RIP.
He was the test pilot for XCOR’s rocket planes. It’s sad that he (nor anyone else) ever got to fly the Lynx.
Some Good News
The toppling of the woke authoritarians.
Politicians seem to be going out of their way to alienate and infuriate voters, pursuing unpopular policies at the very same time as they demonise and clamp down on debate. On climate, they have embraced a programme of national immiseration, to be borne on the backs of the working classes, who are expected to just accept being colder, poorer and less mobile. On immigration, they have thrown open the doors to migrants and refugees on an unprecedented scale, without seeking public consent and without ensuring proper provision for – or vetting of – those arriving. On culture, they have embraced a new form of racism under the banner of anti-racism, and a misogyny and homophobia posing as ‘trans inclusion’. Meanwhile, voters are beginning to realise that all those calls to censor ‘hate’ and ‘misinformation’ are calls to censor them.
Now to rid our own country of the similar horrible creatures that are currently running the Republic into the ground.
Screams Before Silence
The must-see documentary on the horrors of October 7th. I’ve never been a huge Sharyl Sandberg fan, but kudos to her.
[Update a while later]
How anyone can imagine that Israel can allow Hamas to remain in power after this boggles my mind.
Starship Update
What’s new on ship 30 (and possibly 29 as well).
[Thursday-morning update]
Meanwhile, over at NASA, the agency seems peeved at its Inspector General, as Artemis delays continue to seem inevitable.
There was never any prospect of a serious human lunar program from NASA until it is allowed to end its dependence on SLS/Orion.
May 1st
With all the current insanity on campus, it’s worth noting that today is Victims of Communism Day.
Voting For Joe Biden
No, it’s not a vote for “decency.”
Teaching Young People about Communism
The Orion Heat Shield
NASA still doesn’t understand the root cause.
Once SpaceX works out the heat shield problems on Starship, it won’t really matter.
A Voice Of Reason From Gaza
But the idiot protesters are too ill-educated to listen.
Meanwhile, punish the professors, not the students.
Why not both?
Taking The Stairs
…is a key to a longer, healthier life.
I’m not surprised. If it’s less than four or five flights, I’ll always take stairs, rather than an elevator, if I can, both because it’s better for me, and I don’t like waiting for elevators. I occasionally beat the people in the elevator.
But more importantly, given my relative lack of opportunities for elevator versus stairs, our house is built upside down. That is, the living area is upstairs, and bedrooms are upstairs. The front door is at the top of a long outside staircase, and the first thing we do in the morning, generally, is to go upstairs to the kitchen. We probably do those stairs dozens of times a day, given that my office is downstairs, and we are both retired/working from home.
The house design has the additional benefit that it’s better for sleeping, because the downstairs bedrooms are cooler than upstairs, even when we have skylights open in the living room.