Like a Nightmare on the Brain

If I just followed you and you're checking this blog - I was on tumblr over a decade ago and on and off lurked since then. I'm mostly here because my partner reckons blogging will be good for my writing and aspirations. I schedule most of my original posts to go up during American hours so just because I am posting doesn't mean I am on tumblr. Right now I mostly post about rocketry, US space policy, and the space market - mostly because the popular misconceptions infuriate me; rhetoric and constructing effective heuristics; history and historiography (especially turn of the century America and Mao-era China); local aussie politics, and writing/literature (mostly genre fiction). I am bad at tagging things. give us a fair shake yeah?

artillery would be way better on Mars but direct fire cannons would be markedly worse. rifle engagement ranges would plausibly be longer. missiles would probably also function worse (less efficient aerosurfaces) as would guided shells. But you could lob mortars and shells really really far with less gravity+reduced drag, and the shorter horizon would make it more useful. I do wonder if the less dense atmosphere would make DEW more efficient or if the particulates in the air would push it in the other direction. Would coms be significantly impacted by the lack of magnetosphere? how much slower does heat radiate on Mars? Would it be significantly harder to fly supersonic aircraft?

much to consider for the Martian invasion program.

there's a weird level of hysteria among the centre left news outlets in Australia regarding the populist left DSA candidates in America.

I got called hasbara recently and it was infuriating for a moment but on reflection it's just really funny.

it's taken a minute but Angus Taylor has finally figured out what he needs to be doing as opposition leader to bring the liberals in from the wilderness - govern. His focus on building bipartisanship and forcing Labor to make measured concessions is exactly what he needs to do to build credibility for his party. for the last 4 years they simply haven't been behaving seriously, they haven't behaved as people who could seriously form government and have been too focused on factionalism or on simply insisting the sky is not blue if Albo says it is. if he can manage to keep his colleagues from doing this stupid anti super anti abortion ultra conservative bullshit he might have a chance of rebuilding the party at the next election (not at winning of course)

really interesting article which gets, from the horse's mouth, into the reasoning behind the weakness of the anti gambling reforms

I can't believe one of the suggested eclipse phase plot hooks is to investigate murky and unclear sexual assault accusations in a commune. actually nevermind I can.

wait. do you guys not have ice-cream boats?

No lol. abortion is very noncontroversial society wide and has been the political consensus for some time (though iirc it's typically been given what we call a consciousness vote - party members free to vote outside party lines without sanction). One extremely, er, vitriolic indian Catholic woman in SA has been banging the drum very aggressively (which had driven her to the margins) until very recently, but the conservative parties have gotten more conservative since scomo lost and they went into the wilderness. The Nats (recently taken over by their own most conservative faction) and One Nation are becoming openly anti abortion, and certain conservative liberals are flagging it as well. The conservative liberals are likely being influenced by conservative Catholic church factions like opus dei. I'm sure it's also them brainlessly aping maga as well.

to put a number on it, less than ten percent of Australians are anti abortion. banging on this drum has generally been seen as a sign that one has lost the plot, politically.

America is a deeply sick society. I can't believe how the trial of Lindsay Clancy has become a culture war battleground for young male grievance politics, of all things.

how crazy would foot fetishes be if we had prehensile feet like apes though

me when I'm literally nice.

I don't pay enough attention to QLD politics but one does get the impression the tail is really wagging the dog re:LNP. the deputy premier certainly seems to be the man in charge!