Space

The One-Percent Solution

Eric Hedman thinks that there’s nothing wrong with the space program that can’t be solved with more money.

Sorry, no sale here. Even if it were possible to increase NASA’s budget by over fifty percent in the current political climate, all it would mean is more waste, less motivation to do things smart, and less pressure on them to rely on commercial suppliers. It wouldn’t result in more cost effective space activities, which are what are required to open up the frontier. Until the people developing space systems are spending their own money, as XCOR, SpaceX, Armadillo and others are, we’ll continue to get pork-based solutions, with little resembling innovation, in which success of the mission itself is, at best, a secondary goal.

[Update at 11:30]

Oh, and Mark? There’s no such word as “enfusion.”

Get Firefox. It has a spell checquer built in.

Media Criticism

Just Heard On Fox

After a story about cave-man (and woman) sex (“So easy, a cave man can do it!”): “Now back to serious news–American Idol.”

Oh, Megyn, you used to sound so smart before you started doing that morning show.

[Update a few minutes later]

OK, on reflection, maybe she was being tongue in cheek. I’d certainly like to think so.

[Update a minute or so later]

Actually, now that I think about it some more, I just like to think about her tongue in a cheek. Maybe even mine.

But I probably shouldn’t have thoughts like that. I’m quite confident that my darling Patricia wouldn’t approve. Nor should she.

Nope. Not thinking about that at all.

Science And Society

Good News For Alzheimer’s Patients

The disease may not be as destructive of memory as previously believed. That means that if they can come up with a cure, or ways of repairing the neuronal damage, people may be savable as the persons they were. This would reduce the attractiveness of the cryonics solution for them, if true.

[Update in the afternoon]

I should clarify that last sentence, per the question in comments. What I mean is that it would reduce the attractiveness of cryonics as a cure for Alzheimer’s. That is, if you believe that Alzheimer’s is destroying your mind, you’d like to preserve it before it’s all gone, so even though it’s currently illegal, it would be desirable to have yourself frozen now in the hope that they can repair you in the future, rather than the empty husk of the Alzheimer’s-addled you, from which all knowledge of who you are is gone.

This research provides an alternative. Let the mind go, if it can be brought back with future therapies, even before you’re suspended, without taking the risk on freezing it.

Science And Society

Good News For Alzheimer’s Patients

The disease may not be as destructive of memory as previously believed. That means that if they can come up with a cure, or ways of repairing the neuronal damage, people may be savable as the persons they were. This would reduce the attractiveness of the cryonics solution for them, if true.

[Update in the afternoon]

I should clarify that last sentence, per the question in comments. What I mean is that it would reduce the attractiveness of cryonics as a cure for Alzheimer’s. That is, if you believe that Alzheimer’s is destroying your mind, you’d like to preserve it before it’s all gone, so even though it’s currently illegal, it would be desirable to have yourself frozen now in the hope that they can repair you in the future, rather than the empty husk of the Alzheimer’s-addled you, from which all knowledge of who you are is gone.

This research provides an alternative. Let the mind go, if it can be brought back with future therapies, even before you’re suspended, without taking the risk on freezing it.

Science And Society

Good News For Alzheimer’s Patients

The disease may not be as destructive of memory as previously believed. That means that if they can come up with a cure, or ways of repairing the neuronal damage, people may be savable as the persons they were. This would reduce the attractiveness of the cryonics solution for them, if true.

[Update in the afternoon]

I should clarify that last sentence, per the question in comments. What I mean is that it would reduce the attractiveness of cryonics as a cure for Alzheimer’s. That is, if you believe that Alzheimer’s is destroying your mind, you’d like to preserve it before it’s all gone, so even though it’s currently illegal, it would be desirable to have yourself frozen now in the hope that they can repair you in the future, rather than the empty husk of the Alzheimer’s-addled you, from which all knowledge of who you are is gone.

This research provides an alternative. Let the mind go, if it can be brought back with future therapies, even before you’re suspended, without taking the risk on freezing it.

War Commentary

A Depressing Assessment

…of Israel’s war last summer against Hezbollah:

When war erupted in summer 2006, Israel enjoyed overwhelming military superiority and favorable political conditions. However, its strategic follies and operational deficiencies resulted in a faltering, indecisive war. The Israeli military could have administered a serious blow to Hezbollah from the air during the first few days of the war or, alternatively, destroyed most of Hezbollah’s military presence in southern Lebanon with a large land invasion. Unfortunately, Israel’s political and military leadership had no clear concept of what victory over Hezbollah entailed.

Israel squandered an important opportunity to settle regional scores. It left unchecked Iran’s apparent efforts to expand Shi

Media Criticism

The Elephant In The Room

Called Al Qaeda. (Democrat) John Wixted, on the prevalence of the false “civil war” meme:

Awareness of al Qaeda is slowly growing in the minds of mainstream media reporters who have been hamstrung by the civil war schema that they simply cannot get out of their heads. Even so, there is not the slightest mention of the fact that al Qaeda was probably behind yesterday’s bombing. Millions upon millions of readers of countless stories like this all over the world will read about that bombing and then shake their heads at the escalating “civil war” in Iraq. And then they will rage at George Bush for what he has done. Here is CNN’s coverage of that event, and, again, not the slightest hint that this was an attack by al Qaeda (because, I assume, the reporter thinks this was part of the civil war). The CNN story even notes that this was a suicide bomber. Many stories fail to mention that key detail. It is important because virtually all suicide bombers are members of al Qaeda, as I detailed here. As such, this bombing was not part of that civil war. It was another atrocity designed to provoke a civil war that has largely abated since the troop surge began. That’s the key distinction, and it cannot be emphasized often enough. People just don’t get it, so it needs to be explained repeatedly until they do. In fact, what’s missing from discussions by Bush and McCain and others who have the details right is the emphatic statement that these attacks are not part of the civil war; they are attempts by al Qaeda to provoke a civil war. Just stating that these attacks were perpetrated by al Qaeda does not go far enough to change the thinking of those whose minds are ensnared by an obsolete civil war schema. You have to specifically tell them that they are wrong to think like that. That gets their attention (because they are under the comfortable impression that the civil war debate was settled long ago), and it momentarily arouses disbelief (trust me — I’ve been down this path with people many times). When they are presented with incontrovertible facts regarding the role of al Qaeda in Iraq in a moment of disbelief, it has been my experience that minds change (including liberal minds). But you have to directly assert that these attacks are not examples of the civil war in action, nor do they represent sectarian violence. If you don’t, people have great difficulty assimilating the idea that attacks by Sunni al Qaeda against Shiite civilians do not constitute examples of sectarian violence/civil war.

His emphasis, not mine.

Political Commentary

This Can’t Possibly Be True

That well-known metallurgist and structural engineer, Rosie O’Donnell, told us that fire can’t melt steel. It’s never happened before in history. Well, I guess that there’s got to be a first (or second) time for everything:

Heat from the tanker explosion on the westbound 580 melted the upper roadway of the MacArthur Maze. The fire was intense enough to cause the tanker truck to basically melt away, according to crews on the scene.

I think that we need to investigate this. Were there charges planted in the bridge to make it collapse at an opportune time? Were there Enron and Halliburton financial records in a truck driving below? Were the Jews warned to stay off it? And where was Dick Cheney?

More grounds for impeachment, I’d say.

[Via emailer Mike Puckett]

Political Commentary

This Can’t Possibly Be True

That well-known metallurgist and structural engineer, Rosie O’Donnell, told us that fire can’t melt steel. It’s never happened before in history. Well, I guess that there’s got to be a first (or second) time for everything:

Heat from the tanker explosion on the westbound 580 melted the upper roadway of the MacArthur Maze. The fire was intense enough to cause the tanker truck to basically melt away, according to crews on the scene.

I think that we need to investigate this. Were there charges planted in the bridge to make it collapse at an opportune time? Were there Enron and Halliburton financial records in a truck driving below? Were the Jews warned to stay off it? And where was Dick Cheney?

More grounds for impeachment, I’d say.

[Via emailer Mike Puckett]

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!