Space Property Law

Who owns space? No one right now, because of the Outer Space Treaty Of 1967. It bans nuclear weapons from space as well as denying national claims to space property. At the time, it was mostly academic and designed to make sure no one could claim space, but we are moving into an era of independent entrepreneurial space travel. How are we going to adjudicate claims? [Link]

Better, some suggest, to rely on individual avarice to spur exploration, by allowing private explorers to stake a claim, like celestial Sooners, to the lands they reach. Giving extraterrestrial property rights could be a powerful force, not only for exploration, but for the efficient development of the discovered and undiscovered resources of space. Celestial bodies such as the moon and the thousands of near-Earth asteroids may prove to be highly lucrative pieces of property - as sources of minerals and clean energy, venues for scientific experimentation and high-end tourism, or simply as open space for refugees from an increasingly crowded planet.

"Property rights will provide the only economic incentive that will possibly justify entrepreneurial space exploration," says Alan Wasser, chairman of the Space Settlement Institute and the former CEO of the National Space Society. The exploration and settlement of space "benefits all mankind, but all mankind doesn't want to put up the money."

Libeartarian

What declaring the Polar Bear an endangered species could do for Libertarians. [Link]

Normally libertarians are not a litigious bunch, but if they are willing to adopt some new tactics, Section 7 of the ESA could provide them the tool they need to end federal government interference in the economy forever. See the polar bear will be the first animal ever listed as endangered on a global warming theory. Normally, species are listed due to harms to their habitat from local factors like logging, farming, or hospital building. So when the Army wants to build a firing range to train troops to protect our country, environmentalists can sue to stop the activity since it will harm local endangered bird populations.

But global warming is just that: global. Virtually every federal government action anywhere in the country can be connected to increased greenhouse gas emissions, which after all, are the cause of the destruction of the polar bear’s habitat according to the Interior Department.

Speed Racer

I just saw it this afternoon. I thought it was great. It was a live action cartoon. The colors were so super saturated, I felt like I was getting a sugar rush from watching the screen and everything was in focus. The story was good, with enough twists and turns to keep me interested and the performances were good as well.
Plus, John Goodman beats up on a Ninja, or as he puts it "More like a Non-ja." along with a disparaging comment about how they don't make ninjas like they used to.
For a theater filled with children it was dead silent. There were no bored children (or adults) there. I don't understand why it isn't doing as well at the theater. This would seem like a perfect family film, parents as well as kids can enjoy it.
I will be buying this on DVD when it comes out.
Run, don't walk to see this before it leaves theaters.

Casting Call of Cthulhu

Funny film. [Link]

New Computer

I've been building a new computer. It's been a while since I did this and I forgot how much I like tinkering around with this stuff. I had an old case from my really old P3 750 machine, but I got all new parts.

• Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe
• Processor: AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core 2.21GHz
• Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 500GB SATA
• Memory: 4GB Crucial DDR2 memory
• Video card: XFX GeForce 8600 GT 512MB
• Monitor: Soyo 22in widescreen LCD
• DVD Writer: LITEON 20x writer with Light Scribe
• Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech S510 cordless keyboard and mouse

I ended up making 5 trips in all.

1. Initial trip
2. CPU fan. The sales guy gave me the wrong fan on the first trip
3. I forgot to buy memory
4. The power supply was too old and did not match the motherboard.
5. New keyboard. The really cheap keyboard I had laying around was not quite worth what I had paid for it.

I initially tried installing Vista 64, but I got a bluescreen on the first reboot of the install and tried Vista 32 instead. I got a free version of Vista from Microsoft for taking part in a software usage program they started last year. So far, I'm pretty happy with the setup. My only problem appears to be with the NVidia networking chipset. The motherboard has two ethernet ports and it seems to get confused on some reboots. Switching which port the cable is plugged in fixes it. Disabling one of the network interfaces doesn't seem to stop this from happening. This is still an issue in progress.

Alternative to Gastric Bypass

Interesting. [Link]

A doctor implants this gizmo from EnteroMedics just under the skin, and hooks up its two electrodes that can electrically block the nerve that makes you hungry. The result? A slimmer you. This could be a sane alternative to the barbaric and permanent gastric bypass surgery.

That sweet spot is the vagus nerve, a 4mm-wide pipe that connects directly to your brain, with no spinal cord involved. The vagus is the traffic cop for food. It controls the characteristics of hunger, such as those gnawing hunger pangs, and also the expansion of the stomach and the satisfying feeling of fullness. So if the stomach doesn’t expand while you’re eating, you start feeling full after taking a just a few bites.

Great for an initial loss of weight, but if you don't change your eating habits permanently it will be for naught. Although, if it is permanent, then it might work long term.

More than you ever wanted to know about DC's Crisis'

I had not realized how many of these company wide events there were. [Part 1] [Part 2]

Time is a funny thing. I can recognize that Crisis On Infinite Earths happened in 1985 and know that it was twenty-three years ago. However, it wasn’t until I jotted down some thoughts on each of DC’s line-wide crossover events, and realized that Final Crisis would be Event No. 20* (!!) that it started to sink in. I’ve lived through the main parts of every one of these things, with varying degrees of reward — and where has it gotten me?

Well, at least a couple of posts. Here’s Part 1 of my pocket guide to those post-Crisis crossover events, done up bullet-point style for your reading convenience.

* * *

1. Legends (1986, 6 monthly issues, 22 tie-in issues)

Why? DC had just reorganized its spice rack; time to start cookin’!

How? Darkseid sends Glorious Godfrey to Earth to make the superheroes look bad. When that doesn’t work, it’s time to release the robot hounds.

So? After he realizes the public’s against him, Cap surren– sorry. At the end of Legends, a parade of adorable children, led by a pre-gritty Jason Todd, tries to convince an angry mob that the superheroes are A-OK. When Godfrey slaps one of the kids, his hold over the crowd is broken. The miniseries was therefore a little too earnest for its own good. (Godfrey does accidentally lobotomize himself with the Helmet of Fate, but still.)

After? A better marketing tool than a story, Legends launched such successes as Justice League International, John Ostrander’s Suicide Squad, and the current Flash series.

2. Millennium (1987, 8 weekly issues, 37 tie-in issues)

Why? To bring part of his ’70s Justice League run into Steve Englehart’s master plan for Green Lantern.

How? A Guardian of the Universe and a Zamaron want to protect the next step in cosmic evolution from the Manhunters. However, a Manhunter sleeper-agent may be Someone You Know!!

So? The Manhunter-exposing didn’t go too much further than this event. A mind-controlled Lana Lang was the highest-profile Manhunter agent, and it didn’t stop her from becoming First Lady of the U.S. Wally West’s dad was more unrepentant about his Manhunter work, but that just seemed to confirm what a manipulative bastard he’d turned out to be. Also, although Joe Staton was well-suited for Green Lantern, his work was a little too quirky for the “stylebook sensibility” a big event seems to require.

After? The New Guardians got their own short-lived series (12 issues) and the Old Guardians went back to Cosmic Stud Farm (the all-male Guardians were the Zamarons’ once-estranged mates) for a few more years. As for the next next step in cosmic evolution, I suspect only Geoff Johns knows for sure.

And 18 more.

Old School CGI Cylons

From a guy who works on the show's effects. [Link]

It’s no secret that I’m the biggest fan of the original Battlestar currently working on the new incarnation; you could almost say I’m the “ambassador” of the 1979 version, always looking for opportunities to include classic Galactica material on the current series. It was maybe two years ago that I was talking to [writer/producer] David Weddle and hypothesized, “you know, if we ever did a flashback to the first Cylon war (maybe something that showed us what Adama was like as a young pilot), it would showcase the original hardware! Remember the miniseries museum scene?” He thought about it for a second and said, “yeah, I suppose you’re right.”

Of course, a flashback like that would be a wet dream for any fan of the original series, but would it ever happen?

Eighteen months later, Mr. Weddle came up to me in commissary and said, “Mojo, you’re going to get your wish.”

I loved seeing the old ships in Razor.

25,000 Polar Bears are Threatened

The Polar Bear is now a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. [Link]

The Endangered Species Act operates in a very unaccountable fashion, and if the polar bear is listed as a "threatened" species, every federal action --the grant of a permit, the award of a grant-- that leads even indirectly to the emission of greenhouse gases will come under at least the theoretical review of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service pursuant to Section 7 of the ESA. MSM continues to report the controversy as though its impact will be limited to the arctic region, when in fact it is as likely to delay or destroy economic activity in any part of the lower 48 as it is in Alaska.

The immediate response of impacted industries and consumers should be a series of test cases to force the delineation of the reach of the Act's application to the polar bear and the gases allegedly causing the destruction of its ice habitat, test cases brought in jurisdictions most reasonable on such matters. Allowing the ESA to slowly ensnare industries previously unregulated by its commands via suits in jurisdictions cheryy-picked by environmental activists would be the worst possible result.

But is it really threatened? [Link]

The polar bear is classified as a vulnerable species. Of the 19 recognized polar bear subpopulations, 5 are declining, 5 are stable, 2 are increasing, and 7 have insufficient data.^[3][4] For decades, unrestricted hunting raised international concern for the future of the species; populations have rebounded after controls and quotas began to take effect. For thousands of years, the polar bear has been a key figure in the material, spiritual, and cultural life of Arctic indigenous peoples, and the hunting of polar bears remains important in their cultures.

The $4 problem and the $99.99 problem

Many old gas pumps can't record gas prices higher than $3.99 a gallon or a total greater than $99.99. [Link]

Mom-and-pop service stations are running into a problem as gasoline marches toward $4 a gallon: Thousands of old-fashioned pumps can’t register more than $3.99 on their spinning mechanical dials.

The pumps, throwbacks to a bygone era on the American road, are difficult and expensive to upgrade, and replacing them is often out of the question for station owners who are still just scraping by.

Many of the same pumps can only count up to $99.99 for the total sale, preventing owners of some SUVs, vans, trucks and tractor-trailers to fill their tanks all the way.

As many as 8,500 of the nation’s 170,000 service stations have old-style meters that need to be fixed — about 17,000 individual pumps, said Bob Renkes, executive vice president of the Petroleum Equipment Institute of Tulsa, Okla.

It's Y2K for gas.

Low Expectations

How is passing failing students helpful? [Link]

it is clear that he was denied tenure for one reason: failing too many students. The university documents portray Aird as unwilling to compromise to pass more students.

A subtext of the discussion is that Norfolk State is a historically black university with a mission that includes educating many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The university suggests that Aird — who is white — has failed to embrace the mission of educating those who aren’t well prepared. But Aird — who had backing from his department and has some very loyal students as well — maintains that the university is hurting the very students it says it wants to help. Aird believes most of his students could succeed, but have no incentive to work as hard as they need to when the administration makes clear they can pass regardless.

“Show me how lowering the bar has ever helped anyone,” Aird said in an interview. Continuing the metaphor, he said that officials at Norfolk State have the attitude of “a track coach who tells the team ‘I really want to win this season but I really like you guys, so you can decide whether to come to practice and when.’ ” Such a team wouldn’t win, Aird said, and a university based on such a principle would not be helping its students.

Sharon R. Hoggard, a spokeswoman for Norfolk State, said that she could not comment at all on Aird’s case. But she did say this, generally, on the issues raised by Aird: “Something is wrong when you cannot impart your knowledge onto students. We are a university of opportunity, so we take students who are underprepared, but we have a history of whipping them into shape. That’s our niche.”

The question raised by Aird and his defenders is whether Norfolk State is succeeding and whether policies about who passes and who fails have an impact. According to U.S. Education Department data, only 12 percent of Norfolk State students graduate in four years, and only 30 percent graduate in six years.

Aird points to a Catch-22 that he said hinders professors’ ability to help students. Because so many students come from disadvantaged backgrounds and never received a good high school education, they are already behind, he said, and attendance is essential. Norfolk State would appear to endorse this point of view, and official university policy states that a student who doesn’t attend at least 80 percent of class sessions may be failed.

The problem, Aird said, is that very few Norfolk State students meet even that standard. In the classes for which he was criticized by the dean for his grading — classes in which he awarded D’s or F’s to about 90 percent of students — Aird has attendance records indicating that the average student attended class only 66 percent of the time. Based on such a figure, he said, “the expected mean grade would have been an F,” and yet he was denied tenure for giving such grades.

Other professors at Norfolk State, generally requesting anonymity, confirmed that following the 80 percent attendance rule would result frequently in failing a substantial share — in many cases a majority — of their students. Professors said attendance rates are considerably lower than at many institutions — although most institutions serve students with better preparation.

One reason that this does not happen (outside Aird’s classes) is that many professors at Norfolk State say that there is a clear expectation from administrators — in particular from Dean Sandra J. DeLoatch, the dean whose recommendation turned the tide against Aird’s tenure bid — that 70 percent of students should pass.

The school is lying to those students. They think they have a college degree, but they just have a piece of paper that will not provide them the skills needed to succeed.

Presidential Candidates in Gamer Terms

From Dork Tower

The Vatican and Extraterrestrials

Belief in aliens is no conflict with belief in God. [Link]

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation."

In the interview by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom, he said.

The interview, headlined "The extraterrestrial is my brother," covered a variety of topics including the relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science, and the theological implications of the existence of alien life.