Month: May 2004

Closing in on the Edge of Space. On May 13th, Mike Melville piloted Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 40 miles. At 50 miles a USAF pilot would be granted their Astronaut Wings. The Federation Aeronautique International (FAI) defines the boundary of space as 100 kilometers, just over 62 miles. Here is the Scaled Composites flight report: Objectives: The third powered flight of SpaceShipOne. 55 seconds motor burn time. Handling qualities during boost and performance verification. Reaction control system use for… [Samizdata.net]

This is great news! I particularly like the part where the computer crashed, and the pilot just flew without it until it rebooted. Try that with one of NASA’s white elephants!

Posted on smith2004:
bq.
“I am responsible for what I do and for what I contract with other
people to do. Period. I have no control whatsoever over what my
government does, hence I am not responsible for it. It’s this kind of
statist mentality, equating people to the government that claims
control over the geographical area in which they live, that is
responsible for the mass murder that we call war. If somebody attacks
you, your family, or your friends, you have the right to defend
yourself and them. Attacking the attackers’ families or other people
who happen to live in the same country that they do is
murder. Period. Bombing cities, thereby killing innocents, is a crime
against humanity. There is no justification for it. Ever.” — Bill
St. Clair
[End the War on Freedom]

Meanwhile, Back in the USA…. From Saturday’s New York Times:

bq. Physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, similar to what has been uncovered in Iraq, takes place in American prisons with little public knowledge or concern, according to corrections officials, inmates and human rights advocates.

I know, I know: You’ve been hearing this since the Abu Ghraib scandal broke. But the Times story moves past the broad comparisons and into the nauseating details. [Hit & Run]

Actually I haven’t been hearing about this, although I’ve certainly thought about it myself. The Times story isn’t accessible without registration, unfortunately.

Chain of Command [The New Yorker]

More news from the “liberation” of Iraq. There were a couple of things that I found especially interesting:

bq. A few days after his arrest, according to a federal-court affidavit filed by his attorney, James Brosnahan, a group of armed American soldiers “blindfolded Mr. Lindh, and took several pictures of Mr. Lindh and themselves with Mr. Lindh. In one, the soldiers scrawled ‘shithead’ across Mr. Lindh’s blindfold and posed with him. . . . Another told Mr. Lindh that he was ‘going to hang’ for his actions and that after he was dead, the soldiers would sell the photographs and give the money to a Christian organization.” Some of the photographs later made their way to the American media.

Funny how the American media never actually showed anyone those pictures. Perhaps they were all afraid the FCC would shut them down for showing “obscene material.”

bq. Ryder may have protected himself, but Taguba did not. “He’s not regarded as a hero in some circles in the Pentagon,” a retired Army major general said of Taguba. “He’s the guy who blew the whistle, and the Army will pay the price for his integrity. The leadership does not like to have people make bad news public.”

Ironically, Taguba is the only person in this whole mess whose behavior might preserve some scrap of the Army’s reputation. Everyone else involved, at every level, should be sentenced to death (if they participated) or life imprisonment (if they simply stood by and did nothing).

Here’s a screenshot from “Second Life”. This is an amphitheater near the place where new players enter the world; a question and answer session is in progress. That’s me in the fedora and Team Banzai jacket.

I discovered a great “Second Life” feature: instant messages sent to you in the game are forwarded to your real world email address. This is such a good feature, every online game should have it.

Mo’ Better Blogging With Newton. Moblogs are the latest in cutting-edge personal publishing. To partake, users tend to require a pricey smartphone or fancy handheld, but several are using ancient technology — Apple’s orphaned Newton. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]

A brief overview of weblog posting from a Newton. I do that myself sometimes.

Pink Eyes. New at Reason: Glenn Garvin excoriates communism’s deathless defenders. [Hit & Run]

To no avail, I fear.

I’ve just discovered an interesting new game (of sorts) called Second Life. It’s almost, but not quite, a multiplayer online RPG. Unlike games such as Clan Lord and Star Wars Galaxies, you don’t have a predefined game world where you play an adventurer. Rather, the entire world is created by its participants, who can choose any sort of avatar they like (last night I saw a giant walking milkshake). For those who have read Snow Crash, it’s basically the Metaverse, but without the full sensory immersion (obviously) and with more interesting terrain.

Kofi Annan — ignoble object of unearned worship. Kofi Annan has perfected the Holy Man style of public performance. He speaks very quietly, in that exquisitely enunciated African accent, and people just take if for granted that he is a Good Man and a Good Thing. But Per Ahlmark (linked to by Instapundit) shows him to be a less than perfect human being. He describes the inaction and treachery of the UN, as lead by Annan, in first promising, and then failing, to… [Samizdata.net]

Here’s an unintentionally ironic post from a bunch of Crusaders attacking a realtively harmless person for being the “ignoble object of unearned worship” (a characterization I agree with). Their making the vastly more dangerous George Bush the ignoble object of their own unearned worship goes unremarked on.