OK, the previous (actually, tomorrow’s–isn’t the internet wonderful?–it allows posting in the future…) post is probably my last before exploring the wilds of northern Wisconsin and Michigan for the first time since my college days, in the most beautiful season of all–the fall. But I just wanted to note:

Isn’t Arianna, who just dropped out of the race because she is appalled by the thought of Governor Scharznegger to the point that she’s now supporting Grayout Davis, whom she’s been running against for months, the same Arianna who has never polled more than the margin of error so who cares to whom her votes go (most likely the socialist Camera)? Is that the Arianna who a little over three years ago thought that Warren Beatty would be a great president? Is that the Arianna we’re talking about?

And if so, why should we care whether the loon is in or out?

OK, the previous (actually, tomorrow’s–isn’t the internet wonderful?–it allows posting in the future…) post is probably my last before exploring the wilds of northern Wisconsin and Michigan for the first time since my college days, in the most beautiful season of all–the fall. But I just wanted to note:

Isn’t Arianna, who just dropped out of the race because she is appalled by the thought of Governor Scharznegger to the point that she’s now supporting Grayout Davis, whom she’s been running against for months, the same Arianna who has never polled more than the margin of error so who cares to whom her votes go (most likely the socialist Camera)? Is that the Arianna who a little over three years ago thought that Warren Beatty would be a great president? Is that the Arianna we’re talking about?

And if so, why should we care whether the loon is in or out?

OK, the previous (actually, tomorrow’s–isn’t the internet wonderful?–it allows posting in the future…) post is probably my last before exploring the wilds of northern Wisconsin and Michigan for the first time since my college days, in the most beautiful season of all–the fall. But I just wanted to note:

Isn’t Arianna, who just dropped out of the race because she is appalled by the thought of Governor Scharznegger to the point that she’s now supporting Grayout Davis, whom she’s been running against for months, the same Arianna who has never polled more than the margin of error so who cares to whom her votes go (most likely the socialist Camera)? Is that the Arianna who a little over three years ago thought that Warren Beatty would be a great president? Is that the Arianna we’re talking about?

And if so, why should we care whether the loon is in or out?

Dale Amon has the numbers to prove it.

Laughing Wolf has a nice little rant on the Dietary Supplement Safety Act and the nanny state.

According to this article, SpaceShipOne had problems on its last test flight.

…as SpaceShipOne detached from White Knight for an unpowered glide test, the radio chatter at Mojave Airport was suddenly tinged with alarm. ?Cut back on your trim, Mike, you?re way out of it!? a voice urged Mike Melville, the ship?s test pilot, over the com. SpaceShipOne, weighed down with lead ballast in its aft section to test the plane?s handling, was plummeting out of control, rolling over twice and falling 11,000 feet before Melville could wrestle the ship out of its dive. The rest of the trial maneuvers were canceled, and both craft came in for landings just as the desert sun was heating up.

Burt is making the usual noises about occasionally having unexpected things happen during flight test, and that’s why we have flight tests, and that’s of course true. It may be that it just didn’t behave quite as Melville expected, and that he’ll be better prepared next time, or it may mean some fundamental problem with the design. I’ve no idea, but it should at least give pause to any confident predictions of celebrating the Wright anniversary with a private manned spaceflight (even ignoring the regulatory issues).

I also think that this bit about XCOR is a little misleading:

…The engineers at the small, 12-person Mojave, Calif., firm, down the street from Scaled Composites, have designed the Xerus, a winged space plane intended to carry a passenger and pilot to suborbital space at Mach 4, powered by at least four kerosene rockets. The ship looks sleek in the drawings, the engineers have plenty of experience building spacecraft?but the company is totally broke. They work from an un-air-conditioned former Marine hangar and pay for their efforts out of their own pockets.

While it may be that XCOR is “broke” in a literal cash sense (I’m not privy to the books), the company has many assets (including their potential matching grant from the Air Force) that, combined with their talented staff, will be parlayable into investment. I’m personally confident that it will happen, sooner or later, and that they’ll remain alive until it does.

Frank J. has taken a break from making futile war on the blogfather (you will be assimilated) at least long enough to do something useful.

Bookmark this site if you want to get the real scoop from Iraq, rather than the manufactured quagmire that those yearning-for-their-former-days-of-glory-in-Vietnam members of the press would like you to believe.