I remember very well the Apollo I fire and the loss of Grissom, Chafee and White. It was the day before my birthday, and it was a shock to the nation. But it was different than the later losses of Challenger (a quarter of a century ago tomorrow) and Columbia (seven years on Monday), because they were Cold-War warriors, and, unlike today’s human spaceflight program, what they were doing was important to the nation. So instead of shutting things down for years, as we did with the Shuttle each time, they overhauled the management at the contractor (even though it was really NASA’s fault) and a little less than two years later, we had sent men around the moon, and won the space race.
Category Archives: History
If You Can’t Stand The Heat
A history lesson for modern pampered lily-livered politicians.
[Update a while later]
Sarah Palin responds to the vicious calumny. And no, she doesn’t “apologize.” Good for her.
[Another update]
Want to see a violent political culture? Go back to the sixties:
In a very real way the media were the secret sharers of the radical left. As a young media member and novelist, I knew this well. The most radical of us were acting out our hidden dreams for the rest. We condemned them occasionally and ritually, but rarely vehemently. The Weather Underground and even later the execrable Symbionese Liberation Army were never treated in the press with quite the opprobrium they now reserve for the tea party movement. As Baudelaire put it, “Mon semblable, mon frère.” The worst of the radical left were just like the rest of us, but with a little extra edge.
They weren’t anti-war — they were just on the other side.
And so many were disappointed, including Jackie Kennedy, when the assassin was determined to be a communist sympathizer. So much so, in fact, that many of them remain in denial about it today, as evidenced by all the conspiracy theories.
[Update a while later]
Good point: “If you really believed political rhetoric caused Jared Loughner’s killing spree, you wouldn’t dare to say it.”
The Business Suit
Via Geek Press, who also brings us this: who gets to grope you?
[Afternoon update]
Here’s more info on the Venn diagram at BoingBoing.
Thoughts On Eskimos
From the strange mind of James Lileks:
As we were all taught in grade school, the Eskimos came across the land bridge from Russia, which broke once they were across, and then they settled down and built igloos, invented 37 words for snow, made parkas with fur around the face, and fished. the teacher would note that some continued to go south, and eventually populated the rest of the Americas, where they spent their time raising Maize and not inventing the wheel, hanging around wearing loincloths, and playing a game that involved putting a rubber ball through a stone circle. They also invented chocolate. Then the Spanish came, and –
Hold on, Teacher, why didn’t the Eskimos keep moving south?
We don’t know.
But why would anyone stay there? Especially when the rest of the guys are moving on?
We don’t know.
So the Eskimos are sitting in snow up to their eyebrows, and some guys say “hey, we’re going to keep moving, because this sucks,” and the Eskimos stay because they think it can’t possibly get any better?
We don’t know.
Also, some technological prognostication: videopaint.
A Truly Heavenly Christmas
On the fortieth anniversary of Apollo 8, a couple of years ago, I reflected on its significance.
107 Since Kitty Hawk
The Wrights first flew a controlled heavier-than-aircraft over a century ago, on this date in 1903. On the hundredth anniversary, I wrote three articles that are still worth reading if you haven’t, or rereading if you have. They contain a lot of lessons for spaceflight development.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I notice that the TCS Daily link from the old Instapundit post is busted. Here‘s another one.
Party Like It’s 1773
It’s been 237 years since they dumped the tea into Boston Harbor. And this year’s elections shows that the spirit of 1773 remains alive.
A Sad Anniversary
I think that today is the thirty-eighth anniversary of the day that Gene Cernan climbed back into the LEM and headed off to lunar orbit with Jack Schmitt to meet up with the command module for the trip back to earth (perhaps depending on what time zone you use). Humans haven’t walked on the moon since, for many reasons, but foremost because too many people think that the only way to return was the way we went the first time, with massive government expenditures and a big rocket. This false perception has held us back for almost four decades now.
Don’t Show This To The Kids
It’s very disturbing. And yes, it was clear early on that it was a parody of the killing of “Mr. Howard,” aka Jesse James.
So do today’s kids know Yogi? Is it on the cartoon channels? Or are they being introduced via the new movie?
Cultural Defenses Of Incest
Thoughts from Eugene Volokh. I found interesting the comment about the intrinsic incompatibility between Christian and Jewish law in this regard. But I agree with Glenn — if father/daughter relations are an intrinsic part of the culture at Columbia University, academia is in even bigger trouble than we thought.