No, it’s probably not accelerating faster than we thought.
[Early-afternoon update]
Modern warming was driven primarily by “primarily natural” factors; the cooling has begun.
Eating Fatbergs
Here’s a yucky sewer story, but it doesn’t answer the first question that came to mind as I was reading it: What do these bacteria excrete?
Technological Progress
…and the global sex recession.
As the machines get better, this is just going to get worse.
Should The FBI Run The Country?
Overrated Restaurants
A top six.
I’ve never had Papa John’s, or Chipotle’s and it’s been years since I ate at an Olive Garden, but that’s Patricia’s complaint, too (she used to have a boss who loved to go there for lunch). I concur on the fries at In’n’Out. I like Chick-fil-A, but don’t worship it. I only go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast (and rarely — there are none in LA of which I’m aware, and we have better chain places here, like the Black Bear Diner).
But I don’t eat out much in general unless I’m traveling, because it’s terrible both for your budget and from a nutritional standpoint. Unless it’s some kind of exotic cuisine, I can cook much cheaper and healthier at home, and don’t have to endure the noise of restaurants. The notion of going out for a steak seems absurd to me.
[Late-afternooon update]
Sorry, here’s the link.
Tribute To A Monster
..by a restaurant in downtown LA.
Next up: An Argentinian tapas place called “Che’s,” and an Austrian restaurant named “Der Fuhrer.”
Disagreeing With DC Conventional Wisdom
…isn’t a crime, let alone an impeachable offense. It is time to rethink NATO, perhaps past time.
NATO and the EU have been free riding for a long time. It was an organization for a different era and power structure. Putin’s Russia doesn’t have the resources to conquer Europe, especially if they start getting serious about their own defense.
[Sunday-afternoon update]
Yes. Europe was never a true partner in its own defense. They had a (brief) excuse in the midst of the Marshall Plan, but we’ve been indulging them in their own socialism and unwillingness to spend on their own defense for the decades since recovery. Time to rethink it.
And for those who think that Trump is Putin’s “stooge,” did Putin order him to insist that Europeans spend more on their own defense and live up to their NATO obligations?
[Bumped]
Lysenkoism
…and climate change. Heresy must be harshly punished.
The End Of Rockets?
No, Futurism:
All that essential, but not actually useful, extra weight jacks up the cost of a mission. Falcon Heavy launches cost $1.2 million USD per ton of payload. Again, that’s a crazy improvement from earlier missions, but that many zeros on a space mission mean these launches will stay out-of-reach for consumers or smaller companies.
No one outside of SpaceX knows what Falcon Heavy costs (and that depends on whether you mean average cost or marginal cost).
And then there is the environmental cost. These souped-up rockets use more fuel, and Falcon rockets rely on what’s basically kerosene and oxygen. Per launch, the carbon these missions spew isn’t that much. But if space flight frequency reaches the twice a month threshold that SpaceX is aiming for, experts think the overall carbon output could reach 4,400 tons a year. If every private space company chimes in with their own launch emissions, that number could climb dramatically.
Not everyone uses kerosene. Blue Origin (and ULA) plan to use liquid natural gas (mostly methane), which has much lower carbon content. And they both plan LOX/LH2 upper stages, whose exhaust is water. And even at a hundred times that amount, it would continue to be dwarfed by the airline industry.
There are also all the potential atmospheric impacts that we don’t understand very well. Burning rocket fuel emits soot and a chemical called alumina, and scientists have started to study how these molecules break down our ozone layer, something we’ve been working hard to restore over several decades.
Again, not all rocket fuel. Methane will produce almost no soot, and hydrogen none. And only solid rockets emit alumina, and only ULA plans to use them (OK, well, NASA will have them on SLS, if it ever flies, but it will hardly ever fly).
No, it will be a long time, if ever, before we need space elevators, even if they’re technical feasible and practical.
Blue Origin
Next New Shepard flight is now scheduled for Monday. I wonder what the delay has been about? In 2017, they said they’d be flying people in 2018.