Huh:
Biden expands Trump’s list of Chinese companies banned from US investment
The order goes into effect in *August.* Just *leaping* into action.
Jun 032021
Jun 032021
Hmm.
United Airlines will buy 15 ultrafast airplanes from start-up Boom Supersonic
Option to buy 35 more of the “Overture,” which looks like an ensmallered Concord and maxes out at Mach 1.7.
Shrug.
Jun 032021
So is this the proper way to sell your own book on YouTube? Doesn’t immediately seem quite right, but then what the hell do I know, I’m objectively terrible at marketing. Maybe this will be pure advertising genius. The book seems kinda interesting.
Jun 032021
If this is even *half* accurate… no wonder my ancestors left that country for brighter shores.
The YouTuber here repeatedly repeats the error of calling Sweden “socialist,” an error popular among those who want to laud the Scandinavian system. But Sweden isn’t socialistic; like the other Nordic countries, Sweden is a capitalistic country… but one with an overpowered nanny state.Sweden tried socialism, decades ago; and as socialism always does, it failed. Sweden bucked the trend in getting rid of socialism without mass bloodshed… but it kept a lot of the trappings of socialist brutalism.
As well, it is culturally burdened with the dismal “Law of Jante,” a set of rules that have helped to normalize the “ghastly egalitarian” nature of Scandinavian culture.
The ten rules state:
- You’re not to think you are anything special.
- You’re not to think you are as good as we are.
- You’re not to think you are smarter than we are.
- You’re not to imagine yourself better than we are.
- You’re not to think you know more than we do.
- You’re not to think you are more important than we are.
- You’re not to think you are good at anything.
- You’re not to laugh at us.
- You’re not to think anyone cares about you.
- You’re not to think you can teach us anything.
These not only stand in stark contrast to American norms, they stand in stark contrast to Viking-era norms. These rules are touted as reasons why the Nordic countries are so “happy,” but the metrics used to determine that happiness seem at best dubious… more “acceptance” than “actually happy.” The result of Jante culture and government policies is a gray middle where nobody is too poor and nobody is too rich. Basically, this chops off both ends of the cultural bell curve. Sure, it gets rid of a lot of awfulness… but it also gets rid of a lot of greatness. And in actual fact, the existence of exceptional greatness, even when paired with equivalent awfulness, promotes actual forward progress. Look at Elon Musk: had he not been allowed to become stinkin’ rich, and not been allowed to flaunt that cash, we wouldn’t have SpaceX. And I’m more than happy to accept unhappy Amazon delivery guys if it means humanity becomes a multiplanetary species. We’re not going to see an exuberant Swedish space colonization effort anytime soon.
Of course, this culture won’t last. Sweden is replacing both the Swedish people and their culture. Shrug.
Jun 022021
Jun 012021
Hmmmmm…..
Department of Defense Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Budget Estimates
Page 215
Title: Rocket Cargo
Description: The Department of the Air Force seeks to leverage the current multi-billion dollar commercial investment to developthe largest rockets ever, and with full reusability to develop and test the capability to leverage a commercial rocket to deliver AFcargo anywhere on the Earth in less than one hour, with a 100-ton capacity. The Air Force is not investing in the commercialrocket development, but rather investing in the Science & Technology needed to interface the capability with DoD logistics needs, and extend the commercial capability to DoD-unique missions. Provides a new, faster and cheaper solution to the existing TRANSCOM Strategic Airlift mission. Enables AFSOC to perform current Rapid-Response Missions at lower cost, and meet a one-hour response requirement. Rocket Cargo uses modeling, simulation, and analysis to conduct operational analysis, verify military utility, performance, and operational cost. S&T will include novel “loadmaster” designs to quickly load/unload a rocket,rapid launch capabilities from unusual sites, characterization of potential landing surfaces and approaches to rapidly improve those surfaces, adversary detectability, new novel trajectories, and an S&T investigation of the potential ability to air drop a payload after reentry. This is not a rocket engine or launch vehicle development program. It is an S&T effort to leverage the commercial development into a novel new DoD capability.FY 2021 Plans:Utilize modeling, simulation, and analysis to conduct operational analysis of Rocket Cargo concepts, trajectories, and design considerations and verify military utility, performance, and operational cost. Gather operational data from on-going commercial large-scale, instrumented, reusable launch events.FY 2022 Plans:Mature effort in leveraging commercial space launch to create military capability in Rocket-based Cargo delivery. Complete S&T testing leveraging the current commercial prototype testing. Perform site measurements needed to integrate the capability onto DoD missions including plume-surface physics and toxicity, loads, detectability, and acoustics. Also, complete initial AFRL wind tunnel testing to assess novel trajectories needed for air-drop capability, and high-speed separation physics. Under contract and CRADA, partner with Commercial to test and demonstrate an initial one-way transport capability to an austere site. Seek to perform an early end-to-end test to fully identify the technical challenges. In addition, complete Industry outreach for load master concepts including novel container designs, load/unload concepts, and testing the compatibility of AF cargo with rocket launch and space environments. Issue solicitation and award contracts.FY 2021 to FY 2022 Increase/Decrease Statement:FY 2022 increased compared to FY 2021 by $38.169 million. Funding increased due to planned program requirements and the development and maturation activities described above.
HMMMMM….
Sounds vaguely familiar. I wonder where I’ve seen ideas kinda like that before.
Jun 012021
I’ve had them quite recently, and fairly often:
@kristinadaniellez Tell me you had bad day without telling me you had a bad day #amazon #hopeheisok
May 312021
The last few seconds here are *spectacular.*
May 312021
Interesting news out of Britain…
Short form: one Nicholas Brock has been sentenced to five years in prison for owning three books that are legal to own. There were apparently no indications that he had plans to commit criminal acts, but off to prison he goes.
Honestly, this one baffles me.
May 282021
So Demolition Ranch shoots some oxygen tanks with armor piercing rounds. The results, while not a shark-kerploding-detonation, are fairly impressive.