Category: Behind The Black

Space exploration and the unexpected consequences of government decisions

4:24 pm

On Thursday, December 15, 2011, NASA management announced what seemed at first glance to be a very boring managerial decision. Future contracts with any aerospace company to launch astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) will follow the same contractual arrangements used by NASA and SpaceX and Orbital Sciences for supplying cargo to the space station.

As boring that sounds, this is probably the most important decision NASA managers have made since the 1960s. Not only will this contractual approach lower the cost and accelerate the speed of developing a new generation of manned spaceships, it will transfer control of space exploration from NASA — an overweight and bloated government agency — to the free and competitive open market.

To me, however, the decision illustrates a number of unexpected consequences, none of which have been noted by anyone in the discussions that followed NASA’s announcement back in mid-December.
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How to deal with the leftwing press

8:31 pm

Rick Perry demonstrates how to deal with the leftwing press. With video.

Politico reporter: “These are members of your staff.”
Rick Perry: “You got a name?”
Politico reporter: “Who say –”
Rick Perry: “You got a name?”
[pause]
Politico reporter: “You won’t listen to –”
Rick Perry: “You got a name?”
Politico reporter: “Uh.”
Rick Perry: “If you don’t have a name to tell me this individual said this, then I don’t take that as a corroborating source.”

Politico is the same outfit that destroyed Herman Cain based on unnamed sources and undescribed charges. They are also the same outfit that has had plagiarism problems recently. Perry shows us how this kind of shoddy reporting deserves to be treated.

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Top 10 Ways Hollywood Can Win Its Audience Back

7:54 pm

The top ten ways Hollywood can win its audience back.

As someone who spent almost twenty years in the movie business, I think Nolte hits the nail on the head. I also think Hollywood will not do any of the things he suggests, mostly because it would require them to abandon their elite, leftwing ideology that for the past thirty years has become the only thing too many Hollywood people care about.

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The new Arctic ozone hole

4:51 pm

An interesting and very informative paper was published by the American Geophysical Union this past Saturday, entitled “Arctic winter 2010/2011 at the brink of an ozone hole.” The first paragraph of the introduction essentially summed up the paper’s key points:

Large losses of Arctic stratospheric ozone have been observed during winter 2010/2011, exceeding observed losses during cold winters over the past decades, characterized as the first Arctic Ozone Hole. Although in general Arctic ozone is expected to recover because of the reductions in ozone depleting substances as a result of the Montreal Protocol and its amendments, the observation that apparently the cold Arctic winters in the stratosphere have been getting colder over the past decades raises some concern that Arctic ozone depletion may worsen over the next decades if the cooling trend continues while concentrations of ozone depleting substances remain sufficiently high. [emphasis mine]

Two important take-aways:
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Olympic VIPs will get 4000 BMWs and their own private traffic lanes in what the Olympics bill as the “green Games.”

9:15 pm

Equality and environmentalism among the elite: Olympic VIPs to get 4000 BMWs and their own private traffic lanes in what the Olympics bill as the “green Games.”

It is understood that at least 250 VIPs will be given their own designated BMW, complete with a personal chauffeur, to escort them from their Park Lane hotels to the Games. Several thousand other officials, sponsors, dignitaries and athletes – known as the ‘Olympic family’ – will share the remaining pool of plush cars, worth up to £30,000 each.

Members of the public will be urged to walk or try to board crowded trains and buses.

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At the end of 2011, America, like much of the rest of the Western world, has dug deeper into a cocoon of denial.

12:16 am

“At the end of 2011, America, like much of the rest of the Western world, has dug deeper into a cocoon of denial.”

Tens of millions of Americans have yet to understand that the can can no longer be kicked down the road, because we’re all out of road. The pavement ends, and there’s just a long drop into the abyss. And, even in a state-compliant car seat, you’ll land with a bump. At this stage in a critical election cycle, we ought to be arguing about how many government departments to close, how many government programs to end, how many millions of government regulations to do away with. Instead, one party remains committed to encrusting even more barnacles to America’s rusting hulk, while the other is far too wary of harshing the electorate’s mellow.

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Occupy Albany protesters threaten a police officer and his family

9:48 pm

Thugs: After being pepper-sprayed by police during their eviction from an Albany park in which they were camping illegally, Occupy Albany protesters have responded by mounting a campaign threatening a police officer and his family.

A “wanted” poster seeking information including the home address, telephone numbers and “map to home” of Officer Richard Gorleski was posted Wednesday on a Facebook page used by Occupy Albany. Gorleski’s address and telephone numbers are not publicly listed. But Gorleski’s father, a Troy resident who has the same first name as his son, began receiving unsettling telephone calls from blocked numbers this week. Troy police said they have taken measures to keep watch on the residence.

This “Occupy Whatever” movement is not the peaceful expression of freedom of speech. It is instead terrorism, the violent effort of a few spoiled leftwing brats who believe in the use of force and violence to impose their will on everyone else, including the right to destroy anyone who disagrees with them.

Any politician who provides this kind of behavior aid or comfort should be voted out of office at the first opportunity, regardless of party.

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How to self-destruct your company with just a few measly emails

10:21 am

How to self-destruct your PR company with just a few measly emails.

The reason this story has gone viral is that everyone has had to deal with rude and uninformed customer service people who not only don’t answer questions accurately, often downright lie to get you off the phone. And sadly, they can get away with it because companies allow them to. With this story, however, justice triumphed. Thank you Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.

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Want to see an asteroid eclipse a star?

9:50 am

transit of Betelgeuse

On January 2, 2012, an asteroid is going to transit across the face of Betelgeuse. And if you live in Europe, own a very sensitive telescope, look close and don’t blink, you might be able to see it!

This is all according to a preprint paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph preprint website, written by scientist Costantino Sigismondi of the Galileo Ferraris Institute and International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics in Rome. You can download the paper here [pdf].

The transit itself will only last 3.6 seconds, and will only be visible along a narrow swath crossing southern India and moving across the Middle East, through parts of Italy, France, and the southwestern most tips of England and Ireland. A map of this path is below the fold.
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