Good luck, SpaceX and Falcon. I expect Clark to stay on top of this today.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Out of the Cradle will be liveblogging it too.
Today’s The Day?
Good luck, SpaceX and Falcon. I expect Clark to stay on top of this today.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Out of the Cradle will be liveblogging it too.
The Origins Of VSE?
Dwayne Day and Jeff Foust have an interesting history of recent (i.e., over the past several years, prior to the announcement of the VSE) internal human exploration studies at NASA, with some unanswered questions:
…who initiated the discussions in the White House concerning the need for a new human spaceflight goal and why? Who championed the issue and how much interaction did they have with NASA? Why and how did the White House pick and choose between plans? Why was NASA
The Intangible Wealth Of Nations
Ron Bailey has an interesting piece at Reason about why the US is wealthy, exploding many leftist myths about exploitation and overconsumption of resources, slavery, etc. One point that I think should be added is that, while rule of law is important, if many of the laws are dumb and economically counterproductive, it’s probably better to have less adherence to them than more.
I’d be interested to see a take on this from an Anglosphere perspective.
The Holy War Down Under
Continues. And yet they won’t call it by its true name:
Five men of Middle Eastern descent were yesterday arrested in Brighton-le-Sands after their mobile phones were confiscated and found to have messages that incited violence. Among the many phones confiscated yesterday one contained a text message which said: “Wake up, wake up oh lion of lebanon. Retaliate, take action … Show them we have awoken we will meet at Brighton and together exterminate the enemy of Cronulla. Send this to every lion of Lebanon.”
Well, at least they’re willing to say that they’re of Middle Eastern descent. But why can’t they use the “M” word? This is about “Arabs.” If I were a Lebanese Christian, I’d be outraged, and sending nasty letters to the editor about this broad-brush treatment.
Who’s Living In A Bubble, Again?
Mark Steyn describes the Dems’ Iraqi quagmire:
The Iraq election’s over, the media did their best to ignore it, and, judging from the rippling torsos I saw every time I switched on the TV, the press seem to reckon that that gay cowboy movie was the big geopolitical event of the last week, if not of all time. Yes, yes, I know: They’re not, technically, cowboys, they’re gay shepherds, but even Hollywood isn’t crazy enough to think it can sell gay shepherds to the world. And the point is, even if I was in the mood for a story about two rugged insecure men who find themselves strangely attracted to each other in a dark transgressive relationship that breaks all the rules, who needs Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger when you’ve got Howard Dean and Abu Musad al-Zarqawi? Yee-haw! And, if that sounds unfair, pick almost any recent statement by a big-time Dem cowboy and tell me how exactly it would differ from the pep talks Zarqawi gives his dwindling band of head-hackers — Dean arguing that America can’t win in Iraq, Barbara Boxer demanding the troops begin withdrawing on Dec. 15, John Kerry accusing American soldiers of terrorizing Iraqi women and children, Jack Murtha declaring that the U.S. Army is utterly broken. Pepper ’em with a handful of “Praise be to Allahs” and any one of those statements could have been uttered by Zarqawi.
The Democratic Party have contrived to get themselves into a situation where bad news from Iraq is good for them and good news from Iraq is bad for them. And as there’s a lot more good news than bad these days, that puts them, politically, in a tough spot — even with a fawning media that, faced with Kerry and Murtha talking what in any objective sense is drivel, decline to call for the men with white coats but instead nod solemnly and wonder whether Bush is living “in a bubble.”
RTWT
Who’s Living In A Bubble, Again?
Mark Steyn describes the Dems’ Iraqi quagmire:
The Iraq election’s over, the media did their best to ignore it, and, judging from the rippling torsos I saw every time I switched on the TV, the press seem to reckon that that gay cowboy movie was the big geopolitical event of the last week, if not of all time. Yes, yes, I know: They’re not, technically, cowboys, they’re gay shepherds, but even Hollywood isn’t crazy enough to think it can sell gay shepherds to the world. And the point is, even if I was in the mood for a story about two rugged insecure men who find themselves strangely attracted to each other in a dark transgressive relationship that breaks all the rules, who needs Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger when you’ve got Howard Dean and Abu Musad al-Zarqawi? Yee-haw! And, if that sounds unfair, pick almost any recent statement by a big-time Dem cowboy and tell me how exactly it would differ from the pep talks Zarqawi gives his dwindling band of head-hackers — Dean arguing that America can’t win in Iraq, Barbara Boxer demanding the troops begin withdrawing on Dec. 15, John Kerry accusing American soldiers of terrorizing Iraqi women and children, Jack Murtha declaring that the U.S. Army is utterly broken. Pepper ’em with a handful of “Praise be to Allahs” and any one of those statements could have been uttered by Zarqawi.
The Democratic Party have contrived to get themselves into a situation where bad news from Iraq is good for them and good news from Iraq is bad for them. And as there’s a lot more good news than bad these days, that puts them, politically, in a tough spot — even with a fawning media that, faced with Kerry and Murtha talking what in any objective sense is drivel, decline to call for the men with white coats but instead nod solemnly and wonder whether Bush is living “in a bubble.”
RTWT
Who’s Living In A Bubble, Again?
Mark Steyn describes the Dems’ Iraqi quagmire:
The Iraq election’s over, the media did their best to ignore it, and, judging from the rippling torsos I saw every time I switched on the TV, the press seem to reckon that that gay cowboy movie was the big geopolitical event of the last week, if not of all time. Yes, yes, I know: They’re not, technically, cowboys, they’re gay shepherds, but even Hollywood isn’t crazy enough to think it can sell gay shepherds to the world. And the point is, even if I was in the mood for a story about two rugged insecure men who find themselves strangely attracted to each other in a dark transgressive relationship that breaks all the rules, who needs Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger when you’ve got Howard Dean and Abu Musad al-Zarqawi? Yee-haw! And, if that sounds unfair, pick almost any recent statement by a big-time Dem cowboy and tell me how exactly it would differ from the pep talks Zarqawi gives his dwindling band of head-hackers — Dean arguing that America can’t win in Iraq, Barbara Boxer demanding the troops begin withdrawing on Dec. 15, John Kerry accusing American soldiers of terrorizing Iraqi women and children, Jack Murtha declaring that the U.S. Army is utterly broken. Pepper ’em with a handful of “Praise be to Allahs” and any one of those statements could have been uttered by Zarqawi.
The Democratic Party have contrived to get themselves into a situation where bad news from Iraq is good for them and good news from Iraq is bad for them. And as there’s a lot more good news than bad these days, that puts them, politically, in a tough spot — even with a fawning media that, faced with Kerry and Murtha talking what in any objective sense is drivel, decline to call for the men with white coats but instead nod solemnly and wonder whether Bush is living “in a bubble.”
RTWT
The Physics Of King Kong
I already gave my opinion. Now Forbes weighs in.
Century Plus Two
A hundred and two years ago, the Wright brothers kicked off a new era of heavier-than-air flight. I wrote several pieces on the subject on the centennial.