Interesting piece at Space.com about the Oklahoma space activities. That’s right, Oklahoma.

I’ve actually been following this for a few years, but never paid much attention to it because they looked like just another state that had been taken in by Lockheed Martin’s lies about commercial Venture Star, and hopes of getting lucrative federal incentives and funding. But now that X-33/Venturestar is dead, they actually seem to be the first state to take the entrepreneurial space community seriously, and are using state funds and incentives to actually encourage innovation. It’s an interesting article, with a different take on the future of space than you’ll get from the usual suspects.

[Update]

Spoke too soon. Another Space.com article by my friend Leonard David indicates that the Air Force may want to keep their X-33 options open by storing the parts up at Edwards. I’m not sure this means anything as far as future plans–it doesn’t cost that much to store it, and there may be some minimal value in keeping the parts around, even if (or expecially if) the program doesn’t actually get resurrected.

My preference–rather than cutting it up for scrap, it should be preserved in its current configuration as a billion-dollar monument to lousy management, technological hubris, gullibility, and flawed vision of government bureaucrats.

Readers and fellow bloggers should note that I didn’t describe our diving excursion and grilled crustacean dinner yesterday (only) to make them jealous–I did manage to get in a little paen to globalization at the end. Anyway, just consider it a little travel writing–you get to enjoy the experience vicariously (right…).

But it does also provide another point of departure for a subject that has always fascinated me–differing food tastes among different cultures. North Americans have been eating lobster and crab since, well forever, including the European settlers. Lobstering was one of the earliest industries in New England among the English colonists. But think about it–these are basically just big bugs. (In fact, in southern California, that’s the nickname that lobster divers use for them–they go out off Palos Verdes or out to the channel islands with a “bug bag.”)

Yet, if we find arthropods on land, we will exterminate them, or ignore them, but we will not consider eating them–the thought turns most American stomachs, including mine. Yet just one country to the south, fried ants, roaches and termites are considered a crunchy delicacy in Mexico.

So what is it about crustaceans that makes them palatable to North Americans at the same time that we are disgusted by land-dwelling arthropods? That they come from the water–why would that make a difference? That they’re big enough that the yummy meat can be easily separated from the yucky bits? That we’re close minded about food (I find the latter an unlikely explanation in a culture that will drink crappucino coffee from beans processed by monkey intestines).

I profess to have no answers, but I’d be interested in any explanations from readers.

Apparently, we don’t need it, or at least not a formal declaration of it, to try our enlightened Mariner (as in from Marin County) for treason, at least if Mark Levin’s analysis is correct.

On his reading of the Constitution (which makes sense to me):

The issue, therefore, is not whether the U.S. has declared war, but whether Walker has waged war against the U.S., or whether he has given aid and comfort to the enemy.

The whole analysis is worth a read.

[Update]

I just want to add that I have little to add in the blogger pile on of Mr. Walker. They’ve already beaten me to all the worthwhile things to say, and James Lileks’ latest rant should be the last word. Of course, it won’t be, because the so-called professional pundits will continue to say mind-bogglingly stupid things about it.

Apparently, being a turncoat and fraud hasn’t paid off for Jim Jeffords. He whines about it in this Boston Globe article. Guess he thought the Dems would be more eager to help him split the booty than the Republicans were. Time to tune up the ol’ violin.

Apparently, Democratic race baiting caused blowback in a South Carolina state senate race. In their usual bid to boost black turnout, the Dems ran one of their typical odious ads about how Republicans want to keep blacks ignorant and segregated. The Republican campaign decided to buy ad time for the same ad in media with white demographics. While the ad had its intended affect of getting out the black vote, it also energized whites who resented the tactic and the accusations of being racists. The result was a win for the Republican candidate. I hope that this bodes well for the future, either because such ads will become counterproductive, or better yet, will cease to be produced.

Steve Chapman has a nice piece in this morning’s Trib on how the war has returned the federal government to seriousness. I do disagree with one statement, however:

The signature moment of his [Clinton’s] administration may have been when, in a major speech on education, he solemnly advised parents to start singing to their infants–and “immediately,” in case anyone doubted his resolve. A lot of adjectives were used to describe the Clinton presidency, but “imperial” was not one of them.

Well, actually, it was by many. If nothing else, like many emperors, he considered himself to be above the law and the Constitution, and he considered the Secret Service to be part of his Praetorian Guard (along with all of the handlers, hangers on and cabinet officials who he blithely sent out to lie for him).

Of course, Caligula beat Bill, in that he managed to put his entire horse in the Senate, instead of just its nether regions…

In one more riff on the space tourist theme, Jay Zilber notes:

A SPLENDID DICKENSIAN NAME: Mark Shuttleworth, 27, is set to become the second “space tourist” to fly to the station, arriving in a Russian Soyuz rocket next April.

Yes, but the really ironic thing is that he’s not allowed to go on the Shuttle.

In one more riff on the space tourist theme, Jay Zilber notes:

A SPLENDID DICKENSIAN NAME: Mark Shuttleworth, 27, is set to become the second “space tourist” to fly to the station, arriving in a Russian Soyuz rocket next April.

Yes, but the really ironic thing is that he’s not allowed to go on the Shuttle.

In one more riff on the space tourist theme, Jay Zilber notes:

A SPLENDID DICKENSIAN NAME: Mark Shuttleworth, 27, is set to become the second “space tourist” to fly to the station, arriving in a Russian Soyuz rocket next April.

Yes, but the really ironic thing is that he’s not allowed to go on the Shuttle.

I hadn’t been paying much attention to this because it seemed so…quixotic, and I didn’t want to get hopes up only to be dashed. But according to Dale Amon over at Samizdata, there really does seem to be a serious movement to eliminate the state income tax in Massachussetts. Even if it fails, it’s nice to at least see a serious media-grabbing political debate on the subject.