Why he (finally) turned on the climate alarmists and said it isn’t an apocalypse.
I don’t know why anyone ever took him seriously on the subject in the first place. Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you’re smart.
Bloggus Interruptus
For those wondering, we’re on an actual vacation, and not just on a pleasure trip combined with business, for the first time in a long time. We flew to Cancun yesterday, and are ensconced in a resort between there and Playa del Carmen. Keeping an eye on the hurricane, but the current projected tracks show it heading north, not west, after it beats the hell out of Jamaica and Cuba. We’re here all week, and I may find some time to keep up with events and blog, but we plan to see some Mayan temples and do some diving. Next Friday we head to Orlando, and then I’ll be at space conferences next week at the University of Central Florida.
Anyway disport yourself gently in comments on topics general.
It Begins
Duffy wants to recompete HLS.
[Wednesday-morning update]
One of the reasons that we have made so little progress in space for the past half century is that Congress decided that NASA had to have its own space transportation, regardless of how terrible it is at it.
— Rand Simberg (@Simberg_Space) October 21, 2025
Delete unnecessary parts and processes ==> If Starship can land 100 T of stuff on the Moon, or fly >10 T to and from the Moon from LEO without refueling, all other parts of the NASA so-called "architecture" are unnecessary, regardless of how many tens of billions of dollars have… https://t.co/Gna5xuX9GO
— Casey Handmer (@CJHandmer) October 21, 2025
There have been many dud NASA administrators, some of which looked good on paper (e.g., Dick Truly). Webb was a lawyer, but even he had experience in the aviation industry. What are Duffy's qualifications? You need to at least know which end the fire comes out of.
— Rand Simberg (@Simberg_Space) October 22, 2025
[Early-afternoon update]
Bob Zimmerman is not impressed.
John Brennan
As Roger says, I’ve always been aghast that this horrible man was in the intelligence community at all, let alone head of the CIA. Let’s hope justice is finally served.
[Update a few minutes later]
Related thoughts from Stephen Kruiser.
No Kings
…versus the Democratic deep state. You can have a constitutional republic, or a massive federal bureaucracy. Pick one.
The Great Feminization
This is extremely explanatory, and extremely terrifying. I love women as individuals, but we should be societally terrified of them as groups. It’s why many people, including many women, think that it was a mistake to give them the vote. It makes me think that if we were to return to literacy tests to vote, maybe we should have some emotional ones as well. It would exclude many men, but probably many more women.
Cutting The Gordian Knot
Lockmart is starting to look to reusability and other launch vehicles than SLS for Orion.
NASA may want to have it for its precious astronauts, but at some point it will be embarrassing when Starship is putting up dozens of people at a fraction of the cost.
Nose-Ring Theory
Feminists have discovered it, and they’re angry about it.
Go put in another nose ring.
The Final Version 2 Test
Looked like it did everything they wanted it to do. Feel free to discuss.
[Tuesday-morning update]
Bob Zimmerman has the story.
Crazy Busy
Posting has been light because we had to repipe the house at the same time as we were scheduling painting the exterior, and the plumber had to break a lot of stucco to run the Pex. (The copper pipes were installed in the slab when the house was built almost half a century ago, and the hot water started leaking in it, and it was judged better to repipe rather than tear up concrete to repair it when it was likely to just develop another leak).
We got the stucco redone yesterday, and are doing everything else necessary for the painters, who are coming tomorrow for a walk through. And when that’s all done, there’s a lot of drywall to patch, and repainting inside (not to mention having to remove a lot of ceiling popcorn).