Remember that company that wants to set up a colony on Mars? This has nothing to do with that.

Golden Spike Company announces plan for commercial lunar space expeditions

An announcement of note this morning about The Golden Spike Company, a new private space travel venture, backed by private investors. Their tag line? "Extend Your Reach." Snip from today's press release:

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 17, the last human exploration of the Moon, Former Apollo Flight Director and NASA Johnson Space Center Director, Gerry Griffin, and planetary scientist and former NASA science chief, Dr. Alan Stern, today unveiled “The Golden Spike Company” – the first company planning to offer routine exploration expeditions to the surface of the Moon. At the National Press Club announcement this afternoon, Dr. Stern, Golden Spike’s President and CEO, and Mr. Griffin, chairman of Golden Spike’s board of directors, introduced other members of Golden Spike’s leadership team and detailed the company’s intentions to make complete lunar surface expeditions available by the end of the decade.

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The company says it plans to "maximize use of existing rockets" and market the resulting system to "nations, individuals, and corporations with lunar exploration objectives and ambitions," promising "prices that are a fraction of any lunar program ever conceived until now." A tall order, to be certain. Those I've spoken to in the space biz are skeptical, but of the mind that the more entrepreneurial efforts and private sector innovation we see in the Space space, the better.

Buffista F2F in 2020: Tycho crater, Moon?

eta: This from the article should be included:

The company is registered as a business in Colorado, where medical marijuana was just made legal. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT.

All African lions? Depends on where the person you are talking to went to graduate school and when.

All lions? I don't think you will find anyone trying to make a case for that.

I assume it will just be a lot of people very casually just happening to walk up to the bar at the same time as Matt Smith and pretending it's a coincidence.

If Matt Smith was at my holiday party, I would be doing a very lot of this. Or, really, anyone from any show I watch.

Suzi, that was nice of you! People are often very taken aback when people do things like that for them, but I'm sure beneath his bewilderment he appreciated it.

I assume it will just be a lot of people very casually just happening to walk up to the bar at the same time as Matt Smith and pretending it's a coincidence.

Well, that'll be fun anyway.

I slept in until 8:30 this morning, and feel rather more human. Looked at rationally, there's no real reason for me to have melted down so badly yesterday, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

I'm not without resources, people are available to help, and if the job falls through I'm sure I will not end up on the streets. I think it's just that the job thing has gone on for so very long, and I feel as though nobody in authority has any particular interest in me as myself. Which rather puts the lie to all the statements we get about "The [agency name] Family".

Anyway, I send good wishes for Homer, Jesse. I'm taking TNG to the vet this afternoon: she has an ugly rash on her stomach that just hasn't cleared up. I'm hoping it's something mild.

Were Asiatic lions also the same as African lions?

All lions? I don't think you will find anyone trying to make a case for that.

That confuses me. The species of lion, as I understand it, is leo. What are the other species of lion called (as opposed to leo krugeri or other subspecies)?

Looked at rationally, there's no real reason for me to have melted down so badly yesterday, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

Oh, how I know and love the first part of your sentence. My meltdowns have been disproportionate for a long time. There's no arguing with emotion though, particularly using logic. I'm finally learning this is my response (which is influenced by external factors that will hopefully soon not have such a large presence in my life) and I need to be OK with it and let it go.

Much peace and strength to you, 'suela.

I assume it will just be a lot of people very casually just happening to walk up to the bar at the same time as Matt Smith and pretending it's a coincidence.

Heh. Fun!

Looked at rationally, there's no real reason for me to have melted down so badly yesterday, but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

Rationality, pffft. PFFT, I SAY.

ION, there was a guy in my cafeteria today who looked like a minor Hemsworth.

I made off-hand snidey comment about big boss at a lunch the other day. not big boss, but still boss has now mentioned that comment to an employee not in our department. He is a boss known to tattle. I think I am about to get in trouble. FUCK! I hate stupid petty people and also my stupid mouth saying funny true things that are snide.

Well, there are animals we call lions that are not leo.

The main thing is that the idea of species developed in a time of idealism, where a species was a static essential element of nature probably created in final form by God. It's not clear that there is a sensible dividing line anymore at that level of taxonomy. DNA doesn't show a clear dividing line. Evolutionary theory doesn't tell us where to draw the line. It is confusing. Some have said that "The Origin of the Species" acutally should have been called "The Demise of the Species" because the idea of species changing over time ultimately casts doubt on the concept.

And then there is the issue of genetic islolation as a criterion. It was often assumed that this was either geographical or biological, based on naughty bits that didn't mix well. But genetic isolation can emerge becasue of behavioral (cultural?) differences.

For instance, a colleague of mine studies migratory birds. Different subgroups follow different migratory pathways, and over time they develop a different vocal dialect. It's not obvious to a casual observer but her graduate students can listen to a bird and tell you where it was caught. And the birds know the difference.

Now, when you mix birds of the same "species" but from different flyways, they don't have much reproductive success. But it is not because of anatomical differences or genetic differences. There is nothing biological keeping them apart.

It is because the female birds judge quality of the males by their singing. When they encounter a male from a different flyway, he doesn't sound "right" and is rejected as defective. They can't tell the difference between a biological defect and cultural variation in musical taste.

So geographical isolation leading to changes resulting in reproductive isololation. Fits old ideas of species. But if you cross-foster offspring of the two flyways so they learn the right way to sing you find that there is nothing differentiating these animals at all.

So what is a species? Something real? Something of de facto utility but essential falsehood? Something determined by the number of Eigenvalues in your statistical decomposition of variation in DNA? Another word for culture?

Depends on where you went to grad school and when.