Rotundus.com

A very interesting interview with Elon Musk of SpaceX. Some excerpts:

• "the materials cost of a rocket was around 2 percent of the typical price—which is a crazy ratio for a large mechanical product" - for Tesla Motors materials cost apparently about 20-25% of the total cost.
• "One of our competitors, Orbital Sciences, has a contract to resupply the International Space Station, and their rocket honestly sounds like the punch line to a joke. It uses Russian rocket engines that were made in the ’60s. I don’t mean their design is from the ’60s—I mean they start with engines that were literally made in the ’60s"
• "this tendency of big aerospace companies to outsource everything. That’s been trendy in lots of industries, but aerospace has done it to a ridiculous degree. They outsource to subcontractors, and then the subcontractors outsource to sub-subcontractors, and so on. You have to go four or five layers down to find somebody actually doing something useful—actually cutting metal, shaping atoms. Every level above that tacks on profit—it’s overhead to the fifth power."
• "In many cases the biggest customer has been the government, and the government contracts have been what they call cost-plus: The company gets a built-in profit level no matter how wasteful its execution. There’s actually an incentive for it to make everything as expensive as it can possibly justify."
• "We have essentially no patents in SpaceX. Our primary long-term competition is in China—if we published patents, it would be farcical, because the Chinese would just use them as a recipe book. But I can give you one example."
• "Version two of Dragon, which should be ready in three years, should be able to [land on Mars]"
• "The cost of the propellant on Falcon 9 is only about 0.3 percent of the total price. So if the vehicle costs $60 million, the propellant is maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars. That’s with rocket propellant-grade jet fuel, which is three times the cost of normal jet fuel. That’s using helium as a pressurant, which is a very expensive pressurant. A next-generation rocket could use cheaper fuel and also be fully reusable."

Rules of Productivity presentation

Some tips - here focusing on the gaming industry on how to improve productivity. (HT: David Murray)

FYI: How Much Caffeine Would It Take To Kill You?

Basically you're unlikely to hit the limit - described in one place in the article as the amount of caffeine in over 6 gallons of McDonalds coffee - unless it interacts with something like alcohol or heart conditions.

Men and Women Can't Be "Just Friends"

"Researchers asked women and men "friends" what they really think—and got very different answers"

Incidence and Distribution of Genital Cutting Worldwide: Male & Female

Prevalence of by region, legality of by country, etc.

NBC New York yesterday shows people saying that they haven't seen FEMA or Red Cross personel in their area yet since Hurricane Sandy despite the damage:
View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com.

It seems a bit silly to me to blame/praise President Bush/Obama for their actions surrounding Hurricane Katrina/Sandy. Personally I just wish they'd stay out of the area rather than showing up for their seemingly obligatory photo ops.

Utility workers pelted with eggs after Bridgeport, Conn. mayor blasts provider

Throwing things at repair crews isn't exactly the most effective way to get your power back.

We are one step closer to nerve regeneration

"a team of neuroscientists have discovered a gene in fruit flies — somewhat similar to a human gene — that controls how nerves re-establish links with each other after they’ve been severed. This could open up a new avenue of research into undoing the injuries that cause paralysis and other neurological disorders."

Indoor laundry drying 'poses a health risk'

Basically high moisture which, amongst other things, might lead to more mold.

PETA wants memorial sign put up in Irvine where fish were killed in traffic accident

"An Irvine resident is requesting on behalf of an animal rights group that the city install a sign to memorialize hundreds of fish killed in a traffic crash in early October while being taken to Irvine Ranch Market."