Space

Hubble Fix

16 Comments

Fifteen minutes until launch. We’re heading over to the beach to watch. It will be the last Shuttle mission ever to launch due east.

[Update a while later]

Well, that was the first time we ever tried to watch from Spanish River Park. The problem is that down here, the beach runs north and south, but the Cape is north-northeast of us, so the launch actually starts inland from our vantage point, and there was an apartment building blocking the lower portions of the ascent. From here (about a hundred fifty miles away) we saw the first-stage burn once it cleared the building, but once the SRBs went out, there was nothing left to see. Too far away and the sun was too bright (another cursed day of no clouds and no rain here, with us almost a foot below normal rainfal for the year). If it had been dark, we would have no doubt seen it much longer.

[Tuesday morning update]

In comments, I speculate on how they’ll inspect the Shuttle tiles (the first priority, so they know ASAP whether or not they’ll have to launch a rescue mission). Here’s a description of the process.

[Afternoon update]

So they found a few dings, but it doesn’t look like anything serious.

[Bumped again]

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Common Sense In Louisiana

23 Comments

Legislation is being passed to allow concealed carry on campus. I don’t understand this, though:

The bill would allow the governing boards of the colleges to designate where the weapons would be stored while the carrier is on campus.

If they can carry, why would they have to store them?

Also, note the usual idiocy and illogic in comments opposed to this:

So, a faculty or staff member who wants to intimidate a student or colleague can use their concealed weapon. Sure makes rape easier, huh?

Yes, because people who have passed the background check for concealed carry are such notorious rapists, and no one commits rape without a gun, and in the absence of this law, no rapist would even think about carrying a gun on campus, because, you know, it’s against the law.

This is exactly what we need, wannabe macho 18-year-olds who have watched too much TV – where shots never miss intended targets – trying to be a heroes. Be prepared to hear the words “innocent bystanders shot” much more often.

Ignoring the fact that you have to be twenty-one to get a permit.

Having a permit to carry a concealed weapon does NOT indicate 24/7 mental stability.

It’s actually a pretty good surrogate for it.

It’s funny how none of the dire predictions of the hoplophobes ever come to pass. I haven’t noticed the blood running in the streets in Michigan for the past few years when they went to “shall issue,” despite all of the predictions of Wolverine exsanguination, and there has been no noticeable increase in innocent deaths in Florida since they passed the castle law down here. This is hysteria, and completely irrational.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Chickens Already Coming Home To Roost

3 Comments

Megan McArdle says that we may already be having a problem with sovereign debt risk:

Obama’s spending plans are extraordinarily ambitious. His projected deficits for the rest of his possibly presidency are higher than the “runaway” deficits that plagued most of the Bush administration–and after the first few years, that’s not stimulus, that’s ordinary spending outstripping revenue. For a while now, I’ve been asking people at conferences, on and off the record, what America’s sovereign debt risk is? That is, how long until people stop treating treasuries as the “risk free” securities, and start demanding a premium for the risk that we might default.

The answer from the right has been a nervous (perhaps hopeful) 2-3 years. The answer from the left, and professional Democratic wonks, is some unspecified time in the future. Probably, there will be a Republican in charge. Markets hate Republicans.

But last Thursday, the Treasury auction was . . . well, descriptions vary from “weak” to “horrible”. This raises the unpleasant possibility that markets are, as my business school professors insisted, “forward looking”. Voters may believe that getting a bunch of special interests to agree in principal that costs should be cut is the same thing as actually cutting costs. Bond markets don’t…

…Obama can assure voters that he inherited these deficits. But bond markets pay closer attention to the fact that Obama has already increased the projected deficit he inherited by 50%.

Let’s hope that the voters figure it out soon, and before Treasury has to start paying high interest on T-bills.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!