Last weekend, I made my annual pilgrimage to Chattanooga for LibertyCon. In addition to the expected geekery and humor, I happened to catch John Ringo hold a 300-person auditorium spellbound with a personal recollection from his childhood. … [Read more...]
Surplus Book Extravaganza
One of four truckloads of books, headed for storage. They creep up on you. Multiplying silently in the night. Smuggling themselves in the front door, disguised in innocent Amazon boxes. Building themselves nests that spread to cover every wall in your house. Then one day you turn around and realize you're sharing your house with 6,500 books. … [Read more...]
Michael Griffin on Commercial Space
If you've been hanging around the space business for a while, you've heard of Michael Griffin. You may love him, you may hate him, but you're probably not neutral about him. … [Read more...]
Spaceport Camden Legislation
Last Monday, I attended a hearing at the Capitol on House Bill 734, the Georgia Space Flight Act. This legislation is being led by representatives from southeastern Georgia, the proposed site of Spaceport Camden. (You can read more about the spaceport at http://spaceportcamden.us/.) … [Read more...]
Announcing Boostphase
As I prepare to leave Georgia Tech, a lot of people have asked me if I'm going to indulge my long-standing obsession with the aerospace business. Not right now. I'm looking at a number of interesting career opportunities in several different sectors. … [Read more...]
Leaving Georgia Tech
The only constant is change... I will be leaving both of my posts as Vice President of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2) and as General Manager of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) by the end of the year. The Executive Leadership Team believes that it is time to recruit new leadership that is better suited to the next … [Read more...]
The Martian
Why am I using my monthly newsletter column to talk about a Matt Damon movie? Because it's relevant to Georgia Tech. Last week, I was fortunate to score a handful of passes to an advance screening of "The Martian." Unless you've been living under a rock, you know this is Ridley Scott's new big-budget movie starring Matt Damon as a NASA astronaut … [Read more...]
Startup Summer
A few weeks ago, I watched Georgia Tech undergraduates present their work at Startup Summer Demo Day. Something that started as an experiment less than two years ago has turned into a monster! … [Read more...]
Why We Can’t Go to Mars
DragonCon is enormous. If you haven't been there, you have no idea how big it is. But, over in the Hilton, is a small (but overstuffed) set of conference rooms that host the "Reality Tracks." These tracks are for a different kind of fan… those who want to build science fiction, not just read about it. … [Read more...]
My Talks at DragonCon 2015
My annual post in response to the people asking me "What are you talking about at Dragon Con this year?" … [Read more...]