Political Commentary

I Never Fail To Be Amazed

Well, OK, not never, but I’m often amazed at which posts resonate with the readership, and which don’t. Why was getting rid of the penny such a hot item, in terms of comments, when other posts that day, of serious, war-related nature went uncommented? I expect this when I get an Instalanche or something, but as far as I know, no one has even linked to it.

Is this a hidden issue in the elections this year? All politicians in tight races, take note–down with Lincoln!

Oh, and yes, for those interested, I’m now safely in California, but remain busy. Keep those cards and letters pouring in!

Administrative

Major Progress

I built the partial wall for the bar today (sans drywall), and we got the new appliances in place, though the plumbing will have to wait for the sink to be installed, which in turn has to await installation of the counterstop, which will be a luxurious pattern of granite that we haven’t selected yet, so no cold water or ice from the new fridge. It’s definitely starting to look like a new kitchen, though, and we have cooking functionality back and a fridge, though dishwashing remains problematic, and will continue in that mode until I get back from CA in two weeks.

It occurs to me that you know that you’re in the middle of a major remodel when, in addition to keeping a grocery list, you keep a continuous Home Depot list. In building the new wall and attaching studs to each other, I discovered a miraculous thing–screws that the heads won’t strip out of under the tender ministrations of an 18-volt drill. The down side is that they eat phillips bits for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Still, its easier to change a bit, and they’re cheap these days, than to try to remove a half-driven screw with a hole where the cross used to be…

Anyway, I’m packing now, flying out to LA in the morning, and I’ll be at the International Space Development Conference on Thursday and Friday, at least part of both days. Hope to see many of you there.

Economics

Get Rid Of It

According to this, pennies are now worth less than their cost of manufacture. My rule for getting rid of a coin is the point at which you can no longer purchase anything with a single one of it. In fact, at this point, with multi-hundred-thousand-dollar houses, and new cars costing over twenty thousand dollars, is there even anything that you can buy with a nickel any more?

Time to can the coin, and come up with some other way to honor Mr. Lincoln.

War Commentary

“A Fire In A Field”

Watching United 93, Gerard Vanderleun remembers the other heros of that day:

Far away on that day, far from the pillar of flame and plume of ash at the foot of the island, there was another fire in a field in Pennsylvania. Those nearby felt the shudder in the earth and saw the smoke, but it would be some days before we understood what it was, and longer still until we began to know what it meant.

The film I saw by myself tonight expands that meaning and brings a human face to the acts by the passengers of United 93 that endure only in that rare atmosphere that heroes inhabit. What I know in my heart, but what always escapes my understanding until something like this film renews it, is that heroism is a virtue that most often appears among us not descending from some mythic pantheon, but rising up out of the ordinary earth and ordinary hearts when the moment calls for actions extraordinary.

I saw this ordinary courage in New York on that day as I learned of the police and the firemen who had gone up the stairs to save others’ lives. That they, in their hundreds, had gone up when all others were fleeing down is an image that can never be erased from my memory. Time fades all impressions as surely as it faded the faces of the missing on the walls of my city, but let’s, just for now, remember it it once again, for it we fail to remember and sustain the memories of our heroes, we are surely done as a nation and a people.

War Commentary

“A Fire In A Field”

Watching United 93, Gerard Vanderleun remembers the other heros of that day:

Far away on that day, far from the pillar of flame and plume of ash at the foot of the island, there was another fire in a field in Pennsylvania. Those nearby felt the shudder in the earth and saw the smoke, but it would be some days before we understood what it was, and longer still until we began to know what it meant.

The film I saw by myself tonight expands that meaning and brings a human face to the acts by the passengers of United 93 that endure only in that rare atmosphere that heroes inhabit. What I know in my heart, but what always escapes my understanding until something like this film renews it, is that heroism is a virtue that most often appears among us not descending from some mythic pantheon, but rising up out of the ordinary earth and ordinary hearts when the moment calls for actions extraordinary.

I saw this ordinary courage in New York on that day as I learned of the police and the firemen who had gone up the stairs to save others’ lives. That they, in their hundreds, had gone up when all others were fleeing down is an image that can never be erased from my memory. Time fades all impressions as surely as it faded the faces of the missing on the walls of my city, but let’s, just for now, remember it it once again, for it we fail to remember and sustain the memories of our heroes, we are surely done as a nation and a people.

War Commentary

“A Fire In A Field”

Watching United 93, Gerard Vanderleun remembers the other heros of that day:

Far away on that day, far from the pillar of flame and plume of ash at the foot of the island, there was another fire in a field in Pennsylvania. Those nearby felt the shudder in the earth and saw the smoke, but it would be some days before we understood what it was, and longer still until we began to know what it meant.

The film I saw by myself tonight expands that meaning and brings a human face to the acts by the passengers of United 93 that endure only in that rare atmosphere that heroes inhabit. What I know in my heart, but what always escapes my understanding until something like this film renews it, is that heroism is a virtue that most often appears among us not descending from some mythic pantheon, but rising up out of the ordinary earth and ordinary hearts when the moment calls for actions extraordinary.

I saw this ordinary courage in New York on that day as I learned of the police and the firemen who had gone up the stairs to save others’ lives. That they, in their hundreds, had gone up when all others were fleeing down is an image that can never be erased from my memory. Time fades all impressions as surely as it faded the faces of the missing on the walls of my city, but let’s, just for now, remember it it once again, for it we fail to remember and sustain the memories of our heroes, we are surely done as a nation and a people.

Administrative

Moving On To The Next Stage In Media

I’ve come to this conclusion myself (actually a couple years ago, but I’ve been too lazy to do much about it). As a result of that, I had Andrew Case co-blogging with me for a while, until events overtook him, and Sam Dinkin has been helping out some. I just can’t hold down this fort by myself and make a living as well (at least not until I get circulation and potential ad revenue up).

But as this weekend shows, I need help. I’m soliciting potential co-bloggers (at the risk of hurting feelings of those I don’t select, but it’s no different than a job interview in that respect). If you think you have something interesting to say on space policy, technology policy, and policy in general, drop me a line (or even audition and make your case in comments here).

My experience is that many people who I would have thought would be good bloggers…aren’t. It takes more than writing skill to be a blogger. It takes an attitude. You have to not only be willing to let your first draft hang out there, you have to be eager to. People who have actually been bloggers will have a leg up on people who are simply published writers, because they’ve demonstrated they have the chops for getting things up there quickly and timely.

I’m putting out feelers to people I know, but I’m opening up the opportunity to all readers. If you want to be part of this site beyond commenting occasionally (or more than occasionally), make your case.

Space

Dyson’s New Sphere
of influence

The most interesting addition to the Space Access crowd was Esther Dyson. Far from the outsider she was pilloried as when she set up Flight School last year, she has a healthy vision for how to take space travel, micro sat’s, space burial and the rest of “New Space” and shape it into a growing large industry.

She mentioned on a panel that she would like to see companies sharing their lists of investors. The purpose is to allow those investors to diversify. She is
“talking her own book” here as she has already invested in XCOR, Space Adventures, Zero G Corporation and Space Services, Inc. I hope that her comment that she liked the Rocketplane presentation translates into some money for them too.

Someone knowledgable about the inner workings of the New Space firms (whom I agree with) assures me that it will take a major cultural shift for these firms to share investor lists. But Dyson by telling everyone at Space Access her goal may encourage other investors to advertise their own interest in space investment diversification.

Dyson got into space because of her family. Her father, Freeman Dyson, designed the Orion spacecraft. Her brother is the historian at Blue Origin.

Following her around was a post-modern experience. She had many suiters and always seemed to have three conversations going at once. It took almost as long to talk to her as it did to talk to Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit. To talk to Glenn I had to fly to Atlanta and drive to Knoxville.

Talking to her was also thoroughly post modern. Conversations with Dyson jumped from electricity to food, to luxury goods reporting. She immediately grasped the concept of the Space-Shot.com game noting the single elimination tournament is a “binary tree”. She pressed me about my electricity auction history asking the single most thoughtful question on that topic I have ever been asked, “if you auction the electricity in advance, how do you assure the spot price is the right price?”

Spot prices in New Jersey are determined by a spot market and many of the large customers have to pay the spot price. In those cases, the forward auction merely determines the cost of the capacity. This piece is critical to why New Jersey and Illinois are different from California’s ill-fated experience with CalPX. Dyson got to live through the California electricity crisis. I bid to run the CalPX and lost. I could have averted that crisis.

Hopefully space in ten years will do as well as the Internet is doing now under her thoughtful guidance or electricity under mine.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!