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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It looks likely American lawmakers will soon agree airline pilots (as do all of us with a Blue Passport) have an inalienable Second Amendment Right To Bear Arms. Or in this particular case, pilots have a Right To Protect Our Sorry Arses. Support is apparently overwhelming. The public and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) with strong support of air service staff are solidly behind it. There’s hardly a discouraging word to be heard in the halls of the Senate… with the exception of our old friend Senator Fritz “I’m For Sale” Hollings (D Disney) who is worried he’ll lose the terrorist vote if they all get shot before the next election.
Hollings and his friends will no doubt be wheeling out all the hackneyed arguments agin it. They’ll regale us with visions of pilots with the aim of an Imperial Storm Trooper who failed his Rifle Qual. Or like a posse from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, blowing holes through passengers, windows and wings while missing the hijacker standing Jedi-like six feet away. And of course dozens of passengers strained out of the airplane through centimetre holes while the rest balloon up and die in “Outpost” airlock-like technicolour gore.
But it ain’t that way in real life.
Many pilots are ex-military pilots who are well at ease with firearms and are just as likely to drop the sucker on the first shot as not. And as to the holes in the fuselage… that brings me to a story.
I was sitting in a hotel bar in Denver (doubt anyone is surprised at the story so far) late one night a couple weeks ago. It was a fairly quiet night. The three of us around the small round table were getting served rather quickly. But this was not your ordinary group watching sports and women in a hotel bar. The scene would not have been out of place in a movie about the making of the first A-Bomb. The table top was filled with napkins covered in arcane “back of the envelope” calculations made by a physicist friend who actually did work with Dr Teller at one time.
Among the many problems solved amidst the constant stream of engineering lubricant (Sam Adams is a nice beer for a Libertarian) were: “Will normal pots and pans survive launch in a gas gun at 3000 Gravities?”… and “What is the bleed down time for a Boeing 747 with a bullet hole in it?”
The answer to that question was: a good fraction of an entire day. And that was making the assumption the cabin pressurization was static. Which it isn’t, so basically a couple bullet holes in the frame won’t even make the system blink.
What we have here folks is your basic non-problem.
Erratum: As one reader pointed out, the movie name was Outland, not Outpost!
I am at long last able to post my stories directly so if I have any readers out there who still remember my name… expect to hear from me on a much more regular basis in the coming weeks.
Since the end of February when we “upgraded” to BloggerPro I’ve had to send my raw html text to Chief Editor Perry de Havilland for insertion. I understand Perry loves matching html tag pairs with a passion only outdone by his love of reading the London telephone directory in braille. The sales blurbs claimed lack of support for Linux was a “temporary” matter. Unfortunately, I do not have a great deal of time for anything beyond my consulting work and some activities with the National Space Society, so the extra burden was just enough to make me think twice when an article started buzzing about my head…enough trouble that I tended to swat the idea away rather than do anything about it.
Then preparations for the ISDC (International Space Development Conference) hotted up as April slipped into May. I am the Chair of the National Space Society committee that oversees the local Conference committee so this kept me rather busy. More so as I was dumb enough to also volunteer to run a track of programming on Novel Propulsion Systems on top of assisting with liaison between NSS and the Moon Society (Artemis Project) on the lunar programming track…
Speaking of the Lunar Track… No Glenn, I didn’t see the anti-capitalist, anti-settlement, anti-commercial space, anti-space resources, anti-property rights, anti… [you get the picture] guy who decided he’d like to speak at our conference. I was running my own track next door at the time with speakers talking about fun things like Launch Loops, Gas Guns, Electrodynamic Tethers and the like, so I didn’t have a chance. However I can confirm there were no bloodstains left over in the Lunar Track room by Banquet time, so our lads and lasses were polite enough to let the fellow get out of our midst alive. Darn.
I really must give the fellow (Richard Steiner) credit for courage. Walking into a room full of space activists who would shave their grannies into hamburger for a chance to get off the planet and suggesting the entire Moon be made off limits to settlement is not something to be attempted by the faint of heart. It also won’t happen and we wouldn’t obey it even if it did happen.
Besides… on the surface of the moon environuts are easily dealt with. If one should chain their self to a rock (no trees!)… No prob.
We’ll just sit back in the cab of our lunar rover and take bets on when their Oxygen runs out.
I imagine at least a few have noted my near absence from these pages over the last few weeks. This is the difference between those who earn their keep from their words and those who do so by other means. As I live by consultancy, I at times have very few hours left to myself. When there are other projects at hand, time allocation can get very dicey. One very big “free time” project is nearing completion and as it is part of a public event I thought I’d invite you all to come. I’m running a track on Novel Propulsion Systems at the National Space Society‘s 2002 International Space Development Conference in Denver in a few weeks.
Here’s what I’ve put together for my little corner of it:
NPS track, Sat May 25, 2002
—————————
Morning Session
====================================
0900-0925 Energy, Economics, and Space Transport: Evaluating
Alternative Space Launch Systems
Keith Lofstrom, www.launchloop.com
0930-1025 Nuclear Propulsion Systems Panel
Tony Rusi, Bigelow Aerospace
Dr. Steven D. Howe, Hbar Technologies, LLC
1030-1100 Future Spacecraft Propulsion Systems
Richard Westfall, Galactic Mining Industries, Inc
Afternoon Session
====================================
1400-1425 The Ultimate Exploration: Approaches to Interstellar Flight
Dr. Geoffrey A. Landis, NASA Glenn Research Center
1430-1455 Magnetic Sail Flight Experiment
Dr. Robert Zubrin, Mars Society
1500-1525 The Launch Loop: People and Machines to Orbit and Beyond
Keith Lofstrom, www.launchloop.com
1530-1555 Cost Performance of the Hydrogen Rocket Launcher
Dr. John Hunter, Starbridge, Inc
Herb Chelner, President of Micron Instruments Inc.
1600-1625 Tether Launch Assist
Dr. Robert P Hoyt, President, CEO,
& Chief Scientist, Tethers Unlimited, Inc.
1630-1655 Breakthrough Propulsion Physics
Dr. Geoffrey A. Landis, NASA Glenn Research Center
(presenting for
Marc Millis, NASA Glenn Research Center)
====================================
See you there!
The Opinion Journal’s email newsletter has pointed out a real gem. It seems a group of rather uneducated people have decided the famous second book in the Tolkien series, “The Two Towers” was actually named by director Peter Jackson for the World Trade Center:
“Peter Jackson has decided to tastelessly name the sequel “The Two Towers”. The title is clearly meant to refer to the attacks on the World Trade Center. In this post-September 11 world, it is unforgivable that this should be allowed to happen. The idea is both offensive and morally repugnant. Hopefully, when Peter Jackson and, more importantly, New Line Cinema see the number of signatures on this petition, the title will be changed to something a little more sensitive.”
So we are left with only two equally astounding possibilities:
(1) Tolkien was more prescient than even Nostrodamus. Some Forty-seven years ago he foresaw the Twin Towers attack and that his second book would be made into a blockbuster movie in the following year.
(2) Jackson has invented time travel. He wanted to use a title relating to the World Trade Center attack but did not want anyone to blame him, so he travelled 47 years into the past, joined J.R.R and his friends in the Oxford local and suggested “The Two Towers” would be an excellent title.
If you want a laugh, check out the petition where over a thousand of the mentally challenged have recorded their intellectual incapacity for posterity.
Hernando de Soto seems to have had an immense impact on all of Spanish America, and most particularly on his homeland of Peru. Unfortunately you hear very little about Peru in the news other than Fujimori escapades or Shining Path villainy. This letter from Dr. Edgar David Villaneuva Nunez, Congressman of the Republica of Peru to Microsoft shows an entirely different side of government in Peru. It is much worth the read whether your interest is in the meta-context shining through it, or of the powerful set of arguments Dr Nunez makes for free software.
The story is in the letter so I will let Dr. Nunez provide the rest of the narrative.
Undercover operative Radley Balko is going undercover at the anti-globalist demonstration in Washington. If he survives and doesn’t get strung up on a pair of Golden Arches, expect some interesting tales to appear on The Agitator later this evening Zulu Time.
All evil globalists like us should use ‘Zulu’ when discussing our nefarious plans. It sounds so appropriate for the articles in the Secretive Underground Publication of the Samizdata Terran Planetary Cadre of Elite Anarcho-Capitalist Conspirators!
Give ’em ‘ell and fire when ready Radley!
Harry Browne’s American Liberty Foundations has successfully raised funds for another TV ad and it will be airing today, Saturday the 20th, on the Fox News Channel. “Intruder” will air three times so look for it in these slots:
* Noon to 3 PM Eastern
* 11 AM to 2 PM Central
* 10 AM to 1 PM Mountain
* 9 AM to Noon Pacific
It’s absolutely guaranteed to drive the anti-gun crazies over the edge.
Al-Ahram in Egypt interviewed one of the Islamic Jihad sappers who helped booby trap Jenin. “Omar” said:
“Of all the fighters in the West Bank we were the best prepared,” he says. “We started working on our plan: to trap the invading soldiers and blow them up from the moment the Israeli tanks pulled out of Jenin last month.”
Omar and other engineers made hundreds of explosive devices and carefully chose their locations.
“We had more than 50 houses booby-trapped around the camp. We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them,” he said.
“We cut off lengths of mains water pipes and packed them with explosives and nails. Then we placed them about four metres apart throughout the houses–in cupboards, under sinks, in sofas.”
At least they are not trying to blow up civilians for once
I applaud the finding that Somalia is clear of al Qaeda, reported by the Washington Post and the article is itself interesting reading. It was the quote at the end which caught my eye though:
A defense official says Somalia’s lack of a central government or adequate security forces makes it “a potential haven for some al Qaeda terrorist members.”
Really shows the Statist thought patterns doesn’t it? Poor savages don’t have a Big Brother State to take care of them like us Fortunates.
Perhaps Jim Davidson had the right idea in moving there…
I’ve just been in a discussion on the Artemis Societies digest in which one person bemoaned even after the commecial flight of Dennis Tito people still think of space as a “government thing”, an expensive thing. That attitudes haven’t changed…
Well I didn’t expect them to: at least not yet. Dennis was the very first commercial tourist and in the public’s mind his flight was a one off stunt. For most it’s already forgotten. “Tito who?” is the likely answer you’d elicit from the man or woman on High Street. But I’m more interested in the long term effect, the ‘meta-context’ as Perry puts it.
Imagine a little needle in everyone’s head, one scaled zero to ten on two opposite viewpoints. Day to day events move each person’s needle a tiny bit one way or another while not necessarily being remembered in their own right. Over the next few years that needle is slated for a steady push to the view of space as a place for Joe Bloggs as well as Buzz Lightyear.
At this moment I’m aware of three tourists who are going to fly within the next one to two years:
* Mark Shuttleworth – assigned to a mission
* Lori Garver – if she raises the money
* Lance Bass – NSync lead singer
I understand there are quite a few more serious customers in the queue.
To top it off, NASA’s new administrator has approved Barb Morgan, Teacher-in-Space Christa McAullife’s backup, to finally go up. She’s only been waiting 16 years for the go ahead.
We’re on the edge of a time when a continuos stream of the rich and famous, the energetic fund raisers and the lucky lotto gamblers will be travelling to the Space Station. It will be the “in thing”, the oughties thing to do. The place to see and be seen. It is going to be the punchbowl talk at the exlusive Hollywood parties. I can imagine gossip columnists will be overhearing snippets like, “oh yes, when I was up at the Station…”, “You just won’t believe what you can do in zero G”.
Is there anyone who thinks when Lance comes back down there won’t be space themes sneaking into his music? Artists mine their experience for their creativity. Kids are going to get songs about floating in zero G from singers who’ve been there and done that. This is going to go mainstream guys. Not filk: Top 40.
When Society and Celebrity news regularly cover People in space; when teenage girls read popstar mag articles about their heart throb idols while laying on their bed amidst walls plastered with posters of Lance Bass and others floating in space…
Where’s that little needle gonna go?
According to the Washington Post:
“The cause of Israel drew a multitude of Americans yesterday to the historic West Front of the U.S. Capitol, where Israeli flags fluttered by the score, thousands of signs signaled support, and speakers at the podium and in the crowd voiced vigorous defenses of the country’s right to strike back against Palestinian bomb attacks aimed at its civilians,”
According to James Taranto in the Opinion Journal email newsletter:
Local officials estimated the size of the crowd at 100,000, with an estimated 1,200 charter buses carrying out-of-towners to the capital for the rally. The crowd was fired up; a few churls even booed Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, when he observed–accurately–that there are innocent Palestinians among the casualties of the war in the Mideast.
Given that politics is the act of finding the biggest parade and getting in front of it, I’m sure the Bush administration will soon enough get the point. The Israeli’s have every bit as much right to kick the crap out of the people supporting Kamikazi bombings in their cities as Americans do.
And we’d better support them because this time around the Nazis* have someone higher on their killing agenda than those of the Jewish faith.
*= Mein Kampf sales are said to be skyrocketing in Arab communities; Arab newspapers are pulling out 60 year old Nazi disinformation; Arab pundits are saying Hitler didn’t finish the job of the Final Solution. I do not mean Nazi in a figurative term. I mean it absolutely and literally.
There was a young woman named Plunnery
Who rejoiced in the practice of gunnery.
Till one day unobservant,
She blew up a servant,
And was forced to retire to a nunnery.
– Edward Gorey
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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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