Will Microgravity Research Finally Pan Out?

April 13, 2007 Rand Simberg

Clark Lindsey has an interesting post on the prospects, now that people more responsive than NASA are going to offer research opportunities. I’ve always been a skeptic on it, and thought it vastly overhyped, particularly with regard to how it was used to sell the space station, but at least now, it will get a fair shot. And I agree with how he opens the piece:

One of the unfortunate tendencies of NASA is for the agency to implement a good idea in a bad way and thereby discredit that idea. Prime examples include RLVs and space tethers.

Yes, when people ask what harm it is to have NASA doing its own thing, and to just ignore it while we do ours, this is the answer. Few people really understand how much damage NASA has done over the decades in this manner. X-33 by itself probably set back the cause of low-cost spaceflight by over a decade, and we’re only just starting to recover from that debacle, with the Air Force finally starting to take space transports seriously again, even if NASA continues to refuse to do so.

Space

Diversions

April 13, 2007 Rand Simberg

I haven’t said anything about Representative Calvert’s proposal to allow NASA to accept ads on its hardware to raise money for prizes, but there’s a good discussion of it at Space Politics. I have to say that I agree with “anonymous”‘s take on it:

At this very early stage of market development, the pool of private sector dollars for any space advertising and sponsorship is going to be extremely limited. And unlike, say, a more mature market like NASCAR racing, space activities simply don

Administrative

Office Software Bleg

April 12, 2007 Rand Simberg

OK, if I have a spreadsheet in Excel, now do I convert it to a Word table?

More to the point (for the real mavens) if I have an Open Office spreadsheet, how do I convert it to an Open Office Write table?

[Friday morning update]

OK, I ended up “pasting special” into Open Office Writer as an Excel spreadsheet. Duh. And thanks for all the tips.

War Commentary

With The British Squaddies

April 12, 2007 Rand Simberg

Michael Yon has a graphic report from Iraq, embedded with the British troops:

As we rumbled through the dry, desert heat, the smells of Iraq

Political Commentary

The University Of Spoiled Children

April 12, 2007 Rand Simberg

This story of a sweatshop protest at USC is hilarious. I suspect, though, given that it’s the LA Times, that it’s unintentionally so:

Thirteen students, who came prepared with food to last three days and pillows, ended their protest after about six hours when the university threatened to suspend them and, in a move that even surprised former 1960s student activist Tom Hayden, called their parents.

“We were prepared for arrest, but not suspension,” said Ana Valderrama, a senior in philosophy.

…The students were given 10 minutes to decide whether to end their sit-in

Space History

Anniversary

April 12, 2007 Rand Simberg

It’s been forty-six years since the first human went into orbit, and twenty-six since the Shuttle first flew. Here’s what I wrote a year ago, on the forty-fifth and twenty-fifth anniversary.

Political Commentary

Conspiracy Loons

April 12, 2007 Rand Simberg

Bill Whittle has a long essay on critical thinking.

War Commentary

Detente?

April 12, 2007 Rand Simberg

Mark Danzigerisn’t very impressed with “foreign policy experts.”

I think that we should take the same attitude toward the current regime in Iran that Reagan did to the Soviet Union–“They lose, we win.”

[Update a couple minutes later]

Oh, and here’s the latest insanity from the UN–Iran and Syria are leading the disarmament commission. And we’re supposed to take this institution seriously?

And here’s an interesting (albeit glum) report on what Iran is up to in Iraq:

it’s not just the Sunni Arab neighborhoods that need attention. Radical Shia outfits, like the Iran backed Mahdi Army, have also become more aggressive. The pro-Iranian groups have been losing strength, mainly because Arabs don’t trust the Iranians. Despite sharing religious beliefs (most Iranians, like most Iraqi Arabs, are Shia), Iraqi Arabs know that the Iranians despise them, and are still unhappy with the results of the 1980s war. In that conflict, Iraqi Shia Arabs fought for Saddam against Iranians, and fought the Iranians to a standstill, and a ceasefire. This was a humiliation for the Iranians, who had walked over the local opposition for thousands of years. But the Iranians have money, weapons and technical assistance for Iraqi Shia Arabs willing to cooperate. All the Iranians want is more chaos inside Iraq. This makes Iraq weak, and less of a threat to Iranian ambitions in the region. While some of the pro-Iranian Iraqi Arabs believe they have a chance of turning Iraq into a religious dictatorship (like Iran is), most know they are being played, and paid. You take the money. Jobs are scarce. But Iran is still the enemy. Always has been, always will be.

More evidence is piling up that Iran has, as many intel specialists have long suspected, been supporting some Sunni Arab terrorist groups, as well as Shia Arab ones. There are dozens of Sunni Arab terrorist groups, scattered all over the physical and political map. Apparently Iran helps out Sunni Arab terrorists who are less likely to slaughter Shia. There are parts of the country where the only targets are Kurds and Turkomen (both Sunni) or Christians (a rapidly disappearing, via migration minority). Iran has long had problems with Kurds, Turks and Christians, and does not mind killing them.

Business