Alan Boyle has a useful wrapup. It would have been hard to top 2004 for an exciting year for private space, but things are moving slowly but steadily toward the day that we open up the frontier, with or without government help.
Video Bleg
Any HD geeks out there?
I’m looking at this television, which is on sale at Costco for less than a grand.
It looks good, but I found this one review that’s giving me a little heartburn, because we have DirecTV, and planned to upgrade to a triple LNB dish and new HD TIVO receiver.
It is an excellent set for HD OTA and regular definition satellite receiver. But I recently upgraded to an HD receiver for DirecTV and found out it doesn’t have the capability to keep up with the HD satellite receiver. There is a phenomena called macroblocking that occurs since the digital picture cannot be translated properly. Defined – it is an awful picture on the 480i channels, which means about 95 of my programs looked awful.
I searched all over the web, and couldn’t find any other reference to this problem. Is it a real one, or is this an isolated problem for this one reviewer, either because (s)he didn’t understand how to set it up, or there was something defective about that unit?
Axis Of Evil Update
If this is true, Syria has made her bet, and is going to stand or fall with Iran.
Is there any reason that we shouldn’t simply declare war on both of them? We don’t necessarily have to do anything about it immediately, but it would certainly bring diplomacy in synch with reality, and open up a lot more options in dealing with them.
When’s The Last Time This Happened?
Maybe last year? All I know is that, historically, it’s unusual for Congress to pass a NASA authorization bill. Usually the thing dies, in committee or because it never makes it through conference, and NASA ends up just working off the appropriation. Traditionally, there has never been much pressure to pass one, because it’s largely viewed as symbolic anyway, and the appropriations bill (which actually funds the programs) is the only one that really counts. But with the new authorization for larger prizes, it’s a great symbol this year.
[Via Space Politics]
When’s The Last Time This Happened?
Maybe last year? All I know is that, historically, it’s unusual for Congress to pass a NASA authorization bill. Usually the thing dies, in committee or because it never makes it through conference, and NASA ends up just working off the appropriation. Traditionally, there has never been much pressure to pass one, because it’s largely viewed as symbolic anyway, and the appropriations bill (which actually funds the programs) is the only one that really counts. But with the new authorization for larger prizes, it’s a great symbol this year.
[Via Space Politics]
When’s The Last Time This Happened?
Maybe last year? All I know is that, historically, it’s unusual for Congress to pass a NASA authorization bill. Usually the thing dies, in committee or because it never makes it through conference, and NASA ends up just working off the appropriation. Traditionally, there has never been much pressure to pass one, because it’s largely viewed as symbolic anyway, and the appropriations bill (which actually funds the programs) is the only one that really counts. But with the new authorization for larger prizes, it’s a great symbol this year.
[Via Space Politics]
Winning Message to Space
I won the Space Show’s first ever message to space competition. There are six this year. The rules of the contest allow a one-page message that takes no more than five minutes to read. My winning message in full:
We taste terrible.
Hear me say it for the aliens here.
Christmas Pictures
From Iran.
Uh Oh…
A robot that is self aware. Is it too early to form PETR (People for the Ethical Treatment of Robots)?
I’ll personally be interested to see if it starts touching itself improperly.
Seriously, I’ve done this experiment myself with both of my cats. They clearly recognize themselves in the mirror, because they don’t get upset (as they generally would) at the sight of another cat.
The Gangs Rule
Miranda Devine says that many of the problems in Sydney are a result of years of lax law enforcement against the Lebanese Muslim gangs. I disagree with this, though:
Rather than a problem of race, religion or multiculturalism, Sydney is suffering from a longstanding crime problem. It is a textbook case of how soft policing and lenient magistrates embolden successive waves of criminals, infecting other people who might otherwise have been law-abiding.
But that begs the question of why the policing was soft, and the magistrates lenient. Ultimately, I think it still comes back to a misplaced multiculturalism, and an unwillingness to crack down on religious minorities, even when they were breeding a culture of intolerance and criminality.