“From this day to the ending of the world…we in it shall be remembered”
The BBC reports a new database containing details on a quarter of a million soldiers from the Hundred Years’ War has gone live. Impossibly cool stuff.
Slipping the surly bonds of Earth…
For 50 years, humanity has been straining at the leash of gravity. Those drawn to this endeavor come from all kinds of backgrounds, and for a host of different reasons. The one common thread running through it all is a desire to see the species break free of the limitations placed on us by virtue of birth, to push our understanding of ourselves, our world, and the larger universe around us ever outward. It’s a pattern of behaviors repeated throughout history, with its share of ups and downs. Finding the Northwest Passage, circumnavigating the globe, crossing the Atlantic, or spreading west of the Mississippi, we have pushed against the environment, geography, and political forces to move Beyond.
Any frontier contains danger. If it did not, then the advance and spread of humanity would never have been checked in the first place. The functional definition of “frontier,” for this purpose, is the place beyond which we cannot proceed, certain of our safety. When confronting these frontiers, exceptional men and women have stepped forward and proferred themselves in service of a greater good, to push into those boundaries and see what lies beyond them. Many have lost their lives in the effort. We owe a debt to those explorers that we can never adequately repay, save to remember the price they paid.
Today is a designated Day of Remembrance for 17 of those explorers. I’m too young to have seen Apollo, watched Challenger disintegrate live on television in my elementary school classroom, and got the call about Columbia from a coworker in the space program. I’ve watched hearings, read reports, and prepared reports for release to accident investigators and the public. I’ve also had the good fortune to meet some of the men and women that continue to suit up, strap in, and blast off to blaze the trail for humanity’s future. It’s my fervent belief that the job they do should never be taken for granted, and that these sacrifices never be forgotten. Nothing about spaceflight is “routine,” no matter how many launches we make.
Yes we did.
My console-jockey brethren are likely the only ones who will appreciate it, but it amused me.
And now for something completely…
…awesome.
Widge posted this over at Needcoffee, but I thought I’d throw it here, too.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you America’s best third-party candidate:
Early Morning, April 4
Forty years ago today, humanity (having decided nailing one guy to a tree wasn’t enough to send the message) dropped the ball and a coward ended the life of yet another man who had the audacity to suggest we not be miserable sons of bitches to each other.
It’s one of the darker moments in the 20th Century, from where I sit, and in my more cynical (yes, more than usual) moments, I fear for any charismatic black leader in America who starts to see their ideas get “too much” traction with the people.
Remember kids…power hates a populist.
Damn it, Hollywood.
Why must you tempt me with cool? I know, in my heart of hearts, that this will likely be awful, but between this and Eccleston as Destro, dammit, I’m going to have to go to the theater.
IT’S ALIVE!!
Two months, a busted replacement unit, an unnecessary video cable replacement, and a completely useless repair order tracking system later, I can return to wasting my time in the previously scheduled fashion.
Some days, I love my job.
Aside from the endless meetings, the office politics and bureaucracy that could only exist at a government agency, and the constant, Sword-of-Damocles spectre of the dreaded continuing resolution, I dig my day job. I write on a daily basis about insane things that less than one generation ago were the stuff of science fiction.
More importantly, I’m pretty much surrounded by geeks. Inside the chest of every rocket scientist I’ve ever met beats the heart of a huge dork, weened on Star Trek and sci-fi novels. Today, I was reminded just how random and geeky many of my coworkers really are.
Your honors, I present Exhibit A:
Excuse the crappy phone-cam quality. For those that can’t make out the text, it reads simply “CYLONS: Why Software Testing Matters“.
Off to another meeting.