A friend of mine said that to me quite a few years ago now, but I remember it as a moment of clarity.
It is easy to forget the awesome nature of our reality. We were sat in sand dunes, a dark and stary night, looking out into the infinite expanse, cos that is what it is!
The whole concept of the Earth in space, the solar system within a galaxy, not dissimilar to many hundreds of thousand more within the visual range of our technological prowess as a species, just stopped me there in time for a while.
The thing is, every sentient being on this planet knows, or is at least aware of the raw facts, the empirical data regarding our place in the universe, yet it seems this wonder, this bizarre collection of percieved data we absorb takes us often no futher and with little excitement into the next day in our ‘real’ important and everyday life.
Space shuttle Atlantis
2007-06-08
Image credit:
NASA/Jim Grossmann
I have to confess to being a bit of a trekie and although I would absolutely love to see a live launch I can’t help but thinking, it’s a bloody primitive mode of transport. Am I getting off the subject here? Anyway, according to the information I am reading this is the 118th shuttle mission, how many of those launches you seen on tv. The 21st flight to the space station and the 28th for Atlantis. Adding another section to the orbiting beast that circles us as we sleep in the comfort of our beds.
Check out that plume, is it not a huge cloud of smoke!
I looked a while ago at a mission log thingy for NASA, and honestly most of the flights were categorised as classified, and there was a few, that were beyond top secret, a super classified. Do you reckon there is a station on the dark side of the moon. Jesting are you not, of course there is, and i tell ya what, they are not dicking about with fossil fueled propulsion out there my dear hearts.
I just googled space shuttle mission list, and got to this from our old buddy Wikipedia List
It looks like all those classified flights I previously mentioned now have a nice alibi. Ok
I know what I initially read.
Roswell New Mexico. It was a UFO, first realese by those first on scene.
No No No, it was a weather baloon, fancy making that error, who knows, whatever, we have watched the X files, and have an inkling into the complexities of conspiracy.
If you have a thought on the subject, drop me a line, till then sleep, as gravity holds you tight.
June 10th, 2007
OMFG I am a train spotter
As I write this my partner Jodi is whizzing cross country from Liverpool to London on the Virgin Pendolino tilting train.
She is speaking at a conference tomorrow, and during our text chat I asked what train she was on, so I could get a picture and shoot it back to her.
Geek
Nice pic, she then asked me if there was any stats. Geek
The technology of the day has turned me into a cyber trainspotter and I love it. I now know for example that the pendolino has a top speed of 135mph up from 125mph after track upgrades in 2005. It has seating for 439 passengers, but averages 224 per train, and emits 76% less CO2 than same journey by car or plane. This stat comes from a study by ECCM Ltd based on flights between London, Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool. Are we to assume from this that cars produce the same emissions as planes.
Re-calculate your carbon footprint and re-book your overseas holidays..
Note: If you had wondered what OMFG is an abbreviation for, here is the long winded version to clarify.
Obscurus Mesozoic Fenestrosaurus Gizzard
April 30th, 2007
March 3rd 2007
Almost missed this one, and I’m usually so on the ball when it comes to cosmological phenomenon.
Just chlling watching a bit of telly, and Jo says hay you know there is an eclipse happening.
The pics arn’t the best,, I’ll blame it on the fact that I was unprepared.
For more info check here
March 5th, 2007
I do love a good graphical illustration.
This is it, our pending doom, brought to you on the wing from the very far reaches of our globe.
I am looking into this sexy little virus, mainly because of its recent exposure in the popular press. I would like to learn more.
If you are interested.. Read On
I am learning this as I read it, I guess I should be more informed on the matter, but until the last couple of days the situation with the ‘bird flu’ hadn’t concerned me.
My humble apologies
There is indeed much to learn, to read and consider, it seems the sense of time that governs our daily existence gives us not usually the opportunity to discover what we owe ourselves.
A closed system,,,…Do not forget.
More soon on the subject of scary mutable viruses.
The component parts
The ‘h’ in hn51 stands for haemagglutinin and is found on the surface of the influenza viruses, and many other viruses and bacteria.
Haemagglutinin is responsible for binding the virus to the cell.
The N1 stands for N1 stands for the first of several known types of the protein neuraminidase. See Genetic structure
Sources Wikipedia
Of related interest
Cats
November 12th, 2006
