Notes on a Monday Morning
It's monday morning, i've got heaps on my desk to take care of as the week begins, and so of course i start off by a quick surf through Cyberspace.
War still on in Iraq? Check.
War drums beating for Iran? Check
Chinese IPO flying off the shelves? Check
Immigration friends/foes fighting over the border troops? Check
DaVinci code still front page news? Check
So, not much has changed.
Except... what's this? Space Cynic, and myself, were mentioned in another blog (not too flatteringly, i might add) and I totally missed it.
I, of course, had to go read what was written by Mr. Goff.
I think Jonathan was being a bit unfair, to be frank. First off - why should we be held to higher standards than the average alt.space cracksmoker's website that promises fantasy technologies are just over the horizon? At least we aren't trying to sell something - in fact, we're trying to get people to be LESS gullible before their good money is lost to another BS cause.
Still, some valid criticisms.
Yes, this blog can be a stand-out contrarian voice to the echo-chamber that normally defines the alt.space kool-aid drinking community.
Yes - i will accept that sometimes we are flippant and shallow in our commentary on specific concepts/projects. But the 23rd or 145th time i have to explain in great detail why a particular concept is flawed, i get lazy and just slam the project.
Yes - we will try to write more substantive posts, or maybe just answer questions posed by interested readers.
No - i will not give up on the occasional bit of humour. If i think it's funny, and others don't - well, it's my blog. Get your own.
The truth, though, as with all things, is really somewhere in the middle.
All of the bloggers on the Space Cynic have regular jobs that are VERY time consuming. What this means is that we don't have the luxury or bandwidth in many cases to write out the full extent of what we'd like to on a particular subject. Does this mean we shouldn't mention something unless we can put out a dissertation on the subject?
Of course not.
If that were in fact the case, this blog would end up like the book on space commerce i've been attempting to complete for 2 years now - half finished and therefore unread by anyone.
Some of these posts will be longer, some will be shorter. Some will be content rich, some will be vacuous. I make no promises otherwise.
But, in the spirit that all discourse is positive, i will even add a link to Jonathan's blog on the Space Cynic blog.
War still on in Iraq? Check.
War drums beating for Iran? Check
Chinese IPO flying off the shelves? Check
Immigration friends/foes fighting over the border troops? Check
DaVinci code still front page news? Check
So, not much has changed.
Except... what's this? Space Cynic, and myself, were mentioned in another blog (not too flatteringly, i might add) and I totally missed it.
I, of course, had to go read what was written by Mr. Goff.
I think Jonathan was being a bit unfair, to be frank. First off - why should we be held to higher standards than the average alt.space cracksmoker's website that promises fantasy technologies are just over the horizon? At least we aren't trying to sell something - in fact, we're trying to get people to be LESS gullible before their good money is lost to another BS cause.
Still, some valid criticisms.
Yes, this blog can be a stand-out contrarian voice to the echo-chamber that normally defines the alt.space kool-aid drinking community.
Yes - i will accept that sometimes we are flippant and shallow in our commentary on specific concepts/projects. But the 23rd or 145th time i have to explain in great detail why a particular concept is flawed, i get lazy and just slam the project.
Yes - we will try to write more substantive posts, or maybe just answer questions posed by interested readers.
No - i will not give up on the occasional bit of humour. If i think it's funny, and others don't - well, it's my blog. Get your own.
The truth, though, as with all things, is really somewhere in the middle.
All of the bloggers on the Space Cynic have regular jobs that are VERY time consuming. What this means is that we don't have the luxury or bandwidth in many cases to write out the full extent of what we'd like to on a particular subject. Does this mean we shouldn't mention something unless we can put out a dissertation on the subject?
Of course not.
If that were in fact the case, this blog would end up like the book on space commerce i've been attempting to complete for 2 years now - half finished and therefore unread by anyone.
Some of these posts will be longer, some will be shorter. Some will be content rich, some will be vacuous. I make no promises otherwise.
But, in the spirit that all discourse is positive, i will even add a link to Jonathan's blog on the Space Cynic blog.
posted by Shubber Ali at 4:52 PM
6 Comments:
Seems he qualified his comments in a later post:
http://selenianboondocks.blogspot.com/2006/05/in-all-fairness.html
tao
Shubber,
Fair enough. I think I hold you to a higher standard than "alt.space cracksmokers" because I know you're capable of it. But I can fully appreciate the fact that the pressures of work and family often make it difficult to write long, thorough blog posts. In my post about Space Cynic I was probably doing a little of what I was accusing you of--being snarky, flippant, and shallow in my criticisms.
Anyhow, I do actually look forward to seeing what you have to say in the future, because in spite of the fact that I think that you're overly cynical, I still think you may end up doing a useful thing for us in this industry.
~Jon
If you are curious, I threw in my $0.02 on your blog, since you were kind enough to comment on mine.
Cynicism, Optimism & Lunar Dust Flavored Kool-Aid
Feel free to roll my post over the host coals of cynicism if you wish :)
Do you mean this blog?
Don't bother them with facts. Because, if the crew of the Enterprise (Star Trek, not STS) can flit about in space with impunity, then so can we.
Fine, slam companies with crazy promises. The problem I have is that the majority of your posts slam people who belive in private space flight. For instance, you are slamming a blogger for his opinion (who has a PhD in particle physics if you are curious). All I am asking is why? He doesn't ask anyone for money. Disagree with him, fine, but don't be bitchy about it. I don't know if he is right or you are right. From my point of view you are both pretty credible but he is giving my data.
Answer me why you feeled called to this mission, and I will go away whistling happily.
Answer me why you feeled called to this mission, and I will go away whistling happily.
See the next blog posting - and thanks for giving me a topic to write about ;-)
Post a Comment
<< Home