Is this another clever record company trick to rip you off by making you buy the same records again?
That's the phrase that adorned the promotional material that came with the Rykodisc re-releases of Frank Zappa' albums in the 1990s. Being a sucker that I was (and still am), I fell for the trick and bought CDs of albums I've already purchased on LP. Lack of hiss and clicks and the necessity of turning over a vinyl disc that wears out, all seemed like a good idea. In fact, I'm still locked in this largely stupid process.
Against this backdrop has been the debate of copyright and the issue of copying CDs and file-sharing MP3s. A good friend of mine with a decent CD collection held a party once. Some of the teenagers looked at his collection and said:
"Wow, look at all these CDs"
"Yes," said another "and originals too!"
That's right, there's a whole generation of kids out there for whom CDs are nothing more than housing for pure data, the data which is in its essence, music. Finally, there is a generation that is freed of the 'garni du jour' mentality decried by Frank Zappa; but ironically, this liberation has come at the cost of copyright-breaches, depriving Frank's estate of his fair share... Allegedly.
Today, we find out that maybe these illegal copying of music are not hurting sales at all. That is to say, conscientious consumers of music are always going to pay the required premium to 'own' a copy of their music, while people who are slack with copyright were never going to buy anything from the music industry even if the option to breach copyright wasn't available. They're not cheap, they just don't think the product is anything worth forking over hard-earned cash. It stands to reason when you think about it. There's a certain guarantee in buying the real/authentic/approved version of any software that people need. That is to say, the sound quality of a MP3s is so questionable, why would you want that, even if it's for free?
Then there is a whole range of software that people don't want, but with which they merely want to have a cursory relationship. They are two vastly different requirements in people's lives, and so there are two separate populations. That is to say, one would sort of like to fart around with listening to stuff, but deepdown, they don't care enough about it to invest hard-earned cash in the whole experience of music. Were these people ever really part of the market from which the record labels could ever have made any money? I doubt it.
Anyway, I've been re-purchasing Yes albums AGAIN(!) because they have re-mixed and remastered many of the 60s and 70s albums properly for the first time since the advent of commercial digital media. These 'Yes Expanded' versions sound great, with better fidelity and transparency. However, is this an authentic experience of Yes? I think I'll discuss that another time.
- Art Neuro
A Gen-X View of the Universe.
"The Issue Isn't Pussy, It's Monkey" - from The Right Stuff
Film, Cinema, Movies, TV, Music, Rock
2004/03/31
2004/03/30
Missed this one...
NASA are thinking about an outreach program to better market themselves to the American People. In the aftermath of the Columbia Shuttle, it does not surprise me that "there is a widely held public perception that (NASA) do very little." The article then goes on about the pros and cons of types of marketing to present NASA as some sort of vision for Space. Then there is some person concerned that NASA would be forcing itself on an "unwilling public". I would have thought enlightening the public on the Space Vision was the whole damn point. reagrdless of the debates that you might read here or there, it is clear that there is an unwillingness in the public because they don't get the imperative.
In the mean time, we're going to get Space.com, not NASA.gov for the popluar science mob out there.
Moving right along
NASA's engineers, astronauts and scientists fronted up to the Presidential commission and said their piece. Their take is that we don't know all the dangers. Well, d'uh, you might say. They have raised dust storms, radiation, chemicals, and *gasp* possible lifeforms. Well, I think we'll be waiting a long time to totallly eliminate the last possibility, but who knows? Maybe it'll be like that Carpenter movie Ghosts of Mars? Maybe not... but it'd be exciting in a way that only Chris can explain the philosophical ramifications therein. :)
- Art Neuro
NASA are thinking about an outreach program to better market themselves to the American People. In the aftermath of the Columbia Shuttle, it does not surprise me that "there is a widely held public perception that (NASA) do very little." The article then goes on about the pros and cons of types of marketing to present NASA as some sort of vision for Space. Then there is some person concerned that NASA would be forcing itself on an "unwilling public". I would have thought enlightening the public on the Space Vision was the whole damn point. reagrdless of the debates that you might read here or there, it is clear that there is an unwillingness in the public because they don't get the imperative.
In the mean time, we're going to get Space.com, not NASA.gov for the popluar science mob out there.
Moving right along
NASA's engineers, astronauts and scientists fronted up to the Presidential commission and said their piece. Their take is that we don't know all the dangers. Well, d'uh, you might say. They have raised dust storms, radiation, chemicals, and *gasp* possible lifeforms. Well, I think we'll be waiting a long time to totallly eliminate the last possibility, but who knows? Maybe it'll be like that Carpenter movie Ghosts of Mars? Maybe not... but it'd be exciting in a way that only Chris can explain the philosophical ramifications therein. :)
- Art Neuro
Yellow Shark
In a Frank Zappa reference kind of way, the SMH reports that the Sydney Aquarium now houses a yellow mudshark. Mango, as the mutant yellow mudshark is known would have delighted the late guitarist-composer, whose 'serious' compositions were recorded and presented to us on the album, The Yellow Shark.
And remember to watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow. :)
- Art Neuro
In a Frank Zappa reference kind of way, the SMH reports that the Sydney Aquarium now houses a yellow mudshark. Mango, as the mutant yellow mudshark is known would have delighted the late guitarist-composer, whose 'serious' compositions were recorded and presented to us on the album, The Yellow Shark.
And remember to watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow. :)
- Art Neuro
Sins of the Great-great-great Grandfathers?
There's this odd report where people are using DNA evidence to prove their ancestors were taken as slaves from particular groups in Africa. It's very strange to me because, to quote tennis star and current super-brat LLeyton Hewitt, "well, just look at the guy!"
You know, unless specified/identified otherwise, I was under the misapprehension that an Afro-American man in North America with an American accent was most likely there due to the slave trade that once flourished across the Atlantic.
The other odd bit is this:
The other concept I believe that should be applied is statute of limitations. You know, how long is it before these crimes are just historic wrong-doings? Do the meso-Americans get a shot at this court-case too? How about the indigenous peoples all over the world? What about Carthage? Who weeps for Carthage today? Surely at a certain point, it's in the history books and that is that? Otherwise we're looking at perpetuating hostilities from centuries ago, as the Balkan states did in the 1990s. How medieval on our collective asses was that?
Now, I'm led to believe there are no statutes of limitations on crimes against humanity. So the logical place for the plaintiffs to take this case is the Human Rights court in the Hague, but I guess when you're looking to score one billion bucks, the Federal Court in Manhattan is the place.
It certainly makes you wonder if these people are thinking straight. I'll try to keep track of this one, just for kicks.
- Art Neuro
There's this odd report where people are using DNA evidence to prove their ancestors were taken as slaves from particular groups in Africa. It's very strange to me because, to quote tennis star and current super-brat LLeyton Hewitt, "well, just look at the guy!"
You know, unless specified/identified otherwise, I was under the misapprehension that an Afro-American man in North America with an American accent was most likely there due to the slave trade that once flourished across the Atlantic.
The other odd bit is this:
"The suit filed in federal court in Manhattan accuses Lloyd's of London, FleetBoston and R.J. Reynolds of "aiding and abetting the commission of genocide" by allegedly financing and insuring the ships that delivered slaves to tobacco plantations in the United States."I have a minor quibble with this logic. How can it be 'genocide' when they were transported to do work? Clearly, these companies did not go to Africa with the *intent* of wiping out blacks. Merely to capture them and sell them like say, Mustangs or Brumbies. Yes, it is dehumanising, it's clearly a crime against humanity, and it absolutely appalls us today; but 'genocide'?
The other concept I believe that should be applied is statute of limitations. You know, how long is it before these crimes are just historic wrong-doings? Do the meso-Americans get a shot at this court-case too? How about the indigenous peoples all over the world? What about Carthage? Who weeps for Carthage today? Surely at a certain point, it's in the history books and that is that? Otherwise we're looking at perpetuating hostilities from centuries ago, as the Balkan states did in the 1990s. How medieval on our collective asses was that?
Now, I'm led to believe there are no statutes of limitations on crimes against humanity. So the logical place for the plaintiffs to take this case is the Human Rights court in the Hague, but I guess when you're looking to score one billion bucks, the Federal Court in Manhattan is the place.
It certainly makes you wonder if these people are thinking straight. I'll try to keep track of this one, just for kicks.
- Art Neuro
Wang Yang-Ming Notes
Because Wang Yang-Ming came up in discussions, I googled about and searched for the writings in translation. Here is a particularly obtuse and convoluted translation of parts of his work. There is also another page with an abstracted bullet point compilation of salient points which is even more austere and weird. Beyond that you have the repeated one paragraph bio in quotes:
Scholars of Wang in history tend towards radical action. They are of the school, "If it is damned if you do and damned if you don't, then it is better to be damned by doing." Heihachiro Oshio was a magistrate under the Tokugawa shogunate, but one day committed to rebellion because he felt the government was corrupt and something had to be done. The real historic importance of Wang Yang-Ming in Japan arises out of Choshu rebels who brought about the Meiji Restoration were heavily influenced by the writings of Wang Yang-Ming through Shoin Matsuda, who influenced the likes of Shinsaku Takasugi, Hirobumi Itou, Takayoshi Kido, and Kaoru Inoue; men who brought about the restoration wars and the Meiji government. Unfortunately nothing comes up when you google these names in English. :(
- Art Neuro
Because Wang Yang-Ming came up in discussions, I googled about and searched for the writings in translation. Here is a particularly obtuse and convoluted translation of parts of his work. There is also another page with an abstracted bullet point compilation of salient points which is even more austere and weird. Beyond that you have the repeated one paragraph bio in quotes:
"Wang Yang-Ming (wÃng yÃng-ming) (KEY) , 1472–1529, Chinese philosopher. He developed an idealist interpretation of Confucianism that denied the rationalist dualism of the orthodox philosophy of Chu Hsi. Wang believed that universal moral law is innate in man and discoverable through self-cultivation. In contrast to the orthodox Confucian reliance on classical studies (see Chinese literature) as a means to self-cultivation, Wang stressed self-awareness and the unity of knowledge and action. One school of his followers emphasized achievement of mystical enlightenment in a manner strikingly similar to Zen Buddhism."
Scholars of Wang in history tend towards radical action. They are of the school, "If it is damned if you do and damned if you don't, then it is better to be damned by doing." Heihachiro Oshio was a magistrate under the Tokugawa shogunate, but one day committed to rebellion because he felt the government was corrupt and something had to be done. The real historic importance of Wang Yang-Ming in Japan arises out of Choshu rebels who brought about the Meiji Restoration were heavily influenced by the writings of Wang Yang-Ming through Shoin Matsuda, who influenced the likes of Shinsaku Takasugi, Hirobumi Itou, Takayoshi Kido, and Kaoru Inoue; men who brought about the restoration wars and the Meiji government. Unfortunately nothing comes up when you google these names in English. :(
- Art Neuro
2004/03/29
All Quiet on the Space Exploration Front
There's nothing exciting to be reported today. This may be a function of the fact that it's still Sunday over in the USA as I write this, but nary a peep about Space has made headlines since I've been waiting all morning, really, but nothing has popped up.
My Total Baseball Weekend
My weekend was pretty invested in baseball, so I'll just write down a few things that happened.
The Jack Kerouac Memorial League fantasy baseball league held it's 2nd annual draft at Alex Van Der Ploeg's house on friday night. It was a draft and draught sort of gonzo-male-bonding-in-the-baseball club night. Sorely missed was David Musgrave who cited his wife as an excuse. It should be noted that this blogger recommended to Guy Jeffrey that he should use his wife as an excuse for not taking on more responsibilities at the Stealers Baseball club, which I believe he promptly did. Guy, of course came 2nd last year and drafted a pretty solid team around Barry Bonds, relief aces John Smoltz, Rob Nenn, Billy Koch and also the inimitable Derick Lee.
This year, I'm building my strength around starting pitching with Roy Hallday, Mark prior, and Jason Schmidt; and a OBP-heavy lineup of guys in Derek Jeter, Hank Blalock, Hidkei Matsui and Vernon Wells. I also drafed Joe Mauer in the 9th round which raised eye-brows, but I really wanted a catcher with a high-ceiling if I couldn't get Jorge Posada, which of course I couldn't. I don't think I'll win this year, but I think I can make a run for the top 4 again.
The Stealers under-10 Panthers I coach played a 'Grand Final' (these things are dodgy, shady deals in the world of under-aged sport) on Saturday morning and lost 7-3. It was a well-contested game A good friend of mine remarked about the effort, "At Least there weren't any kids practicing dancing on the bench"; a reference to the last time she saw them earlier in the season and all the kids on the bench were stuffing around without paying attention to the game. The interesting thing I guess was the kids wanted it, but the parents probably wanted it just a little bit more.
On Sunday, I played in the President's Cup game on the side of the coaches against a team of Under-16s coming up in the club. This was also a well-contested game where we won 7-3. I made 5 assist and 2 put outs at third. The best part is I didn't screw up in front of the kids after a season of coaching them how to pick up ground balls and make the throw to firstbase. Phew! So an score level, I had a 10-10 kind of baseball weekend, but I think it was a pretty damn good weekend for me.
Making the news today is the NY Yankees tour of Japan. The Yankees will open the season there against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the day after tomorrow.
IN an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants, Ex-pat NY Yankee Hideki Matsui slugged a homerun in his first at-bat; Cuban Ace Jose Contreras showed us why he was signed for money than Mastui by striking out 6; Derek Jeter (O Captain, My Captain... he certainly is in my Fantasy squad) and Jorge Posada also hammered out homeruns for a 6-2 win. Go Yankees.
- Art Neuro
There's nothing exciting to be reported today. This may be a function of the fact that it's still Sunday over in the USA as I write this, but nary a peep about Space has made headlines since I've been waiting all morning, really, but nothing has popped up.
My Total Baseball Weekend
My weekend was pretty invested in baseball, so I'll just write down a few things that happened.
The Jack Kerouac Memorial League fantasy baseball league held it's 2nd annual draft at Alex Van Der Ploeg's house on friday night. It was a draft and draught sort of gonzo-male-bonding-in-the-baseball club night. Sorely missed was David Musgrave who cited his wife as an excuse. It should be noted that this blogger recommended to Guy Jeffrey that he should use his wife as an excuse for not taking on more responsibilities at the Stealers Baseball club, which I believe he promptly did. Guy, of course came 2nd last year and drafted a pretty solid team around Barry Bonds, relief aces John Smoltz, Rob Nenn, Billy Koch and also the inimitable Derick Lee.
This year, I'm building my strength around starting pitching with Roy Hallday, Mark prior, and Jason Schmidt; and a OBP-heavy lineup of guys in Derek Jeter, Hank Blalock, Hidkei Matsui and Vernon Wells. I also drafed Joe Mauer in the 9th round which raised eye-brows, but I really wanted a catcher with a high-ceiling if I couldn't get Jorge Posada, which of course I couldn't. I don't think I'll win this year, but I think I can make a run for the top 4 again.
The Stealers under-10 Panthers I coach played a 'Grand Final' (these things are dodgy, shady deals in the world of under-aged sport) on Saturday morning and lost 7-3. It was a well-contested game A good friend of mine remarked about the effort, "At Least there weren't any kids practicing dancing on the bench"; a reference to the last time she saw them earlier in the season and all the kids on the bench were stuffing around without paying attention to the game. The interesting thing I guess was the kids wanted it, but the parents probably wanted it just a little bit more.
On Sunday, I played in the President's Cup game on the side of the coaches against a team of Under-16s coming up in the club. This was also a well-contested game where we won 7-3. I made 5 assist and 2 put outs at third. The best part is I didn't screw up in front of the kids after a season of coaching them how to pick up ground balls and make the throw to firstbase. Phew! So an score level, I had a 10-10 kind of baseball weekend, but I think it was a pretty damn good weekend for me.
Making the news today is the NY Yankees tour of Japan. The Yankees will open the season there against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the day after tomorrow.
IN an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants, Ex-pat NY Yankee Hideki Matsui slugged a homerun in his first at-bat; Cuban Ace Jose Contreras showed us why he was signed for money than Mastui by striking out 6; Derek Jeter (O Captain, My Captain... he certainly is in my Fantasy squad) and Jorge Posada also hammered out homeruns for a 6-2 win. Go Yankees.
- Art Neuro
2004/03/28
But how do you land this thing?
NASA successfully launched their scramjet craft and claim it flew at a record 5000mph. The craft did not have a pilot and was boosted to 3500mph by a rocket. The craft flew for 7 minutes under its own steam before going into glide mode, although it is unclear from this description if they bothered landing this craft.
The article also mentions that cuts to program loom. So while there maybe a third scramjet craft to be tested later this year, it is predicted it will be decades before this technology can be applied commercially. And to think the Wright Brothers made powered flight look so simple.
- Art Neuro
NASA successfully launched their scramjet craft and claim it flew at a record 5000mph. The craft did not have a pilot and was boosted to 3500mph by a rocket. The craft flew for 7 minutes under its own steam before going into glide mode, although it is unclear from this description if they bothered landing this craft.
The article also mentions that cuts to program loom. So while there maybe a third scramjet craft to be tested later this year, it is predicted it will be decades before this technology can be applied commercially. And to think the Wright Brothers made powered flight look so simple.
- Art Neuro
Chris Manifesto notes
Can something as long term as space development be managed by a Democratic state? Quite possibly not if the history of NASA is anything to go on. Yet this is not just about whether there is an external threat. Has USA had too little or too much of that? It seems the lack of a sparring partner (kind of a threat I suppose) has done more to make space stagnate than anything else. They realised, correctly as it turns out, that USSR would not go the distance if they competed harder on the ground and that PRC was not yet ready.
Democracies are just not very good at planting trees for their own sake. This is because the expense is for now (& can be attacked by other interests) and the benefits accrue not only beyond the current political term but beyond the current politicians political careers. Only when there is some competing state going for it (& then they compete only for the glory not the benefits) does USA stir itself, or so it seems.
Yet this is not all bad. Democratic, relatively free countries assume in their political philosophies that anything really worth doing will get done, either by public pressure on government or by private enterprise. So why hasn't it? In part, because we have 'accidentally' and artificially made it NOT worth while. The International Space Treaties signed so far not only demilitarise space by banning weapons there (water on the moon or no - and that may not have been the best idea) they require that development of space be done "for all nations". Sounds good but this means that those who make the effort and investment cannot be sure of reaping the benefits unless that treaty is changed. Too many members of "all Nations" waiting with their hands out even without shared investment. Agreeing to do "develop for the benefit of all" regardless of investment means killing investment. So the threats from space seem a long way off and the benefits uncertain and distant (however huge and critical in the medium/long term). Thus, it is left to 'the next generation'.
Some of us however do not wish to put it off. Indeed the dwindling resources and accelerating consumption suggest we must not. So why Mars Direct rather than other space initiatives? Because we must do more than paddle around in LEO with rickety shuttles. Mars (not Luna) because of its combination of resources and shallow gravity well is the gateway to the solar system. We are far more sure of water there and even more so Carbon, Nitrogen etc that we need to live than Luna or the asteroids. Even the mineral prospects are greater - and when you do the maths it is only slightly harder to get to from Earth than Luna (See Zubrin). We need to do other space initiatives as well, as Chris says. However we need to colonise Mars BECAUSE we need to do other things, not in spite of them or in competition with them. Just a few notes then on Chris list. Each of these is worthy of major discussions in its own right and I suggest we do just that.
Do NOT take apparently glib 'dismissals' below as final. Each is the result of much (past and ongoing) reading & thought on my part, summed up here in reductio ad absurdum. Each of Chris' projects is worthy of more discussion and at least some resources. Prioritising them will be part of our work:
1. Interplanetary robotic exploration. Yep no question, this is being done though and is the main focus of The Planetary Society (www.planetary.org) started by Sagan and others. NASA is big on this too but sure, could be bigger but basically this one is proceeding without challenge.
2. Deployment of telescopes. Agreed & you will note that Zubrin slammed NASA for backing away from maintaining Hubble. We need more observatories(one of the few good reasons to go back to Luna) not just for science but to map the many asteroids that threaten us & offer us resources.
3. SETI. What do you have in mind here? If we colonise the solar system this will be a side effect anyway. Any aliens that we must search that hard for, however philosophically important, do not threaten us directly yet. Chris suggests (to me in private) that it may be important to find other intelligences even if we perish here!) I'm all for it but not with giant resources we need for the asteroid mapping. I want to survive first, find others later - different philosophy I guess.
4. More shuttles? ONLY if the engineering & economics leads that way this time. ONLY if they really offer to lower the boost to orbit costs. So far they have not made the case.
5. Research on humans in zero-G (USSR did lots of this) and small groups (like submarines, research stations & villages?). Agreed - but this is being done. As it happens it is a special interest of mine. It must not be made a prerequisite but a co-requisite for space though.
6. Interstellar probe. Way too expensive & current drive tech is not up to it. I will present details later if anyone disagrees but this one may well be for down the track. It also presents NO tangible benefits in the next few centuries so - think, plan, design... but don't resource it too much because we can't do it yet. Even if we find important stuff we CAN'T go there yet.
7. Aqualogy sure OK. Self contained ship, recycling etc. Absolutely. This will be done as soon as we have a pressing need to maintain bases on Luna, Io, Ceres etc. We must solve these problems and we should research it in advance. No problem. But not at the expense of making a start off world on Mars where we have at least some resources to live off. You can't stop this one even if you try so lets not vote it high priority (even though it is where I personally wish to make my main contribution).
8. Launch ramps and Beanstalks. Yes, same proviso as shuttles. Engineering and economics must drive this but both should be resourced to the extent they can offer near future benefits.
www.g2mil.com/SRT.htm
www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01f.html
www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html
9. Quantum entanglement based comms. Sure, the research cost is well within our means. It is promising & it could be very important. But it is not critical. The lack would not be a show stopper.
10. Colonies. The order of these should definitely be teased out and argued further. Based on many factors such as energy costs, resources such as water, organics, propellants & the ongoing needs of earthbound humanity - I have come to think the general order should be Mars (resources to do the others), Asteroids, Luna/L5 (research base and maybe Helium 3), Gas giants for energy (Helium3 Fusion). Once we have done that we are on the way to harnessing the system. THEN we can figure out what to do next and it may well include interstellar probes. L5, Luna, undersea etc bases will be done as and when they make real sense. A detailed and reasoned plan here can be a major contribution of the group.
The rest of Chris post deals with the social, economic, political, legal and philosophical remaking of society which must also occur. We want to go to space but we do not merely wish to transplant North America to Mars! In some cases we cannot do what we see that we must unless we remake ourselves and our society. Deciding how best to order our world will be a large part of that work whether or not we expand out world beyond our atmosphere.
Much work to do. Who is in other than me Art & Chris? DMB ; )
Can something as long term as space development be managed by a Democratic state? Quite possibly not if the history of NASA is anything to go on. Yet this is not just about whether there is an external threat. Has USA had too little or too much of that? It seems the lack of a sparring partner (kind of a threat I suppose) has done more to make space stagnate than anything else. They realised, correctly as it turns out, that USSR would not go the distance if they competed harder on the ground and that PRC was not yet ready.
Democracies are just not very good at planting trees for their own sake. This is because the expense is for now (& can be attacked by other interests) and the benefits accrue not only beyond the current political term but beyond the current politicians political careers. Only when there is some competing state going for it (& then they compete only for the glory not the benefits) does USA stir itself, or so it seems.
Yet this is not all bad. Democratic, relatively free countries assume in their political philosophies that anything really worth doing will get done, either by public pressure on government or by private enterprise. So why hasn't it? In part, because we have 'accidentally' and artificially made it NOT worth while. The International Space Treaties signed so far not only demilitarise space by banning weapons there (water on the moon or no - and that may not have been the best idea) they require that development of space be done "for all nations". Sounds good but this means that those who make the effort and investment cannot be sure of reaping the benefits unless that treaty is changed. Too many members of "all Nations" waiting with their hands out even without shared investment. Agreeing to do "develop for the benefit of all" regardless of investment means killing investment. So the threats from space seem a long way off and the benefits uncertain and distant (however huge and critical in the medium/long term). Thus, it is left to 'the next generation'.
Some of us however do not wish to put it off. Indeed the dwindling resources and accelerating consumption suggest we must not. So why Mars Direct rather than other space initiatives? Because we must do more than paddle around in LEO with rickety shuttles. Mars (not Luna) because of its combination of resources and shallow gravity well is the gateway to the solar system. We are far more sure of water there and even more so Carbon, Nitrogen etc that we need to live than Luna or the asteroids. Even the mineral prospects are greater - and when you do the maths it is only slightly harder to get to from Earth than Luna (See Zubrin). We need to do other space initiatives as well, as Chris says. However we need to colonise Mars BECAUSE we need to do other things, not in spite of them or in competition with them. Just a few notes then on Chris list. Each of these is worthy of major discussions in its own right and I suggest we do just that.
Do NOT take apparently glib 'dismissals' below as final. Each is the result of much (past and ongoing) reading & thought on my part, summed up here in reductio ad absurdum. Each of Chris' projects is worthy of more discussion and at least some resources. Prioritising them will be part of our work:
1. Interplanetary robotic exploration. Yep no question, this is being done though and is the main focus of The Planetary Society (www.planetary.org) started by Sagan and others. NASA is big on this too but sure, could be bigger but basically this one is proceeding without challenge.
2. Deployment of telescopes. Agreed & you will note that Zubrin slammed NASA for backing away from maintaining Hubble. We need more observatories(one of the few good reasons to go back to Luna) not just for science but to map the many asteroids that threaten us & offer us resources.
3. SETI. What do you have in mind here? If we colonise the solar system this will be a side effect anyway. Any aliens that we must search that hard for, however philosophically important, do not threaten us directly yet. Chris suggests (to me in private) that it may be important to find other intelligences even if we perish here!) I'm all for it but not with giant resources we need for the asteroid mapping. I want to survive first, find others later - different philosophy I guess.
4. More shuttles? ONLY if the engineering & economics leads that way this time. ONLY if they really offer to lower the boost to orbit costs. So far they have not made the case.
5. Research on humans in zero-G (USSR did lots of this) and small groups (like submarines, research stations & villages?). Agreed - but this is being done. As it happens it is a special interest of mine. It must not be made a prerequisite but a co-requisite for space though.
6. Interstellar probe. Way too expensive & current drive tech is not up to it. I will present details later if anyone disagrees but this one may well be for down the track. It also presents NO tangible benefits in the next few centuries so - think, plan, design... but don't resource it too much because we can't do it yet. Even if we find important stuff we CAN'T go there yet.
7. Aqualogy sure OK. Self contained ship, recycling etc. Absolutely. This will be done as soon as we have a pressing need to maintain bases on Luna, Io, Ceres etc. We must solve these problems and we should research it in advance. No problem. But not at the expense of making a start off world on Mars where we have at least some resources to live off. You can't stop this one even if you try so lets not vote it high priority (even though it is where I personally wish to make my main contribution).
8. Launch ramps and Beanstalks. Yes, same proviso as shuttles. Engineering and economics must drive this but both should be resourced to the extent they can offer near future benefits.
www.g2mil.com/SRT.htm
www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01f.html
www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/space_elevator_020327-1.html
9. Quantum entanglement based comms. Sure, the research cost is well within our means. It is promising & it could be very important. But it is not critical. The lack would not be a show stopper.
10. Colonies. The order of these should definitely be teased out and argued further. Based on many factors such as energy costs, resources such as water, organics, propellants & the ongoing needs of earthbound humanity - I have come to think the general order should be Mars (resources to do the others), Asteroids, Luna/L5 (research base and maybe Helium 3), Gas giants for energy (Helium3 Fusion). Once we have done that we are on the way to harnessing the system. THEN we can figure out what to do next and it may well include interstellar probes. L5, Luna, undersea etc bases will be done as and when they make real sense. A detailed and reasoned plan here can be a major contribution of the group.
The rest of Chris post deals with the social, economic, political, legal and philosophical remaking of society which must also occur. We want to go to space but we do not merely wish to transplant North America to Mars! In some cases we cannot do what we see that we must unless we remake ourselves and our society. Deciding how best to order our world will be a large part of that work whether or not we expand out world beyond our atmosphere.
Much work to do. Who is in other than me Art & Chris? DMB ; )
2004/03/26
Following on
Analysts are now saying that the discovery of signs of water in the history of Mars suggests that at some time Mars was more earth-like. Then again, this may be just another journalistic fluff piece.
Meanwhile, having fun with scramjets
Undeterred by the crash of the last time they attempted this, NASA are going again with their Hypersonic scramjet aircraft. It's being launched across the Pacific later this week at Mach 7, so if you should be sailing and hear a sonic boom, you'll know what it is... if you are out there somewhere in the middle.
Just to remind some folks, we have a scramjet programme here in Australia, with the University of Queensland, known as the Hyshot. They successfully launched a test on 30 July, 2002.
Life Forms on Mars
The case has been made that Mars could already be contaminated by Terran microbes. It kind of surprises me that nobody thought of this at the time they sent probes there. That would be sort of sad and funny. "We've discovered an organism remarkably like streptococcus..."
More Shuttle F.Ups
The much loved (ha!) Space Shuttle has been carrying a rudder problem for over two decades. The Space Shuttle is the world's most complicated machine. Now how does that make you feel about complicated machinery?
- Art Neuro
Analysts are now saying that the discovery of signs of water in the history of Mars suggests that at some time Mars was more earth-like. Then again, this may be just another journalistic fluff piece.
Meanwhile, having fun with scramjets
Undeterred by the crash of the last time they attempted this, NASA are going again with their Hypersonic scramjet aircraft. It's being launched across the Pacific later this week at Mach 7, so if you should be sailing and hear a sonic boom, you'll know what it is... if you are out there somewhere in the middle.
Just to remind some folks, we have a scramjet programme here in Australia, with the University of Queensland, known as the Hyshot. They successfully launched a test on 30 July, 2002.
Life Forms on Mars
The case has been made that Mars could already be contaminated by Terran microbes. It kind of surprises me that nobody thought of this at the time they sent probes there. That would be sort of sad and funny. "We've discovered an organism remarkably like streptococcus..."
More Shuttle F.Ups
The much loved (ha!) Space Shuttle has been carrying a rudder problem for over two decades. The Space Shuttle is the world's most complicated machine. Now how does that make you feel about complicated machinery?
- Art Neuro
Jobsearch 2004
As some of you may know, I'm on the look out for a job. Today, I found this lineup of jobs under Arts/Media/Entertainment.That's right, mixed in between those fantastic job opportunities as an exotic dancer, a topless waiter, a nude model, a magician's assistant (now there's a plum job!) is an ad for the Canterbury Bulldogs CEO position.
Shall we say, oh how the mighty have fallen? Well, the Bulldogs and rugby league are Showbuisness, and as Showbusiness goes, I must say they've been putting on a pretty good product for show. Somehow this is not quite good enough when you mix in scandals to do with salary cap breaches; cover-up the name of players accused of sex offenses; cover up athletes who have tested positive for illegal drugs and so forth. Yes, you could dispute the salary cap is nothing more than an elaborate ploy by the NRL to control the escalating growth of player salaries. Yes, you can say that the players were merely accused, and should not be put through a trial by media - keep us all to the innocent until proven guilty mantra which protects us all from false accusations. Yes, cocaine is an illegal drug, but it's not like everybody in society has to undergo the same tests as elite athletes so you could argue an invasion of privacy against the said player by having that knowledge revealed. And yet, it remains the Bulldogs are a media-challenged franchise. I must confess I actually entertained the thought of applying. That's right. Well why not?
The exit of Steve Mortimer tells us a few things about the club. The club would like it to be seen by their supporter base to be doing something, but they do not want to change the status quo. The CEO is essentially the fall-guy for the board to take the hale of bullets from the Media and the Players and the supporters. In all of this, I feel the most sorry for the supporters. God forbid that your kids' heroes should turn out to be a bunch of coke-snorting greedy gang-rapists. Seriously. I'd consider turning to another sport (like baseball!)
Things I would do as CEO of the Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League Club Ltd.
1. Turn over the Roster.
That's right, a total clubhouse purge. There is a culture that is not acceptable evolving and thriving within the clubhouse. As CEO, the only choice is to breakup this group, good and bad players alike. I would move to move star players to other clubs in a bid to secure young players of the future. Mediocre players will be traded for good clubhouse citizens and veterans who are coming to the end of their careers at other clubs. I would sever the contracts of the un-trade-able bad players because obviously they are of no use to the club.
The aim is to field a totally different side in the 2005 comb. Yes, clubhouse morale will sink through the floor, but public confidence in the club by its supporters has already hit that floor. Yes, it would be abandoning years of investment into scouting and developing good players, but that money is nothing next to the lost revenue for years to come if the club betrayed it supporter base. Above all, the club should be seen to be doing everything in its power to rectify this culture.
2. Sack the coaches.
It doesn't matter that the club has performed well on the field. It is what they are doing off the field that is killing the future of the club, and the club cannot live with this. Instead, bring in somebody who is going to teach these athletes how to live. Bring in people who can teach these players what it means to be clubhouse citizens. The current crises are an expression of the systemic failure of the coaching staff.
3. Institute club rules and fines that are proportionate penalties to the salaries that are being paid.
That's right. What does it matter to an athlete to fine them $200 when they are making 300k p.a.? None whatsoever. So, from here on in, the club should fine players a significant percentage of their pay. If the players don't like that in their contracts, they shouldn't play for the Bulldogs. The club should also explain that if they are up for criminal charges, the club won't pay for the defense lawyer. You think you'e breaking the law? You'e out there on your own like every other crim. There is no way the club has to take responsibility for the stupidity of the athlete, and that should be club POLICY.
4. Start a serious programme where players must interact with the public.
Send the players out to primary schools, send them out to hospitals to "work". Make them earn public trust. The players are often protected by their stardom or club. If they were made personally accountable to their fans, then it would make it harder for them to break that trust. In other words, make them accountable to the people for whom they play. Right now, there is a kid out there saying, "Willie Mason, say it ain't so.". The club should not live with that condition; now or in the future.
5. Rebuild the development scheme.
This would include starting a serious statistical analysis section to the business, so as not to overpay for talent.
Also, the coaching staff would have to be re-educated so that they do not let the athletes off the hook for social misbehaviour. The future Bulldogs coming out of the development schemes will have to be a different breed of players.
6. Shore up the Sponsorship situation.
This can only be done through trust. Fortunately, the Bulldogs' main sponsor is Mitsubishi Electric and I'm Japanese. I would have a serious shot at appeasing their wrath and delivering the product they were looking to sponsor. I would explain to them all the radical things I'm doing in order to ensure it never happens again. Then, hope like hell.
It would be an 12 month project to institute all these things if the board wanted to do it. I can't imagine they would. In fact, I can't imagine they would appoint a Japanese guy to do this thing. So I guess I'm not applying :)
- Art Neuro
As some of you may know, I'm on the look out for a job. Today, I found this lineup of jobs under Arts/Media/Entertainment.That's right, mixed in between those fantastic job opportunities as an exotic dancer, a topless waiter, a nude model, a magician's assistant (now there's a plum job!) is an ad for the Canterbury Bulldogs CEO position.
Shall we say, oh how the mighty have fallen? Well, the Bulldogs and rugby league are Showbuisness, and as Showbusiness goes, I must say they've been putting on a pretty good product for show. Somehow this is not quite good enough when you mix in scandals to do with salary cap breaches; cover-up the name of players accused of sex offenses; cover up athletes who have tested positive for illegal drugs and so forth. Yes, you could dispute the salary cap is nothing more than an elaborate ploy by the NRL to control the escalating growth of player salaries. Yes, you can say that the players were merely accused, and should not be put through a trial by media - keep us all to the innocent until proven guilty mantra which protects us all from false accusations. Yes, cocaine is an illegal drug, but it's not like everybody in society has to undergo the same tests as elite athletes so you could argue an invasion of privacy against the said player by having that knowledge revealed. And yet, it remains the Bulldogs are a media-challenged franchise. I must confess I actually entertained the thought of applying. That's right. Well why not?
The exit of Steve Mortimer tells us a few things about the club. The club would like it to be seen by their supporter base to be doing something, but they do not want to change the status quo. The CEO is essentially the fall-guy for the board to take the hale of bullets from the Media and the Players and the supporters. In all of this, I feel the most sorry for the supporters. God forbid that your kids' heroes should turn out to be a bunch of coke-snorting greedy gang-rapists. Seriously. I'd consider turning to another sport (like baseball!)
Things I would do as CEO of the Canterbury Bulldogs Rugby League Club Ltd.
1. Turn over the Roster.
That's right, a total clubhouse purge. There is a culture that is not acceptable evolving and thriving within the clubhouse. As CEO, the only choice is to breakup this group, good and bad players alike. I would move to move star players to other clubs in a bid to secure young players of the future. Mediocre players will be traded for good clubhouse citizens and veterans who are coming to the end of their careers at other clubs. I would sever the contracts of the un-trade-able bad players because obviously they are of no use to the club.
The aim is to field a totally different side in the 2005 comb. Yes, clubhouse morale will sink through the floor, but public confidence in the club by its supporters has already hit that floor. Yes, it would be abandoning years of investment into scouting and developing good players, but that money is nothing next to the lost revenue for years to come if the club betrayed it supporter base. Above all, the club should be seen to be doing everything in its power to rectify this culture.
2. Sack the coaches.
It doesn't matter that the club has performed well on the field. It is what they are doing off the field that is killing the future of the club, and the club cannot live with this. Instead, bring in somebody who is going to teach these athletes how to live. Bring in people who can teach these players what it means to be clubhouse citizens. The current crises are an expression of the systemic failure of the coaching staff.
3. Institute club rules and fines that are proportionate penalties to the salaries that are being paid.
That's right. What does it matter to an athlete to fine them $200 when they are making 300k p.a.? None whatsoever. So, from here on in, the club should fine players a significant percentage of their pay. If the players don't like that in their contracts, they shouldn't play for the Bulldogs. The club should also explain that if they are up for criminal charges, the club won't pay for the defense lawyer. You think you'e breaking the law? You'e out there on your own like every other crim. There is no way the club has to take responsibility for the stupidity of the athlete, and that should be club POLICY.
4. Start a serious programme where players must interact with the public.
Send the players out to primary schools, send them out to hospitals to "work". Make them earn public trust. The players are often protected by their stardom or club. If they were made personally accountable to their fans, then it would make it harder for them to break that trust. In other words, make them accountable to the people for whom they play. Right now, there is a kid out there saying, "Willie Mason, say it ain't so.". The club should not live with that condition; now or in the future.
5. Rebuild the development scheme.
This would include starting a serious statistical analysis section to the business, so as not to overpay for talent.
Also, the coaching staff would have to be re-educated so that they do not let the athletes off the hook for social misbehaviour. The future Bulldogs coming out of the development schemes will have to be a different breed of players.
6. Shore up the Sponsorship situation.
This can only be done through trust. Fortunately, the Bulldogs' main sponsor is Mitsubishi Electric and I'm Japanese. I would have a serious shot at appeasing their wrath and delivering the product they were looking to sponsor. I would explain to them all the radical things I'm doing in order to ensure it never happens again. Then, hope like hell.
It would be an 12 month project to institute all these things if the board wanted to do it. I can't imagine they would. In fact, I can't imagine they would appoint a Japanese guy to do this thing. So I guess I'm not applying :)
- Art Neuro
2004/03/25
Origins of Moneyball
Bill James is a baseball statistician and analyst of note. Through the 1970s and 1980s, he was the author of the Baseball Abstract. A sort of almanac of analysis. Here is an interesting interview where he says something that is very interesting to me right now:
- Art Neuro
Bill James is a baseball statistician and analyst of note. Through the 1970s and 1980s, he was the author of the Baseball Abstract. A sort of almanac of analysis. Here is an interesting interview where he says something that is very interesting to me right now:
"Because baseball is inherently meaningless, its history is more clear and less clouded than the history of things that are meaningful."I've long held the theory that the only things you can trust in the Newspaper were the sports scores and stock prices. The way Bill sees it, it's easy for the papers to get those right because they are meaningless.
- Art Neuro
2004/03/24
A veritable, rich treasure trove for all you spacefreaks to cogitate on today!
Today's Mars stories include:
1) The AP report that the Mars Rover is sitting at the bottom of something that was once an ancient sea. Don't get too carried away, the water there was at least 2 inches deep. Well, I've leapt puddles deeper than that so the Mariana Sea Trench, this was not.
2) There is a delightful piece from Canada about their space capability. As it turns out they have something called Synthetic Aperture Radar, a field in which they lead the world. I don't know exactly what the SAR technology does, but it seems it's important in remote-control of robotic arms. As usual, they need more money. Do we detect a pattern of lack of interest world wide?
3) The New York Times reports in the Business section no less, about the problems of having Boeing dominate the Aerospace industry. Because this is the NYTimes, if you are interested in seeing this article in the future, I suggest you save it as a .mht file.
All in all, it's been an exciting week in Mars exploration.
A moment to say something bleedingly obvious
We at SpaceFreaks totally disagree with Israel's assassination of Sheikh Yassin. We see it as a deplorable act that in no way promotes peace and in fact creates more obstacles for our ultimate goal of space colonisation. Regardless of political persuasion, whether we agreed with the Israeli or Palestinian position in the past, we see nothing that justifies, let alone makes it even close to remotely acceptable, to start assassinating leaders. From this single act we can only conclude that whatever spin they might issue, Israel is not interested in Peace.
The Fog of War
It seems appropriate at this moment to reflect on the lessons offered by Robert S. McNamara in the documentary, 'The Fog of War'. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.
For the record, here are the Eleven lessons, from memory and jogging through web pages:
1) Empathise with your enemy
2) Rationality will not save us
3) In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
4) Maximise Efficiency
5) Proportionality should be a guideline in war
6) Get the Data
7) Belief and seeing are often Wrong
8) Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning
9) Never Apply Military Force Unilaterally
10) Never say Never
11) You cannot change human nature
If this on its own means nothing much, then go watch 'The Fog of War'. There is much to be said about the world today that flies in the face of his sage advice, and we are worse off for it.
- Art Neuro
Today's Mars stories include:
1) The AP report that the Mars Rover is sitting at the bottom of something that was once an ancient sea. Don't get too carried away, the water there was at least 2 inches deep. Well, I've leapt puddles deeper than that so the Mariana Sea Trench, this was not.
2) There is a delightful piece from Canada about their space capability. As it turns out they have something called Synthetic Aperture Radar, a field in which they lead the world. I don't know exactly what the SAR technology does, but it seems it's important in remote-control of robotic arms. As usual, they need more money. Do we detect a pattern of lack of interest world wide?
3) The New York Times reports in the Business section no less, about the problems of having Boeing dominate the Aerospace industry. Because this is the NYTimes, if you are interested in seeing this article in the future, I suggest you save it as a .mht file.
All in all, it's been an exciting week in Mars exploration.
A moment to say something bleedingly obvious
We at SpaceFreaks totally disagree with Israel's assassination of Sheikh Yassin. We see it as a deplorable act that in no way promotes peace and in fact creates more obstacles for our ultimate goal of space colonisation. Regardless of political persuasion, whether we agreed with the Israeli or Palestinian position in the past, we see nothing that justifies, let alone makes it even close to remotely acceptable, to start assassinating leaders. From this single act we can only conclude that whatever spin they might issue, Israel is not interested in Peace.
The Fog of War
It seems appropriate at this moment to reflect on the lessons offered by Robert S. McNamara in the documentary, 'The Fog of War'. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.
For the record, here are the Eleven lessons, from memory and jogging through web pages:
1) Empathise with your enemy
2) Rationality will not save us
3) In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil.
4) Maximise Efficiency
5) Proportionality should be a guideline in war
6) Get the Data
7) Belief and seeing are often Wrong
8) Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning
9) Never Apply Military Force Unilaterally
10) Never say Never
11) You cannot change human nature
If this on its own means nothing much, then go watch 'The Fog of War'. There is much to be said about the world today that flies in the face of his sage advice, and we are worse off for it.
- Art Neuro
2004/03/23
Of Ice and Them
Here is an article covering the polar caps of Mars. Thought it might be of interest, given that Martian colonists will need the water once they get there.
The 'Opportunity' vehicle was inopportunely stuck inside a crater for 2 months, but as of this morning has managed to get out of the crater it has been exploring.
Meanwhile back on Earth...
The Lithgow Lion, the Blue Mountains Panther, the Yeti of my dreams
Catch the footprints here.
There is no end to the amusing stories of the bush, but this one takes the cake.
More Idiotica
I know this will upset David Brew for being not only smoke, but pretty stinky smoke to boot; but it is about a man who dreamed to be known as Dances With Snakes. I don't know how or why, but have you noticed that news from Thailand seems to dominate the 'Oddly Enough Reuters' pages?
- Art Neuro
Here is an article covering the polar caps of Mars. Thought it might be of interest, given that Martian colonists will need the water once they get there.
The 'Opportunity' vehicle was inopportunely stuck inside a crater for 2 months, but as of this morning has managed to get out of the crater it has been exploring.
Meanwhile back on Earth...
The Lithgow Lion, the Blue Mountains Panther, the Yeti of my dreams
Catch the footprints here.
There is no end to the amusing stories of the bush, but this one takes the cake.
More Idiotica
I know this will upset David Brew for being not only smoke, but pretty stinky smoke to boot; but it is about a man who dreamed to be known as Dances With Snakes. I don't know how or why, but have you noticed that news from Thailand seems to dominate the 'Oddly Enough Reuters' pages?
- Art Neuro
He swings, he misses!
An asteroid bogey did a fly-by on our planet last week. Okay, that's ascribing way too much personality on a wandering piece of space debris, but you get the picture. Suddenly it's news, and people are thinking about one of my fave flicks of the late '90s, 'Armageddon'.
I'm a bit surprised to see it only rates 5.7 out of 10; I give it a 8/10 myself because of the character conflicts and the obstacles and the complications and the pyrotechnics. However I'm also aware that some people HATE it because, well, the physics is bad and the science is bad and the script is too sensational and there's no pleasing some people.
My favourite quip in that movie comes in response to the off-screen president who demands, "Why didn't we see this thing coming?" and Billy-Bob Thornton character says, "We've mapped about 2% of it but with all due respect sir, it's a pretty damn big sky out there."
In fact NASA now has a price tag for mapping the pretty damn big sky up there and it's US $236 million. It seems to me that it's small-change compared to say, the cost of sending us back to the stone age and starting again. Or even the cost of hiring Bruce Willis and his mining cohorts to go plant a nuke up on the incoming rock the size of Texas. If we know it's coming in at a certain date for US $236 million, it seems to me we might not need Bruce and the entire Hollywood SFX department.
I guess part of the endemic problem with our generation is that because NASA were so spectacularly successful when we were kids, we have this false sense of NASA's probably looking after that. In fact I was pro-NASA in the same vein that the film-makers of Armageddon were for many years simply because I gave them too much credit while ignoring the obvious White Elephant Money Sponge known to us as the Space Shuttle programme. The real shuttle, even if equipped with titanium hull (ha! cackle!) is in no way able to swing around the moon and approach the Rock, let alone land a crew of brave roughnecks to drill and deliver a nuke. In fact... Well let's not re-hash the faults of the Shuttle now, but you get the idea. The point is, it really is time for us to discard our positive regard for NASA and start thinking about and tackling these problems for ourselves.
Playing for more Moneyball
This isn't exactly news, but thirdbaseman Eric Chavez, signed a 6-year $66million extension with the small-market Athletics. The contract takes him through to his Age 32 year.
While this seems like a lot of money to some, it isn't exactly the sort of money Chavez could have commanded at the end of this year when his Free Agency would have come up. It's certainly nothing like A-Rod, a.k.a. Alex Rodriguez's legendary US $252 million over 10 years. He could have commanded more than an average of 11mil/year, but Chavez chose to stay with the Athletics. This is a good sign in as much a Oakland have let other home-grown stars walk in the last 2 years, and could expect to lose at least one of their 'Big 3' pitchers, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. Hudson had stated earlier that he would only consider re-signing with the Athletics if they extended Chavez's contract.
But really, when you stop to think about it, the amount of money the US professional sports pay their elite athletes over their careers is essentially the sort of money it takes to run NASA's programme. You'd think the US government might find that cash *somewhere*.
Maybe A-Rod would be willing to finance the NASA project with his massive wealth. Then he could truly be the greatest hero on the planet. Imagine that!: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankee Thirdbaseman, friend of Team Captain Derek Jeter, Saviour of the Planet from Asteroid Threats.
"Hello NASA? A-Rod here. I heard that you need about 236million to save the planet from a random rock hitting us and sending us into extinction. Yeah well, it'd be a real downer for me too, because I love New York and playing for New York. So guys... It just happens I happen to have 252 million coming to me thanks to Tom Hicks, and I was just thinking maybe I could help you guys out and in the process help the entire planet. Sure. Ok. I'll let my little people talk to your little people. Oh yeah, can I fly in one of your supersonic jets the next time I visit the Cape?"
Pro'lly not. :)
- Art Neuro
An asteroid bogey did a fly-by on our planet last week. Okay, that's ascribing way too much personality on a wandering piece of space debris, but you get the picture. Suddenly it's news, and people are thinking about one of my fave flicks of the late '90s, 'Armageddon'.
I'm a bit surprised to see it only rates 5.7 out of 10; I give it a 8/10 myself because of the character conflicts and the obstacles and the complications and the pyrotechnics. However I'm also aware that some people HATE it because, well, the physics is bad and the science is bad and the script is too sensational and there's no pleasing some people.
My favourite quip in that movie comes in response to the off-screen president who demands, "Why didn't we see this thing coming?" and Billy-Bob Thornton character says, "We've mapped about 2% of it but with all due respect sir, it's a pretty damn big sky out there."
In fact NASA now has a price tag for mapping the pretty damn big sky up there and it's US $236 million. It seems to me that it's small-change compared to say, the cost of sending us back to the stone age and starting again. Or even the cost of hiring Bruce Willis and his mining cohorts to go plant a nuke up on the incoming rock the size of Texas. If we know it's coming in at a certain date for US $236 million, it seems to me we might not need Bruce and the entire Hollywood SFX department.
I guess part of the endemic problem with our generation is that because NASA were so spectacularly successful when we were kids, we have this false sense of NASA's probably looking after that. In fact I was pro-NASA in the same vein that the film-makers of Armageddon were for many years simply because I gave them too much credit while ignoring the obvious White Elephant Money Sponge known to us as the Space Shuttle programme. The real shuttle, even if equipped with titanium hull (ha! cackle!) is in no way able to swing around the moon and approach the Rock, let alone land a crew of brave roughnecks to drill and deliver a nuke. In fact... Well let's not re-hash the faults of the Shuttle now, but you get the idea. The point is, it really is time for us to discard our positive regard for NASA and start thinking about and tackling these problems for ourselves.
Playing for more Moneyball
This isn't exactly news, but thirdbaseman Eric Chavez, signed a 6-year $66million extension with the small-market Athletics. The contract takes him through to his Age 32 year.
While this seems like a lot of money to some, it isn't exactly the sort of money Chavez could have commanded at the end of this year when his Free Agency would have come up. It's certainly nothing like A-Rod, a.k.a. Alex Rodriguez's legendary US $252 million over 10 years. He could have commanded more than an average of 11mil/year, but Chavez chose to stay with the Athletics. This is a good sign in as much a Oakland have let other home-grown stars walk in the last 2 years, and could expect to lose at least one of their 'Big 3' pitchers, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. Hudson had stated earlier that he would only consider re-signing with the Athletics if they extended Chavez's contract.
But really, when you stop to think about it, the amount of money the US professional sports pay their elite athletes over their careers is essentially the sort of money it takes to run NASA's programme. You'd think the US government might find that cash *somewhere*.
Maybe A-Rod would be willing to finance the NASA project with his massive wealth. Then he could truly be the greatest hero on the planet. Imagine that!: Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankee Thirdbaseman, friend of Team Captain Derek Jeter, Saviour of the Planet from Asteroid Threats.
"Hello NASA? A-Rod here. I heard that you need about 236million to save the planet from a random rock hitting us and sending us into extinction. Yeah well, it'd be a real downer for me too, because I love New York and playing for New York. So guys... It just happens I happen to have 252 million coming to me thanks to Tom Hicks, and I was just thinking maybe I could help you guys out and in the process help the entire planet. Sure. Ok. I'll let my little people talk to your little people. Oh yeah, can I fly in one of your supersonic jets the next time I visit the Cape?"
Pro'lly not. :)
- Art Neuro
2004/03/22
Danish Space Policy
This internet document dates to 1997. I imagine it's still current only because it's still listed with Yahoo, but you never know. As we've found out stuff from 1991 is still up on behalf of Australia's defunct space Policy. What's really cool about the Danes having a Space Policy so readily available on-line is that it gives us an opportunity to the level of thinking governments can have in the absence of NASA.
There's a link to Space policy for Space Industry and Business which has a list of recommendations:
-> The international competitiveness of the Danish space industry must be improved through specialization and continued technological development. Among other things, Danish companies should continue to act as suppliers to ESA-programmes
-> The Danish space industry should prioritize projects which ensure continuity and a stable market for their products in the long term. This can be achieved, for example, by participating in operational space activities and by competing in the open market
-> Danish participation in ESA technology programmes should be prioritized in accordance with the focus of Danish R&D and product development. This participation should also encourage company specialization and bring new companies into the arena
A continued, balanced industrial participation in ESA- programmes should be ensured by Danish companies which supply equipment as well as software and services
-> The dependency of individual companies on ESA-orders should be reduced. Revenue gained from ESA should only constitute a limited part of the total company turnover.
And there you have it. A Plan. Not much detail there, but you can see they've got some stuff they want to achieve.
Terrorism and Policy
There was no transaction between Al Qaeda and Spain because:
a) The Spanish voters had no expectation that if they voted for Zapatero, Al Qaeda would cease it's attacks.
b) Al Qaeda cannot make agreements. It isn't an organism, it isn't even a unified organisation, so it can't make promises and therefore cannot participate in a transaction.
The notion that "giving in to terrorists only encourages them" presupposes that if you don't give in to them, they will be discouraged. This is not the way it works, just take a look at what is going on in Israel/Palestine. The various Palestinian terrorist groups have been pursuing unsuccessful policies for 20-30 years, and they're still going.
Al Qaeda's agenda is for the infidel crusaders to be drawn into a war with Islam and be defeated. If the infidels leave Iraq without being defeated, Al Qaeda loses. Al Qaeda does want the infidels out of Iraq, but it doesn't want them leaving by choice.
If the US government finds that it's "coalition of the willing" (ha ha ha) is a bit shaky, it has no-one to blame but itself. The fact is that the war was unjustifiable, and they were lucky to get so many countries involved. That luck will not last, and neither will the coalition. In a democratic system, an unpopular government will be removed, and the invasion of Iraq was extremely unpopular.
At the end of the day, Iraq is America's war, and if they wanted it so badly they should be prepared to fight it.
- James Lownie
There was no transaction between Al Qaeda and Spain because:
a) The Spanish voters had no expectation that if they voted for Zapatero, Al Qaeda would cease it's attacks.
b) Al Qaeda cannot make agreements. It isn't an organism, it isn't even a unified organisation, so it can't make promises and therefore cannot participate in a transaction.
The notion that "giving in to terrorists only encourages them" presupposes that if you don't give in to them, they will be discouraged. This is not the way it works, just take a look at what is going on in Israel/Palestine. The various Palestinian terrorist groups have been pursuing unsuccessful policies for 20-30 years, and they're still going.
Al Qaeda's agenda is for the infidel crusaders to be drawn into a war with Islam and be defeated. If the infidels leave Iraq without being defeated, Al Qaeda loses. Al Qaeda does want the infidels out of Iraq, but it doesn't want them leaving by choice.
If the US government finds that it's "coalition of the willing" (ha ha ha) is a bit shaky, it has no-one to blame but itself. The fact is that the war was unjustifiable, and they were lucky to get so many countries involved. That luck will not last, and neither will the coalition. In a democratic system, an unpopular government will be removed, and the invasion of Iraq was extremely unpopular.
At the end of the day, Iraq is America's war, and if they wanted it so badly they should be prepared to fight it.
- James Lownie
Ike
Eisenhower apparently had an emergency government in planning. I don't know what to make of this except that it seems important he put civilians in charge, at least by plan. As with these things we'll never know if civilians would have been able to rein in the generals in such an event as a nuclear war, but Eisenhower seemed to believe in civilian control. If the 'Thirteen Days' scenario is anything to go by, the civilians would have been hard-pressed to make policy decisions, one would imagine.
- Art Neuro
Eisenhower apparently had an emergency government in planning. I don't know what to make of this except that it seems important he put civilians in charge, at least by plan. As with these things we'll never know if civilians would have been able to rein in the generals in such an event as a nuclear war, but Eisenhower seemed to believe in civilian control. If the 'Thirteen Days' scenario is anything to go by, the civilians would have been hard-pressed to make policy decisions, one would imagine.
- Art Neuro
2004/03/21
Name Change
I've changed the name of this blog to keep reminding myself of:
1) who we are;
2) what we're about;
3) where we want to go.
I decided this after David Brew posted up his reminder that we shouldn't be fooled by the smoke, and his rather dour response to my sad little quip about opiates. Okay, this is who we are this is who have always been.
It's sobering to think Vicki Jordan had us pegged as early as 1985, but then it's not a bad description. However, under this umbrella, I think we can keep being who we are and discuss what is interesting to the most of us. Kudos to Vicki, belatedly, but once more.
That's not to say I'm never posting up something to do with Lisa-Marie Presly or anything, because Vicki, I think, would have liked that.
- Art Neuro
I've changed the name of this blog to keep reminding myself of:
1) who we are;
2) what we're about;
3) where we want to go.
I decided this after David Brew posted up his reminder that we shouldn't be fooled by the smoke, and his rather dour response to my sad little quip about opiates. Okay, this is who we are this is who have always been.
It's sobering to think Vicki Jordan had us pegged as early as 1985, but then it's not a bad description. However, under this umbrella, I think we can keep being who we are and discuss what is interesting to the most of us. Kudos to Vicki, belatedly, but once more.
That's not to say I'm never posting up something to do with Lisa-Marie Presly or anything, because Vicki, I think, would have liked that.
- Art Neuro
Today's Space Garni du Jour
This is an article about the launch of the 50th GPS sat. On the one hand you have the shuttle system which specialises in low orbit. Then you have the geosync orbit, which is the most important, in High orbit. So NASA throws up satellites in low orbit so they can give the shuttle something to do. In the mean time, we ignore the fact that the reason we built the shuttle is to make rockets obsolete, when clearly we've needed fire 50 of these in order to get our comsats up.
Don't it make you wonder?
Meanwhile over at the Mars Society pages, I managed to dig this little article up, which offers us all hope that something is going on.
Space issues attract also sorts of people
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is donating US$13.5 millions to the cause of finding aliens. You'd think that Microsoft itself would be in a position to research a serious entry into the Mars mission rather than open up wallets and ears to hope to hear ET phone home. Maybe that is hoping for too much.
Dumb All Over on the Terror Front
Days after reporting they were closing in on al Zawahiri, we now get this article saying it's not likely to be old Al, but some Uzbek terror cell. Which goes to show the news services don't know what they're doing. May I just say, "TOLD YOU SO". This is typical of the reports in this war and as war correspondences go, they must rank pretty low in a long line of bogus war-correspondence-literature. Then again, the Iliad is largely bogus but it's one heck of a book.
- Art Neuro
This is an article about the launch of the 50th GPS sat. On the one hand you have the shuttle system which specialises in low orbit. Then you have the geosync orbit, which is the most important, in High orbit. So NASA throws up satellites in low orbit so they can give the shuttle something to do. In the mean time, we ignore the fact that the reason we built the shuttle is to make rockets obsolete, when clearly we've needed fire 50 of these in order to get our comsats up.
Don't it make you wonder?
Meanwhile over at the Mars Society pages, I managed to dig this little article up, which offers us all hope that something is going on.
Space issues attract also sorts of people
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is donating US$13.5 millions to the cause of finding aliens. You'd think that Microsoft itself would be in a position to research a serious entry into the Mars mission rather than open up wallets and ears to hope to hear ET phone home. Maybe that is hoping for too much.
Dumb All Over on the Terror Front
Days after reporting they were closing in on al Zawahiri, we now get this article saying it's not likely to be old Al, but some Uzbek terror cell. Which goes to show the news services don't know what they're doing. May I just say, "TOLD YOU SO". This is typical of the reports in this war and as war correspondences go, they must rank pretty low in a long line of bogus war-correspondence-literature. Then again, the Iliad is largely bogus but it's one heck of a book.
- Art Neuro
2004/03/20
Australian Space Policy
Australia, it happens was the fourth nation to send a ballistic object into space. This gets forgotten, in the hub-bub of NASA and International Space Stations. There was a time when this sports-nut nation actually had a Space policy. Since then, we've backed off into tax policies and microeconomic reform and Republican issues, but we were once a nation of Star-gazing darers. There. I said it.
Googling Australian Space Policy gets you this. Clicking on the first article there gives us this wonderful page that dates to the latter part of the Second Millennium (1997-1998 to be exact.). Of particular interest is this bit at the end of the Introduction:
Space Tourism!! Canberra thinks the future of Space (and by logical extension the Australian Vision for our future in Space) is turning Space into the Goldcoast in the Sky. So there it is. We paid tax money for this guys, and if this isn't the grossest form of exploitation, I do not know what is.
The Second entry on google is this page which was written in 1991. While well reasoned and more persuasive of the necessity for an Australian Space Policy, the paper sadly dates from the Hawke Prime Ministership. let's face it, it's pre-Shane Warne. While the recommendations at the end read like a hastily written to-do list, it's doubtful anything has been seriously undertaken since those heady days when Nick Farr-Jones captained Australia to a Rugby World Cup Victory.
Now, Third up on the google list is this page, which looks more promising. Except when i clicked on the Space Policy link, I got this page to do wtih energy. In fact most of the other links go absolutely nowhere. So much for the promise.
The fourth entry gets you this nothing page with the depressing news that the Australian Space Office ran from 1987 and was closed in 1996. My guess? John Howard's hatchet job. (Sorry DDB, but you gotta call a shovel a shovel, because that's what you shovel with). Okay, it's not quite a nothing page; it's better that it's there than not, but hell it's depressing.
After that, the list is positively dismal if you haven't lost faith already. So that's the State of the Nation when it comes to our Space Policy.
- Art Neuro
Australia, it happens was the fourth nation to send a ballistic object into space. This gets forgotten, in the hub-bub of NASA and International Space Stations. There was a time when this sports-nut nation actually had a Space policy. Since then, we've backed off into tax policies and microeconomic reform and Republican issues, but we were once a nation of Star-gazing darers. There. I said it.
Googling Australian Space Policy gets you this. Clicking on the first article there gives us this wonderful page that dates to the latter part of the Second Millennium (1997-1998 to be exact.). Of particular interest is this bit at the end of the Introduction:
Current government administrative arrangements for space have now split into a practical development program (FedSat) under CSIRO, with broader policy matters still retained within DIST. As a legacy of past myopia and minuscule budgets, only now is the bureaucracy reaching a degree of familiarity with space systems and international legal requirements. Space policy has probably had more reviews than any other area in the portfolio, but finally there is now a move towards defining specific space industry policy.Now, I don't know about everybody else, but does this sound like an aggressively forward looking document to you? I'm perplexed by the detached, bureaucrat-ese with which the page is oozing. I clicked on the bit that is titled 'Space Futures' and go this for an opening paragraph:
There remains a strong popular interest in astronomy and space exploration, though at a basic level of understanding. Fascination with the search for life in space, on Mars and nearby stars has not extended to public support for practical Australian space programs. Critics of space exploration view it as exploitation on a grand scale. If appropriate space policy is to survive, it must address Earth's issues and proper socioeconomic goals for us.
Can we all expect to tour in Earth's orbit in the near future perhaps staying at a space hotel, or cruise the spaceways in a liner? Some believe that the space tourism era is here now. With the development of international standards for airspace traffic control, trade, and routes for transport, such as those that exist for airlines, then 'spacelines' may follow, they believe. National and international policies to encourage market growth and investment through a global spaceways forum may well set the policy, standards, regulations and protocols for the future. Past Cold War era space programs excluded public participation. There are thus no space policies to allow public involvement and market development. Governments may have an economic public welfare role to encourage private investment in the space sector for long term benefit. Space development with public involvement may be a necessary policy vision.
Space Tourism!! Canberra thinks the future of Space (and by logical extension the Australian Vision for our future in Space) is turning Space into the Goldcoast in the Sky. So there it is. We paid tax money for this guys, and if this isn't the grossest form of exploitation, I do not know what is.
The Second entry on google is this page which was written in 1991. While well reasoned and more persuasive of the necessity for an Australian Space Policy, the paper sadly dates from the Hawke Prime Ministership. let's face it, it's pre-Shane Warne. While the recommendations at the end read like a hastily written to-do list, it's doubtful anything has been seriously undertaken since those heady days when Nick Farr-Jones captained Australia to a Rugby World Cup Victory.
Now, Third up on the google list is this page, which looks more promising. Except when i clicked on the Space Policy link, I got this page to do wtih energy. In fact most of the other links go absolutely nowhere. So much for the promise.
The fourth entry gets you this nothing page with the depressing news that the Australian Space Office ran from 1987 and was closed in 1996. My guess? John Howard's hatchet job. (Sorry DDB, but you gotta call a shovel a shovel, because that's what you shovel with). Okay, it's not quite a nothing page; it's better that it's there than not, but hell it's depressing.
After that, the list is positively dismal if you haven't lost faith already. So that's the State of the Nation when it comes to our Space Policy.
- Art Neuro
Well it seems the current smoke issues have seized the floor again as usual & we will leave the 50-100 years questions until later. In 50 years however no-one will care about Madrid or Bali. I say this, not because I don't care - I do - but these are really just current affairs & there are thousands of other forums screaming about them already. If they make us too busy to look up from the mire & see the horizon then we will join the Dinosaurs.
I don't advocate we ignore current affairs (except perhaps in forums set aside for other things). There is NO chance of that happening however, is there? We must live every day in the world as we find it. Will we not spare some thought though for the world as we would make it?
...or will we just accept what comes with resignation?
I don't advocate we ignore current affairs (except perhaps in forums set aside for other things). There is NO chance of that happening however, is there? We must live every day in the world as we find it. Will we not spare some thought though for the world as we would make it?
...or will we just accept what comes with resignation?
2004/03/19
Unintelligent Design
Recently Ohio went ahead with teaching the notion of 'Intelligent Design'. Sure to spark more monkey trials than a barrel of monkeys with guns and motive.
Can God and Science co-exist? As Althea Leasure, played by Courntney Love in 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt' famously observed "Larry, Get over it. God and Porn don't mix".
Given God's alleged representatives on Earth, it's hard to see God and anything mixing, but that's just me. It's a shame Ohio School kids now have to go through the admixture of two alien schools of thought.
- Art Neuro
Recently Ohio went ahead with teaching the notion of 'Intelligent Design'. Sure to spark more monkey trials than a barrel of monkeys with guns and motive.
Can God and Science co-exist? As Althea Leasure, played by Courntney Love in 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt' famously observed "Larry, Get over it. God and Porn don't mix".
Given God's alleged representatives on Earth, it's hard to see God and anything mixing, but that's just me. It's a shame Ohio School kids now have to go through the admixture of two alien schools of thought.
- Art Neuro
Art wrote something in the comments section, and I'm replying to it here because I think the discussion is what the blog is about.
Art wrote:
"It may well be exactly as you say. But there's no real quid pro quo here, so I don't know if the Spanish public are going to get what they want.
Hypothetical:
So they elect a Socialist Govt who pulls the troops out of Iraq. What guarantees have the Spanish got that Al-Qaeda and its allies won't do more stuff in Spain?
If indeed the Spanish got a quid pro quo deal, then that would make it true that the Spanish are breaking ranks with the 'Coalition of the Willing' so that would be more like, 'treachery', not 'appeasement '.
If in fact the Spaniards don't care, and they just want out, then Al-Qaeda have beaten the Spanish hands down. That would be 'capitulation'.
Just thinking out loud here"
Art, you are assuming that the invasion of Iraq somehow threatened Al Qaeda, and that withdrawing from Iraq somehow helps them. The whole point I was making was that your assumption cannot be justified and has never been tested.
Bin Laden's stated objective is to ignite a war between all of Islam, and everything he identifies as un-Islamic (ie, Western society). Did the invasion of Iraq advance or hinder that agenda?
While Saddam was in power, Al Qaeda was unable to operate in Iraq. Now they set off bombs there every 2 weeks. Do you think they want to go back to the old days?
Immediately before the invasion the entire US special operations command moved from Afghanistan to the middle east. What effect did this have on the operations against Al Qaeda?
I am only aware of three ways of reducing the threat of terrorism:
1. Destroying their bases and training camps.
2. Reducing the support they receive, by putting pressure on the individuals and regimes that support them.
3. Arresting/killing operatives in the field.
The invasion of Iraq did nothing to reduce the threat of terrorism, and in fact increased it. What effect is withdrawing from Iraq going to have?
- James Lownie
Art wrote:
"It may well be exactly as you say. But there's no real quid pro quo here, so I don't know if the Spanish public are going to get what they want.
Hypothetical:
So they elect a Socialist Govt who pulls the troops out of Iraq. What guarantees have the Spanish got that Al-Qaeda and its allies won't do more stuff in Spain?
If indeed the Spanish got a quid pro quo deal, then that would make it true that the Spanish are breaking ranks with the 'Coalition of the Willing' so that would be more like, 'treachery', not 'appeasement '.
If in fact the Spaniards don't care, and they just want out, then Al-Qaeda have beaten the Spanish hands down. That would be 'capitulation'.
Just thinking out loud here"
Art, you are assuming that the invasion of Iraq somehow threatened Al Qaeda, and that withdrawing from Iraq somehow helps them. The whole point I was making was that your assumption cannot be justified and has never been tested.
Bin Laden's stated objective is to ignite a war between all of Islam, and everything he identifies as un-Islamic (ie, Western society). Did the invasion of Iraq advance or hinder that agenda?
While Saddam was in power, Al Qaeda was unable to operate in Iraq. Now they set off bombs there every 2 weeks. Do you think they want to go back to the old days?
Immediately before the invasion the entire US special operations command moved from Afghanistan to the middle east. What effect did this have on the operations against Al Qaeda?
I am only aware of three ways of reducing the threat of terrorism:
1. Destroying their bases and training camps.
2. Reducing the support they receive, by putting pressure on the individuals and regimes that support them.
3. Arresting/killing operatives in the field.
The invasion of Iraq did nothing to reduce the threat of terrorism, and in fact increased it. What effect is withdrawing from Iraq going to have?
- James Lownie
Art has summed up my main reason why going into space in a big way is essential now not later & especially not for some future generation
The Earth is a fragile ecosphere where we are eating through her generosity at increasing rates. While being a little over-invested in the notion of a collective humanity, I strongly believe the future of humanity cannot escape being in space. This is not a science fiction aspiration any more than the impending crunch of the Malthus' logic.
It is not (as Robert Zubrin of the Mars society argues) to revitalise our society, create frontiers, prove ourselves to be anything etc. It is about species survival.
If we stay here, we will die here. We are using up resources too fast now and the pace is accelerating. Even were it decreasing (as in a few instances) we are still not even attempting true sustainability, nor can we. Our whole system absolutely requires growth and realistically will not be given up. In fact the system spreads as everyone else wants to live as richly Westerners too. We cannot have this without the growth & the growth uses up non-renewables at a growing rate. We will run out of a whole lot of things we cannot replace or substitute within 1-200 years. It will take 50-100 to get into space and the effort will accelerate our resource usage! We may not even have the resources later whatever our perceived need.
So we are trapped in the Malthusian bind Art mentions. We cannot "walk lightly", not just because everyone won't recycle but because we just can't! There are too many of us & it won't work. The only thing we can do is find more resources. These resources (especially energy) are simply not available on Earth. We need to expand into space to save the species and to save the Earth (from the consequences of our own collapse). Stabilising & reducing our population is just part of that & we must do that space or no.
Secondly we cannot currently deal with asteroid or comet strikes like the one that whacked the dinosaurs. Realistically only an extensively space faring species will have the werewithall to do this as we must find and change orbits of big bodies over time. No shuttle hopping & moon visiting culture can do this. We must get serious.
So it is not about seizing our destiny or opening psychic or real frontiers. We need to do it so we (humankind) do not die and take most of the biosphere with us. We need it so the biosphere (& us in particular) escape the cycle of regular mass extinctions caused by the regular Rocking from space. The Dinosaurs WAY outdid us for biological success & longevity so we can't skite. Yet their specialties were different. We have the means to perceive and get around the extinction trap though so we do not have any excuse to not go into space and take the next step for ourselves and for 'Life', 'Gaia', what you will.
Compared to this all the wars on tourism, politics, religions, sports & other present day issues are just smoke. They blind us to our impending doom and provide the excuse for concentrating on more 'pressing' (read more immediate) issues.
The Earth is a fragile ecosphere where we are eating through her generosity at increasing rates. While being a little over-invested in the notion of a collective humanity, I strongly believe the future of humanity cannot escape being in space. This is not a science fiction aspiration any more than the impending crunch of the Malthus' logic.
It is not (as Robert Zubrin of the Mars society argues) to revitalise our society, create frontiers, prove ourselves to be anything etc. It is about species survival.
If we stay here, we will die here. We are using up resources too fast now and the pace is accelerating. Even were it decreasing (as in a few instances) we are still not even attempting true sustainability, nor can we. Our whole system absolutely requires growth and realistically will not be given up. In fact the system spreads as everyone else wants to live as richly Westerners too. We cannot have this without the growth & the growth uses up non-renewables at a growing rate. We will run out of a whole lot of things we cannot replace or substitute within 1-200 years. It will take 50-100 to get into space and the effort will accelerate our resource usage! We may not even have the resources later whatever our perceived need.
So we are trapped in the Malthusian bind Art mentions. We cannot "walk lightly", not just because everyone won't recycle but because we just can't! There are too many of us & it won't work. The only thing we can do is find more resources. These resources (especially energy) are simply not available on Earth. We need to expand into space to save the species and to save the Earth (from the consequences of our own collapse). Stabilising & reducing our population is just part of that & we must do that space or no.
Secondly we cannot currently deal with asteroid or comet strikes like the one that whacked the dinosaurs. Realistically only an extensively space faring species will have the werewithall to do this as we must find and change orbits of big bodies over time. No shuttle hopping & moon visiting culture can do this. We must get serious.
So it is not about seizing our destiny or opening psychic or real frontiers. We need to do it so we (humankind) do not die and take most of the biosphere with us. We need it so the biosphere (& us in particular) escape the cycle of regular mass extinctions caused by the regular Rocking from space. The Dinosaurs WAY outdid us for biological success & longevity so we can't skite. Yet their specialties were different. We have the means to perceive and get around the extinction trap though so we do not have any excuse to not go into space and take the next step for ourselves and for 'Life', 'Gaia', what you will.
Compared to this all the wars on tourism, politics, religions, sports & other present day issues are just smoke. They blind us to our impending doom and provide the excuse for concentrating on more 'pressing' (read more immediate) issues.
Always on the Run
Sometimes these news items seem totally unsubstantiated. Here is one on some operation going on in the Pakistan Hills. Amongst the things claimed, the target, al-Zawahiri, 52 is painted thus:
Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri, 52, helped mastermind the September 11 attacks and planned numerous other atrocities
Is it just me, or does this strike you as weird? How do they know this? How do we know this? From the same faulty 'security' sources that allowed the attacks of September 11 to take place? What the hell is this claim? Without running to conspiracy theories, this statement looks really out of place. The whole Osama bin Laden hysteria also reminds me of the portraits of Goldstein in Orwell's '1984'. So in case you've missed it, we've arrived in the feared destination; and having arrived we seem to be just loving it.
Crisis of Masculinity
While we still live under the alleged Crisis of Masculinity engineered by our federal politicians, we have this little article today to think about. Maybe these footballers should get part-time jobs teaching primary school children. It would solve two crises with one move.
Robert S. McNamara
We at this blog have been having heated e-discussions about this gentleman for the last few days. What triggered it was this article, together with a screening of 'Thirteen Days' on Channel 9 recently. While Baby Boomers who fondly remember their marches against the war in Vietnam seem to hold him responsible for the said war, my Gen-X take on this man is substantially different. Having watched 'JFK' recently, I'm convinced that McNamara was railroaded by LBJ into that war, and that the Baby Boomers are howling at the wrong man, if not the wrong cause.
How so? McNamara is the man who recommends to JFK to pull troops out of Vietnam. JFK agrees and issues the directive. This creates the reason for the assassination. After the assassination, the US increases its commitment to the Vietnam War, signed for by LBJ. So we ask this question: "If you were Robert McNamara who recommended the pull-out, saw the President commit to that course of action, and then had his brains blown out, would you then stand in the way of LBJ and the trigger-happy generals?"
But here we sit in 2004, 40 years on, and it is clear the lessons of history have not been learnt. Pax Americana is still a MIC pipe dream, and can only be brought about by these forever wars in such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and possibly into the future, Syria and Iran. Sure, go blame McNamara for Vietnam, but by hell you've got the wrong man.
Moneyball Stuff
Last year I read 'Moneyball' like every good baseball fan. For those not moved by baseball, it's a book that chronicles the rise of the Oakland Athletics in spite of their budgetary limitations. One of the crucial concepts in the book was how General Manager Billy Beane and his assistant Paul DePodesta concentrated on rational, statistical analysis and concentrated on acquiring talent who suited their needs. In order to do so, Beane and DePodesta had to exploit market inefficiencies and seek out the under-valued talent. What made this move controversial was how the men seemed to (in the book's description anyway) demolish traditional (read entrenched) 'baseball wisdom' wholesale. By applying their hard-nosed rationalist approach they were at least able to avoid making bad choices, which by logical reasoning turned out to be making the right choices.
A year after its release, its impact is still felt around the traps.
Rather than recount the whole book, I thoroughly recommend non-baseball fans to have a read of the book and think about the nature of their accomplishment. There are lessons to be drawn for many other ventures and businesses.
From time to time, if I spot anything that has to do with the young players featured in Moneyball, I'll post it up.
- Art Neuro
Sometimes these news items seem totally unsubstantiated. Here is one on some operation going on in the Pakistan Hills. Amongst the things claimed, the target, al-Zawahiri, 52 is painted thus:
Egyptian-born al-Zawahiri, 52, helped mastermind the September 11 attacks and planned numerous other atrocities
Is it just me, or does this strike you as weird? How do they know this? How do we know this? From the same faulty 'security' sources that allowed the attacks of September 11 to take place? What the hell is this claim? Without running to conspiracy theories, this statement looks really out of place. The whole Osama bin Laden hysteria also reminds me of the portraits of Goldstein in Orwell's '1984'. So in case you've missed it, we've arrived in the feared destination; and having arrived we seem to be just loving it.
Crisis of Masculinity
While we still live under the alleged Crisis of Masculinity engineered by our federal politicians, we have this little article today to think about. Maybe these footballers should get part-time jobs teaching primary school children. It would solve two crises with one move.
Robert S. McNamara
We at this blog have been having heated e-discussions about this gentleman for the last few days. What triggered it was this article, together with a screening of 'Thirteen Days' on Channel 9 recently. While Baby Boomers who fondly remember their marches against the war in Vietnam seem to hold him responsible for the said war, my Gen-X take on this man is substantially different. Having watched 'JFK' recently, I'm convinced that McNamara was railroaded by LBJ into that war, and that the Baby Boomers are howling at the wrong man, if not the wrong cause.
How so? McNamara is the man who recommends to JFK to pull troops out of Vietnam. JFK agrees and issues the directive. This creates the reason for the assassination. After the assassination, the US increases its commitment to the Vietnam War, signed for by LBJ. So we ask this question: "If you were Robert McNamara who recommended the pull-out, saw the President commit to that course of action, and then had his brains blown out, would you then stand in the way of LBJ and the trigger-happy generals?"
But here we sit in 2004, 40 years on, and it is clear the lessons of history have not been learnt. Pax Americana is still a MIC pipe dream, and can only be brought about by these forever wars in such places as Afghanistan, Iraq and possibly into the future, Syria and Iran. Sure, go blame McNamara for Vietnam, but by hell you've got the wrong man.
Moneyball Stuff
Last year I read 'Moneyball' like every good baseball fan. For those not moved by baseball, it's a book that chronicles the rise of the Oakland Athletics in spite of their budgetary limitations. One of the crucial concepts in the book was how General Manager Billy Beane and his assistant Paul DePodesta concentrated on rational, statistical analysis and concentrated on acquiring talent who suited their needs. In order to do so, Beane and DePodesta had to exploit market inefficiencies and seek out the under-valued talent. What made this move controversial was how the men seemed to (in the book's description anyway) demolish traditional (read entrenched) 'baseball wisdom' wholesale. By applying their hard-nosed rationalist approach they were at least able to avoid making bad choices, which by logical reasoning turned out to be making the right choices.
A year after its release, its impact is still felt around the traps.
Rather than recount the whole book, I thoroughly recommend non-baseball fans to have a read of the book and think about the nature of their accomplishment. There are lessons to be drawn for many other ventures and businesses.
From time to time, if I spot anything that has to do with the young players featured in Moneyball, I'll post it up.
- Art Neuro
2004/03/18
It seems that a large section of the western mass media is characterising the Spanish election result as "appeasement", "capitulation", and other nasty labels:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$IS52JB0YTJXUJQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2004/03/17/wterr17.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/17/ixnewstop.html
This is all in accordance with the agenda of the Bush/Military-Industrial Complex, but it's a dangerous path for them to take. The proposition that the war on Iraq is part of the "War On Terror" has never been seriously examined, despite it's widespread acceptance. Drawing attention to the Spanish election carries with it the risk of drawing attention to all sorts of facts that are not explained by the official story. The "War On Terror" cover story for the invasion has even more holes in it than the "WMD" cover story, and the criticism of the Spaniards relies on this story. I'm sure that the US (and Australian) media is quite capable of papering over the gaps in it, but the further they depart from reality, the greater is the risk that people will ask themselves the question "What did the invasion of Iraq have to do with the 'War on Terror'?". We all have enough information to figure that one out, all it takes is to ask the question.
James
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$IS52JB0YTJXUJQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2004/03/17/wterr17.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/17/ixnewstop.html
This is all in accordance with the agenda of the Bush/Military-Industrial Complex, but it's a dangerous path for them to take. The proposition that the war on Iraq is part of the "War On Terror" has never been seriously examined, despite it's widespread acceptance. Drawing attention to the Spanish election carries with it the risk of drawing attention to all sorts of facts that are not explained by the official story. The "War On Terror" cover story for the invasion has even more holes in it than the "WMD" cover story, and the criticism of the Spaniards relies on this story. I'm sure that the US (and Australian) media is quite capable of papering over the gaps in it, but the further they depart from reality, the greater is the risk that people will ask themselves the question "What did the invasion of Iraq have to do with the 'War on Terror'?". We all have enough information to figure that one out, all it takes is to ask the question.
James
Tax Policy
This is interesting: a new tax policy being suggest by the CPA Australia.
About bloody time.
Makes you wonder
Like the Illinois Enema Bandit, Al Queda are on the loose again, issuing contradictory statements. Here's one saying "Who's Next?" and then there are these Spanish friends effectively saying, "we've quit for now because you voted Socialist". I leave it to your judgement if the war on terror is getting any closer to a resolution. It does strike one as idiotic to declare war on terror, as it is a bit like declaring war on anxiety or mixed emotions or broken promises. Having said that, it seems the mythical opponent is just as dazed and confused; which is excellent because now we can say with confidence we are indeed dumb all over.
Also, here's the Lisa Marie update. She's issued a statement denying that what she meant was pederastry by her ex-husband, the king of pop. We'll keep you posted on this non-story. :)
- Art Neuro
This is interesting: a new tax policy being suggest by the CPA Australia.
About bloody time.
Makes you wonder
Like the Illinois Enema Bandit, Al Queda are on the loose again, issuing contradictory statements. Here's one saying "Who's Next?" and then there are these Spanish friends effectively saying, "we've quit for now because you voted Socialist". I leave it to your judgement if the war on terror is getting any closer to a resolution. It does strike one as idiotic to declare war on terror, as it is a bit like declaring war on anxiety or mixed emotions or broken promises. Having said that, it seems the mythical opponent is just as dazed and confused; which is excellent because now we can say with confidence we are indeed dumb all over.
Also, here's the Lisa Marie update. She's issued a statement denying that what she meant was pederastry by her ex-husband, the king of pop. We'll keep you posted on this non-story. :)
- Art Neuro
Space Policy
What got us talking initially was space policy since the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster. While people debated such notions as 'should we have manned flights in space at all?', I felt the opposite feeling. i.e. "Why aren't we out there more?" The reasons for going to space are myriad. The Earth is a fragile ecosphere where we are eating through her generosity at increasing rates. While being a little over-invested in the notion of a collective humanity, I strongly believe the future of humanity cannot escape being in space. This is not a science fiction aspiration any more than the impending crunch of the Malthus' logic.
For those who believe that Schumpeter's notion of the destructive creation of values that leapfrog us ahead; all of those breakthroughs that have staved off the end point have consumed more energy, and thus impacted more heavily on the ecosphere. This means in the on going long term (and this may only be 50-100 years) humanity must look to get off the planet if it wants to survive. And so Space, as a source for resource and a place to spread into, becomes an issue.
A quick swipe at NASA
It seemed to us that for years we had trusted NASA to be watching out for the interests of humanity in space. Well how naive was that assumption? For all we can tell now, the space shuttle program, was essentially a crock and always was.
NASA, as we are finding out, is the fireworks entertainment branch of the US Military Industrial Complex we have come to loathe so much. Without and aim, but a need to secure budgets, NASA has become a massive bureaucracy working on god knows what to what end, and constantly shipping into the sky an aged fleet of Space Shuttle conceived with the desire to cut costs so that they could spend more. It seems to us that while NASA has been innovative in small technical ways, why are we still flying Space Shuttles into lower orbit for no significant purpose?
Jumping right ahead, what is possible given our technology? The Mars Society for one believes it can achieve manned exploration of Mars using current technology. Not only that it is trying to mobilise popular support. This looks a lot more positive.
Anyway, this is an attempt to condense months of discussions, so hopefully we'll get to elaborate on this further down the track. As David Brew says, on this issue we're looking 50-100 years ahead, but we want answers soon.
- Art Neuro
What got us talking initially was space policy since the Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster. While people debated such notions as 'should we have manned flights in space at all?', I felt the opposite feeling. i.e. "Why aren't we out there more?" The reasons for going to space are myriad. The Earth is a fragile ecosphere where we are eating through her generosity at increasing rates. While being a little over-invested in the notion of a collective humanity, I strongly believe the future of humanity cannot escape being in space. This is not a science fiction aspiration any more than the impending crunch of the Malthus' logic.
For those who believe that Schumpeter's notion of the destructive creation of values that leapfrog us ahead; all of those breakthroughs that have staved off the end point have consumed more energy, and thus impacted more heavily on the ecosphere. This means in the on going long term (and this may only be 50-100 years) humanity must look to get off the planet if it wants to survive. And so Space, as a source for resource and a place to spread into, becomes an issue.
A quick swipe at NASA
It seemed to us that for years we had trusted NASA to be watching out for the interests of humanity in space. Well how naive was that assumption? For all we can tell now, the space shuttle program, was essentially a crock and always was.
NASA, as we are finding out, is the fireworks entertainment branch of the US Military Industrial Complex we have come to loathe so much. Without and aim, but a need to secure budgets, NASA has become a massive bureaucracy working on god knows what to what end, and constantly shipping into the sky an aged fleet of Space Shuttle conceived with the desire to cut costs so that they could spend more. It seems to us that while NASA has been innovative in small technical ways, why are we still flying Space Shuttles into lower orbit for no significant purpose?
Jumping right ahead, what is possible given our technology? The Mars Society for one believes it can achieve manned exploration of Mars using current technology. Not only that it is trying to mobilise popular support. This looks a lot more positive.
Anyway, this is an attempt to condense months of discussions, so hopefully we'll get to elaborate on this further down the track. As David Brew says, on this issue we're looking 50-100 years ahead, but we want answers soon.
- Art Neuro
Well, having been quoted by Art as believing we have to step up to the plate I really must accept his invite. I can't say I will be commenting on sport, movies etc unless they bear on more important issues however. ...but then Art is more serious than he pretends too.
Anyway, we may as well leap in the deep end and talk about where we see humanity's future heading in the next 50-100 years (which is what Art & I were talking about when we started this). This kind of mid-long term projection seems to be all but drowned out in the din of Western consumer trashInfo these days. Yet someone has to talk about it! Why we should (or shouldn't) go into space; whether humanity are as masterful as they believe or just NFI.
For myself I think we are an odd mixture of NFI & master but if we want to survive we have to take our eyes OFF the maelstrom around us and get off this rock. I for one am all for getting to Mars ASAP as a first step to the rest of the solar system. ...& I am prepared to explain why at length (but not this morning)
I will however suggest a slightly more directed blog title "50-100 Years". How about it Art?
Anyway, we may as well leap in the deep end and talk about where we see humanity's future heading in the next 50-100 years (which is what Art & I were talking about when we started this). This kind of mid-long term projection seems to be all but drowned out in the din of Western consumer trashInfo these days. Yet someone has to talk about it! Why we should (or shouldn't) go into space; whether humanity are as masterful as they believe or just NFI.
For myself I think we are an odd mixture of NFI & master but if we want to survive we have to take our eyes OFF the maelstrom around us and get off this rock. I for one am all for getting to Mars ASAP as a first step to the rest of the solar system. ...& I am prepared to explain why at length (but not this morning)
I will however suggest a slightly more directed blog title "50-100 Years". How about it Art?
2004/03/17
Andrew Denton gets noticed in the USA...
...for interviewing Lisa Marie Presley and getting a rather non-descript response from her. The following is what is reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:
"What did you see Ms. Presley?"
"Well, stuff, y'know?"
"What kind of 'stuff'?"
"I don't want to talk about it; just stuff."
"May we remind you that you're under oath Ms. Presley"
"All right then, disturbing stuff. Like chimps and llamas eating at the table with us; and all the demotapes for songs he'd never finish; the endless stream of plastic surgery brochures that piled up on our doorstep..."
I don't know, I'm just making that one up.
However, it was interesting to see the Global Village in action, turning a seeming nothing into a something, the value of which is probably *not much*.
- Art Neuro
...for interviewing Lisa Marie Presley and getting a rather non-descript response from her. The following is what is reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:
Presley, who divorced Jackson in 1996 after a union lasting 19 months, told Denton she had felt powerless in her marriage, and that was why she left.So it turns out the US legal experts are suggesting they subpoena Lisa Marie in their case against Michael Jackson. As it happens I watched this interview and got the distinct impression she was talking about something else, not the alleged lewd and lascivious acts. In fact, Ms. Presley was most guarded in most of her responses because she knew that whatever she said would "bleed back to America". This could get interesting, but I wonder how much weight of evidence statements made in a TV interview in Australia, could carry in the prosecution's case against Jackson. In fact, judging from Ms. Presley's generally reticent demeanor, even if police were to subpoena her, they would probably get the same sort of vague responses.
"I mean, powerless in a lot of ways, in terms of ... Realizing that I was part of a machine, and seeing things going on that I couldn't do anything about," she said.
"And don't ask me what sort of things, because I'm not going to answer. But just stuff."
"What did you see Ms. Presley?"
"Well, stuff, y'know?"
"What kind of 'stuff'?"
"I don't want to talk about it; just stuff."
"May we remind you that you're under oath Ms. Presley"
"All right then, disturbing stuff. Like chimps and llamas eating at the table with us; and all the demotapes for songs he'd never finish; the endless stream of plastic surgery brochures that piled up on our doorstep..."
I don't know, I'm just making that one up.
However, it was interesting to see the Global Village in action, turning a seeming nothing into a something, the value of which is probably *not much*.
- Art Neuro
First Up!
James Lownie was quick to respond to the launch of this blog and presented us with this, an article about a possible special skills draft.
I'd hate to be some 'special skills' person sitting around doing my dweeby linguist/computer thing to receive one of those from the government. Fortunately for us of course this is being discussed over in the USA, but it has ramifications for us here in Australia too. If indeed the military are short of linguists and computer geeks, it's a matter of time before we see a heavier recruitment drive for such people and if that fails, it would stand to some kind of reason the Australian government (under a coalition government leadership) would look at this sort of solution. Having said that, in my case, I'd only get drafted if the Australians were hard-pressed for interpretters in their invasion of Japan.
Somehow I don't think that's likely.
- Art Neuro
James Lownie was quick to respond to the launch of this blog and presented us with this, an article about a possible special skills draft.
I'd hate to be some 'special skills' person sitting around doing my dweeby linguist/computer thing to receive one of those from the government. Fortunately for us of course this is being discussed over in the USA, but it has ramifications for us here in Australia too. If indeed the military are short of linguists and computer geeks, it's a matter of time before we see a heavier recruitment drive for such people and if that fails, it would stand to some kind of reason the Australian government (under a coalition government leadership) would look at this sort of solution. Having said that, in my case, I'd only get drafted if the Australians were hard-pressed for interpretters in their invasion of Japan.
Somehow I don't think that's likely.
- Art Neuro
Welcome dear friends to the blog with no purpose.
Well, it does have a purpose and it is to create a forum where some of us can just vent and push our petty agendas and knock bad movies and what have you. However, generally speaking I won't be commenting on just sport or just movies or just politics. It's going to be a weird admixture and I promise to keep it going as long as I can.
A few months back David Brew and I came to the conclusion that if we wanted to have some say in the world, we just had to get up and say it. Given the way the world is today, I figured a blog might start something. I could be proven wrong, but it depends on who gets here and says what.
Anyway, hope you enjoy and visit often.
Oh yeah, don't forget to occasionally gratuitously click on the ads. It helps out the folks at blogger.
- Art Neuro
Well, it does have a purpose and it is to create a forum where some of us can just vent and push our petty agendas and knock bad movies and what have you. However, generally speaking I won't be commenting on just sport or just movies or just politics. It's going to be a weird admixture and I promise to keep it going as long as I can.
A few months back David Brew and I came to the conclusion that if we wanted to have some say in the world, we just had to get up and say it. Given the way the world is today, I figured a blog might start something. I could be proven wrong, but it depends on who gets here and says what.
Anyway, hope you enjoy and visit often.
Oh yeah, don't forget to occasionally gratuitously click on the ads. It helps out the folks at blogger.
- Art Neuro
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