Fire and Ice Conundrum

In Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone episode “Midnight Sun” posed the conundrum (a riddle with a pun as the answer) whether the world would end in global warming or cooling. Robert Frost also pondered this riddle in his 1920 poem.

I think I have the answer: “Fire!”

The pun is that this is what you say to clear a crowded movie theater. Now that you have the punchline, you can get the setup in my column in The Space Review which is up.

New Space Blogger

Brian Swiderski has taken our advice, and started a blog on space. Like most of his previous commentary on space (and little of his “progressive” commentary on anything else), it’s worth a read. It could be particularly useful for him and Ferris Valyn to educate the left on the benefits of space and spaceflight, and shoot down a lot of the egregious nonsense about it from that sector, by people who can speak their language:

Everything is a playground for the rich–that’s why most people find becoming rich desirable. However, in this case “conspicuous consumption” may result in a virtuous circle of cost reductions and greater investment, which would increasingly open space to the general public. To have the wealthy pay for the infrastructure of future generations is at the core of progressive economic values, and it makes little sense to be offended when doing so occurs voluntarily.

Mystery Departure

No, I have no idea why Horowitz is leaving the agency. I do know, though, that the story about “spending more time with the family” is usually code for something else. He obviously knows things about The Shaft that the rest of us don’t, but it’s not obvious that he’s a rat leaving a sinking ship. On the other hand, it’s certainly possible.

Also, I’ve heard rumors that one of the names in the DC madam’s little black book was a high-ranking NASA official, but again, no particular reason to believe that it’s him, even if they’re true.

Either way, as Thomas James notes, it would be nice if he’d take his toy with him, but it’s unlikely.

[Update a few minutes later]

Chair Force Engineer, who has been speculating about Orion’s mass issues, has further thoughts.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!