Business, Media Criticism, Space, Technology and Society, Weird

A New Suborbital Tourism Vehicle

This article is amusing:

CosmoCourse CEO Pavel Pushkin told Sputnik New Agency, he came up with the idea of suborbital tourism back in 2013 when he was working at Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.

“We were reviewing various concepts of commercial space rockets and came up with the idea of launching people into space via suborbital trajectory.”

Wow, as far back as 2013! What a visionary.

Note that it’s short on details.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

How Inevitable Is Trump?

46 Comments

Not as much as some want us to think.

[Late-morning update]

Kurt Schlichter has sympathy for the Donaldites.

So do I, but The Donald isn’t their (or anyone else’s) salvation.

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

The Mystery Of Melody

10 Comments

Thoughts from Ed Driscoll (and David Solway).

Music does seem to have noticeably degenerated in my lifetime. I remain mystified at the popularity of the “musical” Les Miserable. When we saw it at the Pantages over two decades ago, I walked out thinking it was one of the most tuneless operas I’d ever heard. There was very little memorable in it. Richard Rogers it wasn’t, and isn’t.

[Update a while later]

I’ve added a link to the Solway piece, which is worth a read in and of itself. I should also note that, just as I have no talent whatsoever for fiction, I’m unable to write a song to save my life. I can read music, and play music, but I am utterly unable to create it.

Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Hillary, And The Law

She thinks laws are for the little people:

“While Clinton may have technical arguments for why she complied with each of these and the other rules that have been discussed in the news, the argument that Clinton complied with the letter and spirit of the law is unsustainable,” said Douglas Cox, a law professor at City University of New York who studies records preservation.

She deserves a long term in Club Fed, not a four-year term in the White House.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Trumpophrenia

8 Comments

Is there a cure for it?

I suffer from it and it’s only getting worse. I change my opinion about Donald almost every five minutes – and I can’t be the only one. There may be millions of us. For some it’s even more problematic. These people are not Trumpophrenic. They are Trumpophobic. And, if this Drudge link has any veracity, they have taken their problem to their shrinks.

I haven’t gone that far – yet. But I am searching for a cure for Trumpophrenia before I have to reach for the Haldol. If he becomes president, I don’t want any of us to become real life schizophrenics ourselves, unable to predict what our leader will say or do next.

But basically I think he’s a good guy and his heart is the right place. His instincts for making America great again are also basically good. So I will make my plea. Donald, you and only you are the cure for Trumpophrenia. Do it. Take us out of our misery. If you want to be president, start acting like one. Now.

He’s not capable of it. My opinion of Trump is actually quite steady. I’ve never had a high opinion of him, and the more I see of him the more loathsome the ignorant con artist grows to me. I keep hoping for that Face In The Crowd moment, but I fear it will never come.

[Afternoon update]

Today’s results may make that moment approach a little sooner. Cruz reportedly mopped up the floor with Trump in Kansas, 50-25, and he’s beating him in Maine as well.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!