What the president of Yale should have said.
Note, as is often the case, that opposition to freedom of expression comes from the left.
You Don’t Say
Obama administration policies are responsible for high gas prices.
If they really wanted to wreck the economy, what would they be doing differently?
So How’s The Engine Coming?
…why the relatively silence from a media savvy Virgin Group that understands the PR value of showing a rocket engine firing?
Nobody knows for sure. However, people familiar with such things thought the engine firings in the initial video looked rough. (At least from what they could see of it through the enormous cloud of dirt and dust the engine threw up.) Soon after the video was released, stories circulated that engineers at Sierra Nevada Corporation were having a hard time scaling up the hybrid engine system from the small, X-1 sized SpaceShipOne prototype to its business jet sized successor. Oscillations sufficiently severe that nobody would want to ride the vehicle.
The stories have persisted and, if anything, have grown stronger. The latest one circulating in Mojave is that the test in March didn’t go well, and that the propulsion team has decided to abandon the hybrid rocket for a liquid system. There is also a confirmed report that Virgin Galactic has formed its own propulsion team and hired the former director of SpaceX’s Texas engine testing facility — and an expert in liquid propulsion — as a member of it.
On Saturday, I asked Whitesides whether they were considering dumping the hybrid system entirely. He reaffirmed that the company are focused on hybrids for now; liquid propulsion is something that would be consider down the road.
I’ve always thought that the hybrid was a mistake. The late Jim Benson sold Burt on it for SpaceShipOne, though, and the success of the X-Prize apparently gave him the confidence to stick with it for SpaceShipTwo, despite its operational disadvantages. After the explosion in Mojave, I suggested to Alex Tai that it was a good opportunity to change course, but he said that it would cost too much in vehicle redesign, due to the different mass distribution. I’ll bet that they’re now really regretting that decision, if they have to do so anyway, because it has cost them years in schedule. Also, I wonder (assuming the rumors are true) why they’re developing their own, instead of just buying from XCOR? That was the mistake they made with the hybrid.
The Importance Of Ad Placement
Some unfortunate examples. May not be safe for work–they’re laugh out loud.
[Update a few minutes later]
Also, awesomely inappropriate test answers from kids.
[Both via Geek Press]
Barack Obama’s Excellent Idea
He’s just applying it to the wrong country: leave Israel alone and roll the US government back to its 1967 size. Though, as he notes, 1965 would be better.
A Tell-All Book
…..with nothing to tell:
Wow, you can really see how that pushed Bailey over the brink, coming on top of Palin’s being filmed walking into a hotel. In reality, it is a testament to Governor Palin’s rectitude that a former aide who wants to get rich by writing an expose can’t come up with anything better than this.
Desperation is as desperation does.
Compare And Contrast
These pictures pretty much say it all, don’t they?
Spam I Can Use
Two that just came in (happily, I have a pretty good filter): Latino singles, and women’s clothing.
And I don’t want to hear any “that’s not what I heard” comments about the latter.
Legacy Space Companies
…getting desperate.
I have a response to Loren Thompson’s latest load of bilge, over at the Washington Examiner.
Cantor Versus Obama
Ron Radosh reports on another speech at AIPAC:
To great applause, Cantor said:
It is not okay to vilify Israel. It is not okay to demonize Jews. And it’s time to stop scapegoating Israel.
And to those who equate Palestinian refusal to negotiate with Israel’s necessary measures it takes to defend itself, the majority leader added:
In order for us to win this great struggle, we must have the courage to see the world not as we wish it to be, but as it truly is. It is not morally equivalent when the offenses of terrorists are equated with the defenses of Israel.
Undoubtedly, his most well-received moment was when he addressed the president’s own illusions. Cantor first noted that Palestinian culture — which Obama omitted criticizing — is laced with “resentment and hatred.” Cantor then shrewdly rebuked Obama:
[Palestinian culture is] the root of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. It is not about the ’67 lines. And until Israel’s enemies come to terms with this reality, a true peace will be impossible … If the Palestinians want to live in peace in a state of their own, they must demonstrate that they are worthy of a state.
I predict that the president is not going to raise as much Jewish money this cycle as he did in 2008, and he’s going to get a lot fewer votes.