Category Archives: Technology and Society

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Fixing NASA

28 Comments

Jim Meigs has a long essay at the Manhattan Institute that quotes Yours Truly several times.

[Friday-morning update]

Bob Zimmerman writes that we don’t need no stinkin’ government program to get to the Moon.

Not sure I agree. The race to the poles was all about prestige, and America didn’t need it, but the race to the Moon is about resources, and we don’t want China to be making claims. But I agree that the best policy would be that which encourages private actors, and Isaacman is the ideal NASA administrator to do that.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

The Proposed “Science Budget Cuts” At NASA

8 Comments

Bob Zimmerman says that there are things deserving of cutting.

I certainly agree about Mars Sample Return, and said that on X this morning. I think we need a dramatic change in how these funds are allocated and prioritized, and the current decadal needs to be completely redone.

But I also don’t pay much attention to what OMB says at this point in the process.

Business, General Science, History, Popular Culture, Science And Society, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Jurassic Park, Here We Come

14 Comments

I suspect they went extinct because the Siberian-Americans wiped out their food supply. It seems to me that the next de-extinctions should be woolly mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, and ancient bison, to give them worthy prey. There’s apparently no record of them being north of 42 degrees, but that’s probably because it was covered in ice at their time.