…by Elon Musk, will be webcast here.
[Update at the end of the speech]
Nothing new here to people familiar with Elon. He wasn’t trying to commit any acts of news today.
The Romney Campaign
I have to say that while I’m not thrilled at the prospect of a Romney presidency per se, I’m very impressed with the campaign so far. They seem to have been living inside Axelrod’s OODA loop for weeks now. The latest (and it’s hilarious) is that the campaign bus has its own Twitter account.
Fighting LOST
So Don Rumsfeld testified against ratifying the Law of the Sea Treaty. This is a key point:
Rumsfeld called “an idea of enormous consequence” the fact that “anyone who finds a way to make use of such riches by applying their labor or their technology or their risk-taking are required to pay writ royalties of unknown amounts, potentially billions, possibly even tens of billions over an extended period, an ill-defined period of time, to the new International Seabed Authority for distribution to less developed countries.”
Saying that this principle has “no clear limits,” he mused that it could set a precedent for space exploration, too.
He shouldn’t just “muse.” It could be a disastrous precedent, completely undercutting the arguments we make against the Moon Treaty.
Media Morons
No, libertarian does not mean “pro-corporate.”
This kind of ignorance is why so much reporting is nonsensical — reporters are always surprised when an economic report “unexpectedly” has bad numbers, because they really believe the Keynesian crap.
Once Gay Marriage Was Mainstreamed
…this became inevitable. Boron gets a triple bond.
Lunar Orbit Rendezvous
The decision was made fifty years ago this month.
Historically, the decision was a disaster, from the standpoint of making the effort sustainable, though it’s what won the race. Unfortunately, it was inevitable once it became a race to the moon and back. There was simply no time to develop the LEO infrastructure that von Braun and others wanted to put into place that would have obviated the need for the Saturn V. And it created a myth — that we can’t explore without such a vehicle — that haunts us to this day.
Elon And Charlie
I went over to SpaceX this morning to hear them speak, with the first Dragon to go into space (it was a repeat of their show in McGregor, Texas yesterday with the Dragon that flew the recent mission). There are a bunch of pictures at SpaceflightNow. I don’t think I’m in any of them. I was standing in the press area, just below the vantage point of most of the shots.
You might see some bulges on the side of the Dragon to the right rear. I asked Elon if those were the pods and thrusters for the abort/landing motors. He said they were, but that the design was still in flux. I also asked him if there were cosine losses, and he said yes, that they are unavoidable, since you can’t thrust straight down from the side of a cone.
Speaking of Elon, he’s giving the commencement address at Cal Tech tomorrow morning.
Forget Syria
We need to neutralize Iran:
It is unseemly and stupid for Washington to remonstrate with the Russians for playing the spoiler in Syria, for example by providing the Assad regime with attack helicopters. The way to deal with this dog is to beat up the dog’s owner, namely Tehran. Washington’s pathetic display of solicitude towards a terrorist regime that uses negotiations to buy time for nuclear weapons development aggravates every other problem in the region, Syria above all.
Yup.
Does Exposure To The Sun Damage Your Skin?
Yes.
Abandon Ship!
The AFL-CIO rats are running down the lines of the S.S. Obama.