Apropos the topic of my earlier post today, I thought I’d usher in the weekend with a space-themed Video Fridays installment.
Enjoy, and happy weekend, everyone!
Video Fridays: Space Edition
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Tag Archives: technology
The Privatization of Space Missions & The Death Of A National Compact
I have to say, coming across the following two headlines on the very same day really stunned me:
From Wired, part of their This Day In History series:
May 25, 1961: JFK Vows to Put American on Moon by Decade’s End
From the Los Angeles Times:
SpaceX capsule captured by space station crew in historic mission
There can be no more definite symbolic nail in the coffin of the Kennedy-era Apollo program than the news today that the first privately-built spacecraft has successfully docked with the International Space Station. And while the last Apollo mission happened nearly 40 years ago, the program lived on in the sense that publicly-funded NASA remained the only operator of U.S. space missions for so long.
On this very same day in 1961, JFK challenged the American people to come together in support of his lofty goal, and it truly did require the entire country’s participation, from taxpayer dollars to votes that kept legislators and executives in office who supported a national space program.
And, as I was growing up, like millions of other Americans, I was captivated by the media coverage of the Apollo missions, and later the earliest space shuttle missions. I watched the coverage with a sense of ownership — “Mom, Dad, we put a man on the moon!” — and it was the only thing that ever stirred feelings in me that in anyway approached a sense of patriotism.
In stark contrast, the news of the first private ship to dock with the space station leaves me feeling alternately apathetic or sad.
Like this:
Tweet of the Day: @TomMINT
My friend @TomMINT actually tweeted this a few days ago, and I have to say that, yes, it could very well keep me up at night.
Of course, it’s also currently keeping me up at work, in the middle of the day.
On the bright side: presumably no poop to scoop!
Here's something to keep you up at night… AlphaDog Proto: youtu.be/SSbZrQp-HOk—
(@TomMINT) April 24, 2012
Like this:
Tweet of the Day: #Poo-PowerRevisited
This reminded me of a post about poo-power that I published way back in August 2010.
Very cool!
Denver Zoo developed their own on-site poo-power system and tested it out on a rickshaw! bit.ly/GX3hqo—
(@inhabitat) March 23, 2012
Like this:
Video Fridays: Crazy Collaboration
Well, here’s something you don’t see every day.
If someone was to tell me that veteran singer/songwriter Jackson Browne was going to perform at a Woody Guthrie tribute concert, nothing about this news would be surprising.
After all, Jackson Browne clearly followed in the Guthrie tradition, combining passionate songwriting with equally passionate progressive activism.
Now, if that same person was to tell me that Jackson Browne would be performing at a Woody Guthrie tribute concert, sharing the stage with Wayne Coyne, the frontman of those psychedelic freaks known as The Flaming Lips, and both would be playing acoustic guitars, well, I’d be pretty stunned, and I’d certainly think of it as an exceedingly unlikely collaboration.
But, if I was told that Jackson Browne was going to perform at a Woody Guthrie tribute concert, with Wayne Coyne AND the other four Lips members, who, instead of playing their normal guitars, keyboards, bass and drums, would all be playing…wait for it…iPads, well, I’d have to say that the person telling me this was all kinds of crazy!
And yet, via Paste (via The Future Heart), that’s exactly.what.happened.
Ladies & Gentlemen, prepare yourself for the crazy!
Like this:
Fish & Bicycles Conquers The World!
I haven’t always had kind words for WordPress.com, my blog-hosting service.
Take April Fools Day 2011, for instance, when they thought it would be funny to alter users’ stats pages to look like we were getting ten times the traffic we were actually getting.
Not.Funny.
Anyway, today they’ve redeemed themselves, offering up a new feature on the very same stats page, a breakdown by country of where visitors to our sites come from. And, I’ve confirmed, it’s NOT April Fools Day.
Check this out!
The color scale, which indicates numbers of page views, isn’t very helpful at this point, because the map currently only shows data from the beginning of March 2012. Eventually, there will be a bigger variety of shades from yellow to red, but already I have a pretty clear picture of where my growth markets are.
Greenland! Greenland! Come in, Greenland!
And Iceland! Geez!
Listen, I get the irony that Iceland is a very green place and that Greenland is largely covered by ice, but could you please just set aside your confusion long enough to stop by Fish & Bicycles and say hello?
As for you, China. Well, I’m sorry that your authoritarian government won’t let you roam free on the internets, so I’ll give you a pass. However, if you do manage to break through the firewall, please know that you are most welcome here.
Now, Kazakhstan and Mongolia, well, you don’t really have an excuse, do you?
Moving Westward, it gets a bit dicey. Iran and Syria, your leaders and the extremists in your country are totally whack (so are ours, sometimes), but I know you long for freedom and I’d like to believe that you, like me, would much prefer peace to war. I pray that war will be averted, that you’ll give up wanting to wipe tiny little Israel off the map, and that we can eventually get down to some cultural exchange, right here at Fish & Bicycles.
Next, Africa, if only you knew how much I love you.
I’ve only had a brief personal interaction with you, during my 1996 visit to Egypt, which reminds me of what George Clooney’s character in O Brother, Where Art Thou said when he was offered some gopher, “A third of a gopher would only arouse my appetite without bedding her back down,” only the gopher, in this case, is you, Africa, and, unlike George Clooney, I accepted the small portion and have longed for more ever since.
Finally, there’s certainly more folks to reach in Central and South America, but it’s clear that the blame lies squarely with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. I don’t know how I managed to offend the entire west coast of my neighbor continent down under, but I did mention you, Bolivia, one time in a post way back in August 2010.
Are you really still pissed off about Butch and Sundance?
