Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Friday, July 30, 2021
Our Time Press, which I am told is the largest black owned newspaper in Brooklyn, has just picked up my piece about Major Robert Lawrence, the first black astronaut.
Also, what if Robert Lawrence had lived?: A Brother on the Moon
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Monday, July 26, 2021
Sunday, July 25, 2021
According to Space News, Japan has recently passed a space resources law similar to ones enacted by the United States, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that would give Japanese companies permission to “prospect for, extract and use various space resources.” The new law is an indication that Japan intends to be part of the international return to the moon, led by NASA. Japan is a signatory of the Artemis Accords that seeks to spell out rules for cooperation in the exploration of space, particularly the lunar surface.
Saturday, July 24, 2021
Friday, July 23, 2021
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Monday, July 19, 2021
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Ever since NASA announced, “Mission Equity,” the more conservative media warned about the corruption of the space agency by identity politics. The National Review, for example, suggests that Mission Equity is “is not to explore space, land on Mars, or advance human understanding of the cosmos, but to promote woke identity politics.”
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Friday, July 16, 2021
"In the movie, Phoebe Waller-Bridge figures out that a conspiracy is at hand. One of the Apollo 11 astronauts dropped dead before the mission and someone (the government?) put an imposter/ lookalike in his place. Ultimately, she is arrested when Boyd Holbrook’s character (a police officer) sees her flashing off a picture of the deceased body being loaded into an ambulance, looking to shuttle him away."
The problem is that this makes no sense. Apollo 11 had a backup crew that was training in the same way as the prime crew. If Armstrong, Aldrin, or Collins had "dropped dead" his backup would have been assigned to take his place. Something similar happened during Apollo 13 when one of the prime crew had been exposed to the German Measels.
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson has already flown into space on board his SpaceShipTwo rocket plane. Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos is set to celebrate the July 20th anniversary of the first moon landing on his New Shepard rocket with another suborbital flight. SpaceX’s Elon Musk is developing a space tourism business on spacecraft that actually go into low Earth orbit.
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Old and busted: Jeff Bezos is a greedy monopolist who abuses his workers
New hotness:
Smithsonian To Receive Historic $200 Million Donation From Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin's foundation, Club for the Future, selects 19 space-based charities to each receive a $1 million grantOctavia was excited to journey with her uncle, Caius Julius Caesar, to Gaul. Her knowledge of magic and her skill with weapons would be an asset for Caesar's plan to add Gaul as a province to the Roman Republic. However, stirring in the north, beyond the Rhine, an army of the undead threatens to overrun the world and plunge it into eternal night. Can an alliance of Roman legions and Gallic warriors stop the threat? Octavia's adventure in the northern lands was about to take a dread turn.
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Monday, July 12, 2021
Sunday, July 11, 2021
The race between Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin for which billionaire will be the first to fly into space on his own rocket has certainly captured the public imagination. If schedules hold up. Branson will be the first at the head on a six-person crew on July 11. Bezos will follow on July 20 with a crew that includes his brother, someone who paid $28 million to charity for a seat, and “Mercury 13” pilot Wally Funk.
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Friday, July 09, 2021
Thursday, July 08, 2021
Wednesday, July 07, 2021
Tuesday, July 06, 2021
Monday, July 05, 2021
Sunday, July 04, 2021
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has released its Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena report. The report analyzes 144 reports of UAPs, what the government calls UFOs, being sighted by military personnel between 2004 and 2021. Eighty of the reports referred to objects that were tracked by multiple sensors. Twenty-one of the reports describe 18 incidents in which the objects displayed unusual flight characteristics.
Saturday, July 03, 2021
“The Tomorrow War,” starring Chris Pratt as an everyman high school science teacher and military veteran who is thrust into a future war against alien invaders, recently became available on Amazon Prime. On one level it is an explosion and gun fire-laden action movie of the sort we see too little of in these woke times. On another level, the movie has some lessons to impart about the primacy of family above all in modern life.