Wednesday, 29 September 2004
When I was in space...
SpaceShipOne reaches space today, with Terence the teddy bear as a guest. Mike Melvill, the pilot, told reporters he had "a hell of a view from 62 miles." "The colors were pretty staggering from up there," he said. "It's an awesome thing to see. You can see the curvature of the Earth."
Peter Diamandis, the X Prize Foundation's co-founder, said he started up the X Prize because he saw it as the best way to further his own dream of getting into outer space someday, but even he acknowledges that a couple of prize-winning launches won't be enough to turn that dream into reality. So he's already been working on the next steps — including a surprise or two that may be announced in the days ahead:
The X Prize Cup
Diamandis already has announced plans for an annual X Prize Cup competition at a yet-to-be-built New Mexico spaceport, beginning in 2006. The event, patterned after Formula 1 and NASCAR auto races as well as the Reno Air Races, would pit suborbital space vehicles against each other in a variety of contests (makes me think of Star Wars).
Orbital challenge
Aviation Week & Space Technology reports this week that millionaire Robert Bigelow is planning to announce a $50 million prize aimed at promoting the development of private-sector orbital space vehicles — with the suborbital X Prize serving as a model. "It would be a shame not to have an orbital program," Diamandis said.
"When I ask schoolkids, 'Do you want to travel to space,' everyone raises their hand. Then I ask the next question: 'Do you think you're going to actually have a chance to go?' Very few raise their hands," he said. "I want to go to schools and have kids raise their hands, and say, 'Yeah, I'm going to have a chance to go' — which is how I felt when I went to elementary school, during the period of the Apollo program."
Monday, 27 September 2004
Championne de France!
Chacha, le super powercornichon, remporte le Championnat de France de tir a l'arc! Un enorme bravo a notre cousine depuis Annecy, Londres et... Pluton!
Thursday, 23 September 2004
Dancing...
...with tears in my eyes
See you soon in London, mate! We've got Church to catch up!
Tuesday, 21 September 2004
On My Own!
The Used were at the Astoria last night. Awesome show, ended up with the lead singer throwing up on stage at the end of the gig. The Used were the last remaining of my favourite bands that I had not yet seen onstage in the UK, and they really lived up to my expectations! Was great!
The gig's atmosphere was a bit hampered by young, overweight and unattractive girls (a condition reached through filthy eating habits and a parasitic lifestyle), viciously elbowing and punching people under the cover of their short size, large mass, jumping crowd, and the still surviving sexist myth that women deserve special protection and are devoid of aggressive, mean intentions. The ever more ambitious girth of their lower back defies the imagination and wreaks havoc on rush hour tube traffic by obstructing doors and halving the diametre of passageways. Maybe attending gigs is a form of exercise. I only wish they would go see Busted instead.
Saturday, 18 September 2004
All these things...
"All these things constructed by us to stop us disobeying us", says James on Abscond.org. His pedestrian crossing.
I bought an iPod today. It took me 25 minutes to pay for it. 25 minutes spent on the phone, speaking details of my life to a robot-controlled operator. I filled out a customer loyalty card for 5 minutes. I had to state my sex. My civil status. My birth date. My telephone number. The clerk called to confirm my loyalty card number. The application was denied. No reason given.
I didn't ask to have anything engraved into my iPod. Any witty sentence would not do. I am going to use the iPod while commuting on the tube, like all the other iPod users on the tube. I am going do listen to some of my favourite music. It will make my morning trip to work more bearable. It will make me feel good and powerful. I am looking foward to it.
On the tube, I try to walk to the right of the corridors, where it says "Walk Left". I do so only when the right side is empty, because I am amazed to be the only person disobeying. Sometimes, people deliberately bump into me. It makes me angry. People trying to force me into doing like them, like everybody. Except me. With music into my ears to make me more confident, I will bump into them too. Watch out.
Sunday, 12 September 2004
Fight Society
Well... or drink beer (Carling ad in the background)
Wednesday, 8 September 2004
Football hell
At the Sports Bar off West End, it's England vs. Poland, World Cup qualifiers, the place is packed: "No Sir, you can't go in, it's full. Wait for people to come out", says the angry-looking bouncer.
After letting in an insistant patron who managed to convince the rather credulous chief bouncer, after waiting 10 minutes with 2 other puzzled people, I was allowed in.
"Sir, you can't stand here, you must stand inside the line", says another angry-looking bouncer.
Puzzled, I look down, and I see a complex network of lines on the floor sketching people-free corridors and compartments for people to stand. And people are mostly sticking to this unspoken rule. Nobody is allowed to stand outside the zones. And the bouncers strictly enforce the rule. Amazing, given how full the pub is. The authority these lines must have over the patrons is stunning. The pub is full of roaring and drinking people, but the corridors are amazingly free.
I walk down the stairs and ask a bouncer is food is still served. The angry-looking bouncer stares down at me, and screams into my ear, "Sir, move off the stairs right now! You can't stand here!" Confused, I step aside, and then leave the bar.
Tuesday, 7 September 2004
Weapons: Detour to space
The first V-2 rocket to hit London landed in Chiswick 60 years ago. It took just five minutes to travel there from its launch site in the Netherlands. At 6.44pm, the tonne of high explosives it carried detonated in the centre of the road, gouging a crater 10m (30ft) across and 2.5m (8ft) deep. The blast killed three people, injured 22 and demolished six houses. In all, over 1,300 V-2s were fired at England, killing 2,724 people.
The role of amateur space flight enthusiasts in the development of the V2 was crucial. The amateur group Raketenflugplatz Berlin had been experimenting with liquid-fuel rockets. A (failed) demonstration impressed the Army, which recruited one of its young engineers, Wernher von Braun, a 20-year-old space flight enthusiast.
"Von Braun always saw this as a detour; he'd rather have been building space vehicles. But he also said this was the only way we were going to get the money. "He hoped that the weapons investment would lead to a technological investment that would then make possible space flight," says Michael Neufeld, curator of World War 2 history at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, US.
Von Braun later defended his decision: "In 1932, the idea of another war was absurd - there was no reason for moral scruples over the use to which our researches might be put in the future." The following year, the National Socialist Party seized power. Von Braun's detour would see him become technical director of a programme to produce a guided missile for use against Allied targets during WW2.
After the war and surrender of von Braun and his associates, the technology pioneered during the war would eventually realise dreams of space flight. The V-2 was the forerunner of the booster rockets that would allow humans to escape the shackles of gravity. But it was also the precursor of all modern guided missiles. As such, rocketry was not to escape the shadow of military exploitation.
(From BBC News Online)
Sunday, 5 September 2004
Off Soho
Saturday night in London... somebody jumps out the window and lands on the pavement, the police desperately trying to revive him/her, doing a desperate cardiac massage. A man tries to escape from the hands of bouncers with the bag he has just stolen... is tripped, caught and put in police custody, smiling defiantly at the crowd. Both my cousines are online tonight, as I chat my disappointment away on learning that Futureheads will not be playing at the Mean Fiddler tonight. Both have started school again... and things are not always easy.
James of Abscond.org is happy because his girlfriend, Naomi, will be moving to Cornwall to live with him. I wish him the best.
I spend as much time as possible on London's streets, trying to discover its best kept secrets, its getaways for the youth (besides watching the skaters in South Bank). London boys look like Swiss German girls, which I find quite funny. Well, more to come... (including pix, as soon as I get a computer here)
Saturday, 4 September 2004
At the Forum
Friday night at The Forum... Taking Back Sunday! I went to see them a few days after their Reading appearance (which was, err, not outstanding). This time, two good support bands had pumped up the crowd, and their show was powerful and intense. The venue allowed near intimate contact with the band and they responded to us. The mosh pit was very messy, left me wet from head to toe, but was great fun!
Taking Back Sunday may be for teens, may not live long, may not be called music by most of my friends, but in a dark, stuffy, overcrowded London theatre, they're the best!
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