At least according to this web site, which says that there are zero people with the first name Rand, and zero people with the last name Simberg, in the US.
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This implies, of course, there are also zero people with both. I guess I’ll just have to disappear in a puff of logic.
Alan Boyle has an interesting interview on launch regulation with Marion Blakey and Patricia Grace Smith from last week’s X-Prize Cup Executive Summit.
Spirit is acting up, and acting out.
Rich Lowry nails Bush’s biggest problem, and flaw:
For a president who talks so much about being a wartime leader and whose administration so emphasizes the prerogatives of the executive, Bush has been an oddly passive commander in chief. He often seems to be run by his government rather than the other way around. He rarely fires anyone. His deference to his generals is near total. He hasn
John Carmack has a fascinating (at least to me) description of the lead up to the XPC and what happened there. And some thoughts about the future.
I
John Carmack has a fascinating (at least to me) description of the lead up to the XPC and what happened there. And some thoughts about the future.
I
John Carmack has a fascinating (at least to me) description of the lead up to the XPC and what happened there. And some thoughts about the future.
I
Arnold Kling says that it’s the nature of politicians.
We have to expect mediocrity from political leaders. They are selected by a very unreliable process. In general, I try to avoid contact with narcissists who spend their time pleading for money. Those are hardly the intellectual and emotional characteristics that make someone admirable, yet they are the traits of people who go into politics.
…The libertarian view is that private institutions, both for-profit and non-profit, are better at problem-solving than government institutions. Regardless of whether political leadership is wise or mediocre, our goal should be to limit the damage that public officials can do. Do not demand that they “solve” health care, “fix” education, or launch a “Manhattan project” for energy independence. Even for experts, those are impossible tasks. The harder we press our existing leaders to address these issues, the more trouble they are going to cause.
Mars Express has delivered a nice animation of the Cydonia region. Needless to say, Richard Hoagland‘s lunatic fans will be disappointed. Or rather, they should be, and would be if they weren’t nuts. As it is, they’ll probably, along with Hoagland, decry the conspiracy to hide the truth, and claim that now ESA has become part of NASA’s cover up.
That’s what it looks like the Australians have been doing with their gun buy-back program:
Although furious licensed gun-owners said the laws would have no impact because criminals would not hand in their guns, Mr Howard and others predicted the removal of so many guns from the community, and new laws making it harder to buy and keep guns, would lead to a reduction in all types of gun-related deaths.
…Politicians had assumed tighter gun laws would cut off the supply of guns to would-be criminals and that homicide rates would fall as a result, the study said. But more than 90 per cent of firearms used to commit homicide were not registered, their users were not licensed and they had been unaffected by the firearms agreement.
Yes, politicians assume all kinds of idiotic things.
