A first-hand report from Jim Oberg, who just got back.
[Late-morning update]
Here’s more at Gizmodo. The satellite can be sun synchronous, or launch on the claimed trajectory, but not both.
Housing
Is it done for a generation?
Sure looks like it to me. And it’s not good news personally, seeing as we’re currently burdened with three of them.
Life In The Twenty-First Century
Actual headline: “Robot Helicopters To Hunt Pirates With Lasers.”
Apparently, no sharks involved, though.
Debbie’s New Job?
Be afraid. Be very afraid:
There’s been talk that the cabinet position Wasserman Schultz would be in line for would be the Secretary of Health and Human Services,which is currently under the direction of Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. C’mon, wouldn’t you all want Debbie in charge of administering government-run health care for over 300 million people?
Like we needed more reasons to not want Obama to be reelected.
[Update a few minuts later]
Link is fixed now.
Free Markets, Mr. Romney
I agree that Romney suffers, as do many Republicans, from confusion between being pro-business and pro-free enterprise.
The Syrian Rebels
Why aren’t we helping them? I think that politics in an election year is the most likely reason. And it’s infuriating, because just as Obama blew an opportunity to help the Iranians in their uprising, he’s now missing a strategic opportunity to take out a long-time linchpin of the enemy in the Middle East. We had no strategic interest in removing Khadaffi (or however his name was spelled) but we do in removing Assad.
Dyson Shells
Thoughts On The “Flat Earthers”
You know, the ones who work, or have worked for NASA.
[Update a while later]
The right stuff: what some of the astronauts say.
A Good Start To The Season
There are two undefeated teams in the major leagues. Detroit is one of them (the other is the Diamondbacks).
Iranian Billionaires And Lunar Dictators
I just did a radio interview with Thom Hartmann, in which he postulated that if the proposed homesteading legislation passed, it would result in an Iranian billionaire setting up a military base on the moon from which to bombard us. Or alternately, that I would become a dictator of my own lunar colony. He also didn’t seem to understand the difference between libertarianism and anarchism.
Hokay…