We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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A bit of as yet unidentified debris was seen floating away from the Shuttle Atlantis after some RCS engine firing tests. The landing will be delayed while they try to figure out what it was.
My take on the enhanced image is a tile with some of the gap fillers and thermal blanket from the backside of it. In most cases a single tile loss is not a huge deal unless it is in a critical location or likely to cause an unzippering of other tiles.
This is all pure conjecture, probably wrong, on my part. But hey, what is a blog for if one can not make wild guesses on insufficient data?
Today is probably the day. Anousheh Anseri, as I reported some weeks ago, will within hours become the first woman to have paid her own way into orbit. She and her entire family are an example to us all of what value immigrants bring to America. As a family, they have already secured a place in the American history books right up there with Lindbergh and the other great names of American aviation. They are the ones responsible for Peter Diamandis’ dream, the X-Prize, coming to fruition. If, as I believe is now a certainty, America forges ahead in commercial human space flight, it is the Anseri’s and Peter whom we should all thank.
I am incredibly happy for this woman and I pray I might one day follow on the trail she is personally forging for us all.
Godspeed Anousheh!
If you are interested in learning more about what sort of person Anousheh is, read this interview. I think you will like her.
Additional: You can follow her flight here.
I received my absentee ballot from Pittsburgh last week but it was not until this afternoon I was able to look over the papers. I opened up the list of candidates to see who was running… and I saw no Libertarians. I opened up the ballot itself, thinking there must be some mistake. Again, no Libertarians and not even a box for the party.
I am not one to give up easily. I did a quick search and found the LP of Pittsburgh web site. The first number I tried just rang. Then I decided to look over their blog and that was when I started to see the picture of what sorts of things are going on over there:
The challenge to Posipanka’s nomination papers, which had been accepted by the State Elections Bureau on August 1st, was filed on August 8th, and Posipanka was served with court papers the evening of August 10th by a local constable. Local Libertarian Party database manager and Posipanka campaign advisor, Harold Kyriazi, estimated from careful database work, that Posipanka would fall about 40 signatures shy if he sought to fight the court challenge, because about 110 of the signatures seemed to be from residents who aren’t registered to vote.
Not wishing to travel all the way to Harrisburg on a workday for what would almost certainly be a losing effort, Posipanka decided to submit to the request of Gergely’s lawyer friend, who brought a withdrawal form to Posipanka’s house the day after “informing him” about the possibility of punitive legal fees if the case went to court.
Gergely is the Democratic candidate in that district and appears to be a really nasty peice of work.
I found a contact number which answered and further discovered there are no Libertarians on the ballot this year. Some of the problem was also mentioned in the blog article:
Major party candidates need only collect 300 signatures during the weeks before the Spring Primary, whereas minor party candidates need to solicit either 300 or 2% of that district’s previous election’s highest winning vote total, whichever is higher. This means that in some cases, a minor party candidate needs to collect almost 600 signatures while major party candidates need only 300. For statewide offices the situation is infinitely worse: this year, any minor party candidate for Governor or U.S. Senate needed 67,000 valid signatures, while major party candidates needed only 2,000.
“These sorts of shenanigans are not only unfair, but a direct violation of the Pennsylvania constitution, which stipulates that ‘elections shall be free and equal,’ said local party chair Dave Powell, from Morningside. “In my book, 67,000 does not equal 2,000. And, if minor party candidates for the state house needed only the 300 signatures needed by major party candidates, David Posipanka would still be on this year’s ballot.”
So for any Democrats who drop by Samizdata, let it be known that instead of voting “none of the above” as I probably would have done, I instead voted straight Republican for just a tiny bit of revenge against this low life by the name of Gergely.
There is a more general issue here. The Pennsylvania laws have totally disenfranchised me. I have no way of being represented. I have no stake in the government or the way it is run because I have been declared outside of it just as surely as if there were men in white peaked hats and shotguns standing outside of the polling stations.
Free country? Democracy? Do not make me laugh.
Today is a day of remembrance and a day to say “Thank you” to those who daily risk their lives for us. It is a day to ponder the guts and determination to save lives which drive fire and police men and women to risk – and sometimes lose – their lives so that others might live. It is a day to remember and thank our military men and women who have made our enemies reap what they have sown.
it is a day to be thankful of the courage which exists within the hearts of very average Americans, a strength of character that caused a small group to fight the first hand to hand battle of World War III in the skies over Pennsylvania.
Above all, it is a day to remember a horror perpetrated against us and to renew our vows to make our enemies pay and pay again for what they did.
There will be much media hype and spin today. Officials will say those sort of things which officials always must say. Personally I prefer the simple direct emotions of people much like myself who needed an outlet to express what they felt: Why We Fight and Have You Forgotten.
If you have not listened to these before (or have but not lately) I recommend you sit back and do so when you have a private moment and are free to shed a tear in remembrance.
There is so much happening in the commercial space breakout right now that it is difficult to keep up. I will just give you a few links to recent events.
The waiting list for tourist flights to Space Station Alpha is growing longer as former Microsoft developer Charles Simonyi has passed his Cosmonaut physical. Charles is in line behind a Japanese entrepreneur, Daisuke ‘Dice-K’ Enomoto who is already in training for a September flight. Meanwhile, the lovely Anousheh Ansari, whose family are the all-american heroes behind the Ansari X-Prize and X-Prize Cup is waiting in line for a slot to open up.
Also in the news, efforts towards a Canadian space port are moving ahead. There is something very poetic about a Cape Breton launch site: I can imagine the tourists spending an evening before their flight listening to some of the very fine Cape Breton traditional musicians. What better way to prepare for a flight than sipping a pint and listening to a few good sets of jigs and reels?
Breaking news: ‘Dice-K’ has been pulled from his flight for medical reasons. Anousheh will likely get the next flight opportunity.
I received a press release from my old drinking buddy Rick Tumlinson at the Space Frontier Foundation last night. NASA has announced the winners for the ‘Commercial Off The Shelf’ (COTS) space launch program:
Los Angeles, CA – August 18, 2006 The Space Frontier Foundation
congratulated SpaceX and Rocketplane – Kistler, the two winners of
NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation (COTS) program announced today
at NASA headquarters. The winners, selected out of a field that began
with at least 20 teams, will split a total of approximately $500 million
in funding to help them develop transportation systems that can be used
to support the International Space Station (ISS).
Many of us in the space field applaud this. Whether we like government involvement or not, it is there. This puts more money into the pot at just the right time and pretty much guarantees success of the SpaceX Falcon. A commercial manned orbital capability might now arrive in time to save NASA’s bacon: the sell-by date on the Space Shuttle fleet is rapidly approaching and their ‘CEV’ (Yesterday’s Space Program Today!) does not seem to have progressed past the view graph thus far.
The next SpaceX launch test from Kwajelein is due in the November-December time frame.
The way I heard the adage long ago, was “you are not a member of the club until you have blown one up”, as a NASA KSFC engineer is reported to have said when he called up Gary Hudson after Gary’s first big bang on Matagordo Island in Texas. Whatever the quote, Masten Aerospace became a full member a couple of days ago when their engine test resulted in an uncontrolled engine self-disassembly.
I am curious if they will still be entering a vehicle in the NASA Challenge at Las Cruces in two months.
I know at least several of the guys at MA. But then, I know a lot of the guys (and gals) at most of the rocket companies. Commercial space is a small world.
Bigelow Aerospace made a rather interesting announcement on August 11:
Due to a number of factors related to the outstanding performance of Genesis I, the hoped-for adequate performance of Genesis II and various additional factors—including, but not limited to, domestic and international issues forecast over the next four to five years bearing upon America’s transportation and launch deficits—we have made several bold decisions. An important announcement early in 2007 subsequent to the launch of Genesis II shall expose some of our plans.
Due to this change in direction, the Genesis II will be the only opportunity to fly photos and items for the “Fly Your Stuff” program. The general public is being urged to act quickly or they will lose their chance to be a part of this exciting program. Items and photos will be accepted only prior to November 1, 2006, or until all reservations are sold out on Genesis II, whichever comes first. Please be aware that there will be no second chances to fly personal items or photos in space through the “Fly Your Stuff” program.
If I were a betting man, I would guess the reason for no further fly-your-stuff opportunities is that Bigelow is going to jump to the full scale station next year, assuming the next larger size test article, Genesis II, is also successful.
I think the 2012 time line for a manned private space station has just been pulled in by a couple years.
 Photo: Bigelow Aerospace
When I grew up, “Buy low, Sell high” was a mantra you learned at your mothers knee. It was what any good proper American had ingrained into them. Somewhere along the line it seems to have become ‘suspicious activity’ to those in law enforcement. I am not alone in feeling that a couple Arab-American men in a truck full of cheap phones has much less to it than meets the law officer’s eye.
A terrorism expert interviewed on Fox News told them even a huge terrorist plot would only require a handful of phones. A thousand phones are likely to be exactly what the men (and their wives) say they are: a plot to make money. Making money is a good, patriotic American act.
I will require a hell of a lot more proof than I have heard so far to believe there is an enemy use for thousands of mobile phones. Maybe there is… but I am not even mildly convinced of it at the moment.
I can almost hear Del Boy laughing…
After nearly sixty years it looks like the US is finally slipping free of Korea.
The U.S. military will stay on, perhaps in reduced numbers, and play a supporting role, officials say. South Korea wants to take back the authority for wartime combat by 2012. The Pentagon says South Korea can have the authority back by 2009.
Roh said Wednesday that anytime in between those dates would be fine; indeed, he said, Seoul could take it back “even now.”
I have long felt the South Koreans quite capable of defending themselves so long as the US keeps them under its nuclear umbrella.
The Telegraph reports how enemy saboteurs could have made a ‘liquid bomb’. According to Andy Oppenheimer, editor of Jane’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence Directory:
“We are talking about common, everyday chemicals that are used in perfumes, cosmetics, drain cleaner, batteries, or could for example be stolen from school labs.
“These materials are easy to obtain and hard to detect, and could be smuggled in small amounts in small containers because it doesn’t take much to blow an aircraft up.”
I will be keeping my eyes open for further information.
The thought struck me after reading Adriana’s post that this plot may be quite wide. Last year a fellow here in Belfast was arrested, tried and convicted for studying ways of blowing up airliners using capacitors from tape recorders and such.
I was working in the US at the time that particular story broke… and was quite surprised to see pictures of the very complex in which I lived.
Perhaps it was a good thing my drapes were pulled while I was away so he never noticed the American flag in the corner. I can almost imagine his thoughts had he seen it: “An American! Allah be praised! And me, the only Arab terrorist in Belfast!”
Only those who have lived in Belfast will fully understand the joke.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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