Business, Space, Technology and Society

The SpaceX Launch

61 Comments

You can follow live here. Weather is looking good half an hour before liftoff, with no technical issues.

[Update after the launch]

Perfect primary mission, but they landed on the ship too hard to survive, according to Elon.

[Update almost an hour post launch]

[Update a little over an hour after the launch]

Thoughts from (SpaceX investor) Steve Jurvetson.

[Update a while later]

Lee Billings has the story over at SciAm.

[Update a while more later]

And here‘s the Space News report.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Climate Activists Versus Skeptics

7 Comments

I know you’ll be as shocked as I am to learn that social media has failed to bridge the gap. Actually, though, they buried the lede:

…tweeters with climate sceptic views are no more likely to post offensive comments than those who accept the basics of climate science.

Sceptics have long been accused of trolling, but Williams said the study indicated their minority status meant they were just more likely to interact with users they disagreed with.

“We found a lot of negativity, but when you crunch the numbers you find out they are no more likely to be negative than anyone else,” he said.

“There is a popular perception that sceptics must be irrational or unreasonable but this study doesn’t support that at all.”

You don’t say.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Free-Range Parenting

16 Comments

Seven reasons why “we” hate it.

Society has gone nuts.

[Tuesday-morning update]

Criminalizing childhood:

There’s something so disgustingly ironic about the fact that the only reason these “endangered” kids didn’t come home on time safely and their parents nearly had heart attacks is because the police and Child Protective Services decided to keep them from their parents for a couple hours without telling them. I wonder if someone thought they were teaching the parents a good lesson. Now, they’ll see what it’s like when their kids don’t come home. Good stuff, guys. There’s a word for this when anyone other than the state does it.

They are no doubt livid about this, but because they’re dealing with unpredictable people who have the power to take their children from them, they must stifle that anger and act in accordance with the state’s wishes. This includes never leaving their children unsupervised outside, which is antithetical to their parenting philosophy. Maryland law requires children be under the care of someone at least 13 years old, which would have made my babysitting of my brothers a punishable offense.

Tar. Feathers.

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