Appropriate for a Sunday, this -- and, how on earth did I miss it?
Nope. Not copying it here. Go look and give Andrew the traffic he deserves for it.
The space race is heating up.
It really is, you know. Oh, not the race to the moon conducted by those two behemoths, the US and the USSR, back in the 1960s (although that one did catch my imagination at the time). This one is different.
This one, these days, features not only other nations, although others there certainly are: India's Chandrayaan-1 made it to the moon last year, and in fact the suspicion of ice and water is due to the Indian landing.
Bill Whittle will tell you all about private industry attempts at reaching space, at PJTV and so will Dale Annon at Samizdata. Start here and here.
But that's not all. It's not just private rockets that are now headed to space, but private balloons. Yes, balloons.
Last spring, a small team of Spanish teenagers (and an adult supervisor), sent a balloon up to the stratosphere (approximately 20 miles up) and took pictures and atmospheric readings while aloft. All for about 56 British pounds.
In 2007, Alexei Karpenko performed a similar stunt, launching a balloon from Ontario to an altitude of over 30 kilometers. He offers photos, videos, and data at this site. Alexei verifies, he says, "that the earth is round and that space is black." Thanks, Alexei!
And then there's MIT.
Two MIT students, Justin Lee and Oliver Yeh, recently popped a balloon up to approximately 18 miles above the surface of Massachusetts on September 2 of this year. Took pictures, too, and they intend to post detailed instructions of how they did it. And their budget? $148 US.
Wow. Think on this: 56 British pounds? A hundred and forty-eight bucks US? This is a model rocketry/ham radio/buid your own Linux computer/beer brewing budget, for crying out loud.
Again, wow: this is enough to make you want to check out MITOpenCourseWare. And see Gary North's comments on that effort here.
It's enough to make you want to go back and reread, and rewatch, Cosmos. Twice, even. I highly recommend doing both.
(Look, especially, for Sagan's description of how Eratosthenes successfully measured the size of the earth, and for the proof of why there are only five Pythagorean solids.)
And why do I wait to report all of this? Laziness, and other priorities, yes -- but also because on this day in 1942, according to Wikipedia, a V2/A4 rocket (and don't ask me what the A4 variant was) was launched by the Germans and is said to have been the first man-made object to reach space, at least briefly.
Not sure how George H. Smith would handle this, but...
Penn Jillette discusses the Beatles as proof of God.
Here's a list of someone's idea of The 100 Greatest Live Albums of All Time. It's actually a pretty good list, and at least makes for some fun reading. Pretty light on classical and opera performances, but on the other hand, a few nice surprises as well.
Some of my comments:
Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison No comment. No comment necessary.
Frank Sinatra - Sinatra at the Sands -- and the backing group here is Count Basie and his orchestra! Excellent stuff, including a very non-PC monologue from Frank.
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense This ain't no disco.
The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. The guitar duo of Keith Richards and Brian Jones moved rock and roll beyond the limitations of "lead guitar-rhythm guitar," but that sort of cooperative guitaring was perfected during their so-called "mid-career" days by the Keith Richards-Mick Taylor team. Check out the two solos on "Sympathy for the Devil" to see what I mean (Keith goes first, then Mick). This version includes more tracks, including opening acts B.B. King and Ike and Tina Turner.
The Who - Live At Leeds For years, many have claimed the title Greatest Live Album of All Time for this one. If you are foolhardy enough to argue against that point, at least listen to "Young Man Blues" to see what you're up against.
John Coltrane & Thelonious Monk - At Carnegie Hall Oh hell yes (although I would insert here that the act was billed as The Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, and I leave it to each listener to determine which man dominated the sounds). Without a doubt.
U2 - Under a Blood Red Sky Hearing the first few notes of "Gloria" in 1985 made me a U2 fan. Rock sung in English and in Latin? Gotta go with it.
Grateful Dead - Europe '72 Classic Dead line-up. Before you laugh at "doper music," listen to this version of "Truckin'" all the way through. Straight or high, your choice.
The Clash - From Here to Eternity Live Live versions (even though the liner notes blew it on the dates of the shows) of "Armagideon Time" and "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais," and the definitive version of "Complete Control," from the only band that matters.
I regret the omission of more classical and opera live recordings, but there we are. I'd also have to say that, even though it's long out of print, The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl should be on this list. Out of print status, actually, shouldn't bar an album's appearing on a list such as this one -- I mean, the Sinatra album above seems to be unavailable as well. Barring the Hollywood Bowl album, then, The Beatles Live at the BBC should definitely be on this list.
The omission of Live at the Fillmore East by The Allman Brothers Band is just...unfathomable -- "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" is the greatest instrumental in all of rock and roll, and its signature performance is right here.
But: at least they didn't include this thing.
(Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds)
On this day in 1990, Germany was reunified. Gott sei dank.
The $700 billion US financial industry bailout is also one year old today, though that one gets a boo in my book.
And it's my brother's birthday as well.