Two pieces, on Japanese one Chinese on Orthopedic uses of 3D Printed parts. Like the rocket engine parts mentioned earlier these parts are laser sintered Titanium.
Japanese patients successfully received 3D printed bone transplants
Chinese hospital uses 3D printed orthopedic implants
Welcome to the future: New Zealand approves permit for jet pack
“It’s essentially a motorbike in the sky, so I imagine anyone who has a snowmobile or a jet ski, this is going to be something they’re going to want in their garage,” CEO Peter Coker told the New Zealand Herald.
. Well… Maybe…
Dynetics reporting “outstanding” progress on F-1B rocket engine
The prototype components were constructed not with welding and casting, but rather with selective laser melting—a 3D printing technique that uses hot lasers to fuse metal powder into complex shapes. Dynetics and Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne hope to lean heavily on advanced manufacturing techniques like this in order to massively reduce the part count—and hence cost—of the F-1B engine compared to its F-1 predecessor. Current estimates call for a reduction in the combustion chamber from more than 5,000 parts in the F-1 to fewer than 100 parts in the F-1B.
OK I loathe the senate taxripoff system (STS), otherwise known as the space transportation system, but this is absolutely cool. I have to say NASA engineers and scientists have done a lot of really great and innovative stuff, even in these tough times, but as an exploratory risk taking organization…..well they’re a bunch of engineers and scientists lead by bureaucrats and directed by politicians . . . what more is there to say?
I played around trying to come up with a better political spectrum but renowned SciFi author, techy and system engineer Jerry Pournelle beat me to it by decades and a far better model…
There’s some explanation and discussion on this page at Baen Books
From the Lebanese (you know, the Lebanon, between the Mediterranean, Syria and Israel), The Daily Star || Rami G. Khouri || Blame those who brought Al-Qaeda to life
Excellent short piece, I agree that the WoT (war on terror) has gone AWOL and the drone wars are nothing but a bloody patch, rapidly passing their use by date. Drones have been shown to be a fundamental game changer along with precision weapons but its still state sanctioned murder (with the unintentional slaughter of innocents reduced but not eliminated) at first and still when used appropriately as part of a strategy with operational planning and support tactics they were/are a success but today they are fireworks pressed up to make like policy.
Our strategic and operational thinking & planning long ago died a dusty death and now the wonks blow things up by the numbers…this is LBJ/McNamara’s #’s game bombing Vietnam all over again.
Don’t get me wrong I doubt we’re killing indiscriminately and our operators are doing the best they possibly can but without the proper and appropriate strategy, planning and tactics, we cannot win, we cannot kill our way out of this. I am concerned that like with antibiotics, misused medicine eventually makes the disease much more dangerous.
Love the cartoon, yay WSJ!
WSJ OPINIONAugust 11, 2013, 6:18 p.m. The Budget Sequester Is a Success
The Obama spending blitz is over and the deficit is heading below 4% of GDP
This is about the only way we’re going to cut budgets in this environment, I think it is unrealistic to expect congress to manage its way out of this given the inability to horse trade and really sock it to any constituency, given the rules of the game as played today. The big remaining problem is the locked in promises inherent in the big ticket entitlements.
Oregon Dept. Transportation
Captains Journal || Counterinsurgency Cops (hat tip Instapundit)
This is grim reading, not because the ‘news’ is new but because it puts it in an a societal-political context that says its most likely an accelerating trend. Though perhaps self limiting since the abuses such as Swatting, stupid mistakes, and utterly inappropriate response will eventually cause a backlash, but that could take decades.
Look at the utterly predictable results of the of get tough on crime cycle ( ‘three strikes,’ ‘mandatory minimum sentences,’ ‘federalization ,’ ‘punitive confiscation,’and ‘layering,’) has had; unsustainable prison population, increasing numbers of utterly harmless pseudo criminals behind bars for years, turning rowdy youths into hardened criminals or near non persons, etc.
Now decades of a ‘war on drugs,’ war on this, war on that, failed progressive policies, knee jerk conservative reactions, increasing control of policy by the actors with fingers in the game (public service unions, prosecutors, activists, local politicos, etc) etc, has left us with a crushing burden of law, regulation, tax, and in general government infrastructure…
We saw this happen with the original prohibition, then people were smart and aware enough to realize the ‘cure’ was a feel good bandaid that drove the rot deeper.
This sort of crap: no tolerance, prohibition, cover your ass, take no chances (and that is what this sort of behavior is, in a POLICE force for crying out loud!) degrades the very society it is purporting to support, eroding the penumbra of trust and lawful-ness that our society has depended on to be the most productive and dynamic in the world.
The above is even more worrying when taken in the appropriate context of the surveillance state + anti terrorism infrastructure post 9/11. The original impetus was understandable, the respons well intentioned, sometimes noble, but out of proportion (the American habit of overwhelming firepower) to the original problem which was misdiagnosed, misunderstood, and/or fearfully/willfully overblown. Now we have huge infrastructure in place that is apparently doing nothing…and folks, usually with some level of good intention, want to make use of all that ‘stuff.’
Let Them Shoot Up: In Defense of Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez’s crime isn’t using performance-enhancing drugs—it’s breaking the illusion that Major League Baseball is a fair institution.
Nick Gillespie | August 8, 2013
Agree with this but the bit that bugs me is that we’re forced to pay for these temporal high temples their high priests, acolytes and vestal virgins, when they rake in millions if not billions, then get told not to complain, it’s all good for the economy, great for local pride, a civic resource.
Microsatellites: What Big Eyes They Have
By ANNE EISENBERG
Published: August 10, 2013
Kelley Alwood, project manager, worked on the SkySat-1 satellite in Skybox Imaging’s clean room. Matt McDonald
Bloomberg// Megan McArdle // How the Lone Star State Legalized Highway Robbery
I think the title’s perhaps Acela corridor biased but the issue is real, very, very, real and localizing it is a dis service, this is a problem all over the US and one of the reasons we should fear the surveillance state.
This World and Others 