Jay Garmon dissects a dumb statistical correlation between SAT scores and “favorite” SF&F books. I found it interesting that there were no works by Neil Stephenson on the chart.
Deconstructing McCain
Mickey Kaus is on the job:
McCain said he had “respect” for opponents of his immigration plan (which he didn’t renounce) “for I know that the vast majority of critics to the bill based their opposition in a principled defense of the rule of law.” Not like those others who base their opposition on bigoted yahoo nativism! McCain’s semi-conciliatory words aren’t what you say when you really respect your opposition–then you say “I know we have honest disagreements.” Not “I know most of you aren’t really racists.” Even his suckup betrayed how he really feels. Which I suspect is sneering contempt!
He doesn’t quite have that faking sincerity thing down.
“A Feature, Not A Bug”
T. M. Lutas has some observations on the concern among the military for the modern political class in the west”
…we’ve always had the best military toys. But that technological line ended with the invention of the nuclear weapon. Once you can destroy the planet, where else is there to go in terms of outright destructiveness? We’re trying to continue to improve by enhancing the precision of our violence but in the face of a force that wants terror, imprecision is a feature, not a bug.
Read the whole thing.
The danger we are confronting now is that mass destruction is coming into the hands of individuals, and it’s going to continue to get worse. A policy of “non-interventionism” is not just futile, but suicidal, in such a world.
“A Feature, Not A Bug”
T. M. Lutas has some observations on the concern among the military for the modern political class in the west”
…we’ve always had the best military toys. But that technological line ended with the invention of the nuclear weapon. Once you can destroy the planet, where else is there to go in terms of outright destructiveness? We’re trying to continue to improve by enhancing the precision of our violence but in the face of a force that wants terror, imprecision is a feature, not a bug.
Read the whole thing.
The danger we are confronting now is that mass destruction is coming into the hands of individuals, and it’s going to continue to get worse. A policy of “non-interventionism” is not just futile, but suicidal, in such a world.
“A Feature, Not A Bug”
T. M. Lutas has some observations on the concern among the military for the modern political class in the west”
…we’ve always had the best military toys. But that technological line ended with the invention of the nuclear weapon. Once you can destroy the planet, where else is there to go in terms of outright destructiveness? We’re trying to continue to improve by enhancing the precision of our violence but in the face of a force that wants terror, imprecision is a feature, not a bug.
Read the whole thing.
The danger we are confronting now is that mass destruction is coming into the hands of individuals, and it’s going to continue to get worse. A policy of “non-interventionism” is not just futile, but suicidal, in such a world.
How Well Do You Know Europe?
I only came into the top third. But that was on my first try. I’m sure with practice I could get a lot higher.
A Clue To My MT Problems
I’m getting this error on every page of my management site:
Use of uninitialized value in pattern match (m//) at website/extlib/I18N/LangTags.pm line 394.
I did a Google for that exact error, and only came up with one hit, which wasn’t very helpful (I’ve tried recopying the extlib files, and even wiping out the directory and copying them as new), but it still gives the error.
I will, say, though, that going from 4.01 to 4.1 has cleaned up some of my GUI problems. The big issue at this point is getting it to complete the publishing task without hanging (which is what’s causing the time outs when y’all comment).
The Weather Cooperated
The launch seemed to go fine. We looked for it from the house, but I’ve given up on seeing it from here. I think that the roof line is just too high above the trajectory, when it’s heading north up to the ISS. The only launch I’ve seen from here was an Atlas at night, and it was heading due east, so it wasn’t moving away from us as fast. It reminds me, though, that there aren’t going to be very many more opportunities to see it. I suspect that it’s the largest launch vehicle that we’re going to have for a long, long time.
No Ten-Year Plans
Ron Bailey has some thoughts on top-down government-driven technology programs:
The motivation behind the Apollo moon shot program was largely geopolitical. The Soviets had launched the first artificial satellite in 1957 and orbited the first man around the planet in 1961. As a NASA history explains, “First, and probably most important, the Apollo program was successful in accomplishing the political goals for which it had been created. Kennedy had been dealing with a Cold War crisis in 1961 brought on by several separate factors–the Soviet orbiting of Yuri Gagarin and the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion only two of them–that Apollo was designed to combat.” The Apollo program cost $25.4 billion (about $150 billion in current dollars) to land just 12 astronauts on the moon. It is curious that Shellenberger and Nordhaus cite the Apollo program as an example of transformative technologies since it was basically a technological dead end.
Yes, and one that NASA seems determined to repeat.
Best Wishes
It’s been rumored for several months that Burt Rutan has been under the weather. He certainly didn’t look great when I talked to him briefly in the hallway in Long Beach in September.
Without getting into details, I now have it on very good authority that he underwent (or is undergoing) surgery this morning in California. My understanding is that, if successful, the prognosis will be good, and he’ll be doing much better soon. If you’re the praying type, and think it does him any good, then you might want to do that. But if you do, it might be best not to tell him. Me, I’ll just hope for the best.