Easterbrook On NASA
Gregg Easterbrook discusses NASA’s screwups and wants to move back to a real ROI:
Worse, NASA’s to-do list neglects the two things that are actually of tangible value to the taxpayers who foot its bills — research relevant to environmental policymaking and asteroid-strike protection.
Of course, “Keep money flowing to favored contractors and congressional districts” is not a formal NASA objective, but these words explain the agency’s core problem. Since the end of the Apollo glory days, NASA seems to have been driven by the desire to continue lucrative payments to the contractors behind manned spaceflight (mainly Boeing and Lockheed Martin) while maintaining staff levels in the congressional districts (mainly in Alabama, Florida, Ohio, and Texas) that are home to huge centers focused on manned missions.
Given that NASA is sure to be around for a while, taxpayers should insist the space agency be recon figured to produce tangible benefits for all of us. With any luck, private space enterprise will eventually find success and begin to exert competitive market pressures on the government space program
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Tim Spicer Reacts To Robert Baer
In reaction to the Vanity Fair piece titled The Business of War: Iraq’s Mercenary King.
24 Season Finale
Unimpressed, but the good news is that the show is being revamped for next season, so this McArthur-esque fading away should allow for something fun to emerge.
Good Reading Needed
Thanks to Phil Jones for bringing this book up: Invisible Engines: How Software Platforms Drive Innovation and Transform Industries . Picked it up, will post a review when I’m finished.
I’m trying to find a small collection of high impact books to take on my six week trip. Very open to suggestions.
The Overlap
Yorkshire Ranter sees a significant degree of overlap between John Robb’s recommendations in part II of the Wired interview with Kris Alexander and Thomas Barnett’s work with Enterra.