|
|||||
|
If you have enjoyed the discussion about commercial space and the future here on Samizdata, you might find The Space Meetup of interest. The Meetup website is a good example of ways in which internet entrepreneurs are building businesses on the community aspect of the internet, and in this case assisting the creation of a global community in the non-cyberworld. July 27th, 2004 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
 How many of you grew up playing ‘RISK’? Yes, I see a bunch of hands up… no less than I would expect from a bunch of Samizdata readers. So… with everyone’s mind now in the proper context, I give you the before and after maps of the middle east and central asia created by American Digest. Many of us have had this image in our minds as we wrote on the current world war over the last few years, but many in the general public have failed to put this together. This is not their fault. It is in the nature of headline news to lose connectedness betwixt events separated in time and space. Afganistan is one story, now fading; Iraq is another story; the war on terrorism is yet another story. Except they are not. Let us imagine for a moment we are military attache’s from Epsilon Eridani. We know nothing about human politics. We have not evolved for religious belief. But… we do know our warfare. We know our tactical and strategical levels. Now look at the map from before. Look at the map afterwards. Can anyone imagine a better move to more thoroughly disrupt one’s enemy? I certainly can not. July 21st, 2004 | 28 comments - (Comments are closed)
Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on the Moon. After creating this wonderful capability, the Government did what Governments do. They squandered it. They threw it away. The State is not your friend. July 20th, 2004 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
Greg Nemitz has been a ‘love him or hate him figure’ within the space community for quite some time. Many have wondered what he could possibly accomplish by claiming the Asteroid Eros and charging NASA parking fees to leave their probe on its surface. Some were outraged when he took NASA to court for the failure to pay… not outraged because they felt it was silly; outraged because they thought he might generate bad case law. Now Greg is on to the next step up the legal ladder. I am beginning to see the outlines of what may be a fascinating and outrageous (in a good sense) plan to settle the issue of extraterrestrial property rights in the US Supreme Court. I will let Greg speak for himself: July 20th, 2004 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)
The Government of the Philippines, like the Spanish government before it, has stared into the face of evil… and capitulated. They are pulling their troops out of Iraq to appease terrorists and keep head on shoulders of one of their citizens. One can make many arguments pro and con about the decision they, as a sovereign nation, have made. I am not going to fight those one way or the other. I merely wish to point to consequences which will almost certainly follow hard on the heels of their decision. Unlike Spain, the Philippines have not bought even a temporary respite by their action. They have a local flock of Islamist nutcases to worry about in Mindanao: the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF operate far to the south of Manila perhaps… but perhaps not far enough. This home team watches television, reads newspapers and follows the internet just like every other revolutionary group on this planet. MILF leaders will already be pondering tactical changes. How much might they accomplish by kidnapping a few high profile persons? Would al Jazeera be willing to send a camera crew that distance for a beheading? How far will the government cave in? The government in Manila has made its choice. Now they must live it. Actions have consequences. July 20th, 2004 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
Yes. The day approaches. Tech work all across planet Earth will grind to a halt. Programmers will twitch in their sleep (if they sleep at all). Network centers will groan under the load and there will be no answers from helpdesks. All this and more will happen in a mere fifteen days. A bit more than two weeks… DOOM 3 hits the stores on August 3rd! Linux and OSX versions are to follow soon thereafter.  Used with the kind permission of Idsoftware Addendum: Buying Doom3 makes money for Idsoftware. One of the Idsoftware founders is John Carmack. John Carmack founded Armadillo Aerospace, perhaps the number two contender for the X-Prize behind Scaled Composites. So… buy Doom3 and support your capitalist future in Space! July 19th, 2004 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
Rand Simberg is at the Return To The Moon Conference this weekend and is providing live blogging of the talks by key speakers. Frank Seitzen’s talk is of particular interest to those with a commercial space bent:
I have known the disarticulated skeleton of this story for some time but this is the first I have seen it put together and with flesh on the bones. July 18th, 2004 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
You may remember this sad incident in the opening days of the Iraq Campaign: a US Patriot battery engaged and shot down a returning British Tornado. The official report on the incident is finally out:
If any of our readers has a link to a pdf of the original report – if such exists – I would be happy to include it here. Editor: Kudos to Julian Taylor for the link to the MoD pdf file. July 15th, 2004 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
The official Iranian delegation to the “Crans Montana Forum” in Switzerland were rather surprised by the special appearance of Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran. His speech on the “Risks of Doing Business with the Islamic Republic” This small sample will give you some idea how blunt the Prince was in his takedown of the mullahcracy:
July 7th, 2004 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
Many of the DOD press conference transcripts are yawn inducing… but not this one. On June 16th, Lieutenant General Thomas F. Metz, Commander Multi-National Forces-Corp Iraq gave one of the most candid and informative presentations I have yet seen. This is good stuff. Read and enjoy. July 7th, 2004 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
I recently wrote about Belinda Stronach’s Conservative Party candidacy in Canada. Reader Jim Bennett reports:
Canada could use the touch of an Iron Lady. It will be interesting to see if Belinda can grow enough to fill those shoes. July 6th, 2004 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
I am still catching up with my email backlog after a week in which my server was ‘under attack’ by a storm of spam. High on my ‘must read’ list are the transcripts of the various DOD press briefings. I found a gem in this briefing from Saturday, given by Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, Deputy Director for Coalition Operations; and Dan Senor, Senior Adviser, CPA. In the words of Dan Senor:
Virtually anyone who reads Samizdata would understand tax rates this low necessarily lead to economic growth and the betterment of all citizens. Could we perhaps borrow Paul Bremer for a year or two? I believe he may be in need of a job… July 6th, 2004 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
|
   |
||||
All content on this website (including text, photographs, audio files, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License. |
|||||