July 20, 1969

"Ambivalence" is the only word that comes to mind when I recall the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. I'm a space junkie from the days of Sputnik 1 when I was just ten years old. By the time of the moon landings I was a young adult and I understood the global politics around the space race and the enormous costs involved. The night of the landing, those first steps, the wall-to-wall television coverage, that was amazing. But the reality was that the race was over, America had won and there was nothing more to prove. To underline the propaganda aspect of the whole thing, the US Congress began to scrutinize the expense, eventually cancelling one "science" mission and by the end of 1972 (Apollo 17) manned exploration of the moon was over never to return again.
You can imagine my delight when the X Prize was announced in 1996 inviting private enterprise to enter their own space race and even greater delight when the prize was won only 8 years later with an interesting libertarian twist. So lets hear it for to tourists in space without government subsidy!

Walter Cronkite 1916 - 2009

Growing up in the sixties, my views of religion and politics were being formed. By the end of the sixties I realized that religion was ridiculous and politics was corrupt. But there was Walter Cronkite whom I trusted and admired even as a Canadian boy. He was the journalist's journalist and maybe the last of his kind. His nightly newscasts cultivated in me a hunger for news - that I still have. His obvious delight of space exploration and science in general reinforced in me the same feelings. Very few of my actual teachers had the same influence. So I was very sad to hear this and be reminded of mortality.

Human Evolution in 5 minutes

This is very cool video. Using "morphing software" the people (person?) that posted this on YouTube show the presumed evolution of humans from "Australopithecus to Homo sapiens in 5 minutes, following five fossils in and around our lineage in this artistic rendition." The rate of change is about 500 generations every second. Of course this presumes that all the information about human ancestry, that is, all transitional fossils in our direct line have been discovered. This may not be true as evidenced by the recent controversy following the discovery of an extinct, diminutive people known as "hobbits" from the Indonesian island of Flores and thought to be a new species of primitive humans (Homo floresiensis) and not just modern pygmies. But whether the morphing video is the final answer to the story is not the point. As indicated in the YouTube information the authors suggest that evolution is ongoing, there is no such thing as fixed species as supposed in the Creation myths. There is variation and selection based on suitability to environmental conditions, evolution is ongoing and continuous and not goal oriented. Enjoy the video, but you may want to turn down the sound as I think the music a little off putting.

GM out of bankruptcy - Take one!

It only took 40 days and 40 nights (almost biblical) for General Motors to exit from bankruptcy (but parts of the former company are still in bankruptcy liquidation which may take years to settle). The GM CFO, Ray Young, says that a lot of hard work and planning went into the bankruptcy to help speed it along. I'm sure some of the creditors that were stiffed wish that GM had planned as well when they were a real car company and not just a branch of government as it is now. So now there are just four different models, its leaner and meaner and ready to sell cars and compete with those nasty Japanese auto makers. By the way I have a Honda, its one of the best cars I've ever owned. GM stills owes $11 billion not to mention the $50 odd billion it owes the governments. Its going to be a very very tough road for them. Didn't Chrysler go bankrupt back in the '80s? Its done really well since eh?