Maria Conchita Alonso speaks truth to Sean Penn.
What Is Paul Allen’s Venture Really For?
While last week’s news about the new privately-funded air-launch system was exciting, many industry observers have been scratching their heads over aspects of it that don’t seem to quite add up, from both business and technical perspectives. Continue reading What Is Paul Allen’s Venture Really For?
Science Mnemonics
The Enemies Of The Humanities
In Which My Respect For Penn Jillette’s Intelligence
…plummets. Gillette certainly doesn’t seem “wicked smart” in this episode.
It occurs to me that Jillette wouldn’t say this if he thought that Obama really was a Christian. It’s just a pose for the rubes, and he approves, recognizing the cultural necessity. Obama doesn’t believe in anyone higher than himself.
A Terrible Week For Liberty Fighters
First Hitchens, and now Vaclev Havel has died. Here’s what Matt Welch had to say about him a few years ago.
Don’t expect the media to make a big deal of it. He was the wrong kind of dissenter, being too American for Europe. The fact that he never won a Peace Prize, while Yasser Arafat and Barack Obama did, says something very fundamental about the corruption and uselessness of that once-honorable achievement. I’d also note (to cite a tweet) that he’s an example of the ancient dictum (that I just made up) that a country can do a lot worse than having a dissident playwright as a president. Mamet, 2012!
[Monday morning update]
More thoughts (from a couple years ago) from Bruce Bawer. And here’s a roundup over at National Review Online.
Our Trip To Mojave Yesterday
We drove up with Bill Simon yesterday, and he’s posted a bunch of pics on Picasa. It’s mostly pictures of the flight line with the canard fly-in, a lot of pictures of what’s happening at XCOR, and Burt Rutan’s “pyramid” house (which is currently being rented out).
There He Goes Again
On Fox News Sunday, Romney just attacked Newt again on lunar colonies. This is getting very annoying. Someone in Romney’s campaign or the man himself decided that bashing space is a good weapon against Gingrich. Newt should make him pay for it with a speech on the subject. I suppose I should be happy that he’s at least made it a campaign issue. It usually isn’t.
The Recalcitrant Planet
…refuses to obey the dictates of the computer models. Why oh why won’t Gaia cooperate with her socialist worshipers?
Light And Scattered Blogging
We’re going up to Plane Crazy in Mojave, to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the flight of the Voyager this week, and today’s 108th anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight. I expect to see a lot of canards flying in for the event.