Fighting Trousers–Professor Elemental

This isn’t really a Song of Space and Nuclear War (although come to think of it, I do believe he mentions time-travel trousers, war games, and Flash Gordon…), but it is a song and it’s quite a grand hoot.

Space Competitive Index

Money line number one from Aviation Week regarding Futron Corp.’s 2011 Space Competitiveness Index: “Of the 10 countries analyzed, only the United States has shown four straight years of competitiveness declines,” Futron notes in an executive summary. “By contrast, Russia, China and Japan have improved their own space competitiveness by 12%, 27% and 45%, respectively, [...]

Panetta (and others) on the Budget

Theoretical defense cuts, ranging along a line from “significant” to “crippling,” are consuming most of the worry-oxygen in the Pentagon.  Along that line of concern, new SecDef Leon Panetta does not want his legacy to be the guy who stood idly by while the defense budget was used as America’s bill-payer.  From AOL Defense regarding [...]

There’s No Such Thing As Bad Space Publicity?

When you need a publicity pick-me-up, there are a couple of well-worn ideas that seldom fail: space aliens and extraterrestrial life. And that’s what a NASA Planetary Science Division writer has done here with a “scenario analysis” called Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity?  That a group of three writers can tease out [...]