Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Israel signs the Artemis Accords in bid to become a space power
Israel has signed the Artemis Accords, a document outlining the rules for space exploration, including mutual cooperation. Israel has thus become the latest member of what some are calling the Artemis Alliance, which includes Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Friday, January 28, 2022
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Monday, January 24, 2022
Sunday, January 23, 2022
What would Peter the Great say to Putin about space power?
If Putin were in a mind to delve back into Russian history, he might discover a better model for reestablishing the greatness of Mother Russia. Around the beginning of the 18th century, Czar Peter the Great ruled over a Russia that was backward and corrupt, much like the current country. Czar Peter looked to the West for ideas about how to improve the Russian economy and military standing.
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Friday, January 21, 2022
Thursday, January 20, 2022
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Monday, January 17, 2022
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Alexa is going to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis 1 mission
The Artemis 1 flight around the moon is likely to occur later in 2022. The mission is officially designated as “uncrewed.” However, as it turns out, the test of NASA’s first moonship in half a century will have a crew member — in a manner of speaking.
Saturday, January 15, 2022
Friday, January 14, 2022
Is the Viking next to go? WWU eyes ditching Viking mascot due to colonialism
But the Vikings seem like a bunch of fun loving folks.
Thursday, January 13, 2022
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
In defense of manifest destiny in space
Manifest destiny, a 19th-century concept that stated that the United States was ordained to spread across North America, bringing with it democracy and capitalism, has fallen out of favor in recent years. According to an article in History.com, modern historians have pointed out that manifest destiny resulted in wars with Mexico and the Native Americans and a host of other evils.
Now, in a recent article in the Daily Beast, written by Joanna Thompson, a freelance science writer, insists that any attempts to recreate the western frontier expansion in space must be stopped forthwith. The argument against settlements on the moon and Mars seems more couched in environmentalist enthusiasms than the potential for war and oppression. No one lives anywhere in the solar system who could be oppressed or made war on by rapacious settlers out to grab land and resources. Those humans need to be stopped from messing up other planets in the same way they are alleged to have done the Earth.
Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Monday, January 10, 2022
Sunday, January 09, 2022
SpaceX's Elon Musk is going into the carbon capture business
"SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is Time magazine’s current Person of the Year, is often accused of neglecting problems on Earth in favor of conducting his private space program. The accusation is unfair on a number of levels. After all, Musk also runs an electric car company. Now, the space entrepreneur has announced on Twitter a new initiative that may prove flying into space could also benefit the Earth."
Saturday, January 08, 2022
Friday, January 07, 2022
America’s new moonshot: Getting Europe to sign up to its space rules - by which it is ment France and Germany
Thursday, January 06, 2022
Wednesday, January 05, 2022
Gal Gadot promises her film version of Cleopatra will not only be 'sexy' but also 'strategic and smart'... in role made famous by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor
Amazon’s Alexa to be tested on Artemis 1
"Alexa, open the pod bay doors."
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave. Would you like to hear a song by the Doors?"
Tuesday, January 04, 2022
Monday, January 03, 2022
Facebook 'permanently' locks account of conservative children's book publisher - which tells stories of Ronald Reagan and Amy Coney Barrett - for 'disruptive content' - but left-wing publishers pushing the 'ABC's of AOC' and 'Feminist Baby' are not banned
The books that are "banned by Facebook" are available below for those who like great children's books and hate censorship #CommissionEarned
Sunday, January 02, 2022
2022 will be the year the world begins to return to the moon
One reason that 2022 is going to be a lot better than 2021 is that it will be the year that the world will begin to return to the moon. The process has been a long time coming.
Former President Donald Trump began the Artemis project in 2017. In early 2021, President Biden confirmed that his administration would continue the third effort to return humans to the moon, making it bipartisan and all but ensuring that it would succeed. So, 2022 will be the year that machines from the planet Earth will begin landing on the moon in earnest, joining those that have already arrived from China.