract. And who cares if they’re hitting program goals, if those are trivial goals (like design reviews)? How anyone can think that a paper vehicle is ahead of one that’s going to have its abort tests in the next few months?
[Update a few minutes before the announcement]
Here’s the link.
[Update after the announcement]
Well, no surprises, except amounts. Here’s Eric Berger’s take.
Let's stop pretending there's some deep journalistic mystery here. Boeing gets more money because they cost more, and everyone knows why.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 16, 2014
[Update a while later]
Here is Jeff Foust’s story.
The Asteroid Mining Act
Professor Reynolds supports it.
Don’t Go To Mars
David Attenborough takes a novel and courageous stand. Let’s “sort out life on earth, first.” [Paywall]
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone make that argument before, except a lot of people, for decades.
“America? Let’s sort out life in Europe first.”
“Europe and Asia? Let’s sort out life in Africa, first.”
It’s obviously a mindless prescription for never settling new territory.
Body Fat And Age
Thoughts from Mark Rippetoe on personal health and appearance.
Multi-Culturalism And Rape
Rotherham is a part of England that will be forever Pakistan:
Pakistanis first came in significant numbers to Rotherham in the late 1950s and early ’60s, in the wave of immigration that brought men from the Indian subcontinent to Britain, largely to do work that the indigenous white working class no longer wanted. My father was part of this first wave. He worked on the production line of the Vauxhall car factory in Luton, an unlovely town north of London. In Rotherham, many Pakistani men ended up doing dirty, dusty work in the steel foundry.
The new immigrants were from rural villages, typically in Kashmir, the northern province bordering India; they were socially conservative and hard-working. When I was growing up in the ’80s, the stereotype of Pakistanis was that we were industrious and docile.
The Pakistani community in Rotherham, and elsewhere in Britain, has not followed the usual immigrant narrative arc of intermarriage and integration. The custom of first-cousin marriages to spouses from back home in Pakistan meant that the patriarchal village mentality was continually refreshed.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main storyBritain’s Pakistani community often seems frozen in time; it has progressed little and remains strikingly impoverished. The unemployment rate for the least educated young Muslims is close to 40 percent, and more than two-thirds of Pakistani households are below the poverty line.
If you allow unrestricted immigration with no assimilation, you are basically welcoming your future conquerors.
Libertarians
Thoughts on idiotic and ignorant things people say about them.
Saturated Fat
…reduces the risk of sudden cardiac incidents.
Do tell.
Giant Solid Rockets
Yes, let’s keep using them:
In this case, the DM series motors passed all of ATK’s and NASA’s inspections and test firings. It wasn’t until ATK was proceeding toward QM series motor segments that NASA requested more thorough inspections of the QM series motors to determine whether the switch to non-asbestos containing insulation liners was having a previously unseen effect.
“The beauty of the solid rocket motor inspection system is that defects will be found and solutions reached to ensure the motors delivered will perform with the highest reliability,” said Reed. “This is a requirement to ensure SLS is a safe and reliable system for human exploration of deep space.”
Yeah. Right.
[Update a few minutes later]
So we have giant SRBs with persistent unpredictable dangerous defects+massive political pressure to get to launch. What could go wrong? #SLS
— Trampoline Rocket (@TrampolinRocket) September 15, 2014
Republicans And The Economy
This is a pretty strong correlation.
When Republicans control Congress, unemployment falls. When Democrats control Congress, unemployment skyrockets pic.twitter.com/6Y3T4sGFHv
— Steve Goddard (@SteveSGoddard) September 15, 2014
[Update a few minutes later]
Yes, I know that Republicans didn’t take control of Congress in 2010. The point is that the removed control of it from the Dems. That was all that was necessary. But it will also help to oust Harry Reid in November.