It’s not so glorious.
I suspect history will judge harshly. And of course, in doing so, it will be racist.
The SpaceX Failure
The final assessment. I’m selfishly hoping they’ll delay past the 7th, because we get in from London at 2 AM on that date, and won’t be in a mood for a drive up to Vandenberg.
[Update a few minutes later]
Return to flight now scheduled for Sunday night. We’ll try to watch from the beach, if the weather is clear.
Travel Update
We celebrated New Years Eve in Paris, in a sixth-floor apartment we rented with a view of the Eiffel Tower. It’s just a couple blocks from the Sorbonne and the Pantheon.
Unfortunately, it’s socked in, but we could see the lights through the mist. They started sparkling an hour before midnight, and then again as the hour hit. Not a lot of fireworks here, but we saw a few out that window, and others out the loft window toward Notre Dame. But the Parisians were cheering in the streets.
The trip has been pretty much stab/explosion/truck-attack free so far. Apparently they weren’t so fortunate in Istanbul; the Jayvee team struck again last night.
But it’s cold. Below freezing last night, and probably tonight as well. But we’re cozy, and we’ll be going out this afternoon to check out the Cathedral. But right now we’re heating croissants in the oven and making scrambled eggs with Welsh cheddar, and gravlox from Norway, with leftover oven-fried potatoes from dinner last night.
[Update a few minutes later]
Oh, and bonne annee to my readers.
Feeling very good to be in Paris, and escaping 2016 five hours earlier than the east coast and eight hours earlier than California. https://t.co/a2bS8W6v3Y
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) December 31, 2016
[Monday-morning update]
Yes, speaking from current experience, international travel is so much better than it used to be.
We’re off to the Louvre. We could walk, but it’s rainy and chilly. We’ll probably take Uber.
The Biggest Space Stories Of The Year
I usually write these sorts of things, but I’m on vacation, and Mike Wall has ten. I think that the Bezos announcement of New Glenn and New Armstrong are as big as Elon’s Mars announcement though. I consider Bezos both more ambitious, and more credible, in the sense that he is spending his own money, and not lobbying the government for it.
The Reactionless Drive
The Chinese are claiming they’ve successfully tested it on orbit.
I remain skeptical.
Merry Christmas, And Happy New Year
And Happy Chanuka, to all my readers.
Posting will be light/non-existent for the next couple weeks. Patricia and I are flying to London tomorrow evening, for our first real vacation in a long time, and we’re scrambling around, while making a Christmas Eve dinner, to prepare for the trip. We’ll be there, and on the Continent (largely Benelux and France), and back on January 7th.
2016 has been a rough year (even ignoring the politics), with the death of Patricia’s eldest brother and mother, and all the time I spent in Florida getting the house ready to sell. But we sold it, and she has a new job, and we’re going to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Paris, where neither of us have ever been. We’ll try not to get blown up or stabbed or run over.
[Christmas-morning update]
I’ve always thought that the Wexford Carol was one of the most beautiful. Hard to imagine it being done better than this.
And on a lighter note, “I Saw Daddy Pat Down Santa Claus.”
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, this is heartwarming.
Two T-Rexes Fighting Over Baby Jesus.
Merry Christmas! pic.twitter.com/5q9uYADsAO
— Faces in Things (@FacesPics) December 25, 2016
[Update a while later]
It’s that crucial time of year to give your cat an annual performance review.
A New Little Ice Age
Has it already started?
Earth’s new climate will affect much more than the energy sector. Abdussamatov leaves us with a dire warning.
“The world must start preparing for the new Little Ice Age right now. Politicians and business leaders must make full economic calculations of the impact of the new Little Ice Age on everything — industry, agriculture, living conditions, development. The most reasonable way to fight against the new Little Ice Age is a complex of special steps aimed at support of economic growth and energy-saving production to adapt mankind to the forthcoming period of deep cooling.”
An overheated planet has never been a threat, say climate skeptics, not today, not ever in human history. An underheated planet, in contrast, is a threat humans have repeatedly faced over the last millennium, and now we’re due again.
To me, the evidence is quite a bit more compelling than it is for warming. He’s relying on history and empirical data, not computer models.
The Original War On Christmas
…was fought by the Nazis.
For historical ignorami who think that the Nazis were Christian.
To The Moon?
Bob Zimmmerman speculates on what the Trump administration might do in civil space policy.
Obama’s Drilling Ban
Trump should immediately rescind it.
Yes. I hope he spends his first week doing nothing except reversing all these unlawful unconstitutional executive orders.
[Friday-afternoon update]
Obama’s midnight-regulation express:
Any action that is rushed is likely to be shoddy, especially if it’s from the federal government. The point is for Mr. Obama to have his way and to swamp the Trump administration with a dizzying array of new rules to have to undo. That diverts manpower from bigger and better priorities.
President Obama is hoping this work will prove too much and his rules will stand. He’d be making a good bet. George W. Bush promised to undo last-minute Clinton regulations. Yet a paper done in 2005 by Jason M. Loring and Liam R. Roth in Wake Forest Law Review found that a whopping 82% were left to stand.
Then again, a Republican Congress seems ready and willing to invoke the Congressional Review Act, which allows legislators to reject rule-making. More important, Mr. Trump and his team seem to understand that Americans are angry at Mr. Obama’s tendency to rule like an autocrat. They also surely know how damaging many of these Obama parting gifts (particularly energy rules) will prove to their own agenda.
A Trump administration could send a powerful message to future presidents and build public support by highlighting the “midnight regulation” phenomenon and then making it a priority to ax every final Obama order. Single them out. Make a public list. Celebrate every repeal. That would be as profound a rebuke to the Obama legacy—a legacy based on abuse of power—as any other.
Also a reminder that the Bush administration was terrible on regulations and small government. I don’t see why undoing all those would require much “manpower.” Getting rid of them would be a good start to “draining the swamp.”