Daily Archives: 21/09/2011

Politics, Technology, US

Space Shuttle…

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In the 1981 we were taken by a teacher and sat in a small hot room and watched the first shuttle countdown on TV. The room was too hot and we didn’t see the launch because it happened during the European night. It was a massive let down.

Watching the news the following day there was nothing we couldn’t build. Sci-fi seemed to be possible and real.

A few years later I was given a copy of this.

Pages and pages of countdown instructions, specs and plans. Again, my mind exploded with the possibilities. Whenever I see complexity I know that it’s possible to get it in order. After all, others have done it before.

I didn’t see a launch or witness a landing; I looked into it, but the timing was never right. However, the shuttle showed what was possible and gave hope in the middle of the Cold War.

I’ll miss it.

But more than anything I’ll miss being able to share the hope with my kids.

Space Shuttle: The complete missions — by Nature Video – YouTube.

 

 

Politics, UK

The English riots…

“THROUGHOUT history, one of the first casualties of riots has always been scientific understanding. From the French Revolution to modern-day riots such as those that caused chaos in English cities last month, concerted attempts by authorities to limit the ways events are explained make empirically grounded understanding virtually impossible.

One of the common methods that politicians use to strangle debate is to pass description off as explanation. Prime Minister David Cameron’s statements in the days following the English riots are a classic example of this. On 11 August, the day after order returned to the streets, he asserted to the House of Commons that the disturbances were “criminality pure and simple”. Later, at a youth centre in Witney, he stressed the events were not about race, social welfare cuts or poverty. “No, this was about behaviour.”

Trying to understand the English riots is not a crime – opinion – 20 September 2011 – New Scientist.