For those who might enjoy a non-virtual session on the growing New Space market sector, I will be talking at the Libertarian Alliance conference The National Liberal Club in London this coming Saturday afternoon.
Be there or be Earthbound.
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November 22nd, 2006 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
 It looks like Congressman Rangel is at it again. I guess he just thinks enslaving your fellow man is a great idea. Our thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the link. November 20th, 2006 | 33 comments - (Comments are closed)
After an hour or so scanning the ‘Region A’ which Jeff Bezo’s BlueOrigin’s environmental impact statement says is the launch area, I have found one reasonable possibility. If anyone else feels like doing some detective work and having a bit of craic, feel free to carry on and report back to Samizdata HQ on your findings. November 17th, 2006 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
All I can say is they launched something. Blue Origin is working on a derivative of Dr Gaubatz’s DCX so my guess is they did a low peak altitude take off and landing test, the first ‘push on the envelope’ of a long series. November 15th, 2006 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
I will be spending good sized chunks of the year in Laramie, Wyoming over the next few years due to the company I and my partners in space formed this month. With a part-time return to the free world in the offing, I am (as one would expect of a Samizdatista) looking forward to the renewed exercise of that most basic of human rights, without which the rest are at someone else’s sufference: the Right to Self Defense. I have some preferences in this regard, but I do not consider myself a know-it-all or even a know-it-mostly on the pros and cons of current firearms. I lean towards two handguns, one for hidden carry and one for open carry. Basically one for town and one for country, where the former is for defense against two legged varmints and the other is for discouragement of four-legged or no-legged varieties one might acciidentally annoy while fossil hunting. I lean strongly towards the Glock 27 for a hidden carry piece. I have been partial to it ever since Russ Whitaker introduced us about four years ago. For back-country I have long felt that Colt Revolvers have the history of reliability and effectiveness I would be looking for, but I am not sure whether a better choice would be the classic Colt .45 or a Colt .38. I can not see a need for the stopping power of a .45 unless I decide to play with Grizzily bear cubs while mama is watching… something I have no intention of doing.(*) I would love to hear some discussion on others experience, especially any native Wyomans. The majority of my firearms experience is with the typical western Pennsylvania type target and hunting rifles and shotguns; also I am not familiar on a personal basis with the likely threats and behavior of wildlife outside of those Pennsylvania hills. I would also appreciate information on appropriate Wyoming training courses as I am fully cognizant that after 17 years retraining is the responsible thing to do to ensure the safety of myself and those around me.  There might be statists in them thar hills… Photo: Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved * No, I would really, really not want to face an angry mama bear with something which would probably only piss her off unless you got it just right while retreating at high speed in the opposite direction… November 11th, 2006 | 83 comments - (Comments are closed)
As I write I am sitting in a motel room in Colorado after two days of meetings in Wyoming associated with the launch of a new company. I am sad to say I will miss the coming festivities of the Samizdata Fifth Anniversary party so I hope those present have a wonderful time. Meanwhile back in Colorado… exactly why is it I am blogging about the start up of another commercial space company? Perhaps it is the officers of the new company, Wyoming Space Information Systems (WYSIS) : James C Bennett, CEO; Dale M Amon, CTO; and Rand Simberg, Space Operations. I expect Rand will also make some announcement on Transterrestrial Musings if he has not done so already, and I will post more information as we finalize and develop plans. November 10th, 2006 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
It looks like we have caused the Republicans a bit of grief:
November 8th, 2006 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
Our election results are available as they come in via our party headquarters. For years I have felt alone on election nights with nothing to follow except the voting tallies and changing balance between the left and right wings of the ruling party. Kudos to LPHQ! November 8th, 2006 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
Greg Allison claims this title because instead of finding junked cars hidden in the back yard grass when he mows, he finds rockets. If you ever wondered what happened to the wreckage of the DCX rocket, now you know. Its remnants have been serving as a parts source for Alabama space entrepreneurs. Here is what the stripped spaceframe looked like as of a few days ago.  The DCX rests in pieces. Photo: Courtesy Greg Allison It kinda reminds me of ‘The Rolling Stones’. No, not the band… the Heinlein novel! November 7th, 2006 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
The advances in robotic vehicles due to the DARPA challenge prizes over the last few years has been nothing short of astounding. I am therefor slack-jawed at the congressional stupidity which has brought about this addition to the DARPA Urban Challenge press release:
I presume the problem with prizes is anyone from anywhere can enter and win it. This limits the usual opportunities for congressional corruption, or as I like to think of it, “Stevensing” (as in Ted Stevens, the Alaskan Ubercrook). I do hope some sanity breaks out in the Washington asylum. There are other Grand Challenges going on which have been generating simply amazing results. November 4th, 2006 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
I am sure at least most of you have heard of free and open source software. If not, I am not quite sure which part of the headwaters of the Rio Negro you are living on and how you managed to get your satellite internet link past the croc’s and piranha’s. You can be excused however, if you are unaware of the open source hardware movement. There are people out there designing everything from CPU’s to rocket engines in a global network but only the very plugged in are aware of these efforts. One stands above them all in my mind, and not just because I know a ‘kiwi’ who is one of the key participants: the Darwin open source replicator project. A replicator is a machine which cannot only make things, but can make copies of itself. In the ‘classical’ literature the macro versions of this are known as Von Neuman machines; in more recent decades most who keep up with such things have come to associate them with Drexlerian nanoscale replicators. The nanoreplicator may be decades away, but the first generation of macroscale open source replicators is already available and spreading. Darwin is not quite a full Von Neuman machine but it is a good start:
If you have some room to spare and want to play too, I suggest you join. Once there are enough of these gadgets around the world, I am sure there will be plenty of folks passing around the designs of all sorts of nifty things for you to build with it. Within a handful or two of decades we will build spaceships this way. November 4th, 2006 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
November 1st, 2006 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)
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