It is almost fifty years ago to the day that John Glenn became the first man to ever orbit the Earth. It was a momentous achievement not only for the United States space program but for all human endeavour into outer space.
Just over seven years later Neil Armstrong became the first man to step onto the moon. A few years after that it was the turn of a series of space shuttle flights, interspersed with space stations, probes into outer space and even a little rover stumbling around a few square feet of Mars - or so it seemed.
It would seem that so much has happened in space exploration in the past fifty years since John Glenn bravely zipped around the world in his little capsule.
Or has it?
Yes, there have been space shuttle triumphs and even space shuttle tragedies, and probes have indeed beamed back fantastic, surreal images from the far reaches of our galaxy and even beyond. Yes, the International Space Station lasted quite a few years and was disbanded just last year (I believe) amidst some fanfare abouts its many achievements.
But what of our human exploration of the outer realms, of 'the next level?' What of more extensive space travel that goes above and beyond a few people (and mega rich folks who paid their way) floating around a cramped, rather shabby-looking space station? What of all the talk in decades past of imminent travel to Mars and even the colonization and terraformation of Mars? What of trips beyond our moon and our immediate heavens, even if only for a brave few?
Why does it seem that, for all the talk of great 'breakthroughs' in space exploration every once in a while, it all seems rather damp squib when compared to the heady space age days of the 1960s, '70s and even '80s?
We just don't seem to have progressed quite as far and quite as flashily as we should have done. Especially when you consider all the phenomenal technological breakthroughs that have occurred in recent years right here on Earth. Changes that have re-shaped the very human existence as we know it. Space exploration, especially by humans, seems to have become almost pedestrian in comparison...
Why so?
The dissolution of the Soviet Union certainly took the urgent fizz out of the space race that was such a cornerstone of Cold War bragging rights. But is that the only reason, especially for the only remaining 'superpower?'
Or could it possibly be the fact that maybe, just maybe, endless wars that cost billions and billions to wage (if you pardon the pun) somehow take precious public money away from a more 'trivial' and less urgent 'expense' like, say, space exploration?
Wars on Earth preventing us all from the joys and collective knowledge acquired from accelerated space exploration? Surely not, hey?
Those brave men who certainly had the right stuff have certainly had their legacy made most shabby in just a half century, give or take.
Do you get my point?
I was devastated to find out early this morning that Whitney Houston had been found dead in her suite in the Beverley Hilton. She was just 48 years of age.
The first reports coming out are that she was found in the bath, possibly from an accidental death due to prescription drugs.
What a tragedy.
For so many years now I had been so hoping she would overcome her well-documented drug addiction and demons. Whilst others made fun of her and mocked her descent into drugs and delusion, I kept hoping, hoping and hoping the Whitney I had loved would return. I even found myself defending her on more than ocassion, as if I somehow owed her that. Like millions of fans around the world, I kept willing her on, so hoping she'd make that big comeback and put all the darkness behind her and be the star once more that we had all fallen in love with back in the 1980s.
But it was not to be. An icon of my youth, the epitome of all that was good and talented and beautiful in that era, is now gone. A voice like no other, a presence like no other. Gone.
There is a reason why the photo I have included of her in this post is one of when she was younger, before the darkness descended upon her.
Goodbye, Whitney. I am so very, very sorry.
I shall miss you...very much.
In my last post I ranted about the four-letter words that are an assault to online freedom and exchange of ideas and creativity, namely SOPA, PIPA and ACTA.
The online campaign against these sinister attempts at censorship on the Internet have been enormous, sustained and very bruising to those pushing for these intellectual property 'protections.' On the streets the protests have been somewhat more muted and less widespread.
Except in one European Union country. A country where the loud street protests against ACTA in particular have numbered in the hundreds of thousands and where even the national government is said to be running scared. One EU country's population is taking a very visible stand.
Is it Germany?
France?
The Netherlands?
No, no, and no again.
It's Poland.
I've seen the footage on Russia Today since last week of Polish citizens in their thousands thronging the streets and squares of Warsaw in the freezing cold, all to make their outrage at ACTA very known to their government. No other European country's populace has come close in so visible and vocal a street opposition to ACTA.
I was taken by surprise. One tends to view Poland (rather patronizingly, I now realize) as quite conservative, staunchly Catholic and very pro-American and, therefore, hardly the country one would guess would be the land in which an almost anarchic revolt against state and corporate censorship would be so vocal and so huge.
It almost made me want to hop on a plane and join them and, heck, maybe even go live in Poland!
If this is what their people are willing to do in the middle of winter (and Polish winters must be no joke) in the name of freedom and against state censorship, then that is one country that must be wholly more vibrant and alive and tuned in than I previously would have thought.
The Poles have put other Europeans to shame on this it would seem. And all power to them for that.
Bravo, Polska!
SOPA
PIPA
ACTA
These are the four letter words of our time. Okay, they're acronyms - but still akin to four letter words; of the very worst kind.
SOPA = Stop Online Piracy Act
PIPA = Protect Intellectual Property Act (much longer, pedantic title, but who cares)
ACTA = Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Three pieces of legislation or agreements that are a total assault on Internet freedom, privacy and right to free speech as we know it.
Legislators and political leaders bray on and on about how the laws and agreements would be there to protect artists and writers (and billion-dollar corporations, of course) from intellectual property assaults and 'misuse' by websites and bloggers and individual users online. Supporters of ACTA stated how the agreement was tabled "as a response to "the increase in global trade of counterfeit goods and pirated copyright protected works," whilst Wikipedia reported how PIPA would have "the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to "rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods", especially those registered outside the U.S."
SOPA and PIPA are American(-corporatist) products, whilst ACTA is an agreement between Australia, Canada, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and the United States, whilst the European Union and 22 of its member states signed up to it in January of this year as well.
All to 'protect' intellectual property, of course.
The online community saw it all for what it was and thought differently. Rather strongly.
On January 18th Wikipedia shut down for a day, as did many other sites on the Web in protest against what they see as government and corporatist infringements on free exchange of ideas and creativity on the Internet. As reported by that stalwart of establishment so-called journalism, The Washington Post:
"Around the country, Americans woke up without some of the oddball essentials of online life. No Wikipedia. No Reddit, a compendium of links to stories and funny pictures that draws millions a day. And no I Can Has Cheezburger?, the world’s best-known collection of funny cat pictures."
No Wired and a host of other popular sites either, and Firefox and Google both blacked out certain parts of their landing pages to protest what they also saw as online censorship.
I have no doubt that the vociferous backlash from the online community against these travesties of 'intellectual property protection' caught legislators and their corporate pimps by surprise. Both U.S. bills have been shelved (for now, only for now), whilst ACTA has come under big opposition, most especially from a surprising quarter in the EU (see my next post).
Shutting down websites (including blogs just like mine, by the way) for 'illegal' posts, uploads and even links in the name of protecting IP is nothing more than government and corporatist censorship masquerading as 'protection.'
How will sites be monitored for these alleged IP infringements?
Where will the line be drawn on what constitutes 'intellectual property' and the sanctity of copyright (at all costs)?
Why should corporations like those in the movie, recording and porn industries have copyrights that can be endlessly renewed, going well beyond the 50 years limit that used to be normative in copyright law?
What is this really all about?
This is an assault and a colonization by governments and corporations of that last bastion of true democracy and capitalism on Earth - the Internet.
We're all a threat to them - and they know it. That is why we must fight, fight, fight these bastards, so that they leave us the hell alone in the only place where we have some semblance of freedom.
As far as the Internet is concerned, a luta continua!
Do you get my point?
I love getting a good chuckle on a Friday morning, which is why I loved this golden nugget I came across on Yahoo, as reported by Reuters:
"Inmates working at a Vermont
correctional unit's print
shop managed to sneak a prank image of a pig into a state police crest that is emblazoned
on police cars, and 30 cruisers
sported the design for the last year, officials said on Thursday.
The official crest depicts a spotted cow against a background of snowy
mountains, but the inmates' version featured one of the cow's spots shaped like
a pig in an apparent reference to the pejorative word for police, [a] state police
spokeswoman said."
Thirty police cars? And no one noticed for an entire year?
Oh my word. Fricking hilarious!
Of course, Vermont police officials got all sanctimonious about it, stating that it dishonoured the memory of all police officers who had died in the line of duty upholding law and order.
Oh, please.
They're just bloody embarrassed that a bunch of cons were able to do such a sly thing and it wasn't spotted (or, at least, reported) for a whole year.
I can just imagine how those inmates must have laughed their heads off as they plotted their porcine scheme and saw their works of art go forth...priceless.
Pigs in cruisers - I love it.
