And I just might get it. I went over to Transterrestrial Musings and left a comment there about the heavy lifter rocket being developed for NASA. Before doing that, I followed the link to article he linked to from Rand Simberg's blog.
I realize that I am not an expert. So, I just might get creamed. We'll see.
Update:
I misspelled the name of the blog. Great. Corrected now.
Update:
As of this writing, there have been 7 comments in response to that post at Rand Simberg's blog. I made 3 of them. There were a couple of responses to my comments, but nothing that I would call a disaster, fortunately.
If I am lucky, maybe I got some people to consider my ideas. But I don't believe in counting on luck. I'll keep posting on the external tanks as space station concept. I think the idea may live to fight another day.
Update:
There was one reply to my comment at The Space Review . "Coastal Ron" wrote the reply. There doesn't appear to be much love for the shuttle derived system. Not that I have a "dog in this hunt". I'm not an employee of NASA, nor is anybody I know nor any relatives. I have no financial stake in the outcome.
If this program is going to survive, it may well have to come from the Democrats. It is also fair to point out that all the Democrats really want is a jobs program. Between the two factions, this system may just die for lack of interest. Too bad.
Al Fin: "Cowboy Commentary", aka "Eat your veggies" The Flag banner is posted in order to defy those who would make patriotic symbols illegal or disreputable.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Chris Laird's Prudent Squirrel
As I've mentioned before, I have a subscription to the Prudent Squirrel Newsletter. This last newsletter is interesting enough that I decided to mention something more about it here on this blog. By the way, I have a link to his website on my products page.
Chris will allow his subscribers to reproduce up to 10% of his newsletter as long as they give him credit for it and a link to his site. If you want more, you'll have to get a subscription. I haven't been posting any of his material here, but I will include a little this time in order to give you a sample of what he writes. So, here we go. This is probably far less than 10% and it is only the list of topics discussed, so here goes:
And there it is. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He does a good job and it is well worth a read. Now, I want to discuss a little of some of these topics here.
Let's start from the top, with interest rates. As I wrote earlier, I would not be a buyer of bonds. I am already on record there. check
The Plaza Accord wasn't really any different policy than what the US has been doing since Nixon closed the gold window in the early 70's. Guess what? Inflation followed that. We thought we had inflation beat, but it will definitely come back. Why? Have you heard of Quantitative Easing? Same thing. check
I am not well researched on China. My impression is that China will import US inflation as long as they allow their currency to be linked to the dollar. The same will hold true for all of our trading partners. The only way to preserve their markets here is to enter the race to the bottom of competitive devaluation. If they decide to stop playing along with that game, the musical chairs scenario will leave the US dollar as the last one standing. That's not where you want to be in that game. Just my opinion folks. So, China may raise rates, but it won't be effective in stopping inflation there. They aren't serious, but when they do get serious, look out. check
Korea doesn't interest me much, except for the stability issue. If war breaks out, it is not good. check
I don't disclose my stock or financial positions here. This isn't a market advisory service. I give my opinions for free, you can read it for entertainment, amusement, or what have you. check
As for oil, I have felt for many years that this is a show stopper for the US economy. If our fearless leaders don't get their rears in gear, we will continue having problems. This problem has been talked about since I was in school back in the 70's. For once, our leaders need to step up to the plate, and deal with this problem. I won't hold my breath. check
Emerging markets is just not my bag, baby. A little Austin Powers lingo there. So, there you are. My reaction to Chris' newsletter. If you subscribe, you can read his stuff and mine and compare notes. I think he is more of a pro at this because he has been doing it a long time. Not trying to grab his glory, just expressing my own opinions. check
Chris will allow his subscribers to reproduce up to 10% of his newsletter as long as they give him credit for it and a link to his site. If you want more, you'll have to get a subscription. I haven't been posting any of his material here, but I will include a little this time in order to give you a sample of what he writes. So, here we go. This is probably far less than 10% and it is only the list of topics discussed, so here goes:
Newsletter - Edition 246 - 19 December 2010
By Christopher Laird
Rising interest rates – what might we expect?
The Plaza Accord
China interest rate hike due
Korea
My positions
Oil
Shanghai and other “emerging markets”
And there it is. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He does a good job and it is well worth a read. Now, I want to discuss a little of some of these topics here.
Let's start from the top, with interest rates. As I wrote earlier, I would not be a buyer of bonds. I am already on record there. check
The Plaza Accord wasn't really any different policy than what the US has been doing since Nixon closed the gold window in the early 70's. Guess what? Inflation followed that. We thought we had inflation beat, but it will definitely come back. Why? Have you heard of Quantitative Easing? Same thing. check
I am not well researched on China. My impression is that China will import US inflation as long as they allow their currency to be linked to the dollar. The same will hold true for all of our trading partners. The only way to preserve their markets here is to enter the race to the bottom of competitive devaluation. If they decide to stop playing along with that game, the musical chairs scenario will leave the US dollar as the last one standing. That's not where you want to be in that game. Just my opinion folks. So, China may raise rates, but it won't be effective in stopping inflation there. They aren't serious, but when they do get serious, look out. check
Korea doesn't interest me much, except for the stability issue. If war breaks out, it is not good. check
I don't disclose my stock or financial positions here. This isn't a market advisory service. I give my opinions for free, you can read it for entertainment, amusement, or what have you. check
As for oil, I have felt for many years that this is a show stopper for the US economy. If our fearless leaders don't get their rears in gear, we will continue having problems. This problem has been talked about since I was in school back in the 70's. For once, our leaders need to step up to the plate, and deal with this problem. I won't hold my breath. check
Emerging markets is just not my bag, baby. A little Austin Powers lingo there. So, there you are. My reaction to Chris' newsletter. If you subscribe, you can read his stuff and mine and compare notes. I think he is more of a pro at this because he has been doing it a long time. Not trying to grab his glory, just expressing my own opinions. check
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Recycling the ET, part 10
It looks like 10 posts so far on this subject, identified by this label. I have to apologize for the lack of organization here. This blog is a bit more haphazard than what I would like. It appears that so far that there are 9 posts, but I wrote more on the subject in previous posts. Yet this seems to be hard to find.
What got me interested in this proposition was the fact that the shuttle derived system is now being adopted as the heavy lifter. Since I learned that, it is now 10 posts, which are easy to access from the label at the end of each post. Just click on it to bring them all up.
I learned of the decision to use the shuttle derived launcher late last month. By then, it was a month old decision since it was mid October when the decision was made to use the DIRECT approach. The DIRECT approach is the name for shuttle derived system as the heavy lifter.
What does this decision mean? For one thing, the entire rocket system now can be independent of the orbiter. Since the orbiter carried the main engines on board, it meant that the entire shuttle had to come with it so as to have access to the engines. Now that the shuttle will be gone, that extra mass, which was considerable, will no longer be needed. The significance of this is that the external tanks can go into orbit at a much higher and safer altitude than before. Without having to carry the extra mass of the shuttle, there will be plenty of thrust to get the external tanks to that orbit. Even with the shuttle onboard, the tanks could have been put into orbit (not just my opinion here, it is in the documentation that is in the pdf file I reviewed). The reason they weren't was the fear that the tank could reenter the atmosphere due to orbit decay. At a higher orbit, this concern can more easily addressed.
As for some of the ideas that I put forward, they are not new, unique, nor mine. It is in the pdf, just mentioned. Not necessarily in the form that I put it in, because that pdf is material that is nearly 30 years old. The shuttle was still a relatively new launch platform back then.
Thus the use of the external tanks as a space station is an idea which has already been studied by NASA. What may make the idea more interesting is that some of the limitations of the shuttle have now been removed. It may well be more feasible now than before.
What I am saying is that there may be an opportunity here. The question is will somebody be able to see this and take advantage of it? Or will that opportunity be lost? A window of opportunity can close really fast. I hope that it will not be lost.
What got me interested in this proposition was the fact that the shuttle derived system is now being adopted as the heavy lifter. Since I learned that, it is now 10 posts, which are easy to access from the label at the end of each post. Just click on it to bring them all up.
I learned of the decision to use the shuttle derived launcher late last month. By then, it was a month old decision since it was mid October when the decision was made to use the DIRECT approach. The DIRECT approach is the name for shuttle derived system as the heavy lifter.
What does this decision mean? For one thing, the entire rocket system now can be independent of the orbiter. Since the orbiter carried the main engines on board, it meant that the entire shuttle had to come with it so as to have access to the engines. Now that the shuttle will be gone, that extra mass, which was considerable, will no longer be needed. The significance of this is that the external tanks can go into orbit at a much higher and safer altitude than before. Without having to carry the extra mass of the shuttle, there will be plenty of thrust to get the external tanks to that orbit. Even with the shuttle onboard, the tanks could have been put into orbit (not just my opinion here, it is in the documentation that is in the pdf file I reviewed). The reason they weren't was the fear that the tank could reenter the atmosphere due to orbit decay. At a higher orbit, this concern can more easily addressed.
As for some of the ideas that I put forward, they are not new, unique, nor mine. It is in the pdf, just mentioned. Not necessarily in the form that I put it in, because that pdf is material that is nearly 30 years old. The shuttle was still a relatively new launch platform back then.
Thus the use of the external tanks as a space station is an idea which has already been studied by NASA. What may make the idea more interesting is that some of the limitations of the shuttle have now been removed. It may well be more feasible now than before.
What I am saying is that there may be an opportunity here. The question is will somebody be able to see this and take advantage of it? Or will that opportunity be lost? A window of opportunity can close really fast. I hope that it will not be lost.
Hot Dog!
Here's George Carlin, the comedian, saying something funny and serious at the same time. Guess what? It makes a lot of sense to me! WARNING! This video is liberally sprinkled with f-bombs and bad language. This is a clean blog, or mostly clean. But this video is PG, or at least an R, okay?
Times is Tough
Another one of Wishbone's videos that I am stealing here. yuk, yuk. Hey, it's Christmas, Wishbone.
That was so good, I think I'll have another:
That was so good, I think I'll have another:
Organization counts
I like to read Lance Zierlein on chron.com sports. He is an NFL guy and I
think his dad was in the league as a coach. His latest blog post was about
the Houston Texans and how they are managing to go down in history as a
study in futility.
Maybe that is not exactly how he put it, that's my way of putting it. Yet
it doesn't surprise me at all. Before the season, when everybody was picking
the Texans to be playoff contenders, I had them pegged at 8-8. They will
do no better than that, and they just may do worse.
There was something there, maybe it was a comment about what Kubiak has
been saying that struck me. He said that he believed in his system and that
they were going to stick with their system. Now, a system is not the same
thing as intelligence. No system can deal with novel situations. Only intelligence
can do that. After all, a system is just a system. A human mind is smarter
than a system and will beat it every time. Intelligence wins over systems.
But systems matter too. All I am saying is that systems don't substitute for
intelligence. If it does, you are going to get yourself into trouble. If my hunch
is correct, I may have put my finger on what is wrong with this team.
I would have made this as a comment, but has been too long since he made
this blog post, so I won't comment there, but post here. Here is the link to
this blog post, in case you're interested.
think his dad was in the league as a coach. His latest blog post was about
the Houston Texans and how they are managing to go down in history as a
study in futility.
Maybe that is not exactly how he put it, that's my way of putting it. Yet
it doesn't surprise me at all. Before the season, when everybody was picking
the Texans to be playoff contenders, I had them pegged at 8-8. They will
do no better than that, and they just may do worse.
There was something there, maybe it was a comment about what Kubiak has
been saying that struck me. He said that he believed in his system and that
they were going to stick with their system. Now, a system is not the same
thing as intelligence. No system can deal with novel situations. Only intelligence
can do that. After all, a system is just a system. A human mind is smarter
than a system and will beat it every time. Intelligence wins over systems.
But systems matter too. All I am saying is that systems don't substitute for
intelligence. If it does, you are going to get yourself into trouble. If my hunch
is correct, I may have put my finger on what is wrong with this team.
I would have made this as a comment, but has been too long since he made
this blog post, so I won't comment there, but post here. Here is the link to
this blog post, in case you're interested.
A time for new thinking
Well, it's Sunday morning, and I'm back at it here. Today is the day of rest, but we don't get any around here. That's a joke, son.
Anyway, I figured I would start a new topic last week. I felt pretty good last week about this blog. Things were on the upswing, but the enthusiasm was getting a little out of hand. So, I figured I needed something to keep my feet on the ground. Well, maybe I shouldn't have worried about that. The world will kick your butt and make you get your butt back on the ground, and your butt is connected to your feet. This blog's audience seemed to take a dive this past week, and that was the butt kicker. So now I am on the opposite end of needing to stay centered. I need something that will help me keep my chin up.
There are always little things to feel optimistic about, when it comes to this endeavor, but is it a realistic way of proceeding? Every step forward here is a baby step. Every step backward is a pratfall, it seems. But I try to learn from my mistakes so I can keep moving forward. Too many of these and I will run out of time.
My biggest problem seems to be with myself. What I am referring to here is my own habits which tend to undermine my best efforts. Take yesterday, for example. While at the San Jacinto Battleground, I noticed a man walking in my direction while I was checking out their nature trail at the park. I have this habit of avoiding social situations. That seems to be the way I'm built. It is customary for me to avoid people, and I started to turn around and go in the opposite direction. But I caught myself. Because I have become aware of this tendency to do this, and I want to stop doing it. It just doesn't work for me anymore, I have to change my ways. So, rather than do the habitual thing, I slowed down and made some social pleasantries with the guy.
He turned out to be someone who went to the same high school that I went to. He knew the some of the same people I knew, but I didn't know him. Or I didn't recall knowing him back then. We got to talking about the old days and I learned a few things I didn't know. For instance, one guy I used to be buddies with has died from cancer. That makes you feel old. Like I didn't feel that way already.
We chatted for a few minutes, but I did something that I also have a tendency of doing. I got a little rude. I made an abrupt exit because I wanted to do other things besides chatting with my old classmate. Shame on me. I need to do better and I fouled up. Sorry, Robert, if you are reading this. You see, I gave him the info so that he could access this blog. Maybe he came already. I don't know. If you do come here, Robert, please feel free to comment and let me know. I don't try to be a jerk, but sometimes, I can't help myself.
Anyway, I figured I would start a new topic last week. I felt pretty good last week about this blog. Things were on the upswing, but the enthusiasm was getting a little out of hand. So, I figured I needed something to keep my feet on the ground. Well, maybe I shouldn't have worried about that. The world will kick your butt and make you get your butt back on the ground, and your butt is connected to your feet. This blog's audience seemed to take a dive this past week, and that was the butt kicker. So now I am on the opposite end of needing to stay centered. I need something that will help me keep my chin up.
There are always little things to feel optimistic about, when it comes to this endeavor, but is it a realistic way of proceeding? Every step forward here is a baby step. Every step backward is a pratfall, it seems. But I try to learn from my mistakes so I can keep moving forward. Too many of these and I will run out of time.
My biggest problem seems to be with myself. What I am referring to here is my own habits which tend to undermine my best efforts. Take yesterday, for example. While at the San Jacinto Battleground, I noticed a man walking in my direction while I was checking out their nature trail at the park. I have this habit of avoiding social situations. That seems to be the way I'm built. It is customary for me to avoid people, and I started to turn around and go in the opposite direction. But I caught myself. Because I have become aware of this tendency to do this, and I want to stop doing it. It just doesn't work for me anymore, I have to change my ways. So, rather than do the habitual thing, I slowed down and made some social pleasantries with the guy.
He turned out to be someone who went to the same high school that I went to. He knew the some of the same people I knew, but I didn't know him. Or I didn't recall knowing him back then. We got to talking about the old days and I learned a few things I didn't know. For instance, one guy I used to be buddies with has died from cancer. That makes you feel old. Like I didn't feel that way already.
We chatted for a few minutes, but I did something that I also have a tendency of doing. I got a little rude. I made an abrupt exit because I wanted to do other things besides chatting with my old classmate. Shame on me. I need to do better and I fouled up. Sorry, Robert, if you are reading this. You see, I gave him the info so that he could access this blog. Maybe he came already. I don't know. If you do come here, Robert, please feel free to comment and let me know. I don't try to be a jerk, but sometimes, I can't help myself.
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