NASA at 50

Yesterday marked the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Despite the half century that NASA has spent on space exploration, the entire field seems oddly stunted. Though startling advancements have been made in the unmanned exploration of the solar system, the actual manned missions only ever got as far as the moon, and the last mission there was thirty years ago. NASA's progress, though explosive in the sixties, has largely stalled in recent years. Namely, the Space Shuttle and International Space Station have proved to be hideously expensive and altogether lackluster in their ability to inspire the public or private investors. As NASA reaches this milestone in it's history, a moment should be taken to consider if this is the right path to be followed if humans are to colonize our solar system.

Seventy years before the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, the Ming Dynasty drafted and released a fleet that could have easily circled the Earth created the first truly global trade network. This was three hundred ships, and 28,000 sailors charting the oceans under the Chinese banner. The reach of this fleet was unprecedented, traveling as far as Greenland and Antarctica. The ships, however, were recalled before they could reach Europe, and the entire operation was scrapped, just before it was to come to fruition. Why? A group of bureaucrats in the emperor's court felt that the entire effort was a waste of money, and that the fleet's continuation would bankrupt the empire. As a result, the fleet stalled, and the single greatest exploration of the Old World was allowed to die. NASA and the Ming Fleet have a similarity that should be taken note of today. They are both government sponsored programs, massive projects with enormous budgets that, unfortunately, are a ripe target for the accountants of any empire. They employ massive risk by the sheer scale of their operation, but also promise amazing profit for those seeking it.

Fast forward seventy years to 1492, where a Genovese explorer/pirate by the name of Christopher Columbus asked the Spanish king and queen for three ships and the money to travel across the Atlantic. A small voyage, and a comparatively small risk. The results of which, however, were dramatic. This small investment by a spanish king and queen launched the discovery of the new world by the West, and fomented the rise of Europe as the dominant power in the world. Three ships were all that was needed to send a group of men to discover a new world.

The charting of Space, like the Atlantic, cannot be done by a program that relies on government administration. The cause is simply too remote, and too expensive to escape the slashing of a bureaucrat's red pen. Like the Ming Dynasty's fleet, NASA is simply trying to do too much with too little, and as a result it is unable to produce truly inspiring results. The U.S. government, if it wishes to stay solvent in the exploration for space, should not concentrate on massive space stations costing in the tens of billions of dollars. What it should do is facilitate companies like Virgin Galactic, and other exploration companies to create their own vehicles and launch them into space. They can lend the ships, but like Ferdinand and Isabella, this shouldn't be their undertaking, rather, it should be someone with more profit motive and a greater vision.

A young man. Wears the uniform of some restaurant. Red vinyl coat, white pants, hat with some icon, carrying the food he’s supposed to deliver. Walks through a crowd. Eyes like night, looking far away. Pale skin, almost the color of his pants. On his feet, shoes that were in fashion last winter, or so. Cheap. Blue plastic with red decals. Self-aware anonymity in his gait. Rock in a stream, people flow around him, blurred into a line. A face in the crowd. Lost in the mass.

Anderson Sanchez. First man with mirror eyes.

On the road. Quiet. No other cars. Driving gloves on the steering wheel, no reflection on the glass. Fall day, yellow sun through burnished leaves. The white hood reflecting no color. Silent curve in the road, almost not worth taking. Crashing of dark trees, rending of flimsy steel, the shriek of rubber tires on an asphalt road. No sign of the mirror eyes.

Anderson Sanchez. To see what he sees.

Hawk flies high. Riding a thermal into the sky. Cobalt blue, great bastion of cumulus. Pillars of ivory, wispy and substantial. Pylons of an electric tower, black against the lighted day. Hard angles, the skeleton of horn. Dominating the scene, form from absence. Shadow given shape.

Anderson Sanchez. Artist of a new world.

Theories and Such

So about six months ago I had this GENIUS idea for a site called "Quid Pro Quo"
The user would make a list of what he would want (creatively called the 'want' list) and a list of what he had (called the 'have' list). Then people could view his want/have list and offer trades using the items on their want/have list. Like Craig's list, but without the prostitution.
Wouldn't you know that some imbecile made the site before I could find the time to code it. Damn.
I am now under the belief that a muse visited me in my sleep and implanted the idea in my head. When I opted for laziness, she went somewhere else.
Therefore, I am going to post all the odd theories I've had up here, time-stamped by blogger, so that I can say I thought of it first. So there.
One: I had an idea for a notecards program where instead of the normal split up style, you'd just input a whole pile of cards (essentially), and basically organize them into each pile. You could have stacks mode, sequence mode, and my personal favorite, desk mode, where you get them in a pile in the middle and basically throw them where you want. You could put more than one copy of a card in multiple stacks and (unlike many notecard programs I've seen) the cards would be all in one singe file, each tagged by keyword, so you wouldn't have to open multiple files to access all the cards you wanted. Call me crazy, someone is going to make this and it will be HUGE.
Two: I was thinking about how not all of Neptune's speed is accounted for, and how the Pioneer probes are moving oddly slow. So I had an idea (which is probably wrong) regarding the "density" of space-time. What if, and I'm probably wrong here, that gravity has a more pronounced effect in certain areas than others. I.E. G is not constant, but varies. Eh. To use the rubber sheet example, some parts of the sheet are made of rubber, and other parts are made of nylon.
Three:I have more links.
Very cool article on WIRED regarding a Polish Computer Scientist who has made a way for you to never forget anything. Companies have tried to make a method of learning a language without memorization (Rosetta Stone), and have been only marginally successful. This guy's program helps you with the memorization so that you can effectively become proficient in anything you are trying to learn.
This blog takes various weeks from the Guardian and attempts to represent them visually. Its a very cool way to revitalize how we produce and consume media.
Via the creators of LASER Tag, The Graffiti Research labs, I found a site called Instructables. It shows you how to make some of the coolest stuff i have ever seen, including the Electric Umbrella and LED Throwies. I really like the Electric umbrella, because what mixes better than electricity and water?
Finally, a site called Muxtape. If you can figure out the redeeming quality of this site, please tell me.

Wasn't that worth the wait?
Gen. Danvs

Some Things I've Found

I was driving to school, wondering if I should drive in perfect squares or not, when I realized that no perfect square is farther than one from any multiple of five.
I shall illustrate
1*1 = 1; 5*0 = 0
2*2 = 4; 5*1 = 5
3*3 = 9; 5*2 = 10
4*4 = 16; 5*3 = 15
5*5 = 25; 5*5 = 25
6*6 = 36; 5*7 = 35
7*7 = 49; 5*10 = 50
and so on. Someone has probably figured that out already. It's still cool though.

I found a really skilled 3dMax/PS artist. The art is really good, but the site is really worth it just for the comments (the english ones).

There was an interesting coffee mug offered by Yanko Design. Yeah... I liked one of the comments though: Design A + Design B != innovation. Creative solution though.

My personal new favorite I've found, Smashing Magazine. It's probably the most useful site for just random web design stuff I've seen in a while. Plus it looks nice.

Ah yes, the best for the last. This is the coolest yardstick evar.

So yeah. I scrounge the pond scum of the Internet for pearls of wisdom, and you get to see it without all the effort.

It's del.icio.us!

I found del.icio.us on Friday. I already knew about it as a concept, but I thought it was pretty worthless until I actually went past the wikipedia article and visited the site.
Possibly the most powerful tool I've seen thus far was the top picks list. Updated constantly, the thing basically keeps a nice little treasure trove of worthless links- exactly the kind of stuff I explore the internet for.
One of these particular links I found is something called Laser Tag. This particular bit of digital graffiti is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. See, this group got a really powerful projector, a camera, a laptop, and a green laser pointer, turned the projector to an empty building, and tagged a building with an image that could be see for miles.
Check it out:
http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76
Also, in the blog post, under the link big fucking laser, a longer discussion over the actual software and (possibly) how to substitute the tools that they used for your own cheaper substitutes so that your own laser tagging doesn't cost $8000.
Anyhoo, I thought this was pretty cool, so I decided to share it. Someday, when I have about $1000 and a week of free time, I'll get to putting my own rig together.

'til then
Gen. Danvs