I’m a bit frantically busy round here this week, so I haven’t had time to write much. I promise we’ll return to Mount St. Helens soon, but in the meantime, I’ve reprised one of my favorite posts. If you missed “Time and Space, Space and Time” the first go-round, go have a gander. I think you’ll like it.
New at Rosetta Stones: A Reprise
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Ah, that one – yes, a well-placed reminder for that post. It was beautiful the first time, and beautiful this time, too.
Coincidentally, I’d been experiencing feelings of awe at human abilities and the magnitude of nature and space recently: I was auditing Apollo 13 for the children, seeing as how Middle Child is going through a space craze phase, right down to building spaceships from LEGO, which is only impressive if you know he’s 3. Anyway. the movie’s still too advanced for either of the elder children, but it reminded me of how far we (I use the term rather loosely here) had come in the 1960s and ’70s with regard to space flight and space technologies. We went to the moon in 1969. Where have we gone since? The stuff they had back them was amazing! They solved problems in space. Astronauts were innovative, people in the control-room were scarily intelligent, people worked together to go out in space and walk on other surfaces. This is simply amazing. It is exciting. Incredibly so.
And saddening, considering the constant budget cuts and the financial constraints on further advancement. Think about it: We went to the Moon in 1969. It’s been nearly 40 years. Where have we gone since? There is such a huge universe out there, and we are sitting at home, ignoring the expanses and discoveries just waiting for us even right on our doorstep (by which I mean the solar system).
(Also, I had thoughts about how primitive the space program was – honestly, the basic idea is to launch something up past the atmosphere, and then let it fall back down, just like that. None of that fancy maneuvering back down into the atmosphere and stuff, just *plunk* like a stone. Freaky, incredible, funny, oxymoronic (we’re so advanced!) and just plain awesome. No limits to human ingenuity. None.)
Well, rq, it seems the republican party went to an alternative universe. Does that count?
They could stop poking their heads back into this one, they’re like that relative who just won’t leave.
So it doesn’t really count. :(
Damn! I keep looking for the ‘like’ button, and there isn’t one. But you’re dead right, rq; how can we miss them when they won’t go away?
Yeah, there needs to be a ‘Like’ button. ;)
Personally, I would like the chance to not miss them when they go away.
You know, enjoy the world with one less black mark on it before the next fight comes up.
I wonder if the difference between the 60s & now has anything to do with Hubbert’s curve & where we are on it? Some potion of _The Limits to Growth_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth) & its sequel must have been overseen by geologists. The universe & time may be infinite, but the planet is finite which may have something to do with how far we can reach and how much we can do.