Crying Wolf

imminent end of life

Reminds me of the little boy that cried wolf. The thing is, the wolf eventually came!

I'm pretty sure most predictions of a dire future are wrong. I'm equally sure we are going to discover things are going to get very bad, very quick some time in the future. It will come as a surprise and everybody will tell us how they warned us about it.

Only in the last century and for the first time in human existence have we had the ability to wipe ourselves out. We might come close.

Asking to die

...the Iranian nation will remain committed to the full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel...

Shouldn't that be to a lunatic asylum?

I mean, if Israel ever took them at their word, wouldn't that require Israel to attack them first?

Almost like Obama saying, "don't call my bluff."

Lack of responsibility?

That's really not a question in this case. I'm sorry he's black because this isn't a race issue.

This is a society issue where it would be much less likely to have happened without government programs that take responsibility out of peoples hands.

It's hard to imagine this happening if we hadn't gotten rid of the shame of out of wedlock children. It's not the children that should be shamed but the parents. Both of them.

Optimum success strategy

Today's SpaceX Abort got me thinking about the importance of failure on success.

Jesus told us that adults should become like children (in some respects rather than others.)

What do we lose or gain as we become adults? We do learn fear of failure which is both a good and bad thing. It's a good thing because it holds us back from being too rash. But it's a bad thing if it leads to too great a cost.

This was a successful abort because it saved the vehicle and lead to the discovery of a problem that needed correction (a valve on engine five needs replacing before they launch next Tuesday.)

What if SpaceX decided a bad valve must never happen again so they implement extremely costly quality controls? They already have excellent quality controls and systems in place to catch problems before they explode [literally] into bigger problems.

A danger always exist that caution becomes so great it causes stagnation. It's a balance. Take away too much risk (not all risk mitigation actually is) and you take away reward.

Sometimes it's best not to know what you can't do.

A real head turner

Imagine this driving past you.

Abuse of power

Protect and serve?

Update: This story of a 70 y.o. man in china defending his property is amazing.

Two more days

COTS2 press kit pdf.

More via Rand.

0940 GMT (5:40 a.m. EDT)

The target launch time for Tuesday is 3:44:34 a.m. EDT (0744:34 GMT).

0926 GMT (5:26 a.m. EDT)

The rocket is being drained of propellant as the launch team backs out of this morning's countdown following an abort moments before liftoff at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT).

0915 GMT (5:15 a.m. EDT)

NASA plans a post-scrub news conference at 6:30 a.m. EDT (1030 GMT). We'll carry it live.

0905 GMT (5:05 a.m. EDT)

The strongback has been returned to a position next to the Falcon 9.

0901 GMT (5:01 a.m. EDT)

SpaceX reports the problem triggering the abort was a high chamber pressure reading on Engine No. 5 of the first stage. Aborts are common in Falcon 9 countdowns when computers recognize a limit out of a predefined range. Sometimes the fix is as simple as adjusting the acceptable range in the computer, but with a one-second launch window this morning, there will no opportunity to resolve the issue today.

0858 GMT (4:58 a.m. EDT)

The launch team is safing the rocket and Dragon spacecraft after this morning's abort. The next launch opportunity is Tuesday morning at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT), assuming whatever issue caused the abort is resolved in time.

0856 GMT (4:56 a.m. EDT)

It's not clear what caused the abort just before liftoff, but this will mean Falcon 9 will not launch today. The rocket had a near-instantaneous launch window in which it could fly today.

0855 GMT (4:55 a.m. EDT)

ABORT. The ignition sequence started, but there was a countdown cutoff before launch.