Myopia in Two Debates

Australians have recently been treated to the spectacle of Mark Latham and John Howard going at each other in a televised debate. And even more recently, Americans have had the same kind of viewing pleasure, watching John Kerry and George Bush having it out.

Mark Latham wants Australia to "concentrate on our region", Iraq is a "distraction" from the War against Terror.

Meanwhile Kerry said (quoting General Shinseki), and I quote in return,

Invading Iraq in response to 9/11 would be like Franklin Roosevelt invading Mexico in response to Pearl Harbor

Actually, it's more like Franklin Roosevelt invading Morocco in response to Pearl Harbor. Which, of course, he did in 1942 in the 'Operation Torch' landings, the first offensive action the Allies performed against the Axis. It was a Global War.

Even our enemies understand that. Here's the latest-and-greatest from Al Qaeda, courtesy of the ABC :

Senior Al Qaeda official Ayman al-Zawahri, in a purported audio tape aired on Friday, urged Muslims to set up an organised resistance to hit the interests of "crusader America" and its allies throughout the world.

"We should not wait until US, British, French, Jewish, South Korean, Hungarian or Polish forces enter Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen and Algeria before we resist," said the voice on the audio tape aired by Al Jazeera television.

"Let us start resisting now. The interests of America, Britain, Australia, France, Poland, Norway, South Korea and Japan are spread everywhere.

"They all took part in the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq or Chechnya or enabled Israel to survive."
[...]
The man on the tape said Muslim youths should emulate insurgents in Iraq, where US forces are battling an uprising against the US-backed government, and also in Afghanistan, where guerrillas from the ousted Taliban regime are stepping up violence ahead of presidential elections next month.

The tape urged fighters to form a leadership to organise resistance around the Muslim world and told them to carry on even if al Qaeda leaders were killed or arrested.

Australia has interests globally. Iraq was always a major trading partner, even under Saddam we sold them millions of tonnes of wheat (though how much of that actually got to the Iraqi populace is doubtful). And although it's not "All about Oil", neither can we ignore the effect of Oil on the world (and hence Australia's) economy.

To say that fighting Islamic terrorists on this (or any other) front is an irrelevancy is plainly innacurate. Or as we say in Oz, complete Bull. Even if we'd never gone in to Iraq as part of the Coalition, it would be in our interests to be there now, that's the most active front there is. And the enemy's hurtin'. People who're winning don't go around talking about post-mortem resistance even if their whole organisation's destroyed.

Now nobody could ever accuse (as I've said elsewhere) Al Qaeda of being any great Sheikhs in the fact department. Neither Norway, nor Japan, nor any of the other nations on Al Qaeda's Hit List^tm had anything to do with Chechnya, for example. And I think few sane people would argue that it's likely for Hungarian military operations to include supping Ghoulash in the shadow of the Pyramids any time soon. But one thing's quite clear : our most unforgiveable crime in their eyes is not to support Israel, it's merely to "enable Israel to survive". For that, they'll strike us anywhere in the world, not just in our own local region.

Anyone who can't see that suffers from Myopia of the worst sort. Latham and Kerry have political contacts, lots of them. But they need a new prescription.

Spam Statistics

Via Utterly Boring comes some alarming statistics from WindowsSecrets.com about Spam. To quote Utterly Boring :

• Spam exceeded 70% of all e-mail in July 2004 (60% of which is being sent by infected zombie machines)
• About 1 in 12 e-mails carried viruses in the first six months of 2004
• There are now 1,740 known, unpatched security flaws in Windows and other operating systems
• More than 1,974 unique phishing attacks were reported in July 2004
• In surveys, 74% of users whose PCs are running adware from Claria (formerly Gator) said they had no knowledge of it being installed.

I'll add my own scary stat to the list :

• Thirty percent of American consumers have experienced online identity theft

The WindowsSecrets article has plenty of evidence to back up those statistics, as well as some handy tips for ameliorating the problem. I was familiar with most, but not all, of them, so it's worth a read.

A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!

Today's interesting URL.

But I'd be a bit careful before either investing or buying tickets. Very professionally developed site though.

Everything you always wanted to know...

...about a Web Page is available at URLInfo.

A thoroughly useful tool for web development.

Virgin Galactic

The name is nothing if not ambitious.

From Agence France Presse (AFP), via the ABC :

British airline magnate Richard Branson has announced a hugely ambitious plan for the world's first commercial space flights, saying he would send "thousands" of fee-paying astronauts into orbit in the next five years.

Branson, a flamboyant communicator and high-profile tycoon, said his Virgin Atlantic airline had signed a technology licensing deal with the US company behind SpaceShipOne, which in June became the first private manned craft to travel to space.

Addressing reporters in central London, Mr Branson said that the new firm - Virgin Galactic - would launch its maiden flight in only three years, and that he would join the very first trip into space.

"Within five years, Virgin Galactic will have created over 3,000 new astronauts from many countries," Mr Branson said, speaking alongside US aviation pioneer Burt Rutan, who designed and built SpaceShipOne.

"Many of these countries will have not had the funds to date to compete with the government-funded space programs of the superpowers," he said.

"We plan to construct launch pads for commercial space travel in a number of countries over the next few years."

Such a vastly ambitious plan is typical of the 54-year-old serial entrepreneur, who first made a fortune with the Virgin pop record label before branching out into air travel, railways and a string of other ventures.

Virgin has signed an agreement worth 14 million pounds ($AU35 million) with Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which owns the technology behind SpaceShipOne, it announced.

Would-be space tourists will pay fees starting at 115,000 pounds ($AU291,000) and receive three days of flight training before embarking on the real trip.

In a near-messianic speech, Mr Branson pledged that his principal aim was to make space travel possible for ordinary people.

"Virgin Galactic will be run as a business, but as a business with a sole purpose of making space travel more and more affordable to people throughout the world," he said.

"We will re-invest the funds raised over the first few years of flight back into the business, striving constantly to lower prices."

For years, Mr Branson said, he had "dreamt of seeing the beauty of our planet from space".

He added: "Burt and I will be fortunate enough to have fulfilled our own personal dreams and to experience all of this on the inaugural flight over Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise in three years' time."

Catchy name that. "VSS Enterprise".
But of course, there's always one to nay-say:

However a space expert warned that Mr Branson's plan, while technically feasible, was riddled with potential difficulties and unlikely to usher in an immediate era of mass space travel.

"It is something that is technically possible, but space is a very expensive business, and space tourism is likely to remain an expensive business for a very long time," said Andre Balogh, professor of space physics at London University's Imperial College.

Monday's announcement was best viewed as a "statement of intent", Professor Balogh said.

"Eventually it will come. Whether it will come in Richard Branson's time, and in his way, remains to be seen," he told AFP.

He's right - but maybe he should read about the technology before he expresses doubt in such strong terms. "Five Years" is not exactly immediate, and over a quarter of a million Aussie Dollars a ticket is not exactly cheap. Just 100 times less than some people have paid. 3000 passengers is pretty conservative.

I exepect that the first commercial development will be regular sub-orbital flights for what used to be called "the jet set", trans-atlantic, trans-pacific etc. New York to Tokyo in 2 hours, most of which is going through security. Not within 5 years, but maybe 10. And with prices not a lot dearer than flying on Concorde used to be.

Meanwhile:

SpaceShipOne is scheduled to fly again this Wednesday, and then once more on October 4.

Of course in Australia we knew about Branson's plans back in March 2000...

In fact, within eight years, Branson vows, Virgin Galactic Airways will be offering short tourist flights into space.

So he's just about on track. In fact, Branson first laid out his plans in a May 1999 Webcast.

Speaking last night in a Webcast watched by hundreds of Net users, Branson told how his trendy company, Virgin, will be the first to open a hotel in space. He has already registered the name Virgin Galactic Airways and is examining ways to transport 10 people using a reusable rocket for a two-week holiday in a Virgin space hotel.

The best site for lots of details on this story is over at Hobbyspace.

The Volokh Challenge : Iraq

Orin Kerr over at the Volokh Conspiracy asks 3 cogent questions of those who were in favour of the Iraq War.

First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not?

Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above?

Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success

My Answers:

Q1: Yes, I think it was an excellent idea - in fact, I'd even say it was not just a good idea, it was neccessary. My only quibble is that it didn't happen before, but because of League of Nations UN inertia, it couldn't have been arranged much sooner.
As to why? I think this is a complete answer. There are more reasons (according to Senator Kerry's count 23 in toto, according to my count at least 54 ), but this alone is sufficient.

Q2: My initial reaction is frankly, disbelief. So much so that I have to be careful not to automatically dismiss data that may be at least partially correct. There is ample evidence - I won't go into it here - that the stringers employed by the major news agencies outside Baghdad are extremely unreliable, and that the press corps in Iraq hardly ventures more than a few kilometres from their hotel rooms. Just go read any of the Iraqi blogs. Compare the track records of the news agencies with what we know are the facts now.
But the Kroll data adduced in the Washington Post (assuming it's correct - without primary sources available on the web, I can't verify the Post is accurate) - is both far more credible, and significant bad news. 700 attacks/week now vs 450/week just before the Iraqi 'caretaker' government was installed. And everyone - myself included - expects this rate to increase to a crescendo. Whether the crescendo will be just before November 2nd or in mid-January is another matter. My bet's the latter. The attacks on schools and hospitals, and the raids on infrastructure indicates that it's no longer Ba'athists hoping for a return of Saddam, nor even Jihadis striking a blow against the Infidel Zionist Crusaders polluting Holy Arab Soil by their presence. It's Al Qaeda. They genuinely want a populace ignorant, poor, and miserable, because that way they become spiritually virtuous, and are guaranteed a place in paradise.
This incredible (as in 'difficult to swallow') statement is what they have proclaimed publicly, though it hasn't been publicised much in MSM.

"It is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy"
[...]
If established in any Muslim country for a reasonably long time, democracy could lead to economic prosperity, which, in turn, would make Muslims "reluctant to die in martyrdom" in defense of their faith.

The Future of Iraq and The Arabian Peninsula After The Fall of Baghdad, Yussuf al-Ayyeri

Like the Tet Offensive, a move of desperation. Like the Tet Offensive, likely to be a military disaster for the enemy. The question is, will it also like the Tet Offensive be a propaganda disaster for the US, leading to a change of government and a significant defeat in the War? Maybe the crescendo will be in late October after all...

Q3: Criteria for success? In order of importance:

1. Iraq having an economy as successful and a society as functional as West Germany's was in 1960, by 2018.
2. No nuclear detonation using Iraqi components by 2060
3. No biological attack using Iraqi components by 2060
4. No successful chemical weapons strike using Iraqi components by 2060
5. De-Baathification complete by 2005, including the eradication of Saddam and Sons (partially completed)
6. A functional Democracy installed no later than 2007 (we're ahead of schedule on this one)
7. No Civil War (the current situation doesn't qualify, but is worse than is acceptable)

The reason I put the cut-off date in 2060 is because no-one in 1945 could have foreseen what either Germany or Japan would look like in 2002.

Sugary Centre in Milky Way(s)

From The Scotsman comes news that may be a surprise to Space Mavens, interested in life on Mars. Still, it's something that the connoiseurs of down-market (but high quality) chocolate bars have known for some time.:

Astronomers have found a cloud of frozen sugar near the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, it was revealed today.

Frozen Milky ways are OK, but Frozen Mars Bars (especially the ones with hazelnuts in...) are far better in my opinion. Thinly sliced, as was done in the UK during WW2, when a single Mars bar would be a your entire sugar ration for a week.

I'd better clarify, since I have international readers.
A (US) Mars Bar is known in Australia and the UK as an Almond Mars Bar.
A (UK) Mars Bar is known in the USA as a Milky Way.
A (US) Three Musketeers Bar is known in Australia and the UK as a Milky Way.
(see article in World History)

But getting back to the HWH (That's Hoyle-Wickramasinghe Hypothesis)... or rather, the Scotsman article :

The discovery heightens the possibility of early building blocks of life originating in interstellar space.

Molecules of a simple sugar, glycolaldehyde, were detected in a cloud of gas and dust called Sagittarius B2 about 26,000 light years away.
[...]
Glycoaldehyde consists of two carbon atoms, two oxygen atoms and four hydrogen atoms.

This type of molecule is known as a 2-carbon sugar. Significantly, it can react with a 3-carbon sugar to produce the 5-carbon sugar ribose :- the molecule which forms the backbone of DNA.

BINGO!

The discovery adds to the growing evidence that the foundations of life can be traced to chemical reactions within interstellar clouds.

The clouds, often many light years across, provide the raw material from which new stars and planets are formed.

Radio astronomer Dr Jan Hollis, from the American space agency Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said: 'Many of the interstellar molecules discovered to date are the same kinds detected in laboratory experiments specifically designed to synthesise prebiotic molecules.

This fact suggests a universal prebiotic chemistry.'

Gravitational attraction causes lumps to form in interstellar clouds which eventually condense into stars and planets.

The process generates so much heat that any prebiotic molecules within the planetary lumps would probably be destroyed.

But the new findings show that life's building blocks could exist in the frozen wastes beyond the planet-building zone of an embryonic solar system, where comets form.

A collision with a comet or a brush with a comet's tail could then 'seed' a young planet with the material needed to kick-start life.

And finally, another word on Mars. While researching this article, I found the Visible Mars Project from The Temple ov The Lemur. Both sites worth a return visit.

Interestingly, while growing up in the UK in the 60's, I distinctly remember Mars bars of the American pattern rather than the current UK one. Those were the days when a Milky Way cost 3d - and a truly huge Mars bar with almonds in cost 7d (not 6d - I remember that oddity). But maybe it's not the bar that was huge, but that I was a little smaller than I am today, I would have been 7 at the time.

There is an excellent article on the use of Mars Bars as a stable currency in the Financial Times, and referenced in the UK Parliament along with the rallying cry, "hands off the Mars Bar".

The current Australian ones follows the UK pattern, but there are variants with Almonds and Hazelnuts in too - the latter being my favourite.

And it's looking more probable that the various plants, the sugar cane, the cocoa beans, and the animals that produced the milk in a Mars bar are all descended from life that got kick-started by the Sweet Centre at the Milky Way.

XP for Me? No Thanks

As to why - from a Technical Cyber-Security Alert of last week :

This vulnerability affects the following Microsoft Windows operating systems by default:

• Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Service Pack 1
• Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition Version 2003
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 64-Bit Edition

Other Microsoft Windows operating systems, including systems running Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, are not affected by default. However, this vulnerability may affect all versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems if an application or update installs a vulnerable version of the gdiplus.dll file onto the system.
[...]
Attackers can exploit this vulnerability by convincing a victim user to visit a malicious web site, read an HTML-rendered email message, or otherwise view a crafted JPEG image with a vulnerable application. No user intervention is required beyond viewing an attacker-supplied JPEG image.

See the image in the article below this one? Or even my picture on the left? Those are JPEG images. Although I know the one of my photo isn't malicious, I can't guarantee the same about any other image.

So how to prevent this vulnerability? Well, first install SP2 - service pack 2. But then you still have to be careful installing any new software, as that may have its own copy of gdiplus.dll. In fact, you may have dozens of vulnerable copies of this file on your system already, even after installing the service pack.

The latest data is available in the Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-028.

Of course, alternately, don't use XP.

A 1954 View of Home Computers in 2004

Alas, it indeed is too good to be true.

A SuperHero for the UN

Considering the UN's attitude to Dafur, not to mention Iraq, I present for your edification and enjoyment, the Adventures of... Action Item.

Crashproof Code

SPECTRUM, the IEEE magazine, has an interesting article on Crashproof Code. It had better be crashproof: it's the avionics software for the new model of the F/A-18 fighter.

To give you an idea of the types of things you have to do when writing 100% no-fail code, have a look at the picture on the right. See the small grey box in the bottom-right of the picture? The one about the size of a briefcase? That's the segment of the system that's being tested. All the rest is part of a Test Bed, purely and simply for verifying that the thing works as advertised. This graphically illustrates the effort required in testing such systems. What you can't see is all of the code that's been written as part of the Test Bed. It's not unusual to have 1 line of code requiring 2-5 lines of unit testing code, then another 2 lines of configuration item testing code, and another 2 lines of system testing code on an emulator (when the hardware isn't available), and another few lines of system testing code for the live system (real hardware) module test - which is what's shown on the picture - and another line or so for the live system integration test, with everything put together and running on the real aircraft. Fortunately, a lot of this code can be re-used, and in the line count above, I'm only counting new lines, not re-used ones. Test beds can easily be 10 or more times the size of the system being tested.

In spacecraft, which have very expensive and 'clean-room-only' flight hardware, there may even be an intermediate step - with a 'flight model' which will actually go into space, and a 'groud model' which is identical, but doesn't require clean-room conditions and can be worked with more conveniently.

Of course once everything's working on the ground model, you then load it onto the flight model and put it through a thermal-vacuum torture chamber, which mimics conditions in LEO (except for the radiation). Sorry, I'll provide subtitles - LEO is Low Earth Orbit.

From the SPECTRUM article:

The flight software has to keep track of the plane's speed, altitude, and attitude while monitoring the pilot's controls for commands. Based on a set of rules known as control laws, the software must then translate any commands from the pilot into movements of the aircraft's various control surfaces, such as the rudders or, most significantly, the flaps that flex the AAWs. And this all has to happen fast enough that the plane responds instantly to the pilot and reliably enough that he can bet his life it will work all the time, every time.

Despite its complex and critical job, the flight software is compact, consisting of only about 13 000 lines of source code written in the Ada language. When compiled, the code fits into approximately 160 kilobytes. Compare this with the millions of lines of code that compile into tens of megabytes for a modern Web browser or word processor.

It's not that the software's task is easier than a word processor's : far from it, the task is much harder and more complex. It's only the solution that's simpler (though most emphatically not easier!).

That's why people like myself get a bit steamed up about the quality, or lack thereof, in most commercial software. It's bloated, it's buggy, it's innefficient, and it actually takes longer to develop that way due to its bugginess. Make a change and something will break - which may be due to the change you've made having a problem, or it may be a long-standing problem never revealed before. Fix that, and you've made another change, which can lead to more problems.... all programmers are familiar with this phenomenon.

Getting back to the article:

Flight software is fundamentally different from the type of software most of us encounter on the desktop, or even the software that runs such enterprise-class applications as banking databases, and not just in size. For one thing, flight software must operate in real time. We're all used to the spinning hourglasses and watches that appear regularly on our computer screens; they're telling us that the print preview or new spreadsheet we just asked for is on its way but that the computer doesn't know quite when (if ever) it will appear.

The problem goes beyond the vagaries of office software. It is fundamental to many of the operating systems used in general-purpose computers—they have no way to guarantee how long a given task will take. Of course, most of the time this unreliability isn't a problem. If your media player has to drop a few frames of a movie because the video couldn't be processed fast enough, or if it takes 150 milliseconds to select an e-mail when it normally takes 10, you're not going to notice. The worst-case scenario, when the computer completely hangs, is usually just a blip in the workday and cured by a quick reboot.

We don't have that luxury. We have to guarantee that when the flight computer starts calculating how far an elevator should move in response to a command by the pilot, the job will be finished quickly enough so that the computer has enough time to calculate where all the other control surfaces should be and still appear to be responding instantly to the pilot's wishes. This is mission-critical, real-time operation.

And in Space, no-one can press CTRL-ALT-DEL. That's one of the reasons why I am less than enthused with the push towards using COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) operating systems for real-time work.

We didn't attempt to test the flight software all in one piece. In that situation, when problems arise, trying to pinpoint the error in the software is almost impossible. Instead, with testing already in mind, we created the flight software as a collection of about 450 independent modules. Each module was responsible for performing one or more simple functions, such as checking the position of the pilot's control stick or computing what position an elevator should be in.

"Design for Testability". When doing the basic architecture, two things have to be kept in mind: it must be testable, and it must be buildable. The latter means that you have to tailor your technical solution towards the resources you've got.

If you have 7 teams, try to have exactly 7 "configuration items" (CIs), corresponding to the output of each team. 7 is a minimum : if you have less, you're covering up buildability issues and inter-team communication problems that should be exposed. Putting a bandage on a gangrenous wound. Of course, why did you have 7 teams in the first place? That in itself is worthy of its own article, it's a complex issue determined at least as much by what human resources you have as what the technical problems are. If all you have is a hammer, try to make the problem look like a nail.

So from the top-down, the high level CIs are based on management and buildability issues (and also if theres any areas of special technical risk, but I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible).

From the bottom up, your "Units" should be based on testability: break up the system into components where each component or unit is the smallest possible segment that it makes sense to test independantly. Usually a "chunk" of the system will do more than one thing. Even with the system above, something as simple as "checking the position of the pilot's control stick" will have functions for determining whether the result makes sense (or is the consequence of a failure of some sort), possible smoothing of minute deviations, reporting position of the control stick, rate-of-change and rate-of-change-of-rate-of-change (ie 2nd and 3rd derivatives wrt time), a "heartbeat" that just indicates to a master controller that the module/unit is still working and doesn't need re-setting, and probably a diagnostics test. Now all of these things could be in their own separate units: but if so, the number of units would explode - and so would the costs, and the amount of inter-unit communication, and the difficulty of making it work. So you compromise. That's why I used the phrase "that it makes sense" to test independantly.

This stuff is hard. But the reward you get when the bloody thing works.. that's priceless.

The Internet Message Board Wandering Monster Table

Today's interesting URL

If you're a veteran of any Internet message boards, bulletin boards, mailing lists, or Usenet, you've almost certainly run across a common wandering monster that frequents the Net: the troll. (You've almost certainly heard non-trolls being referred to as trolls as well -- such is the nature of the Internet.)

Trolls are people who go to a message board (or similar discussion area) and start a new thread of messages with a post designed only to be inflammatory. An obvious troll might, for example, go to a message board about fishing and post "Fishing Sucks!"

This has had me thinking for a while now: If there are trolls out there, what other monsters lurk in the caverns of the Internet, waiting to strike? As a public service, I've created a wandering monster encounter table for the Internet (to be honest, specifically for message boards).....

Hilarious, but also 100% true. And it certainly applies to people who comment on Blogs...

There Must Be 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover

Actually, make that 51.

Hat Tip : AMCGLTD.com

Chasing The DreamTM

From SpaceDev :

POWAY, CA (September 20, 2004) : SpaceDev (OTCBB: SPDV) has begun designing a reuseable, piloted, sub-orbital space ship that could be scaled up to safely and economically transport passengers to and from low earth orbit, including the International Space Station. The name of the vehicle is the "SpaceDev Dream Chaser"^TM.

SpaceDev's founding chairman and CEO, Jim Benson, recently signed a Space Act Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with NASA Ames Research Center director, Dr. Scott Hubbard. This non-binding MOU confirms the intention of the two parties to explore novel, hybrid propulsion based hypersonic test beds for routine human space access. The parties will explore collaborative partnerships to investigate the potential of using SpaceDev's proven hybrid propulsion and other technologies, and a low cost, private space program development approach, to establish and design new piloted small launch vehicles and flight test platforms to enable near-term, low-cost routine space access for NASA and the United States. One possibility for collaboration is the SpaceDev Dream Chaser^TM project, which is currently being discussed with NASA Ames.

Unlike the more complex SpaceShipOne, for which SpaceDev provides critical proprietary hybrid rocket motor propulsion technologies, the SpaceDev Dream Chaser^TM would be crewed and take-off vertically, like most launch vehicles, and will glide back for a normal horizontal runway landing.

"This project is one small step for SpaceDev, but could evolve into one giant leap for affordable, commercial human space flight," said Jim Benson. "I have been waiting for almost fifty years for commercial space flight, and have concluded that SpaceDev, through our unbroken string of successful space technology developments, now has the technical capability and know-how, along with our partners, and when fully funded, to quickly develop a safe and affordable human space flight program, beginning with sub-orbital flights in the near future, and building up to reliable orbital public space transportation hopefully by the end of this decade."
[...]
The sub-orbital SpaceDev Dream Chaser^TM is derived from an existing X-Plane concept and will have an altitude goal of approximately 160 km (about 100 miles) and will be powered by a single, high performance hybrid rocket motor, under parallel development by SpaceDev for the SpaceDev Streaker^TM, a family of small, expendable launch vehicles, designed to affordably deliver small satellites to low earth orbit. The SpaceDev Dream Chaser^TM will use motor technology being developed for the SpaceDev Streaker booster stage, the most powerful motor in the Streaker family. The SpaceDev Dream Chaser motor will produce approximately 100,000 pounds of thrust, about six times the thrust of the SpaceShipOne motor, but less than one-half the thrust of the 250,000 pounds of thrust produced by hybrid rocket motors developed several years ago by the American Rocket Company (AMROC).

SpaceDev's non-explosive hybrid rocket motors use synthetic rubber as the fuel, and nitrous oxide for the oxidizer to make the rubber burn. Traditional rocket motors use two liquids, or a solid propellant that combines the fuel and oxidizer, but both types of rocket motors are explosive, and all solid motors produce copious quantities of toxic exhaust. SpaceDev's hybrid rocket motors are non-toxic and do not detonate like solid or liquid rocket motors.

Better Late than Never

From the ABC :

In a blow to its credibility, CBS News said it had been deliberately misled over the authenticity of documents it aired in a story challenging US President George W Bush's military service.

"Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in a report," CBS News said in a statement.

"We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret," the network said, adding that it had launched an internal investigation into the matter.

The announcement marked a dramatic and embarrassing reversal by the network that just five days ago said it was satisfied with the accuracy of the documents first aired earlier this month in a 60 Minutes II segment.

Of course readers of this blog knew about this over ten days ago.

Volokh on Moral Relativism

A Must Read.

No Comment

In the 19th century, the Lunatic Asylum at Bedlam was a tourist attraction. Now I've never been able to imagine how someone could possibly be entertained this way.

On another topic completely, and entirely unrelated, I commend to your attention an interesting thread at Democratic Underground.

It starts thus :

At this stage it wouldn't be wise to come down too hard on the Bush supporters in that if they go to the booth on November 2 and vote for Bush out of SPITE or out of ANGER against what we the Kerry supporters might say to them, then we have lost.

Back off, give Bush supporters enough room to quietly back down from thier support of Bush. Allow them to not be angry (because of what we as individuals might say to them), allow them to maybe just maybe back away from Bush gracefully and quietly and don't PUSH them to vote for Bush out of anger or spite.

Maybe just maybe we will get more support when the debates commence.

The comments on this are instructive.

Membership of this site is only open to Liberals and Progressives. Democrats. Anti-Republicans. Now I'm a supporter of the Australian Liberal Party, and firmly believe in both Progress and Democracy. For that matter, I'm anti-Republican since I'm a Constitutional Monarchist. But that's not what they mean. Still, as in general (like most Australians) I'm more in favour of a Mixed-Economy US Democratic platform than an Unfettered Capitalist Republican one, I thought I'd give myself the benefit of the doubt and join.

I wonder how long it will be before I'm thrown off? Hopefully never, as I won't be commenting on anything political, except to say 'No comment to avoid giving offence'. I'll help out whenever I can - for example, giving data about emigrating to New Zealand to someone who's leaving AmeriKKKa before Bush's Stormtroopers arrive. The question is, will my mere existence be anathema? I suspect so, even though I fully intend to scrupulously follow their terms of service. But Dissent is not tolerated there - or rather, it's compulsory, and anyone not in complete agreement is immediately suppressed, banned and banished. There's still a broad and enlightening spectrum of views though.

In order to be helpful then, I'm publicising these brave souls' courageous stand against the Dark Forces that would Repress them. Their Voices SHALL be heard! And the more publicity is given to them, the better, say I.

Hat Tip to AllahPundit for the thread about the Exodite

Geekology

Where are you in the Geek Hierarchy?

I'm in the categories of SCA Folk, Heinlein Fans, Roleplaying Gamers, Trekies...

Buried Treasure

Yo Ho Ho, and a Bottle of Rum! Tis Cultural Treasure that I do be talkin about, matey, there for a-takin on the Net. There be a Treasure Map the likes of which ye ain't seen before, I be bound. Arr.

And a tip of me old Bicorne lid to that fine buckler of Marxist swashes, Normblog.

Avast There, Me Hearties!

And me Kidneys, and me Spleenies...

For Today be International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arr.

Shiver Me Timbers and Blister Me Barnacles, while traversin' the Radio Ocean Waves a-lookin fer Plunder, what do I see but the Old Flagship of Pirate Radio, Radio Caroline. Arr.

So today's interestin Link is the History of Pirate Radio. And to be sure, Jim Lad, as fine a tale of Swashbuckling, Murder and Mayhem is seldom encountered. Buckets of Blood. Arr.

Grumbling about unauthorised use of radio frequencies and the vague potential for cross channel interference cut no ice with the offshore radio listeners who perceived the government and the BBC to be grumpy killjoys. Legislating against the pirates was a vote loser and for some time there was a stand off where the authorities made dire threats but did nothing. As famous Radio London DJ Dave Cash recalled many years later ' they could not act against us for the reasons stated. They needed something heavy like drugs or murder, we gave them murder'.

One fort based station was started by the singer and self publicist David ( Screaming Lord) Sutch, a flamboyant rock star. Since offshore radio was news worthy, he founded Radio Sutch but when this had been milked for all possible publicity he sold the operation to his manager Reg Calvert who operated it as Radio City. The sea forts were a no mans land and control of them depended on who commanded the most muscle. After a business dispute another offshore entrepreneur Major Oliver Smedley hijacked Calverts fort.

In a fit of fury Calvert who was known to be a violent and irrational person burst into Smedleys home and hurled a heavy stone ornament at him. He also claimed to be armed with a tear gas pistol. Smedley took up his shot gun and killed Calvert. The image of the offshore stations as jolly buccaneers using spare radio channels to provide popular free entertainment was irrevocably shattered. Now the government could portray them as battling, murdering gangsters and, now that the Labour Government were secure in power for five full years, losing votes was not any longer an issue. It was proposed to silence the pirates using The Marine etc. Broadcasting Offences Act, which would deprive the stations of staff, supplies and most importantly of revenue.

Of the stations being planned no more was heard. Those on air began strident campaigning against the proposed law. Having previously embraced the term 'pirate radio' they now wished to be known as free radio stations. Most outspoken on the subject of freedom of the individual against the system was Radio Caroline.

But they be the 60's, and you had to be there. Arr.

The Dreaded Pirate Screaming Lord Such (Terror O' The Seven Seas)'s Monster Raving Loony Party do now be led by the ship's cat. But he still be vyin' fer election as a Zombie with the Guilty Party, if the BBC is to be believed.