Aquatic Disaster

December 2, 2021 Rand Simberg 10 Comments

Patricia heard a noise in the middle of the night that she described as “gnashing of teeth.” When I went out to look at the pond this morning, it was almost empty, with a couple of the large rocks that line the edge of it having fallen into it, and apparently having cut the liner. Likely it was a raccoon trying to get the fish, who tipped the rocks over and fell in. Fortunately, at least some of the fish, including the one koi, are still in the bottom, but I’m going to have to find and repair the leak before I can refill it, and with fish in it, I’m going to have to neutralize the chlorine when I add water. And it’s a chilly day to be dealing with it.

Late-afternoon update]

Well, if I have a leak, it isn’t in the pond. I added some water that had been sitting overnight in a bucket to evaporate off the chlorine, and it didn’t go down. If it doesn’t go down overnight, I’ll turn the stream back on and see if that’s where the leak is.

[Friday-morning update]

The pond didn’t go down overnight, but when I turned on the stream, I found the leak. It was backing up to the beginning of it, beyond the liner.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary

The War On Tesla

December 1, 2021 Rand Simberg 10 Comments

First the administration pretended that the company doesn’t exist, and now it’s going to provide a bigger tax credit to manufacturers who aren’t Tesla. It’s all about the unions.

Education, General Science, Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Science And Society

No, Dr. Fauci

December 1, 2021 Rand Simberg 23 Comments

You are not “the science.” In fact, with statements like that, you are the Anti-science.

[Wednesday-morning update]

A “Cruz missile” drops on Fauci.

[Bumped]

Business, Space, Technology and Society

The Raptor Crisis

November 30, 2021 Rand Simberg 32 Comments

This isn’t good news, but it’s probably not as bad as Elon makes it out to be. He’s got to motivate the team to fix it. At least the design seems to be sound. The issue seems to be production rate.

Business, Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

The Rise And Fall

November 30, 2021 Rand Simberg 7 Comments

…of a great something.

Adding more money will not fix the problem; it may even make it worse because things have just gone over their heads. The expansion of private activity into outer space will create a still bigger challenge for the 20th-century state. Latencies in communication imposed by the limited speed of light mean that real-time control from the center will become impossible in principle. Even the Mars copter is largely autonomous.

Taken together, these developments suggest that the collapse we may be feeling — if one is in fact occurring — is not the fall of a hegemon but the crumbling of hegemony itself. It is probably driven by the drastic increase of complexity in the 21st century, represented by an ever-lengthening flood of bits which, if not understood, is psychologically indistinguishable from entropy. The world, like a team of wild horses, may have gotten away from the UN, Xi, Vladimir, and Joe because it’s gotten too dang complicated to control. Going back to historical metaphors, humanity may be reliving, not the fall of Rome but the fall of Babel.

Vernor Vinge, Neil Stephenson, and others saw this coming.