She tries to have it both ways.
Of course. She’s a Clinton.
Triglycerides
So I heard about this story on the news this morning, and it sounded a little junk sciency:
“What’s exciting about this is it takes that to another place,” said Toni Pollin, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, who led the 2008 work. “Just as you’d expect from something that prevents coronary artery buildup, there is strong evidence that having [a gene mutation] reduces the risk of having a heart attack.”
Kathiresan and colleagues benefited from the revolution in genome technology, sequencing 18,666 genes in each of 3,734 people in their search for genes that appeared to be linked to triglycerides. Rare mutations in the APOC3 gene stood out.
Once they understood where to look, they searched for four mutations in that gene in more than 110,000 people. They found that people with any one of the mutations — about 1 in 150 people — were 40 percent less likely to have heart disease and had lower levels of triglycerides.
There is no doubt in my mind that that there is a genetic basis for heart-disease risk, but I am not seeing anything in this study that would indicate that trying to reduce triglycerides per se (as statins attempt to lower cholesterol) are doing anything but treating a symptom, and possibly a harmless one. The mutation reduces both triglycerides and heart risk, but doesn’t mean that high triglycerides increase heart risk per se, or that lowering them artificially will reduce it.
But for what it’s worth, since I went partially paleo, my triglycerides have become almost immeasurable.
The Kindle Edition Of The Book
The prophecies were true! It is out
Bill Nelson
He’s pushing back against Shelby’s attempt to sabotage commercial crew.
I don’t think this is right, though:
NASA insists that waiving certain parts of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, which the agency may legally do in certain situations, is vital to getting a commercially designed system safely up and running.
NASA isn’t “waiving certain parts of the FAR.” It is following the FAR, which doesn’t require cost-plus-like accounting for fixed-price contracts. In fact it is Shelby who is trying to change the FAR by demanding that it be used anyway.
XCOR
A brief history and current status, from Alex Knapp.
J. P. Aerospace
Does anyone know what their status is? Their last blog entry is early May.
Escaping To Mars From AI
Elon says (among many other things) that it’s not a solution: “The AIs will chase us there pretty quickly.”
A New Rocket Engine
An expensive solution to a problem we don’t have. It’s a good history of how we got into this mess over the decades:
SpaceX is advancing in all directions —a human-rated spacecraft, reusability and a million-pound-thrust LOX-methane motor—and despite normal setbacks, it has failed to fall on its face as many people believed it would.
Hence GenCorp’s concern. But its solution runs counter to the total-launch-service model used by most of the industry, where the prime contractor selects or builds its motors. As SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said last week: “It would be very unusual for us to buy a critical piece of our strategy and our technology from somebody else.” I think that she meant to say “are you out of your tiny mind?” but was trying to put it diplomatically.
Since Seymour expects a government-funded development program after a paper-and-components competition, too, the next question is: “What new technology is the government funding here?” High-chamber-pressure LOX-kerosene rockets may be new to U.S. industry, but not to the world.
If big U.S. government money is going to be spent on space launch, and if SpaceX can provide an “assured access” backup, why not spend it on reusability—the only strategy that promises dramatically lower costs. The X-33 did not fail, and the shuttle did not miss its economic goals by a parsec or two, because reusability is a bad idea: Lousy requirements did it for them both. A modern, intelligently sized two-stage reusable system is like G.K. Chesterton’s view of Christianity: It “has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.” It’s time to change that.
Yes. But expect policy makers to continue down the same failed well-worn groove.
Obama’s Presidency
This polling is “the public telling you it’s over.” But we’re still stuck with him for another two and a half years, short of the politically unlikely impeachment/removal.
Ariane 6
It’s been a dead rocket walking for many months, but with the new merger in Europe, it’s almost certainly in for a design change.
But they’re still betting that SpaceX won’t get reusability, which I think is a bad bet.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s more from ExtremeTech:
Curiously, despite Airbus and Safran announcing a partnership to develop a new line of launch vehicles, there’s no explicit mention that these launchers will be reusable. It’s also worth noting that Airbus/Arianespace is already fairly far down the path towards developing its next-gen Ariane 6 launcher, which will be smaller than Ariane 5 (and thus cheaper), but still eschewing any reusable elements. SpaceX has a sizable lead in the field of cheap, reusable space launch vehicles, and in the next few years we will hopefully see it drive that advantage home.
Yup. Looks to me like it’s still too much of a jobs program to be competitive.