…on the moon.
It doesn’t make much sense to even speculate on the economic potential until we solve the launch-cost problem, though, and there is little in current space policy that even attempts it.
Fear
…the red button.
Out, Out, Damned Spot
This is pretty funny:
…if you were looking for symbolism, there was the moment when Emanuel finished shaking hands with commuters at a Chicago Transit Authority station and shoppers at a supermarket and climbed back into his black Dodge Caravan, in which he could be seen vigorously washing his hands — in clear view of television cameras and reporters.
I think this is going to be entertaining, starting with all the legal shenanigans he’ll have to pull to even get on the ballot.
[Late afternoon update]
Per comments:
Folks, the issue is not whether or not he should have disinfected. It was his clumsiness in or indifference to getting caught on camera. I’m not sure what he is, but he’s no politician.
I, for one, think that handshaking should be outlawed, or at least socially discouraged, and particularly in political campaigns. Think of how much productivity and even life is lost to viruses due to this archaic social ritual.
It’s Not The Tax-Rate Cuts
It’s the spending, stupid.
All this talk about “cost to the government of tax cuts for the rich” is just neo-Marxist class warfare and envy.
Monkey Self Awareness
I continue to be baffled by research such as this:
It was once thought that only humans could pass the mark test. Then chimpanzees did, followed by dolphins and elephants.
What I continue to not understand is why they don’t think that (e.g.) cats are self aware. My cats recognize each other, so they clearly recognize cats. When they see themselves in a mirror, they don’t treat it like another cat — they basically ignore it. Is there any other explanation for this than they recognize it as themselves? What am I missing here?
According to Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal, the new findings fit with his work on capuchin monkeys who don’t quite recognize themselves in mirrors, but don’t treat the reflections as belonging to strangers. “As a result, we proposed a gradual scale of self awareness. The piece of intriguing information presented here may support this view,” he said.
However, de Waal cautioned that “many scientists would want more tests and more controls” — a warning especially salient in light of a high-profile controversy involving Marc Hauser, a Harvard University evolutionary biologist who appears to have overstated the cognitive powers of his own monkeys.
“What you’re seeing in the videos is subject to all kinds of interpretations,” said Gordon Gallup, a State University of New York at Albany psychologist who invented the mirror test, and has administered it with negative results to rhesus monkeys. “I don’t think these findings in any way demonstrate that rhesus monkeys are capable of recognizing themselves in mirrors.”
It seems to me that, for whatever reason (Homo Sapiens chauvinism?), some scientists go out of their way to deny the obvious. It reminds me of the arguments during Descartes’s day that animals couldn’t feel pain, and the even more absurd ones that babies couldn’t, either, used as an excuse to not have to use anaesthesia to operate on them.
[Update a while later]
I should add that there is no definitive test for self awareness. There is no way to know for certain that anyone other than yourself is self aware.
The Chinese Curse
Are we in for an interesting historical period?
A Modest Proposal
Glenn Reynolds has a suggestion to improve diversity on the nation’s campuses.
An Amicus Brief
Supporting Virginia versus Sebelius:
If nothing else, I hope the brief will help dispel the myth that there is an expert consensus to the effect that the mandate is constitutional (see also here). It should by now be obvious that many well-known and highly respected scholars believe otherwise.
I think the notion that the mandate is constitutional is nonsense.
IBOTUS
This is the blind leading the blind — political advice for Barack Obama from Fritz Mondale, the man who lost forty-nine states, and then lost his own in a Senate race.
That’s right, his problem is that he hasn’t connected with us enough. It has nothing to do with his economically inept policies, continuous apologetics for everyone but him, and Marxism.
How Big Is The Coming Political Tsunami?
It must be pretty big, if Jim Oberstar is in trouble.
This is great news for advocates of commercial spaceflight. When the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act was passed a few years ago, Oberstar (then in the minority) fought to have the FAA regulate passenger safety for space vehicles with nonsensical talk of a “tombstone mentality,” despite the consensus among experts that it didn’t know how to do it, and that it would do nothing except strangle the infant industry in the cradle. The compromise was that it would be hands off until 2012, unless there was an accident to cause a revisit of the policy.
Well, the industry hasn’t moved along as fast as was hoped at the time, and we’re still in a situation in which the FAA doesn’t really have a handle about affordable safety requirements, though it will have to start regulating it in two years, absent further congressional action. Industry proponents have feared to raise the issue, because with the Democrat takeover in 2006, Oberstar had taken over the chair of the relevant committee.
There has been hope (looking almost certain now to all other than Dems whistling past the graveyard) that the Republicans would take back at least the House this fall, which would mean that his power to block an extension would be reduced significantly. If he ends up not even being in the Congress at all, let alone on the committee, that would be great news for progress and sensible commercial space policy.