Category Archives: Science/Engineering

The President works for us

Posted on October 20, 2013 | 8 comments

So says astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, easily the most impressive space lobbyist since Carl Sagan, who was not in fact very interested in people-in-space. Tyson is, passionately.

He wants—among other things—to solve our economic and unemployment problems by doubling NASA’s budget. Lots of people would sneer (do sneer) at that, but he’s right about the broad economic stimulus of space exploration. And as impressive as SpaceX and other private space commerce is becoming, it’s not enough.

Space exploration is so much more economically powerful than handing out trillions of dollars to phony solar cell and electric car companies and other Democrat cronies. Or Republican ones, for that matter. Gingrich wanted a base on the moon. Romney sneered. We’re lucky he didn’t get elected, but the one we got is no better and in some ways worse. And I doubt he thinks he works for us.

Tyson notes in his talk at the link above, very accurately I think, that if the Chinese decided to build a military base on the moon, we would have a  moon base within nine months. No more 20-years-to-Mars nonsense. I hope they do it, so we can. In the meantime we can dream along with Tyson and hope Obozo listens to him, too, insofar as he listens to anyone. Someday.

8 Comments

Posted in Obsessions, Science/Engineering, Space, Texana, The Economy

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ObamaCare was designed to fail

Posted on October 17, 2013 | 8 comments

That’s the only logical conclusion available when you consider that the creators of this federal boondoggle included a rule book so vast and so complicated that not even the software for the program’s 36 insurance exchange web sites works. Nor is it likely to anytime soon.

“These regulations are often called ‘business rules,'” computer programmer and PJMedia blogger Richard Fernandez writes, “and they have to be implemented in software. The Obamacare ruleset is now reportedly eight times the length of the Bible and still growing. This has had unavoidable results…

“If it’s designed to provide cheap and quality health care then maybe we’re S.O.L. since some things seem doomed from their conception to fail due to some fundamental violation of the rules of physics or mathematics. As a health care system it appears perverse. But as something else … why…”

It certainly seems to have been designed to fail and the only reason for that would be to allow the Democrats to do what they’ve wanted to do since Ted-the-Red was their sachem: Dispense with health insurance entirely and nationalize everything. Doctors, hospitals, drug companies, the works. Want an operation? Call the 800 number and wait, and wait, and wait…

UPDATE:  At the very least, the exchanges software was botched by the usual politically-connected cronies, according to this InfoWorld piece, provided by Mr. Goon. I still contend that could have been intended all along as a feature, and is not really a bug.

MORE: Thus far (Oct. 19) the administration is either lying about what has happened or is refusing to talk about it. And his lapdog media also is silent. How amusing. Mr. Transparency. Mr. Bring-Us-Together. What a phony.

8 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Science/Engineering, The Economy

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Control-Alt-Delete worked for me

Posted on October 1, 2013 | Comments Off on Control-Alt-Delete worked for me

Microsoft’s Bill Gates now says the control-alt-delete command “was a mistake” when it was designed as a way to log-in to Windows on a PC. Maybe.

I never used it for that. I used it to reboot the damn think when it froze on me and wouldn’t budge any other way. Haven’t had to use it for a while now with my Windows XP Professional OS.

And frankly, after seeing Mr. Big’s apology, I’m a little afraid to try.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, The Economy

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Mother

Posted on September 30, 2013 | 6 comments

Mother was the nickname of the first rhomboid tank, a gasoline-engined British behemoth designed to cross five-foot treches in 1916. Later iterations would have top turrets until the whole evolved into what we now call a tank. (Click on the picture to biggerize it.)

As an old tanker, I’ve always been fascinated by Mother. Due to her tiny compartment (most of the interior was taken up by the engine, the side guns and their ammunition) the crew of eight must have had a dreadful time: the constant noise, the nauseous fumes, the continual vibrations. And the rocking ride.

And for all her menacing appearance, a machinegun could puncture Mother’s boilerplate “armor.” For that matter, just one intrepid infantryman with a hand grenade or two slipped through a side opening could disable the whole thing, and everyone in it.

6 Comments

Posted in Guns, Science/Engineering, The War, Troops

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The warmist cult rides on

Posted on September 29, 2013 | Comments Off on The warmist cult rides on

As always the lazy news media—which includes the Wall Street Journal’s reporting—only read the summaries of big reports like the latest one by the dictators club reaffirming that global warming is  still, wait for it, a crisis.

“BTW, there are a lot of good scientists who work behind the scenes who produce the chapters. The Summaries however are written by the state[s]men, environmentalists and high profile scientists whose reputation and wealth is based on the propagation of the faith.”

So the summaries are models of misinformation.

Nevertheless, the latest cult propanganda will continue to be the spur for the EPA’s War on Coal, hiking electricity prices and stifling the economy and, sooner or later, adding a whopping carbon tax. Unless the dimwits who voted for OButthead in 2012 finally get a clue and turn the Congress over to the Republicans next year. They can’t be any worse.

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Posted in Obamalot, Obsessions, Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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Tell me again, why are chemical weapons so awful?

Posted on September 15, 2013 | 5 comments

It’s bad enough that a nation’s youth wind up fighting (and dying in) the wars their elitist “leaders” start and then sit back and watch from a comfortable chair with servants bringing them refreshments. But what’s with all this WMD whoop-de-do?

Nukes I can see. Yep, you could do a real mass number on a whole city that way. Nagasaki, for instance. Also biologicals, perhaps, though they would be somewhat easier to contain the swifter you could plan, manufacture and deploy preventative pharmaceuticals.

But chemicals? They’re called “gas,” apparently to scare civilians and save lazy journalists an extra sentence or two, but they’re usually heavier-than-air and so not at all easy to disperse, even in a crowded subway car. The Tokyo sarin attacks in ’95, were bad enough, but still managed to kill only thirteen, and permanently injure about fifty, and that was on several cars.

And, when you get down to the nitty-gritty, except for the inevitable bowel voiding and vomiting, chemicals leave a pretty nice corpse for the loved ones to gather round before the planting—much nicer than a pile of steaming offal, which would be the result of even an incompetent machinegunning inside that aforementioned subway car.

But, somehow, machineguns escaped the WMD label. Pure twaddle.

5 Comments

Posted in Guns, Obamalot, Obituaries, Obsessions, Science/Engineering, The War

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Adios, Voyager

Posted on September 12, 2013 | 2 comments

Thirty-six years after it was launched, the Voyager 1 robot spacecraft has left the solar system and entered true interstellar space: the first known human-made object to do so.

“Voyager has boldly gone where no probe has gone before, marking one of the most significant technological achievements in the annals of the history of science, and adding a new chapter in human scientific dreams and endeavors,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington.

Voyager: into the interstellar darkness, continuing an intrepid voyage of discovery that could last for billions of years.

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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space

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