Political Commentary

The End Of Free Republic?

I’ve been a long-time reader (and a rare poster) over there. It’s often a source for interesting news stories, and often quite amusing threads based on them. But Jim Robinson, the site founder and proprietor seems, to put it simply, to have gone nuts.

There have always been three topics that generate a lot of heat (and usually little light) over there: homosexuality, the War on (Some) Drugs, and evolution. It looks as though heretics who don’t believe in creationism will no longer be tolerated over there. Too bad–it was fun while it lasted.

Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians are all facing deep schisms. The Libertarians have been splintered by the war, as have the Dems, but these social issues are breaking down the long-time useful alliance between small-government conservatives and libertarians, and social conservatives within the Republican Party. It’s not clear whose split is worse, or what the long-term political consequences will be. I do think that it opens up room for a new political party of some type, perhaps by the disenchanted libertarians (e.g., me, Glenn Reynolds) who make up much of the blogosphere.

Space

More On The X-Rocket Tragedy

It looks as though there may have been a mid-air collision, but we’ll have to await the accident investigation to know for sure.

The question in my mind is, why there were five people in a camera chase plane? Yeah, it’s probably a fun ride, and I’d like to have gone along myself, but I suspect that they’ll rethink who are and are not essential personnel on such flights in the future.

Popular Culture

History Repeats?

OK, so due to some sloppy defense, the Tigers are looking down the barrel of an imminent loss of baseball’s championship series. They can’t lose any more games, either tonight in St. Louis, or this weekend back in Detroit, if they want to win their first series in twenty two years.

But this isn’t the first time they’ve been in this position. Thirty eight years ago, they were down three and one to the same team (well, at least a team with the same name, in the same town–at least two generations of ballplayers have come and gone since then). They came back and won it all. Here’s hoping they can do it again.

Technology and Society

The Next Big Thing On The Web?

Virtual worlds?

One of the arguments against space tourism as a long-term market is that as the VW technology advances, the real thing may actually be viewed as boring compared to the possibilities offered by programmable realities. I suspect that this will be true to some limited degree (particularly given the cost differential of doing things in cyberspace as opposed to meat space), but I’m sure that there will always be “Luddites” who refuse to hide in virtual worlds, protected from real consequences, but will prefer to go out and test their bodies and senses against the real thing.

Space

More XPC First-Hand Reports

Jon Goff has a long, but interesting description of Masten activities at last weekend’s X-Prize Cup. And rocket geeks may want to chime in the comments section with John Carmack about the theoretical and practical Isp of the Masten engines.

Jon’s post reminds me that I forgot to mention this past weekend the tragic news that he notes about Ed Wright’s company, which lost five personnel in the crash of a camera chase plane. My condolences to him and his coworkers. It’s ironic, of course, because while we may expect to lose people in the development of new vehicles, an accident like that is always completely unexpected, and a shock.

One thing that strikes me is the behind-the-scenes look at the confusion of the operations people on the field, which was also apparent (but less so) from the press tent. Hopefully, they’ll get better at this in future years, and be able to offer a better show.

Another is the continued and heart-warming camaraderie of the industry, with cooperation and well wishes between all the players. A sign of maturation may be when they start to feel more competitive, because there are real businesses going, with real fortunes to be won or lost.

Space

No Good Deed Unpunished

Clark Lindsey notes that, despite the fact that the prizes haven’t been won yet, Centennial Challenge is working. Which means, of course, that the Senate is now trying to kill it.

As Clark says, we’ll have to mobilize to save (or worst case, if we can’t win in conference) restore this funding next year. There are people spending a lot of time and sweat, and money, in the hopes of winning these prizes. It would be a tragedy if the prizes were snatched away now. Unfortunately, it would also be typical, and an example of why it’s hard to make government-funded prizes work, given the fickleness of the governors.

And of course, it’s one of the few really cost effective things that NASA is doing, in terms of advancing us in space.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!