Potpourri XLV

Speculation continues on the if-and-when of nominating Charles Bolden as the next NASA Administrator.

There might be hope for reporters in the mainstream media (that's a conservative term for the "Big Three" networks plus the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other related liberal-leaning media outlets). If they can't stay employed or hawk their wares in paper-based products, they can always get a job being the official reporters for the Obama White House. They're already in the tank for/with him anyway. Of course, if the newspaper business continues to head down the drain, Obama might bail them out, in which case they'll be nationalized regardless.

Scott had some more sites for buying gold:

• http://www.cmi-gold-silver.com/specials.aspx
• www.golddealer.com

Scott is also insisting that I go see a DC-3 and some other older planes at the Moontown Airport east of Huntsville tomorrow. I just might. It's been a draining week, and I could use the break.

Marshall Space Flight Center has centralized all of their social media sites on one page.

Congressman Parker Griffin is saying that Iran's latest missile test is proof that we need to maintain a missile defense capability. Well, duhhhhh.

A fellow writer and NSS Policy Committee person, Marianne Dyson, has a hopeful blog regarding Obama's space policy.

Want to live in an airplane? I must confess, I had some designs around those lines when I was in high school. Anyhow, there's a site for those of us who dare to dream.

Bjorn Lomborg writes about how some companies are using the "green" movement as a way to merely cash in. Again, duhhhhh.

Alka-Seltzer City, dude! A town in Ohio is about to have carbon dioxide introduced into the briny water below their fair city, turning that water essentially into seltzer water in an effort to sequester carbon. Certainly there are more effective, less ridiculous ways to do this...? Jerry Pournelle also offers a link to some individuals who are fighting the practice. My buddy Scott calls environmentalists "watermelons: green [environmentalists] on the outside, red [communist] on the inside." Gotta wonder sometimes, don't you?

Science fiction writers are continuing to help in the War on Terrorism. Someone's got to, right?

Potpourri IV

There's more evidence that Elvis is among the living than Osama bin Laden. I'm inclined to agree. The writer linked to also has some interesting things to say about the assumptions behind the War on Terror.

Rogue environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg on a "second Green Revolution," genetically modified food to help the starving peoples of the world.

A couple of articles on postmodernism: one from The New Atlantis, and another from Summit Ministries. For people who believe that philosophy does not connect to "real life," I strongly urge you to check those assumptions. Also, this article on how philosophy affects the relationship between the individual and the state deserves some consideration.

Some more from The New Atlantis. One article on the ethics of counterinsurgency, and another on the ethical use of robots in combat (if you ever wonder how the "Skynet" of the Terminator movies might be possible, this article answers the question quite chillingly).

And because I keep forgetting to give this topic the treatment it deserves, I'll just write a paragraph and leave the rest to the reader. For those who still hold that the French are cowards in battle, that they haven't mattered to our history, or that they still owe us for World War II, I commend to your attention the life of Pierre Beaumarchais, a French inventor, playwright, and merchant who helped sell arms to the colonies during the American Revolution. As a watchmaker, he created a watch so small that it fit on a woman's ring. As a playwright, he wrote The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro, both of which poked fun at aristocracy (hastening the French Revolution) and eventually inspired operas by the same names. I found his story fascinating...and found it a bit disappointing that I knew nothing about his ties to this country's founding.