Political Commentary

EU About To Implode?

The Dutch are having their doubts:

The Government has announced that a referendum on the constitution will take place on June 1. It will be the first time that Dutch citizens are asked what they think of the EU.

While international attention has been focused on the French referendum, just three days earlier on May 29, the Dutch are far more likely to slam on the brakes of the constitutional juggernaut. Polls in France still show a majority in favour of the constitution, but the Government in The Hague has been shocked to find that a majority of its citizens are opposed, and by no small margin.

A recent poll was telling. It showed that 42 per cent of Dutch would choose to vote

Space

Barrier To Entry

T/SPACE is finding the paperwork involved in performing a NASA contract too onerous:

“NASA wants 40 to 50 monthly reports on what you’re doing,” David Gump, president of the Transformational Space consortium told New Scientist on Monday. And while “we could build a great Crew Exploration Vehicle”, Gump says, the consortium cannot comply with the reports and studies NASA stipulates to monitor the project.

This is one of the reasons that space hardware costs so much. In order to perform a government contract, you have to bear the overhead of the contract specialists, accounting people, etc., above and beyond that necessary to just build the hardware. In addition, all of the status reports and reviews tend to chew up a lot of the time of the engineers and managers who are preparing them rather than doing engineering.

In theory, T/SPACE could hire the necessary additional staff in order to meet the contractual requirements, but it dramatically changes the corporate culture to do so. I can understand their reluctance. And as a result, it’s almost inevitable that the two CEV contracts will go to two of the usual suspects, with the usual high costs.

Thus shall it be until we develop a robust commercial space industry.

[Evening update]

Keith Cowing has a different take on it:

Yawn. When the going gets tough, blame it all on paperwork.

Humor

The Ultimate Whodunnit

Iowahawk has a tribute to Dan Rather–the final chapter of the career of Inspector Dan:

Luckily, the tubby guard at Hinderaker’s bank was asleep, and I was able to quietly duckwalk past him to the elevator bank. When I arrived at his penthouse offices, Hinderaker and Johnson were sharing a nasty chuckle, as they added another cup into their birdseye maple trophy case.

“I thought I smelled some fried MSM bacon,” laughed Johnson. “Why don’t you move along to to the Old Discredited Anchorman’s Home, Rather? We’ve got a testimonial dinner tonight.”

“Yeah, Danno, it’s a little invite-only shindig called Blog of the Year,” sneered Hinderaker. “Black tie, class all the way. Now scram, because we’re due at Gingiss for a tux fitting.”

“Why you filthy, non-journalism degreed…”

Something snapped, and I ran headlong across Hinderaker’s sumptuous oriental rug, ready to unleash my fury on the two laughing blog thugs. I soon found out that the carpet was not fixed to the polished parquet underneath, and I went sliding across the room and slammed into a bookcase. I heard birds as a 16-pound volume of the U.S. Banking Code beaned me hard on the head. Momentarily dazed, I stumbled backward, flipping over Hinderaker’s desk and lodging my head in his deadly trashcan.

“Ha ha! The funny man is funny.”

I was blinded by the trashcan, but I knew that pipsqueak voice anywhere. It was Gnat, Fargo Jimmy’s pintsized gun moll.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!