That’s an…interesting phrase for the cause of the Progress mission failure last month. Doesn’t that sort of imply a need for a redesign?
Category Archives: Business
Clearing The Road To Mars
OK, here we go. I’ve launched my new Kickstarter. Spread the word.
Space Access Update
The latest version is out, describing the current hijinks in Congress:
Full-throttle political support for full-funding Commercial Crew at the requested $1.24 billion is a top (if not the top) political priority for this year. Down-selecting to one vendor to save money over the next two years would add multiple unacceptable program risks and lead to long-term monopoly pricing. Successful flight before the end of 2017 already apparently involves optimistic assumptions about not needing the full $300 million in NASA-required-extras contingency funding. NASA says that any shortfall from the $1.24 billion level this year risks further program delays, and our look at the numbers seems to bear that out.
Yes, as Bolden said a few weeks ago, they can’t accelerate it with more money, but they can delay with less, and they seem determined to do so.
[Early evening update]
OK, here‘s an even more recent update.
Space Blogging
I won’t bother to link to individual pieces, but Jon Goff seems to have been blogging up a storm over the past few days.
Kickstarter Video
Try, try again. I’ve punched up the audio in this version, though it still sounds like I’m in an empty lecture hall.
[Update a while later]
I think I’m ready to launch the project (and Kickstarter says I can do it at any time), but here’s the draft page, if anyone wants to provide feedback before I do so.
Crap Nutrition “Science” In Journals
I wish I believed that the situation was much better than this in climate science, but really, I have little reason to.
Feminists
…are too fragile to read:
My advice to potential faculty hires — or student applicants — at Northwestern: Go somewhere else. As law professor Jonathan Adler notes in The Washington Post, Northwestern threw academic freedom “under the bus.”
The good news is that Kipnis’ experience has generated a national wave of outrage. Even feminist website Jezebel wrote: “As feminist student activists fight to expand their circle of vulnerability in collegiate life, Title IX has gone from a law designed to protect college students from sexual misconduct and discrimination to a means by which professors are put on trial for their tweets.”
In New York magazine, Jonathan Chait observed: “I highly doubt that the inquiry against Kipnis will result in any important formal sanction. … But the slim possibility of actual administrative punishment is not the problem her story reveals. The problem is that a major body of progressive campus thought believes her publication of a dissenting column merits punishment.”
And at Reason,Robby Soave pointed out that bureaucrats whose power comes from an outrageously expansive reading of Title IX have expanded that interpretation to include a claim that “criticizing Title IX violates Title IX.”
Yes, Congress should have very public hearings about this. But they almost certainly won’t.
Discussing Science
No, Senator Whitehouse, it isn’t racketeering; it’s free speech.
Kickstarter Tech Support
Rand Simberg
May 30, 4:46 PM
I tried to upload my video. It is an MP4, H.264, resolution 640×480, size of 23.5 Mb. When I upload, it says there is an “error,” but that’s the only information I get, so it’s hard to figure out what the problem is.
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Hi Rand,
Travis here with Kickstarter support—thanks for writing in. Sorry that you’re having trouble uploading your video.
Please double-check to make sure that your video meets these requirements:
Size: Project videos need to be 5GB or less. Video in updates can be up to 250MB.
File Format: We accept most major video formats but for best results upload one of our recommended file types: MOV, MP4 or WMV.
Tip: Converting your file into another file format may resolve playback issues.
Resolution: We take the video file you upload and create a 640×480 (4:3 ratio) version to display on your project page.
Compression: We accept most major video codecs, but for best results we recommend using WMV format in Windows and H.264 format on Mac. In both cases, the key variable is the “bit rate,” so look for that measurement. If it’s measured in kilobits per second (kbps), try 1500 to start. If it’s measured in megabits per second (Mbps), try 1.5. If the file is too big: Make that number smaller. If the quality seems bad: Make it bigger.
If all of this checks out and you’re still having trouble, please send me a screenshot or further details on what you’re seeing from your end. I hope this helps!
Best,
Travis
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This response is utterly useless. It contains no information that is not already on the web site (in fact, it looks like it was simply pasted from it). Did you even read what I wrote?
The Kids Aren’t All Right
Is technology ruining their social skills?
I never even attempt to socially interact via text. For me, texting is something I do rarely, and generally just as a means of requesting or conveying practical information (Where are you?). I’m glad I work at home, because I hate mobile phones for communication in general, whether talking or texting. I’ll often forget to take it with me (in fact I did just yesterday) when running errands. As I’ve often remarked, I don’t think most young people even know what good telephone service (or music reproduction) is like. They think the crap quality they get from cells is normal.
The point about the overuse of exclamation marks is also interesting. I had an email exchange a year or two ago with a twenty-something whose emails were full of them. I gave her some unsolicited advice to be more sparing with the bangs for professional communication, which she took well, but it’s a hard habit to break, I expect, and as the article notes, some people have grown to expect them.
And as a pre-warning to commenters: Get off my lawn. 🙂