Orbital Mechanics, Selenology, Economics And Logistics

Jim Hillhouse doesn’t understand any of them:

The plan germinating from deep within NASA, and that sees some tentative support within Congress, is to fly one, or both, of the Morpheus and Mighty Eagle landers on the first flight of the Space Launch System in 2017. The reason for this is to begin to answer the question of whether, and in what form, there is water on the Moon.

Ummmm…no. We are long past the point of having to “begin” to answer that question.
Continue reading Orbital Mechanics, Selenology, Economics And Logistics

Why Is Bill Ayers Speaking At GreenFestival?

Birds of a feather:

So why does the speaker lineup at today’s event, heavily marketed as family-friendly and all about the food, include Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, his FBI-most-wanted-list wife Bernardine Dohrn, Van Jones, Jesse Jackson Sr., Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, and active Occupier Kyla Bourne whose academic interests revolve around “radical democracy and urban social movements?”

The green movement isn’t just a subset of the progressive philosophy. Rather, it’s the religion that’s taken over the left and whose underlying principles are such that Weather Underground terrorists and Occupy activists fit right in at their family-friend[ly] festivals.

While I’m sure that many attendees think they’re wonderful people, they haven’t all thought through the ultimate consequences of their proposals, in terms of humanity and liberty, or what kind of people it allies them with.

Principle Over Bipartisanship

More thoughts on the unprincipled RINOs from Mike Walsh:

For decades, conservatives have been gnashing their teeth as one Glorious Revolution after another is co-opted by the “Washington establishment,” and a crop of scrubbed virgin freshmen is quickly seduced and corrupted by whorehouse pork-barrelism and, worse, programism.

What the Tea Party and other conservatives are saying is simple: Enough. Stop. No mas. Don’t we already have enough laws, enough regulations, enough encroachments on liberty and — more important — isn’t it about time we rolled them back, striking useless laws from the books, eliminating some or most regulatory agencies and severely (and permanently) constitutionally hamstringing the others? Conservatism can be “progressive” too — back to the future. But we’ve let the “progressive” Left push us around for so long that now they openly mock and question the Constitution itself, and regard conservative fidelity to it as a kind of cultism.

…even when the socialists get what they want, they can’t hang on to it. Their beloved Forward-leaning Soviet Union, collapsed in less than a century, taking most of international communism with it. Seismically speaking, the same thing is happening here. As my colleague, Victor Davis Hanson, notes over at PJ Media, “The temple of postmodern liberalism was rocked these last few weeks, as a number of supporting columns and buttresses simply crashed, leaving the entire edifice wobbling.” That temple, too, will come down; the only question is whether our nation will go with it.

And that’s why the RINOs like Lugar and Hatch have to go. The GOP cannot offer a credible alternative to the destructive hate and social division of the Democrats — the party, let us remember, of slavery, segregation, secularism and sedition — unless it cleans out its own Augean stables first, removes the collaborationists and rejects “bipartisanship” as an absolute good in itself, instead of an occasional, pragmatic means to an end.

Yes.

The Dirigible

Is the dream dead?

As noted in comments, they still have specialized applications, which may expand with evolving technology, though helium prices are an issue.

This freaked me out, though:

A dock at the top of the Empire State Building, it was thought, would allow airships like the Graf Zeppelin to fly passengers directly to Midtown Manhattan — where the vessels would “swing in the breeze” while those passengers walked an attached gangplank down to the street below.

“Walk” over a quarter of a mile on a “gangplank” that extended to the street? Not for me. No. Way. In. Hell.

That couldn’t be serious. Ignoring the wind issues at that altitude (that can’t be ignored), maybe mating it to the 86th-floor observation deck with something like a long jetway (I know I wouldn’t want to be looking down), so they could take the elevators, but the notion of walking all the way to the street from that height would be insane, even for the non-acrophobes.

[Update a while later]

Here’s a fascinating account of the history (and yes, they were supposed to embark/debark from the 103rd floor). It was so crazy it never happened.

“Hi Hippy”

That was the salutation in the phishing email I got to reset my LinkedIn password (at least three of them today). Whole thing:

Hi hippy,

Can’t remember your LinkedIn password? No problem – it happens.

Please use this link to reset your password within the next 1 day:
Click here

Then sign in to LinkedIn with your new password and the email address where you received this message.

Thanks for using LinkedIn!

How stupid do they think we are? How stupid are they?

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!