Some useful thoughts from Peter Hague.
Defending Taiwan
How to make it into a porcupine.
The Latest SLS Travails
Every time I read a status on the thing, I’m struck by just how terrible a design this is. They couldn’t have come up with a better way of wasting money and time ad infinitum. And people in comments are rooting for a catastrophe. Hard to disagree with them.
What Was Old Is New Again
Will we return to privately funded exploration, for space?
It’s much more likely than NASA going anywhere.
Lucid Dreams
A chemical method of inducing them.
When I was younger, I rarely dreamt, period. (And yes, I get the bullshit that I was dreaming but I just didn’t know it. Sorry, if I don’t actually have any memory of experiencing it, it’s not dreaming — it’s just some weird and useless unrememorable mental state ).
But in my elder years, I dream quite a bit, and most of it is unpleasant (sort of a nightmare, in which things are continuously shifting, and where I am and what I have, or what I possess, or how I am being transported is inconstant).
But I have also started, on rare occasions, to have lucid dreams. I particularly remember one in which the cat started talking to me (in English), and I realized, “Gee, I’m pretty sure cats don’t do that. I must be dreaming.” And the dream was amazingly realistic, just like real life, so it was pretty cool. I’m not sure it’s useful, but it’s a lot better than the crap dreams I was having in which I didn’t understand that I was dreaming, until I finally realized (because everything was continually changing) that it was a dream, but at that point, I woke up.
The Jews Who Didn’t Leave Egypt
Thoughts on freedom, and sacrifice.
Most people won’t leave Earth, either (just as most didn’t leave Europe to come to the New World).
How Space Can Aid Human Flourishing
An interview with Bob Zubrin.
Disney’s Business Model
…is sick.
A few months ago, I got a free six-month subscription to Disney+ through Verizon. Now that they’ve started charging me for it, it’s a great opportunity to be able to cancel it.
Checking In
So, the Reason Weekend was great. Saw many old friends, made some new ones. Average age of the attendees was pretty high (Patricia and I no doubt contributed to that), but it’s a gathering of long-time Reason supporters, so no surprise, and there was an encouraging number of young people.
We’ve been ensconced since Sunday in a vacation rental just north of the park boundary of Smoky Mountain National Park, above Wear Valley. I’ll put up a picture of the view after I take one from our balcony. Yesterday we drove from the Gatlinburg entrance down to Cherokee, with a side trip to Clingman’s Dome. The weather up there was funky; fifties and windy, and drizzly, so we didn’t other to walk the half mile to the top for the non-view. From Cherokee we came back up I-40, back to Gatlinburg, where we had dinner. One drive down the main drag there was enough to convince us that we didn’t have to visit again, It’s a place for families with kids to be separated from their money.
Today it rained most of the day, so we cocooned and enjoyed it (even heard some thunder). Then, when it cleared up, we drove the loop around Cade’s Cove, and saw several bears. We’re heading back to Nashville tomorrow, maybe via Chattanooga, to see a little more of the state, then flying back to LA early Thursday morning.
It’s been a nice break: our first real vacation since October 2020, and our second one since the onset of the plague.
[Friday-morning update]
We did drive through Chattanooga, and went up to Lookout Mountain. It doesn’t really look like a battlefield (in the way that Gettysburg or Antietam do), but it provides an interesting perspective on the Battle Above The Clouds. We thought about seeing the cave and Ruby Falls, but didn’t really have time, so it’s an excuse to go back sometime. We did manage to get to three states, but just for brief sojourns in North Carolina south of the park, and a brush with Georgia in going up on Lookout.
Had a hectic early morning yesterday getting on the flight (American check-in at BNA was chaotic, nothing like LAX), and had to suffer through a mask for six hours, but back home now with the cats, and life getting back to normal.