SpaceX Rocket Explosion Likely Caused by Faulty Strut, Elon Musk Says

It seems that a steel strut holding a high pressure helium tank within the liquid oxygen tank broke due to a manufacturing flaw. The helium tank broke loose and overpressurized the LOX tank,causing it to burst.

The Dragon capsule survived to splashdown. however, it wasn’t programmed to pop its chute, so it hit the ocean at high velocity. The next Dragon capsule will have a software update that will allow it to self-recover in the event of another launch vehicle failure.

As Beijing Becomes a Supercity, the Rapid Growth Brings Pains

For decades, China’s government has tried to limit the size of Beijing, the capital, through draconian residency permits. Now, the government has embarked on an ambitious plan to make Beijing the center of a new supercity of 130 million people.

Nope.

NOOOOOOOOOPE.

As the article points out, the city (“Jing-Jin-Ji,” for reasons similar to Demolition Man’s “San Angeles”) would be about the size of Kansas but hold more than a third of the population of the US. It would not grow “organically,” but would instead be a centrally planned new construction.

Because planned housing projects and densepak apartments have such a spectacular record.

After I posted the Pax Orionis yarn “The Cuban War” a little while back, I said that I was done with scribbling fiction for a while as I needed to get back to trying to make money. While that need is true and ever-present, I’ve sorta gotten sucked into continuing to scribble PO stories. I’ve another one that is *kinda* finished… it just needs a couple editing passes with a woodchipper to clean it up.

I’m still a bit uncertain as to what to do with these stories. I’d certainly *like* to get them published, though that’s a monumentally unlikely outcome. On the one hand I’m thinking it might be good to post stories online for free as I finish them. On the other hand, *not* posting, because that’s generally the sort of the prospective publishers would seem to frown on. On the gripping hand, I’m an unpracticed writer who probably needs a professional editor. Someone who knows their job and gets paid large sums to do it. I ain’t got me one of them, though. So… hmm. Here’s my latest thought.

I’m thinking that I’ll have the next yarn in some vaguely presentable state within a week or so, barring the unexpected. At that time I think I’ll post an announcement that it’s done… and that the first three commenters stating they want it will be emailed copies to read. The only requirements will be that the readers do *not* share it further, but *do* share via email any critiques or suggestions they have… and that they post comments on the blog giving their general impressions. “This sucks” or “this is great” are both fine, so long as they are the honest assessment. No spoilers!

If that works, then I’ll do it for the *next* story, but with a different three people. And so on. After a handful of stories I might have generated a small group of readers whose critiques I find particularly useful, and they’ll get all the others to read, with the same caveats.

Does this sound reasonable? If it sounds like I’m trying to finagle some free editing… yeah, that’s probably in there, somewhere, no denying it. If you think you’d like to join in, please comment. I’d like to see how many would be interested.

Lockheed to buy United Tech’s Sikorsky for over $8 billion

One of these days Boeing (McDonnell-Douglas-Rockwell-North American) will merge with Lockheed (Martin Marietta-General Dynamics-Convair) and Northrop-Grumman, and then the American aviavtion industry will be one massive conglomerate, every bit as exciting, innovative and independent as, say, British Aerospace…

In checking out the numbers from the immediately preceding post, I looked up “sextillion” on wikipedia just to make sure it’s 10E21 (it is, in the US/Canadian/modern British system). There are, it turns out, a whole lot of named very large numbers.

We’ve all heard of a googol… 1E100, or a one followed by a hundred zeroes. Most readers of this blog will, I’m sure, have heard of a googolplex, which is ten to the power of a googol… one followed by a googol zeroes. Carl Sagan pointed out that a piece of paper with a googolplex written out in full on it would not fit within the visible universe.

There are other very large numbers between a googol and a googolplex that might be of interest. Doubtful they’d be of much actual *use,* of course, since most of these numbers are so much larger than any realistic physical phenomenon that they’d never be useful for describing anything real. As an example: the smallest possible distance would seem to the the Planck length. This is 1.6e6E-35 meters. (A good description of the size of the Planck length is this: if a 0.1mm circle was blown up to the size of the observable universe, the Planck length from that original dot would be scaled up to, wait for it, about 0.1mm.) Well, one light year is 9,460,730,472,580,800 meters. So one light year is about 5.85E50 Planck lengths. If the visible universe is 13.8 billion light years in radius (current best estimate), that’s 8.08E60 Planck lengths. A sphere that size would have a volume of 2.21E183 cubic Planck lengths.

No calculation that has any practical meaning for the universe as it currently stands would seem to ever be likely to come anywhere near needing numbers much bigger than 1E183. And yet, being humans, we’ve named numbers we’ll never have any use for. The number of Planck lengths in the visible universe, as it turns out, is easily expressible in Sexagintillions.

Names of large numbers

Base -illion (short scale)	Value	U.S., Canada and modern British (short scale)	Traditional British (long scale)	Traditional European (Peletier) (long scale)	SI Symbol	SI Prefix
1	10⁶	Million	Million	Million	M	Mega-
2	10⁹	Billion	Thousand million	Milliard	G	Giga-
3	10¹²	Trillion	Billion	Billion	T	Tera-
4	10¹⁵	Quadrillion	Thousand billion	Billiard	P	Peta-
5	10¹⁸	Quintillion	Trillion	Trillion	E	Exa-
6	10²¹	Sextillion	Thousand trillion	Trilliard	Z	Zetta-
7	10²⁴	Septillion	Quadrillion	Quadrillion	Y	Yotta-
8	10²⁷	Octillion	Thousand quadrillion	Quadrilliard
9	10³⁰	Nonillion	Quintillion	Quintillion
10	10³³	Decillion	Thousand quintillion	Quintilliard
11	10³⁶	Undecillion	Sextillion	Sextillion
12	10³⁹	Duodecillion	Thousand sextillion	Sextilliard
13	10⁴²	Tredecillion	Septillion	Septillion
14	10⁴⁵	Quattuordecillion	Thousand septillion	Septilliard
15	10⁴⁸	Quinquadecillion	Octillion	Octillion
16	10⁵¹	Sedecillion	Thousand octillion	Octilliard
17	10⁵⁴	Septendecillion	Nonillion	Nonillion
18	10⁵⁷	Octodecillion	Thousand nonillion	Nonilliard
19	10⁶⁰	Novendecillion	Decillion	Decillion
20	10⁶³	Vigintillion	Thousand decillion	Decilliard
21	10⁶⁶	Unvigintillion	Undecillion	Undecillion
22	10⁶⁹	Duovigintillion	Thousand undecillion	Undecilliard
23	10⁷²	Tresvigintillion	Duodecillion	Duodecillion
24	10⁷⁵	Quattuorvigintillion	Thousand duodecillion	Duodecilliard
25	10⁷⁸	Quinquavigintillion	Tredecillion	Tredecillion
26	10⁸¹	Sesvigintillion	Thousand tredecillion	Tredecilliard
27	10⁸⁴	Septemvigintillion	Quattuordecillion	Quattuordecillion
28	10⁸⁷	Octovigintillion	Thousand quattuordecillion	Quattuordecilliard
29	10⁹⁰	Novemvigintillion	Quindecillion	Quindecillion
30	10⁹³	Trigintillion	Thousand quindecillion	Quindecilliard
31	10⁹⁶	Untrigintillion	Sedecillion	Sedecillion
32	10⁹⁹	Duotrigintillion	Thousand sedecillion	Sedecilliard
33	10¹⁰²	Trestrigintillion	Septendecillion	Septendecillion
34	10¹⁰⁵	Quattuortrigintillion	Thousand septendecillion	Septendecilliard
35	10¹⁰⁸	Quinquatrigintillion	Octodecillion	Octodecillion
36	10¹¹¹	Sestrigintillion	Thousand octodecillion	Octodecilliard
37	10¹¹⁴	Septentrigintillion	Novendecillion	Novendecillion
38	10¹¹⁷	Octotrigintillion	Thousand novendecillion	Novendecilliard
39	10¹²⁰	Noventrigintillion	Vigintillion	Vigintillion
40	10¹²³	Quadragintillion	Thousand vigintillion	Vigintilliard
50	10¹⁵³	Quinquagintillion	Thousand quinquavigintillion	Quinquavigintilliard
60	10¹⁸³	Sexagintillion	Thousand trigintillion	Trigintilliard
70	10²¹³	Septuagintillion	Thousand quinquatrigintillion	Quinquatrigintilliard
80	10²⁴³	Octogintillion	Thousand quadragintillion	Quadragintilliard
90	10²⁷³	Nonagintillion	Thousand quinquaquadragintillion	Quinquaquadragintilliard
100	10³⁰³	Centillion	Thousand quinquagintillion	Quinquagintilliard
101	10³⁰⁶	Uncentillion	Unquinquagintillion	Unquinquagintillion
102	10³⁰⁹	Duocentillion	Thousand unquinquagintillion	Unquinquagintilliard
103	10³¹²	Trescentillion	Duoquinquagintillion	Duoquinquagintillion
110	10³³³	Decicentillion	Thousand quinquaquinquagintillion	Quinquaquinquagintilliard
111	10³³⁶	Undecicentillion	Sesquinquagintillion	Sesquinquagintillion
120	10³⁶³	Viginticentillion	Thousand sexagintillion	Sexagintilliard
121	10³⁶⁶	Unviginticentillion	Unsexagintillion	Unsexagintillion
130	10³⁹³	Trigintacentillion	Thousand quinquasexagintillion	Quinquasexagintilliard
140	10⁴²³	Quadragintacentillion	Thousand septuagintillion	Septuagintilliard
150	10⁴⁵³	Quinquagintacentillion	Thousand quinquaseptuagintillion	Quinquaseptuagintilliard
160	10⁴⁸³	Sexagintacentillion	Thousand octogintillion	Octogintilliard
170	10⁵¹³	Septuagintacentillion	Thousand quinquaoctogintillion	Quinquaoctogintilliard
180	10⁵⁴³	Octogintacentillion	Thousand nonagintillion	Nonagintilliard
190	10⁵⁷³	Nonagintacentillion	Thousand quinquanonagintillion	Quinquanonagintilliard
200	10⁶⁰³	Ducentillion	Thousand centillion	Centilliard
300	10⁹⁰³	Trecentillion	Thousand quinquagintacentillion	Quinquagintacentilliard
400	10¹²⁰³	Quadringentillion	Thousand ducentillion	Ducentilliard
500	10¹⁵⁰³	Quingentillion	Thousand quinquagintaducentillion	Quinquagintaducentilliard
600	10¹⁸⁰³	Sescentillion	Thousand trecentillion	Trecentilliard
700	10²¹⁰³	Septingentillion	Thousand quinquagintatrecentillion	Quinquagintatrecentilliard
800	10²⁴⁰³	Octingentillion	Thousand quadringentillion	Quadringentilliard
900	10²⁷⁰³	Nongentillion	Thousand quinquagintaquadringentillion	Quinquagintaquadringentilliard
1000	10³⁰⁰³	Millinillion	Thousand quingentillion	Quingentilliard

Court delays Texas execution that had been set for Thursday

A decade ago, one Clifton Lamar Williams was convicted for murdering a 93-year-old woman. The execution has been put on hold because it has been determined that the expert testimony on DNA that was apparently pivotal in the conviction turns out to be flawed.

Now, I’m all in favor of accuracy in the legal system. In fact, i’d demand it, and would have little tolerance for deception or other chicanery on the part of prosecutors. After all, many prosecutors have proven to be much more interested in racking up their numbers of successful prosecutions… *not* in actually serving justice. And so, “the DNA testimony was wrong” sure makes me take notice.

But… ummm…

Williams is black, and prosecutors said the probability of another black person with the same DNA profile found in Schneider’s missing car was one in 40 sextillion. Jurors in 2006 were told the probability was one in 43 sextillion. A sextillion is defined as a 1 followed by 21 zeros.

As a poster on Fark noted:

That’s one out of the population of over 5 trillion planet earths.

I have no idea if the probability is *actually* “1 in 40X10^21” or some other very different number, but the difference between 1-in-40 sextillion and 1-in-43 sextillion is so small as to be *beyond* ridiculous. Makes me think something else might be afoot.