I’d never seen this photo before. It’s a little weird, because for all I know, my father could be in the waist of one of those planes manning the radio and a gun. I don’t know what missions he flew. I wonder if there’s a way to find out?
Race And Science
“Stop trying to get me fired for things I didn’t say and don’t believe“:
I thought that writing 5,000 words about what I think genes influence and don’t, how much variation is likely attributable to genetics, and discussing the predictive powers and limitations of IQ would be sufficient to prevent people from deliberately misreading my post as an endorsement of race science. Sadly, that is not the case, and so of course Twitter is accusing me of believing literally the opposite of what the very first lines of the first post said.
The vast majority of (violent) protestors against Charles Murray, who insanely believe he’s a “white nationalist,” have never read a word he’s written. I personally have no opinion about average IQ of various “races,” but I think the notion that something heritable won’t have an effect on a population is the kind of nutty thing that only a leftist could believe. I understand why some are uncomfortable with studying it, but I’ve never understood why the fact that a member of a group that has a certain characteristic must be treated as a member of that group, rather than as an individual. But since leftists hate treating people as individuals, believing only in the collective, I guess that would explain it.
Space Symposium
Frank Morring and Lara Seligman have a long piece describing the coming exciting upheaval in the space industry.
Lois Lerner
The Congressional committee is requesting that the new Attorney General do the job that the previous ones wouldn’t:
…the Committee found that Ms. Lerner used her position to improperly influence IRS action against conservative organizations, denying these groups due process and equal protection rights under the law. The Committee also found she impeded official investigations by providing misleading statements in response to questions from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. Finally, Lerner risked exposing, and may actually have disclosed, confidential taxpayer information, in apparent violation of Internal Revenue Code section 6103 by using her personal email to conduct official business.
As you know, your predecessor brought no charges against Ms. Lerner or any other IRS employees involved in the improper targeting of organizations applying for tax-exempt status.
Disturbingly, in February 2014, while the investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) was ongoing, President Obama stated there was “not a smidgeon of corruption” at the IRS, preempting a fair investigation in which he had political equities. It is clear that when the DOJ announced in October 2015 that it would not bring charges against Lois Lerner, the agency was following President Obama’s signal on how he wanted the investigation to be handled.
Taxpayers deserve to know that the DOJ’s previous evaluation was not tainted by politics. Again, I respectfully request that the Department of Justice to take a fresh look at the evidence presented in the attached referral in order to assure the American people that DOJ’s prior investigation was handled fairly and to restore taxpayers’ trust in the IRS.
There has to be accountability for this corruption and tyrannical lawlessness.
3-D Printing
…with lunar and Mars regolith simulants.
If Congress and NASA were serious about opening space to humanity, this is the sort of thing that NASA would be spending more money on, instead of a monster rocket.
[Update a while later]
Related, I think: Questions that the Trump transition team asked NASA.
Failure Is An Option
Gladiators
Huh. There were female ones.
Robogames
I’d like to attend this event. Maybe we’ll be through bathroom-renovation hell by then.
SpaceX Progress
Falcon Heavy is getting ready for its hot-fire test in Texas, and LC-40 is getting back in business after the boo boo last fall.
Mimicking An Early Impact In Earth’s Atmosphere
…results in the creation of all four DNA bases. This seems much more significant than Miller-Urey.