An iPad survives a fall from 100,000 feet and still works
An iPad, dropped from 100,000 feet, still functioned afterward. With video.
Tag: capitalism
Researchers in California have produced a cheap plastic capable of removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air.
Researchers in California have produced a cheap plastic capable of removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the air.
The article focuses on how this could save us from global warming. What I see is a possible tool for making the construction of interplanetary spaceships more practical. On any vessel in space, something has to cleanse the air of carbon dioxide. Finding a cheap way to do this makes building those vessels much easier.
NASA administrator Bolden met with former Apollo astronauts today to smooth over his agency’s attempt to prevent their ability to sell artifacts from their missions.
NASA administrator Bolden met with former Apollo astronauts today to smooth over his agency’s attempt to prevent their ability to sell artifacts from their missions.
Is there profit in outer space?
Is there profit in outer space?
A detailed look at Orbital Sciences’ effort to provide cargo to ISS.
Why the Doctor Won’t See You
Estimates are that ObamaCare will succeed in insuring 32 million otherwise uninsured people. If economic studies are correct, once these folks are insured, they will try to double their consumption of health care. On top of that, ObamaCare does something that Massachusetts did not do. It will force the vast majority of people who already have insurance to switch to more generous coverage. For example, everyone will have to be covered for a long list of preventive care and diagnostic screenings, with no copay and no deductible. Once people have this extra coverage, they will be inclined to take advantage of it.
Get prepared, then, for a huge increase in the demand for care. The result will be growing waiting lines — at the doctors’ offices, at hospital emergency rooms, at the health clinics, etc.
The pattern here has been the same worldwide, in every country that has tried it: Let the government interfere with the “invisible hand” of the market and the market gets distorted in ways that no one predicted that are also counterproductive.
India moves ahead with the construction of its own reusable space plane
India moves ahead with the construction of its own reusable spaceship.
ArianeSpace will make a profit in 2011, the first time in three years
ArianeSpace will make a profit in 2011, the first time in three years.
Helped by the two Soyuz campaigns, which occurred in October and December, Arianespace in 2011 apparently averted a third consecutive year of losses. Its financial accounts are not finalized until June, but Le Gall said the company expects to report a slight profit on about 985 million euros in revenue.
In other words, it was the addition of the Russian low-cost Soyuz rocket to their fleet that helped avoid another year’s loss. This doesn’t reflect well on the profitability of the Ariane 5 rocket.
Space exploration and the unexpected consequences of government decisions
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.
» Read more
The top 10 tech ‘fails’ of 2011
Congress has ended the corn ethanol tax subsidy
Congress has ended the corn ethanol tax subsidy.
That the taxpayer will no longer be shelling out billions to support this industry is a good thing. However, the news isn’t all good for the free market, as the mandates forcing an increase in ethanol use remain in effect.
How to self-destruct your company with just a few measly emails
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.
Samoa will skip Friday to flip across the international dateline to be in synch with its major trading partners in Asia
Jumping into the future: Samoa will skip Friday this week as it shifts across the international dateline to be in synch with its major trading partners in Asia.
China has activated its own GPS satellite system
China has activated its own GPS satellite system.
China had so far launched 10 satellites for the Beidou system, including one this month, and planned to put six more in orbit in 2012 to enhance the system’s accuracy and expand its service to cover most of the Asia Pacific region.
Fragments from the failed Russian launch crash onto “Cosmonaut Street” in Siberia
Fragments from yesterday’s failed Russian launch crashed onto “Cosmonaut Street” in Siberia.
Another Russian launch failure today
The end of LightSquared
Miniatur Wunderland – largest model railway in the world
An evening pause: The world’s largest model railroad.
Government spending at its stupidest.
Government spending at its stupidest: the top ten projects.
I like #6 the best, $484,000 to help finance a pizza restaurant in Arlington, Texas, because every business should get its own free pile of cash from the government!
FBI sees drop in violent and property crimes in every region of the U.S.
Some good news: The FBI is reporting a drop in violent and property crimes in every region of the U.S for the first half of 2011.
As the report above notes, this drop has occurred during “tough economic times,” illustrating once again that the leftwing claim that “tough economic times” causes violence and crime is dead wrong. If a society knows the difference between right and wrong while respecting property rights, poverty by itself will not lead to crime. What will lead to crime is a rejection of these values, which not only promotes bad behavior (stealing and violence) but also leads to more poverty and the collapse of society.
With this in mind it is therefore interesting to reflect on many of the actions and ideas of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Is this what we really want for America?
Why Are Indian Reservations So Poor?
Why are Indian reservations so poor? (Link fixed. Sorry.)
The vast majority of land on reservations is held communally. That means residents can’t get clear title to the land where their home sits, one reason for the abundance of mobile homes on reservations. This makes it hard for Native Americans to establish credit and borrow money to improve their homes because they can’t use the land as collateral–and investing in something you don’t own makes little sense, anyway.
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“Markets haven’t been allowed to operate in reserve lands,” says [Manny Jules, a former chief of the Kamloops Indian band in British Columbia]. “We’ve been legislated out of the economy. When you don’t have individual property rights, you can’t build, you can’t be bonded, you can’t pass on wealth. A lot of small businesses never get started because people can’t leverage property [to raise funds].
Hat tip Ace of Spades.