I did an interview a few months ago for the upcoming documentary, even though I didn’t really know O’Neill (I met him once). He had a large indirect influence on my life. The last question I was asked was what single word came to mind when I thought about him. My answer: “Hope.”
[Afternoon update]
It’s important to understand that The High Frontier came out in the mid-70s, a time of doom and gloom. Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome were always banging on about overpopulation and running out of resources, and instead of global warming, we were supposed to be worried about a return of the glaciers. In addition to O’Neill’s book, Peter Vajk (himself inspired by O’Neill) came out with a book meant to be a palliative, titled Doomsday Has Been Canceled. Anyway, that’s the context in which I said that he brought hope.
Note that he doesn’t consider the possibility of homes for both humanity and other terrestrial life off planet.
FWIW, if I had to choose between saving a few lives and all of the art in the Louvre, it’s not at all obvious that the lives have higher value. I can certainly imagine some people willing to sacrifice themselves for it, but that issue isn’t in his question.
I don’t think I ever eat any of these, other than getting ice from the fountain machine, for water. As I’ve noted in the past, eating out is bad for both your health and your budget.
We put it on the market a couple weeks ago, and we got an offer of $275K on Saturday (the asking price was $280K). We counteroffered to split the difference, and they accepted it. It’s a young couple who reportedly loved the place. It’s their first house, and we’re told by the realtor that she was crying in joy, so that made us feel good. According to the realtor, everyone who saw it liked it, but apparently many thought it was priced too high. Fortunately, this couple didn’t, at least not much.
Fifteen years ago, on the centennial anniversary of the Wright’s first flight, I wrote three separate essays on it. One was at National Review, a second was at Fox News (though I can’t find it; the original blog post can be found here), I think, and a third was at what was then TechCentralStation, but that one seems to have succumbed to link rot. If anyone can find it, I’d appreciate it (I think the title was “Airplane Scientists”).
Indeed, Twitter’s modus operandi appears to involve routinely silencing those who defend social justice and enabling those who spread hate. In my short time on the platform, I have regularly come across hate speech from the sort of unreconstructed bigots who believe that there are only two genders, or that Islam is not a race. It’s got to the point where if someone doesn’t have “anti-fascist” in their bio, it’s safest to assume that they’re a fascist.
The permanent suspension only lasted for a day, but the experience was traumatic and lasting. I now understand how Nelson Mandela felt. If anything, my ordeal was even more damaging. Mandela may have had to endure 27 years of incarceration, but at least his male privilege protected him from ever having to put up with mansplaining, or being subject to wolf-whistling by grubby proles on a building site.