…flaunts his ignorance (again) of both the history of exploration and the economics of spaceflight.
I do agree with him about the Apollo delusion, though.
ObamaCare
…will be Barack Obama’s Iraq:
The best medicine for the exchanges? It might involve letting the insurance industry offer pared back, cheap coverage at prices that reflect the risk profile of patients. This would bring back the young invincibles, but jack up prices for sicker patients. That problem could be solved by targeting subsidies on these patients on a strict means-tested basis rather than showering them on everyone up to 400 percent of the poverty level. The crucial upside to this approach is that it would allow the insurance marketplace to function again. However, market pricing based on health is against the religion of liberals. Clinton won’t go there. She could twist the screws on opt-outs by raising their penalty to something close to the price of the coverage they are refusing. But that would require Congress to override the statutory limits on these penalties in ObamaCare. And so long as the House remains in Republican hands, that ain’t going to happen.
Not really fair to compare it to Iraq. Iraq was a bi-partisan project. This disaster is all on the Democrats.
Jeff Greason And Dan DeLong
A Suborbital Flight To Space
Everyone’s been paying attention to the “race” between Virgin Galactic and XCOR (a story that got more complicated yesterday), but Blue Origin apparently had the first successful private flight to a hundred kilometers since the X-Prize was won, over eleven years ago. It will be interesting to see when their next one is, to see what kind of turnaround capability they have. It’s now clearly possible that they’ll be offering passenger flights sooner than either of the horizontal approaches.
[Update a few minutes later]
As someone over at Arocket points out, this wasn’t just the first trip to space since 2004, but the first-ever vertical landing of a ship that had been to space (even if SpaceX lands a Falcon 9 first stage, I’m not sure what its apogee is). It was a big milestone.
[Update a couple minutes later]
OK, on rereading, it’s not clear that the booster went all the way to space, just the capsule, so maybe that hasn’t happened yet.
[Update a while later]
Jeff Bezos issues his first tweet ever.
[Late-morning update]
Jeff Foust has the story now, including the Q&A with Bezos.
[Update a few minutes later]
And here’s Chris Bergin’s story.
[Early-afternoon update]
I think it's safe to say that this was the first fully reusable vehicle to go into space under its own power and land vertically on earth.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) November 24, 2015
Also worth noting that many of these space "firsts" were "first non-government entity." This one was a first, period.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) November 24, 2015
And if SpaceX hadn't had their launch failure in June, it's very likely that they'd have beaten Blue Origin for that first.
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) November 24, 2015
[Update a while later]
Ashlee Vance has an amusing take on the pissing contest between Musk and Bezos.
BTW, it seems to be confirmed that there was only a 120-meter difference in apogee between booster and capsule, so it definitely made it into space.
[Update a few more minutes later]
For those new to the topic, I wrote an explainer about orbits and suborbits a little over a year ago.
DARPA’s Biotech Lab
This is interesting. I didn’t know it existed. I’m glad at least some of the federal money going toward health research is taking a more high-risk high-payoff approach.
Top Nutritionists Attempt To Reach A Consensus
…and end up in a food fight. This would be funnier if it didn’t have such profound implications for health. I don’t know why anyone pays attention to that quack Dean Ornish. It was low-fat recommendations like his that almost surely killed my father thirty-five years ago. I enjoyed this, too:
In the spirit of the conference, he did make a concession: Red meat, a staple of a Paleolithic diet, “is a real problem” due to its carbon footprint, said Eaton, and he proposed a more sustainable Paleo diet that instead derives its protein from plant sources, poultry, and seafood.
Because nothing is more important when it comes to nutrition than carbon footprint. And this:
Those who follow a low-glycemic diet might eat, for instance, pasta but not bagels, parsnips but not potatoes, grapes but not raisins.
Bagels are worse than pasta? Who knew?
Obama And Syria
No, calling people names from overseas won’t distract from what a huge mess (with Hillary’s help) you’ve created.
Ron Fournier (a slow learner) has thrown in the towel on him:
Klain didn’t say this but I will: On ISIS, Obama breaks every rule. He minimizes the threat and dismisses our fears, which raises doubts about his candor and capability. An overwhelming majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of ISIS, a new poll shows, and 81 percent think ISIS will strike the United States.
In July 2013, six months into his second term, I wrote a column that questioned whether Obama would fulfill his enormous potential, whether he even cared anymore about his promises to change Washington, whether he could write the modern rules of the presidency and build a new bully pulpit. I asked, “What if Obama can’t lead?”
I now have my answer.
The answer was pretty visible eight years ago, really, to those less blinded by the supposed charisma, and the fantasy “potential.”
And it’s obvious from his demeanor whom Obama considers the enemy. It’s not in the Middle East.
[Update a while later]
First link was wrong but fixed now. Sorry!
NASA’s “Socialist Approach”
Lori Garver said last week that it’s time for the agency to shed it.
To be fair, it’s not all their fault. There are too few opportunities for graft on the Hill if it were take take a more competitive approach. Too hard to predict which zip codes the money will go to.
From Hunting/Gathering To Farming
Yes, humans evolved in the age of agriculture.
Per the end of the piece, this doesn’t really invalidate the paleo diet theory. It makes sense that we would have adapted to milk; it’s a useful high-protein food source. There would have been less evolutionary pressure to be able to handle grain, because the ill effects don’t occur until later in life, past child-bearing age.
XCOR
Jeff Greason and Dan DeLong are out (though Jeff remains on the board). I’d been hearing rumors about this for a few weeks.
My question is: What does this mean for orbital plans? Does XCOR retain the IP for them, or can Jeff pursue independently? Does he have a non-compete?