Category: Behind The Black

The future ups and downs of government spending in space

8:55 pm

A new report says that government spending on space will flatten worldwide over the next five years. Some key quotes from the news story however suggest all is not going downhill:

A total of 692 satellites will be launched by governments in the coming decade, up 43% from the previous decade. This is a direct reflection of the increasing number of new space-capable countries across the globe. Civil agencies will launch roughly 75% of these satellites, a significant increase compared to the last decade during which they accounted for 67% of all government satellites launched.

Also, while certain areas will show a decline (the U.S. manned program) others appear robust.

Access to space (launch capability) investments reached $4.6 billion in 2010, and should be sustained in the coming years as more governments see independent access to space as a top priority of their space programs.

In both of the above examples, the areas where space activity will increase is because of the arrival of new space-faring nations (India, Japan, China to name only the most obvious), what I have been calling the new colonial movement. I also believe that as these new countries begin to show their stuff in space, their success will further fuel the competition, and the older space-faring nations will come back to life in order to stay in the game.

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Squeals from the media

4:56 pm

Squeals from the media. Key quote:

Now that budget battles have begun in earnest all around the country, those advocating spending cuts, Democrat and Republican, had better not expect any help in furthering their cause from the mainstream news media. In fact, the news media might be their most formidable foe. How so? Well, now that we know the targets of the cuts, the news media, suckers for a sob story, are already throbbing with carefully orchestrated, heart-rending tales about what devastation those cuts will cause.

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A potential landing site for next Mars rover

3:32 pm

This week’s release of cool images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter included the color image below of a region on the floor of Holden Crater, one of the four possible landing sites for Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory planned for launch later this year. (If you want to see the entire image at higher resolution, you can download it here.)

Two things that immediately stand out about this image (other than this looks like an incredibly spectacular place to visit):

Holden Crater canyons

» Read more

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Showdown in Wisconsin

11:35 am

Showdown in Wisconsin. Key quote:

Government school teachers, among others, are not happy and have shut down entire school districts across the state for two days so they can protest.

I have two thoughts on this…

1. Hell yes.

2. About time.

Public employees should not be allowed to unionize or if they are, they should be forbidden to contribute to political campaigns. The current system essentially allows the employees to buy off the managers (politicians) in order to rip off the owners (the public). It’s a system that is corrupt by it’s very existence. The proof of this is the public pension and benefits schemes that threatens to crush the fiscal solvency of many states.

Update and bumped. This New York Times article summarizes the situation nicely. To me, however, the key quote is this:

Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican leader in the State Senate, slipped out of the Capitol Wednesday morning with his sunglasses on, head down. Protesters had gone to his home earlier in the week, forcing his family (including his wife, a school guidance counselor) to go elsewhere for a bit.

You can see some video of the protests here: Union hate rally in Wisconsin: Protests rife with Hitler, gun targets, death threats.

So, another demonstration of how the left tones down the rhetoric: threatening the family of a lawmaker.

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House votes to move money from NASA to local law enforcement

11:19 pm

The House votes to shift $298 million from NASA to local law enforcement.

What idiocy. I can accept the idea of cutting NASA considering the state of the deficit. However, for Congress to instead spend the money for local police work, something that is definitely not the responsibility of the federal government, is plain foolishness. The need now is to cut, cut, cut, until the budget is under control. Only then can we reasonably consider spending money on these programs.

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Why more railroad subsidies make no sense

9:30 pm

Why high-speed rail makes no sense. Key quote:

High-speed rail would transform Amtrak’s small drain [on the government] into a much larger drain. Once built, high-speed rail systems would face a dilemma. To recoup initial capital costs — construction and train purchases — ticket prices would have to be set so high that few people would choose rail. But lower prices, even with favorable passenger loads, might not cover costs. Government would be stuck with huge subsidies. Even without recovering capital costs, high-speed rail systems would probably run in the red. Most mass-transit systems, despite high ridership, routinely have deficits.

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The great wind scam

8:22 pm

The great wind scam. Key quote:

“With demand for power at record levels because of the freezing weather, there have been days when the contribution of our forests of wind turbines has been precisely nothing,” wrote Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail Dec. 27. “It gets better,” Mr. Littlejohn continued. “As the temperature has plummeted, the turbines have had to be heated to prevent them from seizing up. Consequently, they have been consuming more electricity than they generate.”

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