The Bee Destroys Everything!

[rain_gryphon]

The head of NASA admits that the emphasis on low-orbit missions was a mistake.

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I wish we had Blair. I can't see Bush actually facing the problem like this:

"The reason we are having this debate is not generalised extremism. It is a new and virulent form of ideology associated with a minority of our Muslim community.

It is not a problem with Britons of Hindu, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese or Polish origin."

Here, we still have to pretend that anyone could be a terrorist, and we can't find any common factor among them.

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Sadly, the recent outbreak of honesty hasn't reached the House 'Ethics' Committee.

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The Japs have found a way to make vanilla from cow dung :P

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People are stealing the manhole covers in Cardiff.

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I remember back in '74 or so, watching the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on the news. I never for a second dreamed that it would still be a major news story in 2006.

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I can't see Turkish membership in the EU as being especially good for either party. Turkey's simply not a European country to begin with, regardless of where it's physically located. Changing Turkey enough to make it acceptable to the EU means (among other things) lessening the control of the Army over society. I can't see that ending well.

The Army is the most reliably pro-western faction in Turkish society. Removing Army control to make the place conform outwardly to European standards of democracy will, I think, only open opportunities for Islamist factions. The drive to rebuild the Turkish government to outwardly conform to western practices is based on the same logic that led to elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. I can't help but think it would end much the same way. I can't imagine why the UE thknks they'll succeed where Ataturk failed.

The Turks, for their part, seem to perceive 'joining the EU' as meaning that the EU is going to change and meet them somewhere in the middle. That seems to be the line that they're selling their people, is that their bizarre offer to open one port to Cyprus somehow puts the EU on the defensive.

Comments

[magnusdiridian.livejournal.com]

Stealing manhole covers? Chirr. And cow dung vanilla ice cream, yum yum, it's a crazy world.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I admire the cleverness displayed, but as a general rule, making consumer products out of poop is a misguided effort.

[maxgoof.livejournal.com]

All Blair has to do is point at France. No other minority population has the potential to be revolutionary.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

I often point at France, while laughing.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

“the period where the United States retreated from the Moon and quite deliberately focused only on low Earth orbit will be seen, to me, a mistake.”

On the other hand, to completely trash the shuttle, and then to deliberately focus only on a Moon base would be just as much of a mistake. NASA seems to be going from basket to basket, putting all of its eggs in it. It needs a bigger budget, so it can pursue more than one really big project at a time.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

They're unlikely to get a bigger budget ATM. Given the stackable nature of the proposed launch vehicles, they'll do just as well for NEO missions as for lunar trips. In any event, the military and private corporations have enough of an interest in low earth orbit that there's going to be some sort of presence there, and the capabilities won't be lost. It's long past time that we had a permanent presence on the moon, and on Mars as well.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

And BTW, you asked me once what pattern underlay my politics. This is it. We need to expand off this planet, colonize and exploit the nearby worlds, then begin to build starships. The resources here will eventually run out. If we take the cautious approach, and try to conserve and use them slowly, then we'll be trapped when they do, and that will be the end of humankind as a species. We need to concentrate as much wealth and power as possible in the West, so that the surplus can be spent on space. People aren't going to support space from enlightened self-interest. They're going to support space only when there's a great deal of surplus wealth.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

Might as well concentrate more money in Russia, then.
NASA seems to achieve more when it has a worthy competitor.

One thing for certain though - gas guzzling internal combustion engines won't get us to the stars. There's no telling just how long it will take to become spacefaring as a species, and no telling how many times will may have to fall back on planet Earth for resources to get us there. Best conserve the resources that we know we might need later. Like there's any comparison between the resources that are used for space exploration and the resources that are used to drive SUV's to the mall to buy imported shoes that won't even walk very far - it is obvious which activity needs to be cut back and which needs to be expanded.