Why robots can’t outrun the fastest animals.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Polaris Dawn
Eric Berger has the story on the upcoming flight.
[update a while later]
As per usual, many of the comments are idiotic hating on billionaires.
Starliner
With the upcoming launch today, Eric Berger writes that the surprise is not that it took so long, but that it happened at all.
Has Boeing done anything right, or well recently?
[Update a few minutes later]
Reading in the article about the “incident” at White Sands, I recall that I was sitting next to Chris Ferguson at an Apollo 49th-anniversary dinner at KSC a month or so afterward, and I said something like “I heard you had a little oopsie at WSMR.” He said, “You’re not supposed to know about that.” I’m sure that he wished that I (and others) didn’t know about that.
Dick Rutan
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.
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.
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.
Dealing With China In Space
Greg Autry discusses his new book (with Peter Navarro).
Boeing And The Dark Age Of American Manufacturing
There are books to be written about this.
The Latest (Weird) Google Evil
I’m a member of a mailing list on Googlegroups. It’s a private list, and I’ve been a member for many years. Today, I got the following email, Subject: Your Content On Google Groups
********************************************
Hello simberg@interglobal.org,
We’re letting you know that we’ve permanently removed the content at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/coolpeople2808/4SscdySTE04/WIigOQEpAQAJ
Why did this happen?
An external report flagged the content for illegal content or policy violations. As a result, our legal content and policy standards team removed the content for the following reason: unwanted content.
Learn more
You can learn more about our content policies and enforcement at our help center.
What you can do next
You may have the option to pursue your claims in court. If you have legal questions or wish to examine legal options that may be available to you, you may want to consult with your own legal counsel.
*****************************************************
WTF?!
a) They don’t tell me what the allegedly objectionable content was and (b) it’s a private list. How can there be an “external report” on it? I forwarded the email to the list, and we’re all scratching our heads about it.
A Propellantless Drive?
As usual, it’s unlikely that this will pan out, but it’s certainly worthy of further investigation.