Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Thursday, January 30, 2025
A Brother on the Moon (Stories of Alternate History by Mark R. Whittington Book 1) #CommissionEarned
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
With successful New Glenn flight, Blue Origin may finally be turning the corner
"Musk is interested in Mars, and Bezos is more fixated on the Moon. Ultimately, Trump may tell them both to follow their hearts, with the US government coming along for the ride."
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Blue Origin’s New Glenn launch ups the ante on the commercial space race
Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin joined the billionaire’s space race in earnest when its New Glenn rocket roared from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in the early morning hours of Jan. 16. The second stage with the Blue Ring payload successfully reached orbit. However, an attempt to land the first stage on a drone ship failed.
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Friday, January 24, 2025
A Brother on the Moon (Stories of Alternate History by Mark R. Whittington Book 1) #CommissionEarned
Thursday, January 23, 2025
NASA moves swiftly to end DEI programs, ask employees to “report” violations
I warned about this sort of thing years ago. NASA should beware of Critical Race Theory
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Stargate: Trump Announces Massive AI Investment
I love the science fiction referebce, but perhaps Colossus would be a better name.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Monday, January 20, 2025
Sunday, January 19, 2025
SpaceX’s moon launch marks another win for private space companies
In the early morning hours of Jan. 15, a SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, bearing not one but two expeditions to the moon.
Saturday, January 18, 2025
Now the Australians have picked up on my suggestion that Trump sweeten a Ukraine deal by inviting Russia to participate in Artemis. NASA allows possibility of Russia’s joining the Artemis lunar program
Pravda's take. Trump readies unexpected plan for Ukraine crisis that Putin won't refuse
The original article: Trump can use Russia’s space program to end the war in Ukraine
It should be noted that both Pravda and ABC are being misleading. To my knowledge, neither Trump nor NASA is contemplating this deal to help bring the war in Ukraine to an end. But it would be marvelpus it happened.
Friday, January 17, 2025
You Never Forget a Fire: The suffering residents of the Golden State may now force a reorientation of its ways of governance.
Trump Can Make Russia Pay to Rebuild Ukraine: The West has frozen $300 billion of Moscow’s assets, but Europe has stood in the way of using them.
A Tale of Two State Insurance Markets: Florida fixed its market with reforms. California didn’t. See the results.
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Fight To The Death | Dune (1984) | Screen Bites
David Lynch, director of such films as the 1984 version of Dune, has passed. Here follows one of the great knife fights scenes in cinema history.
Pravda reports Trump readies unexpected plan for Ukraine crisis that Putin won't refuse
The original article: Trump can use Russia’s space program to end the war in Ukraine
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Monday, January 13, 2025
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Trump can use Russia’s space program to end the war in Ukraine
If Putin were to come to terms with Ukraine, ending his war of conquest, Trump could offer Russia a role in the Artemis program in exchange. The incoming U.S. president could point out that Russia has prospered as a result of the International Space Station partnership. Without that partnership, Russia would not be any kind of space power,
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Friday, January 10, 2025
New Glenn v Starship - Two mega rockets on the launchpad and ready to fly from Jristin Fisher's new YouTube channel
A Brother on the Moon (Stories of Alternate History by Mark R. Whittington Book 1) #CommissionEarned
Thursday, January 09, 2025
Wednesday, January 08, 2025
With the fires in Southern California exacerbated by a lack of water, it is tim to reup an old piece of mine describing What Israel can teach California about water sustainability
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
Meet Trump’s NASA Landing Team
Charles Miller: A member of the first Trump administration’s transition team, Miller is a former NASA official who is now the chairman of Lynk, a direct-to-device satellite company that is struggling to go public through a merger with a SPAC backed by baseball star Alex Rodriguez.
Greg Autry: A longtime advocate for commercial space, Autry is a professor at the University of Central Florida who also worked on the 2016 Trump NASA transition and was nominated to serve as NASA’s CFO, though Congress failed to approve his nomination. He’s signing his emails “DOGE/NASA Transition.”
Ryan Whitley: A NASA engineer who was detailed to the National Space Council during Trump’s previous term, Whitley last worked on the Artemis HLS program before spending just over a year at ispace, the Japanese lunar company.
Lorna Finman: A Stanford PhD who worked on the Star Wars program at Raytheon back in the day, Finman’s LinkedIn says she has been advising the Heritage Foundation on space policy since 2023.
Jim Morhard: The NASA deputy administrator during Trump’s first term, Morhard was a longtime GOP senate staffer.
What Will NASA Look Like Under a Second Trump Administration?
Whittington suggests that removing some redundances could make NASA leaner and meaner — including the controversial idea of closing Ames Research Center and Goddard Space Flight Center and merging both with Marshall Space Flight Center — but there are other things Trump-era NASA could do to improve operations. The biggest thing Isaacman could do is keep NASA’s eyes on the prize of space exploration.
Monday, January 06, 2025
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
Sunday, January 05, 2025
Trump is pondering a shake-up of NASA and its programs
The first major space decision undertaken by the incoming second Donald Trump administration was to pick billionaire entrepreneur and private space traveler Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator.
According to Ars Technica, a five-person committee within the Trump transition team is mulling over policy suggestions that represent major changes to the way the space agency operates.
The Gabriella Doria Stories (3 book series) #CommissionEarned
Brought across to undeath in the 15th Century, the Contessa Gabriella Doria has walked the night, feeding on the blood of the living. However, on occasion, she had faced foes far more formidable and certainly more evil than a vampire.
Saturday, January 04, 2025
Children of Apollo (3 book series) #CommissionEarned'
From Book 1: July, 1969, the crew of Apollo 11 has triumphantly returned to Earth. In this alternate history thriller, President Richard Nixon puts into a motion a scheme to ramp up the space race to pressure the Soviets into making diplomatic and military concessions. Thus begins a story of high adventure on the final frontier and of low intrigue in the corridors of power back on Earth. It will prove to be the fulfillment of a dream for Wendy Pendleton to be the first woman to walk on the moon. It will be a nightmare for Cal Lauren, a political operative determined to stop the space race at all costs to fund the social programs he holds dear.
Friday, January 03, 2025
A Brother on the Moon (Stories of Alternate History by Mark R. Whittington Book 1) #CommmisionEarned
Thursday, January 02, 2025
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
People apalled by the recent terrorist attacks might want to read The Attack #CommissionEarned to undersrabd how much worse it could be.
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned