Comments for MarsBlog.net

Comment on Nuclear Propulsion Research Revival? by T.L. James

T.L. James — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:25:52 +0000

Indeed – the same sort of fantasy ideology, wishful-thinking, and totalitarian do-gooderism.

To his credit, I can’t imagine Bruce engaging in any of the more serious crimes (worse than, say, trespass and other standard civil disobedience fare) attributed to the Occupiers.

Comment on Nuclear Propulsion Research Revival? by Greg

Greg — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:56:49 +0000

Boy, is that a perfect fit for him or what…

Comment on Hawaii Five-O Insults Pearl Harbor Survivors by Bryan Watson

Bryan Watson — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:45:03 +0000

I was at the Punchbowl that day and the crew was extremely disrepectful to not only the veterans, but to all the graves they set up on. We actually tracked down Ernie Pyle’s grave on the database and strolled over to it (he was a war correspondant that was killed by a sniper during the last days of Okinawa). We had to keep getting closer and closer to the set, and found it under a bunch of equipment. I took a photo as fast as I possibly could. I was also at the cemetery to look especially for 1st and 2nd Marine Division soldiers. Of course, most of them were directly in the area they were filming. I also wanted to mention I thought it was ridiculous how the crew put flowers on a bunch of the graves as props for the shot….I wouldn’t doubt if they removed them when the shot was over. I rode away from the cemetery in the bus with the vets. It was great to see the “middle finger salute” given out.
I do want to mention that a large majority of the crew did stand for the National Anthem and Taps. I looked back to see if they were really that cold-hearted, but they did show respect to a point. I will leave by saying, that the Hawaii Five-0 bigwigs suck major ass. They were only concerned with one thing that day. The crew people that got mouthfulls from us and the others with the vets were only doing their job. They were the people making minimum wage and taking earfuls from us. I have never watched the show and have no desire to ever again. If there were ever a more inappropriate time to film that stupid show it was then. If they had to film a scene at the USS Arizona memorial on Dec. 7th, they would have done it!!!!

Comment on Nuclear Propulsion Research Revival? by T.L. James

T.L. James — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:37:16 +0000

Hah, no. But it was some similarly-minded organization. Bruce is lately more concerned with the #Occupy movement, it seems.

Comment on Nuclear Propulsion Research Revival? by Greg

Greg — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:05:02 +0000

That person wouldn’t have been our old pal Brucie, would it?

Comment on The “Senator V”: NASA’s New Big Monster Rocket by Fred Willett

Fred Willett — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 03:02:43 +0000

The thing I can’t get over is that the same day NASA announced the SLS a bunch of NASA engineers gave a presentation for FISO on how we could go explore Mars on a slightly evolved (to 40t) Delta IV Heavy for about the samer cost as building the SLS.
http://spirit.as.utexas.edu/~fiso/telecon/Woodcock_9-14-11/
You’d think all the SLS fans would be saying
“Hey! Wait! Take this path and we can be on Mars by the time SLS actually flies!!”
The lack of consideration of this option shows to me their real interest.
They don’t want to explore. They just want to see the pretty rocket fly.

Comment on Something Missing? by Doug Jones

Doug Jones — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:57:21 +0000

They also try to claim credit for inventing friction stir welding. Pathetic.

Comment on Final Shuttle Flight Thoughts by T.L. James

T.L. James — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:16:21 +0000

And as far as conservative commentators doing this, I think it’s a phenomenon of all commentators. And I don’t mean that in the cheap “everybody does it” dismissive sense — really, it’s that they all have areas in which they jump to conclusions based on their personal and often petty biases, and they then cling to these conclusions regardless of the facts. (It may in fact be more accurate to say that they do that in all but a few areas where they have some special knowledge.)

I’d long ago noticed this phenomenon with the commentators on Air America and the local “Progressive” talk channel. But when one’s ideology is congruent with the host I think there’s a tendency to cut them some slack on topics with which one doesn’t have deep familiarity (perhaps papering over this intellectual second-handing by assuming that the host has done at least some research and is applying shared principles to what they have learned). But when a host of whatever stripe talks about something with which you are intimately familiar, and gets it woefully wrong as has happened almost universally over the past two weeks, it really catches your attention.

It’s been very eye-opening and disappointing. Especially when I then experience friends and coworkers who should know better parroting the same points absorbed uncritically from the commentariat.

Comment on Final Shuttle Flight Thoughts by T.L. James

T.L. James — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:05:58 +0000

See, that’s a criticism that one can take seriously.

Amusingly, the more the Russians try to gouge us, the easier it may become for SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, etc. to make their business model close.

Comment on Final Shuttle Flight Thoughts by Craig Beasley

Craig Beasley — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:53:31 +0000

That was Joe Pags you heard, and he often boxes himself into logical corners like that. As with many conservative commentators of the current era, when he finds himself to be wrong in the matter of something with which he’s criticizing Obama, he finds it hard to admit error. To do so risks losing the chance to bash the current squatter-in-chief. Joe’s got a big ego, and he has a hard time stepping around it at times.

As for being beholden to Russians, though, I do agree with Pags that it is shameful to be put in this position. And it isn’t just a jingoistic pride being bruised here, but irritation that we have to go with a manned launch provider that we KNOW will gouge us. The Russians have been horrible “partners” on the ISS, we should be wary that they will now only get worse.