In asking for Congress' approval, is Obama actually backing down?

Having seen David Cameron brought to heel by the UK parliament, has the incalculably Machiavellian "big-O" spotted a way to avoid the consequences of his own rhetoric? Until today, Obama was clear that he needed the authorisation neither of the United Nations (which he wasn't going to get) nor even of the U.S. Congress; now he's voluntarily decided to ask Congress for permission.

If the left suddenly drops its clamour for retribution (the right doesn't seem to be all that keen in the first place) during the debate, we'll know it was a put-up job.

Who wants to intervene in Syria?

I heard the oddest thing on the news the other day. I assume it was the BBC, just because of the utter wrongness of it, but I suppose it might have been Sky News also.

Someone was being interviewed, and the interviewer did the usual leftist thing of casually castigating their enemies, referring to right-wing bloggers who were baying for an intervention in Syria. And that's what's odd: as far as I can see, it's the *left* who are all for intervention in Syria; the right seems to have no appetite at all for such adventurism.

Now I understand...

Now I understand why Skylon is such a clever idea. From the comments on this slashdot posting about SpaceX's progress in returning a first stage booster to its landing pad under powered flight, I learned that most of the fuel a rocket uses is to get itself moving sideways not upwards (a posting on xkcd, Orbital Speed, makes the situation crystal clear).

If you think about it then, Skylon can spend a lot longer inside the atmosphere, breathing in its oxygen and hydrogen propellant mixture and gaining speed, than if it was simply going straight up, although of course there will become a point (presumably rather less than orbital velocity?) where friction will negate any further gains from staying in-atmosphere.

Judging from Elon Musk's comments on the [lack of] competitiveness of Ariane, ESA might well be advised to spend all its lifter budget on subsidising Reaction Engines instead. :-)