On Sunday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket out of Cape Canaveral, Florida disintegrated 29 miles above the earth in the latest setback for the private aerospace company founded by Elon Musk. It was carrying more than 4,000 pounds worth of food, water treatment equipment, and other supplies intended for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. [Read more…]
Archives for June 2015
Being Anti: Vaccines to GMOs
There are six citrus trees in the backyard of my childhood home. I remember one hot summer day as a young kid going out to repaint the white trunks of the trees. The white paint increases the albido (the ratio of light reflected off an object) and thus keeps the trees cooler. The fruit was not yet ripe, so the tree leaves and unripened fruit were all a uniform green at the time. [Read more…]
The Good Fortune of a Missed Flight
When I got to the end of the jetway at the sprawling Changi Airport in Singapore, a cart was waiting for me. The Singapore Airlines employee sitting behind the wheel knew he’d spotted the passenger he’d been waiting for when he looked at me and said, “San Francisco?” I nodded, knowing that my connecting flight from Kuala Lumpur had arrived late, and I was at risk of missing my connection—an 18-hour marathon of a flight back to the U.S. [Read more…]
Princely Travel On a Pauper’s Budget
It’s 11:50PM where my plane took off from and 8:50AM where my plane will land in a few hours. I’ve got a poor man’s first class seat—an economy class seat with the no one sitting in either of the other two seats next to me. I should probably be adjusting to U.S. time by now but I can’t help but take advantage of the free-flowing wine. “I’ll have another red, please.” [Read more…]
Tesla vs the Man
Tesla doesn’t play nice. When it comes to industry neighborliness, Tesla is the one guy in the cul-de-sac who insists on painting his house an association-prohibited shade of green. But if you thought homeowner’s associations were power hungry, try state dealer associations. [Read more…]
