I hope not. I don’t trust them, or Facebook (or Twitter, though I don’t really share that much personal stuff there). I wish there was a good non-Apple alternative to Android, but it’s one of the reasons that I minimize my mobile use.
[Update a few minutes later]
Google caters to furries, transgenderism, and a “yellow-scaled wingless dragonkin.” But no conservatives viewpoints allowed.
They’re not “misguided” — in fact, they’re doing exactly what the progressives designed them to do. Higher housing prices means more money in the pockets of Angelenos and San Franciscans when they go to sell, high energy prices have a disproportionate impact on the poor, generous welfare “benefits” mean an endless supply of new Democrats and permanent employment for the public-employee unions who actually run the state.
It’s a perfect racket, and one that will continue unless and until the California Republicans get their act together and begin vigorously contesting what has become a one-party state designed to enrich those at the top, beggar the middle class, and keep those on the bottom in permanent penury.
Not clear to me there’s anything that California Republicans (such as they are) can do about it. It will continue until they run out of other peoples’ money. Though perhaps the new inability to deduct all of the state taxes will give them a campaign issue.
Just few in from San Jose. May go walk up the hill to see the Delta launch from Vandenberg in half an hour, but I suspect there’s too much moisture in the air. It was fogged in at the beach when we landed.
Light posting because I decided at the last minute to fly up to San Jose for the workshop at NASA Ames. Been listening to lunar stuff all day. Highlight: a talk by Jack Schmitt, the only geologist to walk on the moon, and the second to last to walk on it, a little over 45 years ago. And with the death of John Young a few days ago, only one of five remaining moon walkers. He’s looking pretty good at 82, and I think he stands a good chance of seeing the next person walk on the moon.
France and Germany are studying reusability in rockets. I found this amusing:
The idea for Callisto did come in part as a response to SpaceX, which has now landed 20 boosters and flown five customers on used rockets, but both Astorg and Dittus describe the project as very different.
“It’s not a copy of what SpaceX is doing,” Dittus said. “In some aspects we are also skeptical [about reusability as] the right path, but we will see what is best and then we can come up with ideas of how we proceed.”
Riiiiiiiight.
Meanwhile, Orbital ATK is taking USAF money to try to resurrect Liberty.
When all you have is a hammer…
Patricia’s HP printer, which I used to use to scan, has died (don’t know if it’s a bad power supply, or it’s just bricked). My Brother DCP-L2540DW laser, which is a great printer, refuses to scan. I can see it with Simple Scan, but I get a message that it cannot connect to the scanner. I went to the Brother web site, and installed their own drivers from rpm (actually from a bash script), and still no joy. A Google search indicates that others have had similar issues, but none exactly like mine (for instance, they can’t print, either, whereas the printer works fine). Any suggestions for trouble shooting?
Did last night’s mission fail? No indication that there was a launch problem.
[Tuesday-morning update]
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s the story (so far) from Tim Fernholz.
[Update a while ago]
Here‘s a CNBC story. I have trouble believing the satellite cost “billions” of dollars, though I suppose it’s possible; Webb will.
We had dinner with Leonard and Barbara David when we were in Colorado over the holidays. He told me that he’d been working on this piece about whether it’s too big to fail.
I’ve been concerned about the risk for years. I hope it works, but it’s not the approach I’d have taken. The next big telescope will be assembled in space, not launch origami.
…did everything but drive Hillary’s getaway car.
They should have helped her with that, too. It’s been years since she’s driven I’d bet.