Some observations, But first let me remark Ad astra per aspera ...
I was at my parents. I heard them get up arround 6AM but it was too foggy to see anything. I had pointed out the artical in the paper. Mom used to wake me up when I was little to watch the satalites. She would always clip the astronomy column and place it on the refrigerator as a reminder if there was an eclipse, meteor shower or other interesting thing to observe. My parents are to leave for the midwest in a few days to accompany my uncle's remains for burial. I went with them to wallmart to get a few things where we heard ... The rest of the day after returning home has been spent reading "Lee Corry's" Shuttle down. I last read this 17 years ago. As many know this book was actually written by G Harry Stein. (with whom I had many pleasant email conversations.) While somewhat dated (No CCN, no internet and based on a Vandenburg launch.) the book was based on the fact that NASA at the time (1981) had no contigency plans. Why I wanted to read the book again was from the press release that was quoted here. Reminded me of a thread in that book. > Please > avoid contact with any debris, because it > may be hazardous as a result of toxic > propellants aboard the Shuttle. > Harry gives these as OMS Hypergolics. Primarally nitrogen tetroxide. Also mentioned monomenthlyhydroazine. In the book, he has print reporters who do metion this in the press breifings. What I heard on TV tho called it "Witches' brew." Why do they not call things what the are. It seems that this only feeds the paranoia and "Rokets are evil" or "rokets are bad" mentalities. One thing that does strike home, in the reading this afternoon was the Easter island doctor's comment about that he has no way of treating nitrogen tetroxide inhillation. I wonder if that is what they are reporting about the people who took sick? This makes me sick. That there will be more restrictions placed onto our overprotective society and further separate the haves from the have nots. We are teaching our children to fear technology. Yet at the same time wonder why they do not take an interest in math and science. Why must we pin our hopes on children. Why not 30, 40 or 50 year olds that are perfictally capable to make this world (and more importantally this planetery system) a better place. I can not spell the name of the Indian specialist abord. But she said she wanted to go to mars. If nothing else we owe it to them. That we should find a way like the WPA to use the talent that is out there. The 50,000 of us or so here that are unemployed, but capable to push fronteers further. Why is it that we have to study a problem for 30 years. Just so some political panderer has a place to keep is toosh. Better that we take a napolionic approach and deal with accepable losses of life and limb. That we should be building more and better ways to access space. A return to tha attitude that we can do anything with that old copper kettle, some bailing wire and chewing gum. > All debris is U.S. Government property and is > critical to the investigation of the mishap. > All debris from the accident is to be left > alone and reported to Government authorities. Given the size of the debris field. I think Roman common law has more legal precidence. I supose there are addendums that relate to aviation parts falling from the sky. On the other hand after spending a year in kentucky. I learned that our current government is tolerated more than trusted. I wonder how long before a black market and other frauds start up in trading that which no one else can have. Will we have to create a police force for this as well? While I regret the loss of life. I regret more that the NIMBYs will become more restrictive and bacwards now that peices have actually landed in the back yard? I have been out of work since september. I have been depressed a lot. I realise others have been out much longer. Why must we overcomplicate things so much that it takes large corporations and ever so much paperwork? I have 25 years experience in the computer feild. Yet I feel washed up- Obsolete as the dead programing languages that fill my brain. That I have fallen between the cracks becouse I do not fit into some staticical government planned demagraphic. That I do not have a family and a utilty sports vehical large enough to protect my children from some other large vehical. That I am not PC and tell others what they want to hear. That I shoud by brandz be couse it will may you feel young and refresed with it's new and improved formula for success. I am reminded of Edmond Hillary. "Becouse it is there." Why is there a matterhorn in Disneyland? Becouse Walt like a book called "Banner in the sky." No one can climb the mountain, becouse it killed the best mountain climber in Swizerland. But when the englishman comes he says. "You call yourself guides and brave. Becouse you bring the tourist up peaks that have been climbed 100 times. Yet when presented with a real mountain you fear it." Mostly I feel for the 7 Canadian skiers who were just as advernterures and no less explorers or heros of those who challenge this world and the universe we live in. -julie PS: About my uncle. He was 85. After WWII he became one of the first employees of TWA. Becouse of a vision problem he could not pilate airplanes. So he became an instructor. Training the flight crews, and the counter people. When he no longer could work for TWA he went to work for US customs. Perhaps you met him behind a counter at the airpor? Something he would say to people who packed the meals on the airplains. "Sometimes pack a first class meal for a coach passenger." Last summer I saw him for the last time. "He told me he crossed the atlantic 33 times." I hope that his current journey is as rewarding as any of those trips. It was his stories growing up that made me want to travel and visit Europe and other places. It is becouse of him that I became intereseted in technology. When I was little he would bring me old tape recorders, typewriters and adding machines that were broken. (I'll never know why he did this, but he had a way of reading people an knowing what they really wanted.) I used to pretend those were parts of computers. When the computer revolution came I was ready. How hard I tried to figure out how to put a small computer into the case of a broken typewriter. The power supply was too big. The Z-80 computer underpowered. Yet I took to program as a natural all I wanted was to write computer programs. Especially those what are used to find the details in pictures or other simular pieces of data. And the pictures I love the most are the pictures that came from mars or venus. Or even just the moon ... -jP _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
