Month: February 2003

In Warren Ellis’ blog he says: James Oberg on BBC: “Human remains are being picked up across north-east Texas”

The loss of the shuttle Columbia today was a tragedy, and yes it was a tragedy for America. But it was a tragedy for the world too. Curiosity alone has driven mankind to the stars, the shuttle was carrying an Indian, an Israeli and 5 Americans back from the International Space Station. Space does not belong to America, its exploration belongs to mankind. I am very glad to see that in his speech this afternoon, George W. Bush said:
The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.

The loss is more than a shuttle and 7 brave astronauts, the loss is our faith in space exploration. We cannot allow this loss to stop us moving forward, we cannot allow hope to be lost. Mars is next, people should not just be walking on Mars within my lifetime, they should be living on Mars, hell there should be people living on the moon.

One day we will go to the stars.

A CHILD’S DREAM OF SPACE [Rod Dreher]

I was deeply moved to learn this morning that Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut killed on the Columbia this morning, had taken into space with him a drawing made by a child in a Nazi concentration camp. It was the child’s conception of what Earth looks like from the moon. That drawing survived the Holocaust and its aftermath, and was kept in Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial site. Now it has perished, along with Ramon and six others, on its way back from space.

Think about that drawing: that Jewish child lived in a death camp, yet he was still able to dream of space, and these dreams no doubt brought that child some small measure of comfort in a world overwhelmed by tragedy, suffering and loss. My own son Matthew, who is three, told his grandmother on the phone this morning, almost cheerfully, “The space shuttle Columbia blew up, but that’s okay, because they’re going to build another one.” He’s on the floor now playing with some kind of foam lawn dart he’s turned into a rocket. “Five, four, three, two, one…blast off!” he keeps saying. Even this morning, he’s still going on, as he has been for the past couple of months (when he first became obsessed with Neil Armstrong) about how he wants to be an astronaut.

Kids and their deathless dreams. God bless them”

Holocaust-era Art from Yad Vashem’s Collection sent into space with Israeli Astronaut.

Man, that really sucks.

plasticbag.org: How has Blogger changed your life?

Below is Richard Nixon’s prepared speech in case the Apollo XI crew was lost. (via Instapundit).

Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.

They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.

NASA just lost the shuttle Columbia over Texas: CNN (via BBC).
The shuttle appears to have disintegrated while travelling at over 12,500 miles per hour at over 200,000 feet. Toxic debris are raining down over Texas.

Fuck, that’s really bad news. The video and footage is a little hard to watch too. There were seven people sitting there.

No snow after all that. Damn. It is very cold but that does not really make up for anything.

Eminem tickets appear to have sold out after just a couple of hours in England and Scotland. I had thought about getting one and going along, I guess not.

Apperently the manager of Tatu said yesterday that he designed the girls to be appealing as underage-entertainment. Some of the news programmes picked up on this and were of course quite outraged. I can see their point, the video for the track was certainly designed that way but the news went as far as to say the only reason they look likely to make the number one spot this weekend was because of the video. Funninly enough they didn’t mention that the song is actually pretty good and I suspect was going to hit number one anyway. It is also worth pointing out that at 17, the girls are not underage although there are rumours the video was shot two years ago which would spin a new light on it…and um not be good.

I might go and see Catch me if you Can this weekend, ITV are showing some interviews with the people behind it at the moment and it looks really fun. Or see if anyone wants to see it next weekend when it goes on general release.

Today was not a good day. It started off really badly but luckily enough that part recovered nicely. Played some more chess at lunch, two good games both of which I was lucky to win. I’m enjoying playing a hell of a lot, it was a really good idea.

Then the afternoon hit. It wasn’t like a bolt out of the blue and umm I shall just leave it at that. Not a good end to the week. I feel like I’m not on top of things and that I haven’t been for a while and that maybe we would not be in this position had I been. *sigh*

Having said that, getting home to find an email reply from pretty much a perfect stranger noting that the company I work has been upgraded to “mostly a shower of cunts” not only cheered me up immensely had me laughing for several minutes. It’s very much a line that will make sense to none of you but I thought it worth noting.

It does lead nicely into another topic. I don’t actually like that word. It’s gaining a lot more usage recently, at least that I have noticed. The phrase ‘shower of cunts’ is a meme over at the V and in work, its pretty common in usage. I’ve found myself using it a few times recently too. I don’t think I like that.

It is suppose to snow again overnight and in the morning. That would be good. I want to actually take some photos. It is cold outside, below freezing and due to stay that way for while. That is a good thing in that when I get out of bed there should be lots of pretty snow on the ground to take some photos of, but bad in that I have to get some comics (that Hellblazer and the X Force hardcover are worth noting) and really should walk there and back.

And finally a good link from the ever lovely Alex: The Geek Hierarchy. I fall into a lot of those catagories.

Oh and another lastly, my sister has now managed to get to Korea with the help (read: pity) of three embassies.