| Thursday,
July 8, 2004 I
open with an item that leaves me in cold fury. This is America?
Subject: If this goes on...
http://www.brownequalsterrorist.com/artiststatement/
This is worth a read, the experience of a
photography student being harassed by "homeland security agents" ("you
see this badge...This is a federal badge. We re not with the rest of them.
We re federal agents from Homeland Security ) for taking pictures in a
public park.
Mark
Anarcho-Tyranny. Is there no real crime in Seattle?
But it's hard arresting real criminals. Don't we all feel safer now? As
observed, if the guy really wanted pictures for nefarious purposes they'd
never know it. But these Gestapo types and Federal Special Agent McNamara
can go home to their wives and families feeling good about protecting an
America they just threw in the trash can.
God save us all from. For this the heroes bled? Is
there nothing left?
And maybe a little good news:
Subject: The space elevator moves one step closer.
Dr Pournelle,
The space elevator moves one step closer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3872931.stm
A joint team from MIT and Cambridge University have
developed a way to directly spin carbon nanotubes into fibre.
I used to think a space elevator was something for the
far distant future, but now I’m not so sure.
Jim Mangles
Maybe it really will happen. I am old enough to
think it still sounds like science fiction, but then I have on my desk a
better computer than the olf SF writers ever thought possible...
====
Subject: ZDNN article on botnets.
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5260154.html
-- Roland Dobbins
What will they think of next?
I really get interesting
mail
Subject: Supra New York (140,000' balloon stations)
In View, two weeks ago,
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view315.html#Wednesday you said
<snip> "I would like to put a spaceyard at 100,000 feet or so into my
story." <snip>
http://www.isr.us/Downloads/niac_pdf/chapter10.html#lightning
shows a 'lightning-free zone' off Ecuador near the Galapagos. Lightning is
mostly below 20,000', anyway, but I cannot predict what seemingly useless
factoid will be grist for your mill.
Fortunately, Supra-Galapagos (or whatever you name it)
would be immune to atomic oxygen etching
http://www.isr.us/Downloads/niac_pdf/chapter10.html#oxygen
Darn. Since the primary method to protect against
atomic oxygen etching is coatings (i.e., paint), I had this vision of two
wappies in Jobst-stocking P-suits kvetching about painting all day long,
just like swabbies normally do.
John Bartley
==========
On various matters including the surplus of men in
China:
http://www.parapundit.com/archives/002217.html#002217
Polygamy, Sex Ratios Prevent Democracy, Encourage
Terrorism
And a couple of months ago when this book was first
announced:
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002075.html
Aging Or Sex Ratio Bigger Demographic Problem
For China?
And even further back I argued that the female
scarcity will of course select for higher intelligence and other qualities:
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/001713.html Human Natural
Selection In Taiwan
About Cato. It was the immigration issue that
convinced me that libertarianism is too flawed of an ideology and I stopped
calling myself a libertarian as a result. A political philosophy should be
based on human nature as it really is, not on how we would like it to be.
Randall
============
Feeling safer already:
Further reasons why my unease is not put to rest when
people pooh-pooh the idea of us slip-sliding into a police state:
"I write badly, therefore I am a would-be terrorist"
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/2660471
"Welcome to America"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1230539,00.html
Regards, Leander
We've seen these before. One may excuse some of the
early incidents as due to learning the game, early enthusiasm, better safe
than sorry; but there has been enough time now.
In Southern California there were sweeps by the
Border Patrol in Temecula and some inland areas, resulting in about 400
deportations. The outcry was horrible: the mexican consulate, La Raza, you
name it; and it stopped. But we have anarcho tyranny: don't enforce the laws
we have, simply play about with people who aren't going to object.
Subject: Heimatsicherheitshauptamt
>> I open with an item that leaves me in cold fury.
This is America? <<
On your mail page for 16 November 2002, I wrote:
"How long can it be before the HSHA folks come up with
a nice new uniform, say black with silver piping? I also wonder what kind of
ID they'll use. Those laminated plastic cards are passé. They should
consider stamped metal oval discs instead. I think I even have a sample
around somewhere if they need one.
I also wonder if the guy they just hired will have the
rank of admiral, or if they'll promote him to Oberstgruppenführer. That'd be
appropriate for the head of the Heimatsicherheitshauptamt."
To which you responded:
"Well, I would not expect things to go that far, but
nationalizing all problems, then having an imperial foreign policy, leads to
a great deal of centralization. Indeed, you can't have national glory
without a fair amount of centralization."
Do you still think I was over the top?
-- Robert Bruce Thompson thompson@ttgnet.com http://www.ttgnet.com/thisweek.html
http://forums.ttgnet.com/ikonboard.cgi
As I said. I don't really expect things to go that
far. We don't have actual camps and few end up in durance vile for more than
a few hours. Perhaps we have to get to worse horrors before the American
people wake up to the facts, that they are not being made more secure, and
we are losing a good deal of what the heroes bled for.
It only takes two elections to change things
significantly. One has to scare the hell out of both parties.
I have told the Republican National Committee they
get no more money from me until they begin to "take care that the laws be
faithfully executed", to wit that the immigration laws be enforced. I don't
expect to hear back from them. But if enough begin to take back their
government it could yet be accomplished.
And see below
============
On SSTO and mass fractions etc:
To: DFG I have just read the depiction of your
two-stage winged vehicle proposal.
(Available at:
http://www.dfg.de/raumtransportsysteme/index_e.html ) The quality and
organization of the material and the web site are testimonials to
traditional German excellence. I especially learned to respect that
tradition while I was the subcontracts manager for Dornier System in
Friedrichshafen back in the mid 70's.
We were engaged in designing and producing vital parts
of the European Spacelab that flew successfully for years in the Space
Shuttle Orbiter. It was replaced by the more economical Spacehab system and
was honorably retired after making many contributions to space sciences and
especially to human space flight. As an American with prior experience as
the Crew Systems Manager for Martin Marrietta on the US pioneering space
station, Skylab, I brought much useful knowledge to Dornier and thoroughly
enjoyed my years in Germany.
With that to establish my bona fides, I wish to make
some hopefully useful comments on the project you have so well described on
your web site.
My overall perception is that the engineering thought
that has produced this presentation is reasonable and possibly doable. I say
"possibly" because you are embarking upon efforts that have been attempted
several times before, with generally spectacular and universally extremely
expensive failures being the only result.
The USA proposed a similar system under the
administration of Pres. Ronald Reagan, dubbed the "Orient Express". Then it
metamorphosed into the "Aerospace Plane". In fact the original Shuttle
concept visualized a "fly-back" first stage that would launch a
not-too-dissimilar winged upper stage into orbit. My goodness, we can even
hark back to the "Antipodal Bomber" proposed by the Peenemuende engineers
during WW II! And most recently, the X-33/Venture Star fiasco attempted by
Lockheed Martin and NASA is a fresh example.
That was followed by NASA's "Aerospaceplane" project
that was also quietly cancelled after the conceivers were educated about the
impracticality of launching lifting bodies on the nose of a rocket. A
current manifestation is the X-43 series of NASA vehicle experiments that
recently proudly achieved Mach 5 winged flight at some 60,000 ft.
Unfortunately, (or perhaps wisely?) the upcoming X-43C flight that will try
for Mach 7 will mark the end of the series.
I once shared a presentation on this project by the
program manager and some of his engineers. He asked whether it would not be
wonderful to travel to anywhere on Earth in two hours or less?
I pointed out that hypersonic flight in the atmosphere
can not go to anywhere on Earth. It will not, for example be able to fly
from Chicago to Berlin. The sonic boom will greatly exceed that of the
recently abandoned Concorde that was also barred from supersonic flight over
populated territory. I also asked whether they had ever heard of anyone
trying to design a supersonic submarine? They looked puzzled until I pointed
out that it is so much easier to simply travel above the water and avoid the
problem.
Why am I citing these examples of related failures in
commenting on your project?
Because I am seeking to establish my own credibility,
and in the process, to cause you to think about some solid engineering
truths. Grover Loening, the pioneer airplane designer and builder, is famous
for having answered a question about what constituted good aircraft design
by replying: "Simplicate and add more lightness". That picturesque
admonition is most certainly apropos for rocket design.
So my first assertion is that your concept clearly
violates both of those precepts, but with emphasis on the first. If there is
a more complex way to access low Earth orbit, it has not yet occurred to
aerospace designers. May it never do so.
The US Aerospaceplane project spent unreported but
vast amounts of money seeking to design a hybrid turbojet/ram jet engine.
That does not mean that it cannot be done. It does
most assuredly mean that its development must be very clearly justified
before embarking upon its development. In short the burden of proof is upon
those who would try this that there is no simpler and thereby cheaper and
more commercially viable alternative.
Anything else is miss use of the contributors' funds
and time. This sums up my primary objections to your entire project. The
question is not "can it be done"? The question is, considering all feasible
alternatives, Should It Be Done?
Just as the European Spacelab was replaced by the
private enterprise developed and much more economical Spacehab, even a
successful European Aerospace Plane would not be able to compete against a
far less glamorous but much more economical alternative way to low Earth
orbit. My nomination for such a far simpler and cheaper alternative was also
initially born in the mind of a German engineer; I refer to the fully
re-useable VTOL/SSTO.
The feasibility of re-useable, vertical landing
rockets was thoroughly proven by the American DC-X. Unfortunately, it was
eventually turned over to NASA, who promptly used a mechanical maintenance
failure as an excuse to kill it.
The real reason? It competed with the Space Shuttle.
There are indeed technical challenges remaining to
produce a single stage to orbit, fully re-useable LEO delivery system. I
submit that they pale in comparison to those faced by advocates of systems
such as you have so well described on your web site. The primary figure of
merit of an SSTO vehicle is mass fraction, as your people are surely well
aware.
That number, at least .92 of GLOW must be useable
propellant, constitutes the only real barrier to realization of what, once
perfected, will truly offer the chance of reducing cost per lb. to LEO to
not $1,000, but to at least approach $100.
And that will finally open not just LEO but the cosmos
to human development in a commercially viable manner. Two recent
developments have simplified the task.
NASA recently announced that they have tested
aerospike engines on small solid rockets and found that the feared loss of
flow stability with consequent difficulty in penetrating Mach 1 did not
occur. That has not been to my knowledge, widely recognized for its
significance, but it means the improved average Isp of the aerospike engine
can now be used in SSTO rockets.
Developments in greater strength to weight ratio
materials such a Buckeyballs and their cylindrical versions promise to very
significantly reduce the difficulty of achieving the magic .92 mass
fraction.
It may be of some interest to cite the respected
International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems, Isakowitz et al, that
reports that the original Atlas missile achieved a mass fraction of .93 lo
these many years ago.
The Atlas also managed to put a payload and all of
itself except but its booster engines into LEO back in the early '60's
carrying Pres. Eisenhower's Christmas message via an onboard radio.
So allow me to bring this un-requested but sincere
commentary to a close by saying: It is not what you CAN do that should
dictate embarking upon major projects, but what you SHOULD do.
Unfortunately, I am convinced that the rapidly
advancing commercial sector of space launch will obsolete your project long
before there will be any possibility of a demonstration launch. At least I
sincerely (and regretfully) hope that will be so, to avoid yet another
futile effort to build what is a very enticing engineering challenge, but
ultimately will prove to be yet another black hole for limited resources and
a professional disappointment for German space science.
Bill Haynes
Wm E Haynes Aerospace Systems Analyst
================
And, sigh:
Subject: IMPORTANT - Mozilla/Firefox problems
Dr. Pournelle:
Moving away from Internet Explorer will not cure all
problems. There are vulnerabilities that can be found in any program. For
instance, this quote from the Internet Storm Center "Handler's Diary" of
today concerning problems with Mozilla/Firefox browsers. The exploit's
techniques seem similar to the 'download.ject' problem with IE that allowed
a visit to a web site to infect your computer. This one could allow an
attacker to run a program (worm, keystroke logger, whatever) on your
computer. Of course, you have to visit a 'bad site', which might reduce the
impact.
"It's time to update your browser, though this time
the problem is not with Internet Explorer, but with Mozilla and Firefox
running on Windows. As described in the eWeek article at
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1621463,00.asp , a flaw in
the way Mozilla and Firefox handled links containing the shell: suffix could
allow a malicious web site to run arbitrary code on the visitor's system. We
advise you to upgrade to Mozilla 1.7.1 or Firefox 0.9.2 to patch this
vulnerability. Alternatively, you may install the patch from
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/
mozilla/releases/mozilla1.7.1/shellblock.xpi .
"For more information about this vulnerability and
ways of addressing it, please see
http://mozilla.org/security/shell.html . This URL also points out
that Thunderbird, an email client that's part of the Mozilla suite, is
vulnerable, and explains how you can address the Thunderbird vulnerability
as well. "
The point is that one must be careful with *any*
program. Just because a program is "open-source" doesn't mean that there
won't be exploits in the future. Sure, open-source might fix problems faster
by the 'good guys'. But open source means the source code is available to
the 'bad guys', which might make it easier to figure out malicious code.
So, the 'mantra' still applies, no matter what browser
program you are using.
Regards, Rick Hellewell, Information Security at
Digitalchoke.com
The first half of the column I just finished and
sent in is all about Internet Explorer and whether you ought to change from
that browser to another...
But see below
.
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