New to me, anyway. Edward Ellegood, up at Embry-Riddle, maintains a list of links to interesting space articles (particularly as they relate to space in Florida). I’ve been receiving his emails for a while, but didn’t realize that he also has a blog. I’ll be adding it to the blogroll.
Sobering
Everyone else has been linking to this piece, so I might as well, too. This holocaust will be different. But we continue to sleepwalk toward it.
One-Sided Space Race
My TCSDaily piece on the Chinese ASAT test is up now.
Over at The Space Review, Christopher Stone agrees that the notion of space as a sanctuary from military activity in the twenty-first century is a fantasy.
There’s a lot of other good stuff over there, including some ideas on non-debris-causing ASATs from Taylor Dinerman, a brief history of space-based radar from Dwayne Day, and Paul Spudis’ take on why we go to the moon. Not to mention why so many young people believe in the Apollo Hoax.
I’ll probably have some further thoughts on better ASAT techniques later this week, if I get time.
Something Missing
Quine or no quine, Will Wilkinson seems to be unable to make a distinction between not believing in something and believing in not something.
I don’t believe in God, and have no need for one, but that’s not the same things as believing there is no God. I remain a skeptic.
Not A Dog
There’s an old saying that, on the Internet, no one can tell you’re a dog. It turns out that that’s probably not true. In fact, anonymity is going to be getting hard with this kind of analysis.
…differences remain in the way that people tap out their electronic secrets. Internet users have characteristic patterns of how they time their keystrokes, browse Web sites, and write messages for posting on online bulletin boards. Scientists are learning to use these typeprints, clickprints, and writeprints, respectively, as digital forms of fingerprints.
While the aims of this research are to strengthen password security, reduce online fraud, identify online pornographers, and catch terrorists, the technology is raising some troubling possibilities. “It’s a bit scary,” says Jaideep Srivastava, a Web researcher at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “The privacy implications are huge.”
[Via Geek Press]
Selective Outrage
Don’t hold your breath, Thomas. He has a smarter (or at least more comprehensible and grammatical) Bruce Gagnon rant:
I
Veep Richardson?
I don’t think he has a prayer of getting the Democrat nomination, barring some political earthquake, but is he really running for running mate?
That would be interesting, if he actually became Vice President, because, traditionally, the Veep is in charge of the space program in the White House (Cheney has actually been one of the most hands off in this regard in years). And Richardson has been very supportive of NewSpace (at least partly because of all the hype over Spaceport New Mexico), so that could actually result in some useful changes of direction for NASA.
Not that I’m thrilled in general about a Dem in the White House, of course.
Let Email Be Email
I’ve also noticed the huge increase in image spam for stock scams. The solution to this seems pretty simple to me. Just block any email with an image in it.
Sure, a lot of people who like to flood their friends’ mailboxes with pictures of cute puppies will whine, but is this really a critical need for email? Much of the evil of spam is enabled by the bloat that emails have become in recent years, with HTML and embedded graphics (just one more bit of proof that Microsoft is evil).
Just say no, mail servers, and go back to ascii. And for users, if you want to show someone a picture, send them a link, or attach it.
Romancing Araby
Sam Ser has a review of what looks to be a fascinating new book
Because She’s Mean
That’s why Ron Rosenbaum likes Hillary. Mark Steyn, meanwhile, says yes, but that she’s mean to the wrong people:
My problem begins when Rosenbaum expands the proposition to argue that, in a field of Democrat wimps, Hill