vfth : older stuff : February 2003
Monday, February 3, 2003
On Saturday 1st February 2003, at around 2pm GMT, Space Shuttle Columbia, and all seven souls on board were lost as the spacecraft broke up on re-entry over Texas, for reasons as yet unknown. They were around 15 minutes from being safely home.
But this isn't about what happened, or the loss of those seven explorers, brave enough to travel beyond our atmosphere. It's about a wish for peace from beyond the grave.
A day before they were to lose their lives, Shuttle astronauts Willie McCool and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space, woke up, and downlinked this message to mission control.
It was a wish for peace. They weren't the first people to say that being in orbit brings it all home to you. They say you see a world without borders, and how small one nation is in the grand scheme of things.
There are some people in the world who should listen to this recording, and take it's message to heart.
"That's mine, this is mine", it's just posessions. This planet belongs to no-one but us, each and everyone.
It's not your world, or anyone else's. It's our world. Share it.
Posted by Mike @ 09:40 PM GMT [Link]
Saturday, February 1, 2003
So, I've just been away in Amsterdam for a week for a meeting. Yesterday (Friday), was the end of the meeting. I wasn't booked to come back until today, so I didn't have any problems, but the people who were booked to fly home on Friday were hit by the airports being closed down by about 2 inches of snow.
To make the situation even worse, one airport had no home of being reopened, as the highway to access the airport was completely blocked by snow, so the staff couldn't get to work. The highways had not been gritted, so everything slid to a halt.
Yet the weather forecasters got this right, and predicted the freeze over 4 days ago.
So, the planes are screwed. What about the train? Oh, that's screwed as well. Eurostar trains leaving the freezing air, and entering the tunnel, experienced a sudden temperatire change, causing condensation in the electrical systems, shutting the train down. So, we now have the wrong type of cold too.
Oh, and there's 2 closed tube lines until further notice, and the Fire Brigade are on strike. They closed an arterial route near my neighbourhood, and the traffic is hideous.
Great. Super. This country is falling to bits, run by bumbling politicians and clueless graduates who have never had to live in the real world. Sigh...
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