Friends, no American craft has made a soft landing on the Moon since 1972. Sad, isn't it? Well, today we broke the spell and "Odysseus" parked itself near the lunar south pole. Tellingly, it wasn't NASA, primarily, that despatched Odysseus. It was a private company: "Intuitive Machines". Let's hope this means that free enterprise will pick up where the U.S. government left off, because NASA's performance in space exploration has been sub-par for a long time. I want a summer home on Mars, darn it! And I strongly suspect that Elon Musk will deliver it to me way sooner than Joe Biden will.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68377730
In other news, there's an emerging trend in elite higher ed: standardized test requirements, which were abandoned during the pandemic, are being reinstated! This is a small miracle, because wokeness dictates that objective measures of "merit" are part and parcel of "system racism". But don't worry: Ivy League institutions will still be gaming the system, either overtly or covertly, to ensure that their demographic and ideological goals are met.
Finally, this article argues that recent judgements against Donald Trump in New York, and Elon Musk in Delaware, are based on judicial animus towards these brazen dissidents against orthodoxy. No kidding. What's interesting is that the co-author of the piece is none other than Jeb Bush -- he who was defenestrated by DJT back in 2016! If Democratic lawfare is scandalizing even members of the Bush family, you know the Left has gone too far...
Dr. Waddy from Jack: I'm unable to think of any other period since the commencement of the industrial revolution when applied technology took a hiatus similar to that of ours in moon exploration. Believe me, after the Apollo landings we thought humans would be roaming the solar system by now. For sure though, there has been astonishing overall progress,especially in long term survival in space and in unimaginably distant unmanned travel.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Fox reports that Harvard alumni are suing Harvard for debasing the value of a Harvard degree. Can there be any more serious charge for a heretofore exalted institution of learning and research than that of intellectual turpitude? Those who blithely dismiss the SATs, among other antiamerican leftist presumptions, must be compelled to pay attention and protest in this form cannot but do that. Lets have much more of this!
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Even the first paragraph of the WSJ article by Bush was thought provoking, in its reference to "fear of arbitrary enforcement" (of the law) "against entrepreneurs who seek public office. . . ." Arbitrarily administered "law" is of course one of the hallmarks of totalitarianism and the described civil tasking of Musk and DJT is yet another incremental step in the reduction of the US to neomarxist serfdom. If the Critical Legal Studies partisans, many of whom have by now advanced far into the judiciary, get away with it (I assume both defendants have appeal available) then yet another vital institution is on the road to compromise. I think one of the reasons we need be concerned about lawlessness among illegal immigrants from Latin America is because many of them have experienced only fearsome unpredictable injustice from law enforcement and , perhaps understandably, they assume it to be the same everywhere. Many
ReplyDeleteknow only lawless ways of dealing with such oppressive corruption. The Bush family and the dems: well, another view is that the dems insulted the Bush's beyond measure by casually running a snakelike draft dodger against their genuine WWII hero scion in '92. No knock on snakes mind you but Slick Willy could hide behind a mainspring.
Dr. Waddy from Jack: Back when space exploration was all telescopes and science fiction, I don't recall predictions of the wonders now realized by unmanned vehicles. Several of them are now considered to be in interstellar space: fantastic! But residence on the moon was extensively speculated then and now its time may be at hand. For us boomers its been an unimaginably engaging progress, this graduation of humanity into the physical ultimate. And there is more for us to see yet! How fortunate we have been.
ReplyDeleteJack, the irony is that much amazing work HAS been done in space in recent years, but virtually none of it involves manned spaceflight, and therefore the media pays no attention. The media follows space news for the same reason that many NASCAR fans enjoy the races: they're secretly hoping for a big crash! The advancement of knowledge, in itself, is a lot less thrilling.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: I think, though, that much continuous progress has been made in extended very constructive residence in space . I'd bet that situations which could have been deadly in deep space have been worked out in near earth orbit.The spacefaring nations have built cadres of experienced astronauts which may, for example, have enabled our establishment of a Space Force. Repairs done in space by sometimes incidentally required hands on ingenuity have yielded very much benefit (eg. remedy of the defects in the priceless Hubble Telescope) .Space stations were envisioned well before the film 2001 ( aside from Star Trek); they always featured improbably comfortable living conditions, bulkheads unencumbered by unattractive machinery and amenities galore. But perhaps especially for we who saw these prospects and the the first spacewalks ,the existing space station is yet a wonder. Some may thrill to spectacular disaster but to me, death in space is especially hideous . I think our deep space probes are humanity's greatest engineering feats (though by far the most beneficial and redeeming have been in medical technology). They also appear not to have fired extensive public imagination but just the thought of where they have been and what they may still do is almost beyond wonder! One of the Voyagers took a composite portrait of the solar system: fantastic!! If only Aristotle, Bacon,Copernicus, Brae, Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Einstein (or us kid astronomers in the '50s with our three inch reflecting scopes)knew.
ReplyDeleteJack, I agree that magnificent progress and history-making insights have been achieved in recent years, and maybe it's unfair to expect the public to notice every space "first" or to care. The public, after all, has a lot on its plate, and by and large it pays attention to whatever news directors tell it to. It's a pity, because there are a lot of feel-good stories in the expansion of scientific knowledge, but seemingly the only science story that the press wants to tell is the one that claims (in a most unscientific way) that we're all doomed because of climate change. Oh, and math is racist, of course. That one's a gem.
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy from Jack: Good points; I'm sure any near future human forays into deep space will be reported replete with emphasis on the consequences for DIE and imminently immolating climate change! In a related development, this possibly prematurely commenced spring may bode a sweltering summer.That would surely be blamed on American intransigence by the antiamerican left and electoral advantage would be sought.EG, should Biden falter, a Gore perhaps temporarily relieved of his laughable scientific discreditation would be available in all his haughty imperiousness , to grant us another chance to embrace his wisdom.
ReplyDeleteJack, there are times when Mother Nature seems determined to confirm the truth of leftists' worst predictions about climate change. Granted, the weather we've had of late has been more pleasant than apocalyptic, but it is, even more than that, peculiar, and if the scientists are right that climate change is only beginning then the consequences could be, well, Earth-shattering. Will that accrue to Democrats' benefit? Not necessarily. If clImate change produces real adversity, the only sure bet is that voters will become angrier and less rational. Who profits in that scenario is anyone's guess.
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