Charlie Gibson is surprised to hear that Iraqis (you know, the folks that the so-called “insurgents” have been murdering by the droves?) are not Zarquawi fans.
On Wednesday’s World News Tonight, after Brian Ross noted that “some Arabs” on a “popular Web site said they hoped the news was true” about the serious injury to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, with messages such as, “Let this criminal Zarqawi go to Hell,” Gibson turned to reporter Nick Watt in Baghdad and expressed shock, “I’m surprised by something in Brian’s piece: The vehemence of the comments on Arab Web sites in opposition to Zarqawi, because we keep hearing that he has considerable support.” Watt confirmed that “many” Iraqis “will be very glad if he does die.”
There are some things so stupid that only a liberal television commentator can believe them.
Jeff Foust has an extensive description of Virgin Galactic’s plans, based on Will Whitehorn’s talk at last week’s ISDC:
Virgin is open to other uses of suborbital spaceflight, such as point-to-point transportation, although Whitehorn noted that they are not actively pursuing it because they would then be treated as an airline from a regulatory standpoint, with strict limitations on the flights that a foreign-owned airline can offer in the US. Instead, Virgin is looking at the possibility of orbital spaceflight.
This article about a poll indicating that the vast majority of so-called historians have already judged the Bush presidency a failure doesn’t give one confidence in the profession of history instruction.
I last attended a NSS conference in 1990 and much of that meeting dealt either with NASA or with theoretical proposals for grand futuristic projects of all sorts. This time most of the focus was on projects in the private sector that are actually doable. The discussions dealt extensively with real hardware that has flown, like the SS1, or is under development, like the SS2.
This time there were representatives from well financed companies with believable business plans such as those that are getting ready to offer spaceflight services to a space tourism market that looks increasingly viable and sizable. Companies like ZERO-G are offering spaceflight related services today and seemed to be doing it profitably.
NASA and its exploration initiative certainly had a place at the conference but I didn’t detect any great excitement with the agency’s long term plans. Skepticism towards NASA and its ability to carry out its plans has been well earned. Most activists have learned that nothing great is going to happen in space until the costs come down significantly. So there seemed to be much greater interest in the t/Space consortium and its plan for an Earth-to-LEO transport system with a price tag a factor of ten below the expected price.
Space activism has had many ups and downs over the past 30 years or so since the end of Apollo era. There will certainly be many more disappointments. However, there is a substance and vitality to what is happening now that I’ve never seen before. I think this conference definitely is an sign that things have changed fundamentally. The old “NASA is space, space is NASA” paradigm is fading fast and a new age of independent space pioneering is upon us.
As a demonstration that the web is a conversation rather than a lecture, Dwayne Day has inadvertently written a couple of interesting essays on military space in the comments section of this post.
It looks like wormholes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be, when it comes to time travel. I’m kind of shocked. Does that mean they’re implying that Star Gate SG-1 and Deep Space Nine were fictional?
I guess that explains the low attendance by backward time travelers.