For those morons who continue to think that I am a reflexive defender and fan of the Bush administration, there’s no better argument against it in my opinion than its apparent worship of the likes of Leon Kass.
The New Partner
RpK has replaced OSC with Andrews. They’ll take over some of the systems engineering and integration work, and will be making an investment. So another one of the unsuccessful COTS bidders gets back in the game, through the back door.
[Update a few minutes later]
Clark Lindsey has a press release.
[Update at 5:30 PM EDT]
And here’s a more extensive article on not only the Jim Benson announcement, but on NewSpace in general. Bottom line (buried in the middle of the article)–investors are starting to take this industry seriously.
Mr. Benson says he “managed to raise $1 million with less than a dozen phone calls.” Some investors said yes without ever seeing a formal proposal, he says. “If I had tried three or four years ago to solicit money for this kind of private space flight, I wouldn’t have had any luck.”
Not much giggling left.
Alan Boyle has more.
And yes, I really do have some thoughts on this stuff, but I’m saving them for a couple articles I’m working on, for TCS Daily and The New Atlantis.
New Space Company
Jim Benson is leaving SpaceDev, the company he founded, to form a new public space travel company. Looks like he’s starting a separate spaceline to use Dreamchaser.
Resistance Is Futile
Against the teenager borg.
Bad Guys Versus Context
Arnold Kling writes about his journey from leftism to libertarianism (similar to mine, except his took a lot longer), and the ways in which both philosophies are similar, and those in which they are different:
- Far Leftists and libertarianism have much in common.
- Libertarians know something that Far Leftists do not.
What I believe that Libertarians have learned is what social psychologists call the Fundamental Attribution Error. The error is to attribute behavior to a person’s character when this behavior is in fact based on context. In one classic experiment, the subject is asked to watch a person read a speech that the subject knows that the speaker did not write. Subjects attribute to the person the beliefs contained in the speech.
The Far Left believes that bad policies come from evil motives. In this view, villains, such as powerful corporations, oppose good policies, and political incumbents lack the strength and courage to overcome the villains.
Libertarians believe that context is more important. We believe that government power is inherently corrupting, regardless of who holds leadership positions or how they are influenced. We believe that the market does a relatively good job of channelling self-interest toward socially desirable ends.
This encapsulates my views toward NASA. Contra the strawman views that I’m occasionally falsely accused of holding, it is not a diabolical, hegemonic government agency, run by evil people who want to Keep Humanity Out Of Space (though it’s often hard to figure out just what it would be doing differently if it were). It’s simply a blundering government bureaucracy seeking rent, as government bureaucracies are wont to do, with many good and smart people working for it responding to the incentives within. Sadly, the administrator seems generally to not understand this.
Ramadanadingdong
Why are these riots, in the capital of the EU, not getting any coverage? When it is reported, why only say “of North African descent”? Can’t Reuters or AP at least fake a photo? And this should be of great concern:
The authorities are especially nervous since the Belgian municipal elections are being held on Sunday October 8th. It is likely that the elections will be won by anti-immigrant,
Meltdown With Keith Olbermann
Iowahawk, in the service of all of those of us still possessed of sanity, and doubtless under the influence of some fell combination of hallucinogens and household cleaning products of which one can only guess, and shudder in vague horror, has been dumpster diving over at MSNBC, and found a first draft of one of KO’s deranged rants:
Thus and forthwith in his supposed emeritus years hath Mr. Clinton dispatched a forceful and triumphant action for honesty, and for us; in one virile act at once vital and as courageous as it was a brilliant tour de force of Churchillesquian statesmanship, Mr. Clinton assured his immortality as the sage of this dark time, the sexually electric love child begotten of a tryst between Voltaire, Thomas Moore, Gandhi and Ron Jeremy. Had He witnessed the selfless magnificence of the former president
The Corn Mafia
With oil prices plunging, and new discoveries occurring, it’s time to take a fresh look at the ethanol boondoggle.
Meanwhile, In The Pacific
Speaking of hurricanes, while the Atlantic remains quiet, the biggest storm of the season so far is pounding the Phillippines, and due to hit Manila directly. It unexpectedly went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 typhoon in twenty-four hours. It just shows that we have a long way to go to be able to predict these things. It also shows that we don’t pay much attention to tropical cyclones unless they affect the US, because I haven’t seen anyone reporting it.
Anyway, the lack of predictability brings up our immediate dilemma. We’re about to go out of town for ten days. Should we shutter up before we leave (which would be a royal pain, amidst the other packing)? It seems unlikely that there will be a storm that hits south Florida during the first week of October, but you never know.
Don’t Know Much About History
Not only the public school system, but universities are failing to teach American history and civics.
Among college seniors, less than half–47.9%–correctly concluded that “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal” was from the Declaration of Independence. More than half did not know that the Bill of Rights prohibits the governmental establishment of an official religion, and “55.4 percent could not recognize Yorktown as the battle that brought the American Revolution to an end” (more than one quarter believing that it was the Civil War battle of Gettysburg that had ended the Revolution).
Of course, a lot of these things they should have been taught in high school, but weren’t.