Setting Our Sights Lower

First, read this so you understand the context of my next rant. Go ahead, I'll wait... http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/life-degrowth-economy-and-why-you-might-actually-enjoy-it/

Okay, so you had your own reaction to what you read: you shook your head in dismay, nodded in agreement, or shrugged and wondered, "So what?"

For those of you who didn't take the time to read the linked article, here's the author's general thesis:

Earth is getting too overpopulated, we're running out of resources, life is going to become a lot harder, and the concept of economic growth is outdated, unhelpful, and unlikely to continue. As a result, we might as well get used to it, make a virtue of necessity, and learn to live within our means because the future is not going to get any better. We need to share the wealth so that non-Western nations receive an equitable share of the world's wealth. Instead, we should establish a world that involves more local economies and that is less dependent upon international travel. We shouldn't focus so much on new technologies to save us and should learn to "do without" certain luxuries or technologies.

Did anyone just have a flashback to the 1970s? Are we in yet another era of doom and gloom and limited vision?

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
--John F. Kennedy

"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America."
--William J. B. Clinton

...and I haven't even quoted the Republicans yet.

The point is, America is a nation founded on a fundamental optimism that says if you give people freedom and a fighting chance, they'll find solutions to their own problems, with or despite the government's intervention. However, the author appears to have already pronounced sentence on the future: we're doomed, we'll never make it, the people are too stupid to solve their own problems, they can only be ruled for their own good and protection, based on a vision shared by the enlightened.

The problem is that "degrowth" is antithetical to the American experiment because of the implications of the author's ideas:

• Who decides what's equitable? Not the people, obviously.
• Who decides what we can "do without?" The diversity of our economy and technologies ensures that nearly anything and everything can be given a fighting chance to succeed, given enough hard work by the inventor. Who's to say what we can or should do without? And who is this author to say that we should dream smaller?
• How would they enforce this "de-growth?" It brings up an interesting notion: do governments worldwide become enforcers of de-modernization of the world? Would they send in armed troops with magnets to destroy unwanted knowledge and explosives to destroy unneeded inventions like cyclotrons, nuclear reactors, CAT scans, or rocket ships?
• Will Those Who Decide still have access to luxuries and world travel? Here's a hint: yes. I recall talking with Les Johnson about the anti-technology forces in our civilization. "They want to send us back to the caves," he said. I don't think so. They want to send us back to the manors and serfdom, where the majority remain ignorant and ruled while the wealthy elite continues to enjoy a high standard of living. The problem is, it won't happen that way; not by a long shot. Read on.
• What happens if individuals or nations opt to stay pro-growth? We're seeing a variation of this with the Kyoto Protocol, which is supposed to curb greenhouse gases. America has the technology to become high-tech without petroleum eventually, I suppose, but China and India are not there yet and are unlikely to comply with Kyoto anyway. So say they stick with the large nation-state approaches to technology and economics. What happens to the hundreds of thousands of small nation-states elsewhere in the world? If human history is any guide, they will either reunite into coalitions and nations as well or get swallowed up one by one.

Decentralization and descoping of the world economy only works if everyone does it. Odds are, everyone won't, unless some external force requires all of them to act simultaneously.

More to the point, as a space and technology advocate I want to live in a future of abundance. I believe we can access the energy and materials of space, combined with nanotechnology and other clean high technology here on Earth to ensure a future where everyone has access to the goods of civilization. Degrowth is not the way to do it. Degrowth assumes a zero-sum game, where we'll never find additional resources, and therefore the only way to have any choices is to be one of those who decides how the pie is divided. That is a recipe for world conflict on a scale we haven't seen in 70 years, and it would include a lot more nuclear weapons.

No matter how politely or benignly worded, a philosophy of low expectations implies a political order where those expectations would be enforced, lest someone question the underlying assumptions. I'm more in line with entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, who want humanity to expand the scope of technology of civilization. Regardless of past errors or current problems, we certainly have enough pride and ambition to believe a better future is possible, don't we?

Jeez, I hope so.

Potpourri CL

I haven't done one of these in awhile, but I'll keep the links to a minimum, for your sanity's sake, and mine.

Science fiction writer Charles Stross has a provocative essay on why space exploration is inherently incompatible with the libertarianism that seems to pervade so much of the pro-space community.  It's not that I disagree with most of Stross's individual points, but I think he's missing a crucial aspect of the appeal of space exploration, even among non-libertarian white males, which is simply the romantic notion many human beings have of going "where no one has gone before," which includes more than a little "frontier narrative."

I found an intriguing paper via Facebook that links creativity to law-breaking. I have a very long response to this paper in the works, but I'm a little on the sleepy side to finish it this evening. The truth is out there.

From Lin: Interesting conflict of values in the whole "green power" debate: if those giant windmills kill hundreds or thousands of bats, birds, etc., which faction of the environmental movement wins that debate?

From Karen: a personal website for one of folks who designs cool things for Hollywood.

From Martin: a wiki for those interested in commercial space.

Oh, here's a shock (sarcasm font ON): Huntsville has been rated among the top 10 geekiest cities in America.

From Antoinette: celebrity commentaries on the stupid stuff you see on TV.

From OpenCulture:

• An interview with Jorge Luis Borges recorded before the eminent SF writer died.
• Harvard University has released an open-source program to help scholars create project-related web sites in a hurry.

From Jerry Pournelle: some remarks on the Tea Party movement and its effect on the American political scene, as well as other matters.

From Jim P.: The top ten human-hating ecologists.

From Mom: a time-lapse video showing the "progress" of unemployment across the country. Note the "bright" spots in the underpopulated Great Plains and just outside Washington, DC. If those are the choices...think I'll tough it out here in Huntsville. The taxes are lower and the weather's warmer.

I'm probably going to lose my battle against my buying urges on this one: a Star Wars sun shade for the dashboard.

From Janel (a.k.a. FemiFist): some suggested links if you need to do web tracking of your marketing efforts.

And I think that'll about do it. Have a good week, everyone. Keep the chaos down to a minimum on your end, and I'll try to do the same on mine, 'kay?

We Choose to Go to the Moon

Potpourri CXXXVI

Busy world out there...here's the small segment of it I could give my attention to today.

Not sure what you’d call this…maybe a clearing house for the most common/popular NASA Twitter feeds?

From Hu (I'll have more on this in a bit): NASA and Congress slog toward a compromise on the 2011 budget.

Are scramjets the future of spaceflight?


Will the X-37 to be used for spying?

A Japanese solar sail mission will be launched this week. Cool!

Just because the U.S. President doesn’t want to go to the moon doesn’t mean India doesn’t. Boeing is in talks with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to help them with a lunar mission. Sigh. Maybe I'd like it in Bangalore. At least there's not much chance of snow and I know they're serious about going to the moon there.

Senator Shelby (R-AL) has inserted language into an Afghanistan emergency spending bill that would prevent changes or cancellations to the Constellation Program. I appreciate the notion, but I still don’t understand why that wouldn’t or shouldn’t be done on a bill dealing with NASA, not the Defense Department. One thing at a time, ya know?

NASA has converted Space Shuttle flight simulator hardware into an educational tool for students.

Well, now I know where my friend George Whitesides went: he's now CEO of Virgin Galactic. Far out.
My buddy Gwen was at Arlington National Cemetary to visit the grave of her father and found the grave of a Medal of Honor recipient who shared the same last name as her husband. While I don't believe he's directly related to Tim, here's the citation for the gentleman of the grave Gwen observed.
 
This year's Nebula Award winners have been announced. Congrats. Wish to heck I could write that well.
 
Here's a short study in cognitive biases because sometimes such things interest me.
 
There was a Star Wars concert in Orlando last week--good timing for the Shuttle launch.
 
An extended set of TED talks from D2 on cancer prevention:
 

I found this TED TALK by Dr. William Li (http://www.angio.org/) very insightful and helpful. It will only take about 20:00 of your time. http://www.ted.com/talks/william_li.html

The cancer &/or obesity you prevent may be your own - or that of someone you love.

Also, the attached tiff file is a screenshot of the list of AA foods he discusses broadly. It can also be found at: blog.ted.com/2010/02/dr_william_lis.php

Please feel free to share this info with people you know who might be interested. Don't assume I sent it to them. If they already received it, they can delete it. If they receive it several times, maybe there's a message there...

If you haven't yet discovered TED TALKS, you are missing some pretty mind-blowing and mind-expanding experiences!

D2

PS - I discovered some research re: Low Dose Naltrexone as a cancer-preventative, as well as some interesting drug trials in the management of certain inflammatory and immune-system diseases. This opiod-blocker drug is usually Rx'd for managing addictions, of alcohol or certain other opiods, but has show efficacy in LD regimens with cancer, pre-cancerous conditions, HIV, etc. It might be something to talk with your Doc about.

See: www.lowdosenaltrexone.org

Sarah from Across the Pond asked me what was going on with my job. And since I can't explain the status of my job these days without explaining the budgeting process of the U.S. federal government, I thought I'd just repeat what I wrote here:

It's not so much that the President hasn't come to a decision. I don't know how the budget/parliamentary process works in the UK, but here the Pres. submits a proposal for the overall federal budget, then it goes through what's called a "pass-back," where some other part of the government reviews the proposal and kicks it back to the President's people to redo it (usually with guidance on what to cut). And after that, the budget is reviewed by the House of Representatives and the Senate. Both houses must write a budget law, and those laws have to match. If they don't, they have to go into a conference committee to sort out the differences. Once that happens, the finalized budgets are voted on and sent to the President for a signature.


So far, we're still in the pass-back and Congressional review portion of the process. The Congress hasn't passed a budget on time (October 1, the beginning of the fiscal year) in a few years, so they'll most likely pass what's called a "continuing resolution (CR)," where they pass a budget for part of the year to keep basic services going and civil servants paid until a final budget can be passed. A CR is usually passed at the same spending level as the previous year, and the agencies receiving a CR are told to continue "business as usual" (no new program directions) until a new budget is passed. Sometimes a CR will last for a whole year. That would be fine by me, because that would mean the Constellation Program gets a reprieve for another year. But the Obama administration is still intent on killing Constellation and redirecting the money to other NASA activities, like environmental monitoring or encouraging U.S. private sector companies to build rockets to launch crew and cargo to the International Space Station. I'm not particularly worried about where I'll end up--NASA always needs good tech writers--but for right now the only thing I know for sure is that I'm good through the end of the fiscal year or whenever Congress finally passes the 2011 budget, which would be anywhere from September 30 to February 1. After that, well, I might be writing for something or someone very different. Stay tuned.

And speaking of folks Across the Pond, I got this YouTube video link from Father Dan: a dear 80-year-old Scottish great-grandmother who just belted out "No Regrets" to the delight of Simon Cowell and the rest of the "Britain's Got Talent" audience. Just marvelous.

Woody Allen thinks Obama should be made dictator for awhile and Republicans should “get out of his way.” Yikes. And FWIW, dude: Republicans cannot stop anything Obama does. They don’t have the votes.


Doubleplusungood: Tar balls have been found off the coast of Key West.

Convinced the end is near? You can always buy a spot in a bunker somewhere.

A female lawyer in France got offended at another woman wearing a burqa and tore it off.

A review is questioning the effectiveness of missile defense.

This amused me: the President signed the Press Freedom Act and then refused to take questions from the press. Just because you have the freedom to ask questions doesn’t mean I have to answer them, pal.

A Democratic candidate for Senator in Connecticut has lied about serving in Vietnam. Dude: if you’re gonna lie about something, try not lying about something that is easily checked: you know, like Bush’s National Guard record or Obama’s place of birth (I kid).

For that seriously geeky wedding party: an AT-AT wedding cake.

But what denomination is it? A humanoid robot presided over a Japanese wedding.

I have this app, but have never used it: Shazam has been voted Gizmodo’s favorite iPhone app. My problem with it? I usually want to know the name of a song while I’m driving!

You can get the Joker added to your iPad. You know: if you really want to.

The Euro has fallen to a new low.

Mark Cuban on making money on the internet and why print is not dead.

Social networking and shopping are converging? Yes.

Hotmail is making some improvements to keep up with other web mail services. About bloody time! I’ve been using Hotmail since 1997. I’m due for an upgrade!

I just found this article title amusing: Facebook and Shutterfly are Now In a Relationship.
 
Kids are teaching about time travel on YouTube. They're learning about this via a service called Ignition Tutoring.

From Doc: the U.S. Air Force is doing serious work in testing "fly-back" rocket boosters. About time someone did it. Fly-back units were originally considered for the Space Shuttle, back when they wanted it to be a fully reusable system.

I'm shocked, shocked...too much TV leads to poor school performance. Jeez, they knew this when I was a kid! Have they heard that the Pope is Catholic? That bears...never mind.

The Obama policy presents a conundrum for conservatives according to Jeff Foust and an op-ed in the Orange County Register. The conundrum being that conservatives generally oppose President Obama's spending policies, often going so far as to call them socialist, but here is one situation where he is trying to reduce the government role (Constellation) and actually trying to privatize (by spending more money on commercial launches to the International Space Station)--a standard plank in the GOP platform. However, I don't see this as a problem for conservatives. If space exploration is looked at as an extension of a strong national defense (a standard part of the conservative platforms of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Regan), which it is, then it is fine as a government expenditure. Paradoxically, an increase in government spending on space--Constellation and COTS--would increase the number of U.S. commercial providers of launch services and keep NASA and U.S. space technologies on the cutting edge by continuing the nation's commitment to exploration of other worlds. Crazy as this sounds, if Obama's policy was passed as is but added Constellation, I'd have no problem with it whatsoever. So sayeth this paleocon and "space moderate."

What would make NASA "cool again?" Consider this blog by my fellow space blogger Nick Skytland.

With the recent news of five soldiers getting killed in Afghanistan, this video from Father Dan of joyous family members greeting returning veterans warms the heart.

From Berin: an event called "Can Government Save the Press?" Reminds me of a quip by Ronald Reagan regarding government thinking: "If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it."

And I think that'll about do for this evening. Stay tuned, sports fans. It's an interesting world out there. You never know what we're going to hear next.

Just Liked This...

Occasionally Keith Cowing pulls out some good stuff.

Potpourri CXXXIII

A Pakistani airport pulled over a guy with circuitry in his shoes.

Earth microbes are unlikely to contaminate Mars. Well, duhhhh.

Piece of Newton’s apple tree is set to fly on Shuttle. Fun!

Also fun: they're getting a live Star Trek show at KSC Visitor’s Center.


From my buddy John, a fellow Chicago Irishman and writer, some interesting links for aspiring writers.

From the Down Under Defense Expert, a little hair-raising audio from a pilot arguing with Air Traffic Control at Kennedy Airport about where he could or could not land in a high crosswind.

Now we’re talkin’…space tourism flights out of Curaçao! If the zero-gravity thing doesn't work so well for you, you've got access to plenty of high-octane tropical drinks once you land.

Soyuz rockets are now being assembled in Guyana. Wonder what ol' "Uncle Joe" Stalin would've thought of that?


An Augustine panel member is criticizing Obama's NASA spending plan.

Massachusetts is in line to receive over $15M in STEM grants.
 
My friend and fellow space blogger Jeff Foust, as always, is worth reading. The last two sentences made this editorial for me.

There's some more high-resolution video of the Pad Abort 1 test available on Vimeo.
 
A rain-making laser? (No Dr. Evil references, please.)
 
Investors were not impressed by $1 trillion European bailout proposal, designed to stem the impending financial ruin of Greece and other nations on the Continent. Among the guarantors for this bailout would be France, Germany, and the American taxpayer. What, you didn't know?

Potpourri CXXVIII

Got a couple of things from Darlene the Science Cheerleader, but let's start with this since odds are that Your Humble Narrator might be cited or quoted in it:

*Save the Date*

 

REINVENTING TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

 

A 21st Century Model

 

Around the world the pace, complexity, and social significance of technological changes are increasing. Yet the broad social ramifications are often not considered until after new technologies become widely adapted and entrenched. This makes the need for technology assessment (TA) greater than ever, sparking renewed interest in TA models, practices, and evaluation.

 

Join us on Wednesday, April 28th, at 3:00 p.m. for a discussion of a new report that explores possible future options for technology assessment and ways to use citizen participation, collaboration, and expert analysis to inform and improve decision-making on issues involving science and technology.

 

You must register to attend the event.

 

Please RSVP at stip@wilsoncenter.org

 

*** Webcast LIVE at www.wilsoncenter.org/stip  ***

 

No RSVP required to view the webcast.

What:

 

REINVENTING TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: A 21st Century Model

 

When:

 

Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 3:00 – 4:30 PM (reception to follow)

Who:

 

Richard Sclove, Ph.D., Founder and Senior Fellow, The Loka Institute

 

Commenter: Paul Stern, Ph.D., National Research Council

 

Moderator: David Rejeski, Director, Science and Technology Innovation Program

Where: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 5th Floor Conference Room

 

The real prize item from Dar, however, is this site, wherein groups or individuals post problems they would like solved and pony up money to the person(s) who come up with a solution. This is technology crowdsourcing at its best. I'm looking forward to reading this site in more detail!

Robert Zubrin has a new editorial in The New Atlantis on the Obama administration's current plans for NASA. As usual, Bob's stuff is worth reading. Alas, the odds of this nation sending humans to Mars are slim within my lifetime. But it's still good for the soul to swing for the fences when you're dreaming. Someone needs to; the folks in Washington aren't.

 

For years intelligence has been measured by I.Q., a general "intellingence quotient." However, D2 suggested that I might find research into "multiple intellgences" worth investigating. What are "multiple intelligences?" The links provide some clue, but what the theory states is simply that intelligence can be broken out into different types, like linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal, and not everyone has them all in the same quantities. I recall a great line from Green Mars (I believe), which stated that "the truly remarkable people are the ones who are smart in more than one way." For example, you could be the greatest theoretical physicist on Earth, but if you're a crass boor, you are severely lacking in interpersonal intelligence because no one wants to be in the room with you. http://pzweb.harvard.edu/History/History.htm

• http://pzweb.harvard.edu/PIs/MIat25.pdf
• http://www.amazon.com/Frames-Mind-Theory-Multiple-Intelligences/dp/0465025102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270817907&sr=8-1

From Martin: a great pic of a Martian landslide caught by one of NASA's orbiters. Speaking of planetary explorers, data from the Venus Explorer suggests that Venus might be geologically active. Cool stuff!

 

Also, if you're so inclined, a group in India is offering a $2,000 prize to the individual or group that comes up with the best design for a solar power satellite.

 

I will be at Yuri's Night in Huntsville this evening. Drop on by, visit a Yuri's Night party in your area, or start your own!

Potpourri CXXVI

I'm in the process of remodeling and adding a lot more content to Rhetoric & Rockets (a.k.a. Bartacus), so if you see more than the usual number of book or product reviews, that is on purpose. I'm trying to see how much money, if any, I can make through my Amazon Affiliate activities. Here's the general premise: if I write a good enough review and you are tempted to buy a book/video/product based on said review, click on the product "badge" on the page, and buy it through Amazon. The writer/creator/producer gets the joy of a customer, and I get a tiny piece of the action as a reviewer.

Another week's worth of stuff to plow through, so my apologies if there isn't a lot of commentary attached. In response to a comment from one reader, I do not read EVERYTHING included in these links, but it would probably terrify you to know how much I do read. Shall we begin?

From Hu: The People's Republic of China is studying a Saturn V-class launch vehicle. There is only one practical purpose for such a rocket, and that is to send human beings to the Moon. What do they know that the Obama administration does not, hmmmm?

From Greg A.: In the spirit of the late Senator William Proxmire and his "Golden Fleece" award, here are the most 10 most absurd scientific papers published in recent memory.

From Tracy: A good article on how space was promoted back when our country believed that exploring space was a Good Thing.

From D2:

• A Big Think video explaining the possible psychological bases of political ideologies. This one gets a "maybe" in my truthiness scale, but it's an intriguing notion.
• Another article that will probably be of interest to Dr. OZMG re: the profit motive and keeping animals in captivity

From Science @ NASA: Some interesting things are happening on the Sun.

From Dar, who is visiting the South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference this weekend:

• An article on the future of video games.
• Science has become a serious political issue in the UK (about time it was taken seriously somewhere!).

From Hank Campbell: The Open Source Science Project, a page that encourages private citizens to participate in, and comment upon, research in progress.

How did they get that bug in the museum anyway? A 100-year-old mystery solved. I expect to see a CSI episode about this soon, but it wouldn't be the same without Grissom on the show.


President Obama has called for a space summit in Florida April 15. He'd better have really good briefings/message control, because there are a lot of angry people at Kennedy Space Center. Anyhow, there are several articles about this summit, which NASAWatch has conveniently put all in one place:

• http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/03/florida-space-s.html
• http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/03/space-policy-an.html
• http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/03/daniel-in-the-l.html

Jeff Foust also has a discussion about the summit on his Space Politics blog.

Is the Orion crew exploration vehicle being transferred to the commercial sector? This article says yes.

Some interesting stuff from OpenNASA…
http://www.opennasa.com/2010/03/09/heavenly-answers-for-earthly-problems/
http://www.opennasa.com/2010/03/11/open-participation-not-just-open-information/

Also from Jeff Foust's Space Politics/The Space Review blogs...

• Some progress might be made on making export control rules more rational (i.e. not so tight that American aerospace companies cannot compete overseas).
• An excellent analysis of how the unveiling of the Obama administration's NASA budget was rolled out and why they face challenges getting their way in fiscal year 2011.
• What hope does the U.S. or NASA have for getting international partners for future space missions? Taylor Dinerman says the odds aren't great unless some serious structural changes are made. This is easily fixed, by the way. The Department of Defense is able to obtain "five-year" funds to build things like aircraft carriers without having to debate the whole thing every year.

Florida members of Congress are trying to keep the Shuttle flying longer.

Machines capable of reading thoughts? Maybe.


Here's an article on the fact that Twitter knows where you are tweeting from. But really, anyone familiar with the technology already knew this…

Like most large, bureaucratic organizations, the Department of Defense has a love-hate relationship with social media web sites.

This is kind of cool: a Flash feature showing the process/progress of assembling the International Space Station (ISS). Just a gentle reminder, all: there are only four more Space Shuttle missions planned, and once they're done and, if the President gets his way, the Constellation Program, NASA will NOT have a rocket that can fly up to ISS until 2016 at the earliest, leaving us dependent on the Russians to get our astronauts there. If you want to know why, I suggest calling your elected officials and demanding an answer. I already KNOW the answer, but I'm not going to share that. It's more fun for you to call and ask. Trust me.

From Martin: A Russian-language travelogue through a "boomer" (nuclear missile submarine) base. I'd be interested to know if this sub is considered "active," or if it's been retired. If it's been retired, has all the hot stuff--the ship's nuclear reactor and its missiles--been removed? Russian speakers are welcome to enlighten me.

The Echoes of Apollo group is interested in building or enhancing the Deep Space Network, which is a worldwide set of dish antennas used to collect data from satellites and vehicles farther in space. Gosh knows the U.S. system could use an upgrade or two.

From Regina: The European Space Agency (ESA) has upgraded its "Eduspace" web page for space education.

From Father Dan: A very cool map of weather conditions at every airport in the U.S.

From Lin: A new bicycle from New Zealand, the "Yike Bike."

And that will do for now. Your readership and patronage are appreciated!

What Should Be Done With NASA?

The National Space Society issued a press release yesterday on the Obama administration's 2011 budget. The whole thing is worth reading, but the first paragraph crystallizes the argument:

The National Space Society (NSS) commends NASA and the Executive Branch for proposing to increase spending for science, technology, and sustainable economic development in space; however, we believe the President’s 2011 budget request would leave the job only partly done. NSS calls for the President and Congress to restore funding for human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit. NASA’s goal should be to make it possible to incorporate energy and resources from space into our economy and to extend human presence throughout the solar system.

If you are interested in changing the future of the space program and continuing to send Americans beyond low-Earth orbit, register now for NSS Legislative Blitz. We are organizing citizen lobbyists to visit Congressional and Senate offices February 21-23 to tell our elected officials why it's important to do so. You don't need a lot of fancy training (one day should do it); just dress nicely and be prepared to speak clearly with whatever passion you can bring to bear. Space exploration needs all the help it can get.

The Cure for Space Burnout--Remember Why You're Here in the First Place

It’s not pretty, and we don’t like to admit it, but job/career burnout can happen in any line of work, even careers we’re passionate about. Such things usually happen through overwork, lack of creative control, lack of challenge, or as Dr. OZMG likes to say, “deeper underlying issues.” I’ve had a three-year job adaptation cycle for awhile now, where I spend the first year absorbing the content, the second year kicking arse using that content, and the third year repeating the performance of year two, but usually with a lower level of enthusiasm. My pal D2 reported a similar phenomenon to me, so it’s not unheard-of. The challenge, of course, is what to do if you’re burned out in the literal career of your dreams.

When I worked at Walt Disney World, I went through several three-year cycles, but managed to stay with the same company for 12 years. One of the things I would do just to keep myself happy and motivated was to “renew the wonder.” This would involve something like staying in one of the hotels I hadn’t stayed in before, taking a Disney Cruise, or just hanging out in the parks with no set agenda. My favorite personal recharging is still a walk through Epcot.

It’s a little hard to revisit rocket launches in the space business because they don’t happen very often. In fact, we’re only five missions away from the end of the Space Shuttle Program. That little fact is beginning to creep up on people outside NASA for the first time, and so now normal (i.e. non-space-geek) people like my family, Disney friends, and Dr. OZMG are starting to ask, “You’re closing down the Shuttle? Really? What do we do then?” And if you’ve been in the middle of that debate with little to no influence on the outcome but a whole lot invested in the outcome, you have to ask yourself what you can do to keep your spirits up and avoid the stress of prolonged uncertainty and possible massive changes in your program. In my case, I have to remind myself why I got into this business, what it means in normal-person terms, and what it means to me personally. Below is such an exercise. As usual, these views do not reflect those of NASA, my employer, etc. They are an English major’s view of why the space program matters to him.

The Big Picture

Before I got interested in space as an actual business or line of work, I was a science fiction fan. Science fiction encompasses everything from the space fantasies of Star Trek and Star Wars to the sociological utopias/dystopias of Ursula K. LeGuin and Ray Bradbury to the “hard” science fiction works of Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, and Michael Crichton. Many of these stories depict human beings living, working, and having regular human problems in a future where space travel is not just possible but commonplace. We are nowhere near there yet, but that’s the “vision thing,” as George H. W. Bush might’ve said.

The space advocacy group I belong to, and currently write policy/position papers for, is the National Space Society (NSS). Their vision is “People living and working in communities beyond the Earth.” I dug that. I liked the idea of homes and businesses on the Moon, on Mars, in space stations circling this planet or others. It intrigues me that human beings could explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, collect helium 3 from the atmospheres of Neptune and Saturn, and use water-ice objects from the outer solar system to add water to the atmosphere of Mars. It startles and humbles me that I live in an age where objects made by humans have and can leave the solar system. I can’t do any of it, but the dreams are big, and such things appeal to me. If NSS is doing our jobs right, we get those aforementioned normal people to take an interest in the policies and technologies that will make such a future possible.

Technology

It’s not just a matter of zipping around to other planets, making footprints on the sand, and taking pretty pictures for political consumption back home. There have been and continue to be huge benefits from space exploration, direct and indirect, to people on Earth who would never in a million years consider being an engineer or an astronaut. The revolution in miniature integrated circuits—the basis for our computers today—had its birth in data collection for the Saturn V. We can thank the space program for many of our most advanced high-technology medical tools, from the CAT scan and MRI to improved breast screenings and lightweight eyeglasses. Would these advances have occurred if we hadn’t gone into space? Perhaps some, but not most of them. The key to “spinoffs” is what philosopher Gonsalvo Munevar called the serendipity of exploration:

• You develop a widget that helps a spacecraft (probe) perform a task or survive in a place with no atmosphere, high vibration (upon liftoff), temperature extremes, and strange radiations not encountered on Earth.
• You work on improving the device, material, process, or technology for future use.
• You or someone else realizes that the new device—which would never have been invented if it hadn’t been for our crazy desire to explore space—has certain properties that would also be useful for more mundane but equally useful Earth-based purpose.
• Life is improved on Earth through the new application of the space-based device.

Energy

There are two big gorillas in the medium-term future of space power that deserve to be investigated: space-based solar power (SBSP) and helium-3 fusion.

The idea behind SBSP is that you put a large farm of solar panels—say, one square mile’s worth—into geosynchronous orbit (the sort of orbit where the satellite’s period of revolution around the Earth is exactly one day, so it always stays in one place in the sky). The solar panels collect unfiltered sunlight 24 hours a day—at roughly three times the intensity felt on Earth’s equator on a hot day in spring—and transmit the energy in concentrated form via microwaves to a receiving/rectifying antenna (rectenna) on Earth. The rectenna is plugged into a city’s power grid, and voila! Fewer brownouts, fewer coal-burning power plants, less pollution, fewer hydrocarbons used. I’ve heard arguments against SBSP, but until we invest in one and put it into orbit, we really won’t know. And if we want to continue to have a prosperous, high-technology future, we’re going to need new sources of energy; “green” technologies are all too small to have much impact on our future large-scale needs.

Another potential future energy source would be nuclear fusion using helium-3, an isotope of helium that is more easily fused into other elements without as much hard radiation as a side effect. We’ve been pushing for fusion for over 50 years, and it’s always been “only 20 years away.” Helium-3 is most likely a longer-term energy solution, but again should not be discounted until we at least try it. If we want both a high-technology civilization and an improved environment, space technologies offer two possibilities worth investigating. The long-term energy supply from both of these sources runs into the centuries, not just decades.

Materials

John S. Lewis has postulated that a nickel-iron asteroid a few miles across would be enough to meet the metal needs of our planet for 20 years or more. The reasoning being, these asteroids have a lot more than just nickel and iron (an decent combination for making stainless steel, by the way), including platinum-group metals, and other useful metals, not to mention organic materials (carbon, nitrogen) and water ice, all of which could be used to build things in space or meet our metal-hungry civilization back on Earth. Of course we’d need more routine access to and from space before the cost of hauling in such a treasure trove was possible, but in the meantime, the possibilities asteroids open up for building a civilization in space are very exciting.

Civilization

Raised in the American Midwest as I was, I grew up learning about the Northwest Ordinance, and the six-by-six-mile squares that were parceled out to German and Irish and other European farmers to make the settlement of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin possible. The government offered up land for sale, and people bought it, promised nothing save the right to make what good use of it they could and the responsibility to pay taxes when they did. The “frontier narrative” speaks to me as a freedom-loving American. It won’t be completely repeatable in space because human-made habitats will be extremely vulnerable—much more so than wagon trains moving across the Great Plains—but space as a place offers the hope of establishing a new life for the very dedicated few.

Education

Exploring and living in space will require our very best efforts. It will take the combined works of many, many smart people to make it so safe that someone who is NOT that smart to live out there without a degree. The specialties cover the range of human civilization to date, from garbage collection to quantum physics. Everything that we do here we will do or try in space. We just have to learn how to do them all over again, and that will take a very unique educational system, very technical and very creative. To make those works possible, we will need people educated people capable of understanding how structures, machines, and people will act in unfamiliar environments. We will need artists and musicians and yes, even writers to be out there eventually to convey the views of people living away from the blue-green-brown-white ball we call Earth and taking their best shot at the meaning of it all. If expanding our civilization into space is our long-range goal, then our educational systems must rise to meet the challenge. Just developing the curriculum for that would be the work of several lifetimes—but how rewarding, if successful!

Summary

So there you go: I want it all. I want a thriving, bustling, free civilization in space. I want to see great works of art and architecture. I want to see risk-taking, new experiments in freedom, an expanding pie of economic growth, cheap and plentiful energy and materials for a combative world. And I believe space exploration can make such things possible. However, it is very easy to get wrapped around the axle with the current politics or arguments of the day: where do we go first? What rockets do we build? What do we spend money on, how much do we spend, and who spends it? Should we send robots or humans? How far should we go to prevent pollution of the space environment?

Space is as much a philosophical as it is a technical adventure, as America was to the Europeans 500 years ago. What lessons might we learn today that we didn’t learn then? That is the reason I stay in this gig: I want to learn—and maybe even contribute—some of those answers.

Potpourri CVIII

Note to other Blogger.com users: For some reason the "Paste" option is disabled in IE 8. Copy/paste works just fine in Firefox!

Busy research day…too much stuff to explain everything in detail, so I'm just posting headlines and links.

Monarch Butterflies in Spaaaaaaaace!
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091208-space-monarch-butterflies.html

Leonard David on Public Space Travel
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/091207-spaceshiptwo-space-touristm.html

Variations in Brightness for Sun-like Stars
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/091207-sun-stars-brightness.html

Cassini Providing Data on the Heliosphere
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/View_From_The_Center_Of_The_Solar_System_999.html

Jeffrey Bell on “Rocket Plane Roulette”
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Rocket_Plane_Roulette_999.html

NASA Moon Design Competition
http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_announces_moon_design_competition_999.html

Climate Protestors Climb the Roman Colosseum
http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/091209124623.rpqa087c.html

NASA Managers Looking at Adding Another Shuttle Flight
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/12/nasa-evaluating-sts-135-addition-to-shuttle-manifest/

Moment of Random: Captain Berlin vs. Hitler
http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/12/08/captain-berlin-vs-hitler-movie-review/#more-14335

Need Coffee eview of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods
http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/12/08/neil-gaiman-dreams/#more-14323

RFI for Using Constellation or Robotic Hardware for Future Missions
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=32990

Anti-Terrorism Hero or Wishful-Thinking Nut?
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/tedd_petruna_i_thwarted_muslim_hijackers_on_airtra.php?ref=mp

Creating Starfleet Academy?

NASAWatch: http://nasawatch.com/archives/2009/11/creating-starfl.html
OpenNASA: http://www.opennasa.com/2009/12/07/starfleet-academy/
Me: http://bartacus.blogspot.com/2008/07/starfleet-academy-proposal-several.html

Bar Camp? Not Quite What You’re Thinking…
http://www.opennasa.com/2009/12/05/spaceup-a-space-unconference/
http://spaceup.org/agenda/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp

Government in the Digital Age
http://www.opennasa.com/2009/11/25/government-in-the-digital-age/

Leading in an Era of Disruptive Innovation (THINK, for God’s sake and your own. THINK before you unleash your infernal gadgets on the world!!!)
http://www.opennasa.com/2009/11/19/leading-amidst-the-disruptive-innovation-storm/

Boeing Looking for a Non-Union Source of 787 Parts Due to Strike (I’m shocked, shocked…)
http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/12/07/daily19.html

Flight Delays Up in October (Okay, fine, but how many of those were due to airline problems vs. the government’s antiquated Air Traffic Control system?)
=http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2009-12-08-october-airline-performance_N.htm

Go Boldly on The Space Show
http://www.goboldlynasa.org/
http://spacefellowship.com/2009/12/07/this-week-on-the-space-show-121/
http://www.thespaceshow.com/detail.asp?q=1271

(From Dar the Science Cheerleader) Hydrogen-Powered Cars for Kids...and This is a Toy!
http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/2009/12/the-cure-for-the-holiday-shopping-blues/

Science Jewelry for the Brain
http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/2009/12/science-jewelry-for-your-brain/

I Can Has Singularity?
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/cascio20091120/

Global Warming and Mt. Kilimanjaro
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704342404574577892593153408.html?mod=rss_Today%27s_Most_Popular

Did You Know that CO2 Was a Threat to Public Health? According to the EPA, It Is
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/2009/Q4/view600.html#Tuesday

Shubber Ali on Giving Up Space Blogging (Can’t Say That I Blame Him)
http://spacecynic.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/thanksgiving-and-a-sort-of-farewell/

Jeff Foust on NASA’s FY2010 Budget
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2009/12/09/fy2010-budget-endgame/

Chris Carberry Resigns from Mars Society Executive Director Post
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2009/12/05/mars-society-executive-director-steps-down/

Soyuz to Start Launching from French Guiana
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/11/30/335601/soyuz-to-go-west-in-2010.html

For Orlando people who get warm and romantic thoughts about cold & ice
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/attractions/orl-ice-pg,0,1748946.photogallery

Walt Disney World is Reducing Discounts in 2010. Wait a minute, Disney does discounts??
http://thedailydisney.com/blog/2009/12/iger-disney-will-dial-back-on-park-discounts-in-latter-part-of-2010/

The Copenhagen summit on global climate change is not going well...the U.N. is not happy that it's not getting its way and that a draft agreement was leaked to the press
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-summit-disarray-danish-text

From my NASA PAO feed:

NASA MAKING GOVERNMENT MORE ACCESSIBLE WITH CUTTING-EDGE USE OF NEW MEDIA

WASHINGTON -- NASA is supporting the White House's Open Government
Directive with a number of Internet-based programs designed to make
the agency more accessible and create a dialog with the American
people about their space program.

NASA is one of six departments and agencies working to spur innovation
by making it easier for high-tech companies to identify
collaborative, entrepreneurial opportunities. Government agencies are
home to treasure troves of data and information, too much of which is
underutilized by the private sector because it is either not easily
found or exists in cumbersome formats. NASA and the National
Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration in the
Department of Health and Human Services, the Agricultural Research
Service in the Department of Agriculture, the National Institute of
Standards and Technology in the Department of Commerce and the
Department of Energy are working together to increase access to
information on publicly-funded technologies that are available for
license, opportunities for federal funding and partnerships, and
potential private-sector partners.

NASA's Innovative Partnerships Programs Office is working to establish
an RSS feed to publicize technologies available for public licensing.
By making information from multiple agencies available in RSS and XML
feeds on Data.gov, the government empowers innovators to find the
information they need and receive real-time updates, which can fuel
entrepreneurial momentum, create new jobs, and strengthen economic
growth. NASA's RSS feed will make these opportunities more visible to
the commercial and research communities. NASA plans on having the
feed operational by Dec. 31.

NASA also has undertaken an extensive effort to use the Internet and
social media tools to engage the public on agency activities. NASA's
home page on the Internet, www.nasa.gov, offers information on all of
the agency's missions, research and discoveries.

In January 2009, nasa.gov capitalized on the agency's growing social
media efforts by rolling out a new "Connect and Collaborate with
NASA" page, at www.nasa.gov/connect. This provides the public with
quick connections to the agency's pages on Twitter, Facebook,
UStream, YouTube, Flickr and MySpace, as well as NASA podcasts and
vodcasts on iTunes. The page also provides links to agency chats,
Tweetup events, RSS feeds and the agency's official blog.

The agency's social media presence was further expanded in November
with the addition of NASA's Twitter feed to the homepage. The website
offers links to NASA-related desktop "widgets" and opportunities for
the public to collaborate directly with the agency through art
contests, engineering challenges and imagery and data analysis.

Another new communication tool is Spacebook, a NASA internal expert
networking utility. Spacebook has been used to improve collaboration
across NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. The Spacebook site allows
new and established NASA staff to get to know the agency's diverse
community of scientists, engineers, project managers and support
personnel.

"Space doesn't explore itself. Science doesn't discover itself. People
do that, and to do that they have to talk," said Emma Antunes, the
project manager who also manages Goddard's Web site. "They have to
trade questions and ideas. They have to connect. And, the more
diverse the group, the more likely connections and conversations will
lead to new ideas and innovation. Spacebook will enhance NASA's
capacity to do just that."

A fun video from the Coalition for Space Exploration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-ZWMeFR5bw

TV show recommendation by Hu: Outer Space Astronauts... http://www.syfy.com/outerspaceastronauts/

Web Contest:
Enter this contest for pre-collegiate students by building a Web site that communicates your vision of the future.

Furniture made from reclaimed wine barrels: http://www.etsy.com/shop/StilNovoDesign

And, of course, I'd be remiss as a space geek if I didn't point out the rollout of SpaceShipTwo on Virgin Galactic's site.

And I think that'll do for tonight...

Potpourri CV

First, from my buddy Dauna at Science @ NASA, a great article on the benefits gained from the Mars Spirit rover getting stuck in the Martian sand.

From my NASA PAO feed:

NASA will host a media teleconference with Bob Ess, Ares I-X mission manager, at 1 p.m. CST on Thursday, Dec. 3. Ess will provide reporters with an update gathered during the test flight of the rocket, which took place October 28 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

New from Hu: A story from PR Newswire on processes used to develop the tank dome for the Ares I upper stage.

For the Down Under Defense Expert (DUDE): Kiwis in spaaaaaaace! And from the DUDE, a link to the company itself.

Also from the DUDE: Green politics is now considered a religious faith and so subject to the same protections in the UK.

That's about it for now. Ciao!

Returning to Business As Usual

The three weeks off have cured me of a creeping burnout, but they have also curbed my enthusiasm for things here when I'm still entranced by things I saw in Europe. I'll get back to "normal" in due course, but don't be too surprised if I continue to dwell on the past and my vacation on this page for a bit. I also owe Darlene the Science Cheerleader a short piece on some of NASA's public outreach efforts on the web, so that will show up on her blog in the next day or so. Meanwhile, I need to clear some science and technology stuff from my inbox, and this seemed like a good night to do it.

I haven't read Jerry Pournelle's blog (or much of anything else) in three weeks. He has a series of reflections on healthcare, the rule of law, and the war in Afghanistan that deserve reading.

Wired Science has a blog discussing the Augustine Panel hearings. Apparently while I was away Congress was less than receptive to some of the ideas coming out of the panel's deliberations. Interesting, since they decide which bills will get paid. This ain't over by a long shot.

Facebook, where most of my vacation articles are being published first because their picture-uploading app is better, now has a "population" nearly equal to the U.S.

Lockheed Martin has a good page of communication tools for the Orion crew exploration vehicle.

Here's a site developed by some young professionals that talks about the benefits of space exploration and includes a petition form to help you tell your elected representative(s) why space is important to you.

A slew of news from Hu:

• Commissioner Wants 500000 Letters To Save Shuttle Program
• Can a letter-writing campaign save Florida jobs?
• Commissioner Wants 500000 Letters To Save Shuttle Program
• Space Coast organizing letter-writing effort to support NASA
• Help Save America's Human Space Exploration Program
• How Will Future Of Spaceflight Affect Space Coast?
• Don't plan your shuttle going-away party for 2010. Try 2011.

From my NewSpace News feed from the Space Frontier Foundation:

• A story about Boeing teaming up with Bigelow Aerospace to bid on NASA's Commercial Crew Transport System.
• The Rocket Racing League seems to be in trouble. They're losing their lease on hangar space in Las Cruces.

That's it for now. Be patient, y'all. I'll get back to "Bart-normal" eventually. In the meantime, enjoy the quiet.

Potpourri XCIX

Okay kids, let's dig into Bart's bag o' tricks and see what surprises are lurking out there in Cyberspace...

My former Disney IT manager Dalton now has a blog. Dalton has since left Disney and now makes his living as a humorist, lecturer, and voice-over artist. Good for him!

From Yohon, more bad news about the state of television. It seems the CW network (formerly WB) has decided there's an unfulfilled need to revive the Melrose Place franchise. Sigh. Kinda makes me long for Dynasty. At least most of the folks on that show were grown-ups.

A follow-up on the alleged comment by NASA Administrator Bolden on Ares I-X: it seems Keith Cowing might've posted erroneous information (I'm shocked, shocked). Rand Simberg wonders about the comments as well. Much as Ares detractors might hope otherwise, work continues on the flight test and the project.

From Lin, an editorial that claims that Obama has played the "God card," as people who believe in God should believe in his policies.

I started out this morning in a bit of a snit, probably because the Ares-related news was so bad over the weekend. Here's what came to me as I was ruminating over the state of America's human spaceflight program:

This is a story that Robert Zubrin included in The Case for Mars, and it bears repeating. In the late 1300s and early 1400s, the Ming Dynasty in China had the largest and most powerful merchant fleet in the world, calling on ports ranging from Japan to Indonesia to the east coast of Africa. The book 1421 even speculates that part of this fleet sailed around the world. Yet by the 1430s, after the death of the eunuch admiral Zheng He, the voyages of this massive fleet were ended, the ships beached or burned, and China’s international presence diminished. The Mings turned inward, consumed by political machinations and usurpers in the capital. By the 1450s, the first trading ships of the Portuguese had arrived around the Horn of Africa, and by the 1500s were trading on the shores of China itself. Between 1500 and 1900, China became weaker and weaker as it ceased exploring and advancing its
technologies, bringing it eventually under the domination of the European empires.

The lessons for the U.S. should be obvious: if we cease to explore space, others will arise to fill the void. Nations that explore have advantages in technology, trade, and influence that non-exploring nations do not. Nations that turn inward decline and self-destruct, with political horizons focused on tightening control of local politics (tyranny) instead of responding to the needs of international exploration and commerce (openness). Social structures harden, planning and philosophical horizons shrink, government ossifies, and military doctrine turns to defensive measures rather than expansion or attack. “Great nations explore,” NASA is fond of saying; what they neglect to mention is that “Great nations that cease exploring die.”

To which Dan the PAO Man replied, "And good morning to you, too." Still. Just sayin'...

Bob Ess, the Ares I-X Mission Manager, is not taking this negativity lying down. He made it quite clear that the work is continuing.

On a completely different note, the Wall Street Journal has a good article offering a suggested set of conservative reforms which, as I suggested a couple days ago, would reduce the amount of government interference in the healthcare market.

*

On the reading front, I finished The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development is Bringing Down Western Civilization, by Diana West, which I highly recommend but haven't found the leisure to review in full.

I also read The Culture We Deserve: A Critique of Disenlightenment, by the late teacher and scholar Jacques Barzun. This book is a critique of various scholarly maladies afflicting our culture, from literature to history to the visual arts, most of them coming out of the university, but he doesn't do nearly as good a job as Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind in offering remedies for these problems. Far be it for me to slight Mr. Barzun's work, however. I highly recommend Teacher in America, a reflection on his early encounters with American education (he came here as a teacher from France in the mid-1940s) and From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present, which is a masterful overview of some of the great works that all of us should read or should have read to fully appreciate the culture into which Westerners were born.

My most recent reading was Escape from Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Escape from Hell is a sequel to Niven and Pournelle's earlier sequel to Dante's Inferno, both of which I reviewed last October and found enjoyable--or at least as enjoyable as trips through Hell can be. Escape was not nearly as enjoyable, for some reason. I can see why Niven and Pournelle returned to that literary territory. They left a number of loose ends for their protagonist to work out, the most important of which was finding a functional and just reason for hell to exist. Perhaps I need to go back and reread the ending--I finished the book in nearly one sitting, it's that engaging--because the answers Allen Carpenter receives don't seem nearly enough to satisfy.

I'm trying to finish Science Matters: Achieving Science Literacy before I head off to Europe. It's not that I consider myself entirely science-illiterate, but I know there are gaps in my education. And as a fun side note, my pal Dar the Science Cheerleader managed to get the Philadelphia '76ers' cheerleaders to do a cheer for each of the points in this book as a way to encourage people to get a "brain makeover." I don't have nearly that kind of pull.

And so I bid you good night. Salud, y'all. Looking forward to tuning out in 12 days.

Potpourri XCIII

Let's get to it. I've got French lessons to catch up on!

Thomas Sowell has a hard-hitting piece on Obama's inexperience.

A variety of stories from my AIAA news feed:

• A Boeing plant in South Carolina is voting on whether to keep the International Association of Machinists (IAM) union in their shop. That will not make Obama happy.
• NORAD is conducting an exercise to prepare for the Vancouver Olympics. I didn't realize al-Qaeda had an air force.
• NASA has selected the crew for what could be the last scheduled Space Shuttle flight. It's real, folks, regardless of what the Augustine Panel decides.
• French wine growers are benefitting from satellite imagery.
• NPR has a story today on NASA's Student Airborne Research Program.

Paul Spudis has a good editorial on sustainability in space exploration. The problem is that there are two kinds of sustainability in the space business: technical and political. And the technical, if "boring" to the electorate or their elected officials, will not be politically sustainable. However, a politically exciting and sustainable program might leave behind little that is reusable.

Liberal Camille Paglia, a still-strong Obama supporter, has torn into the Democrats' handling of the healthcare bill. This is not a good sign.

The United Nations Secretary-General says we have four months to act or global warming will doom us. By "act," he means sign a climate treaty in Copenhagen that will cut greenhouse gas emissions. Right. After one of the coldest summers in the history of modern record keeping.

I am in the process of reading the House healthcare bill, but it is a long, painful slog, and I have other things to read as well. In the meantime, I commend this analysis by a classics professor to your attention.

More on the Blue Brain project. Gotta wonder about the Singularity.