OVO

Undisclosed Location, 9 August 2010.

NASA

On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot on another celestial body. Six hours after landing at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (with less than 30 seconds of fuel remaining), Neil A. Armstrong took the “Small Step” into our greater future when he stepped off the Lunar Module, named “Eagle,” onto the surface of the Moon, from which he could look up and see Earth in the heavens as no one had done before him. He was shortly joined by “Buzz” Aldrin, and the two astronauts spent 21 hours on the lunar surface and returned 46 pounds of lunar rocks. After their historic walks on the Moon, they successfully docked with the Command Module “Columbia,” in which Michael Collins was patiently orbiting the cold but no longer lifeless Moon.

The Guardian

South African wildlife experts are calling for urgent action against poachers after the last female rhinoceros in a popular game reserve near Johannesburg bled to death after having its horn hacked off. [...] The gang used tranquilliser guns and a helicopter to bring down the nine-year-old rhino cow. [...] Rhino horn consists of compressed keratin fibre – similar to hair – and in many Asian cultures it is a fundamental ingredient in traditional medicines.

So there you have it.  Two perspectives for what to do on 20 July.  In one, science and achievement land men on the moon.  In another, “traditional medicines” make it profitable to kill off the last female of an already endangered species.  For all the feel good grooviness of “traditional medicines,” my blood boils when I read articles like this.  There’s just no excuse to patronize “traditional medicines” any more.  We could be on our way to the stars, but instead we waste our world for super-spooky ghost cures.

Against all odds, people have found cures for some few illnesses in the ancient past.  The cures that work are very worth keeping, testing and improving upon.  But that never describes traditional medicine.  Traditional medicine has to be spoken of distinctly from medicine.  Medicine works because it works.  Traditional medicine is traditional, so it must be medicine, so it must work.  Yes, chamomile tea calms my upset tummy down almost right away.  No, rhino horns don’t do a thing for anybody.  When a cure doesn’t work, stop it.  No matter if it’s traditional, no matter if it’s a cultural, no matter if it’s a custom.  Some perspectives for what to do on 20 July are better than others.

Spitting contempt on “traditional medicines.”

Estimated launch window for the Lemurian Flying Rocket Association: first week of July 2010.

EsoZone is a mutant unconference, Portland Oregon USA, October 9 and 10 2009.  See you there!

By applying a method of calculating gravity that was first developed for the moon to data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, known as Grace, JPL researchers have found a way to measure the pressure at the bottom of the ocean.

Old Moon Discovery Helps Unlock Earth Ocean Secrets

2009 marks 400 years since Galileo exhibited his telescope, 150 years since the publication of On The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin and 40 years since the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The calendar and anniversaries and mathematics are human inventions. The small satisfied feeling I get from nice round numbers and overlapping anniversaries is something like a superstition. I act on my superstition by writing a blog post and I don’t expect anyone to act on my superstition, so it seems harmless enough. Compared to how the professionally superstitious responded to Galileo’s telescope and Darwin’s theory, I think I’m doing pretty good. On this anniversary of three nice round numbers, take a moment to consider what science has revealed and what superstition has concealed about the universe.

They don’t let pussies go to the moon.

Neil Armstrong: One Badass Mother Fucker. | MetaFilter

accidental mysteries: Fiodar Sumkin: Cyrillique Fantastique

we are a species only about 100,000 years old, evolving on a planet where the average lifetime of a species is 10 million years. Unless we blow it, humans are going to be around in 1,000 years

Kim Stanley Robinson — Exploring Space Can Help Us Protect the Earth – washingtonpost.com

No, really.

Making of Buzz Aldrin’s Rocket Experience w/ Snoop Dogg and Talib Kweli from Buzz Aldrin, FOD Team, Ryan Perez, and Snoop Dogg – Video

“the mind is a fire to be ignited, not a vessel to be filled” – Commander David Scott

Moon men: The most exclusive club in human history | Science | guardian.co.uk

Together, you and thousands of other Stardust@home participants will find the first pristine interstellar dust particles ever brought to Earth.

Stardust@Home

numerous plans for rocket kits that are no longer being manufactured as well as other non-kit plans and out-of-print rocketry publications.

Ye Olde Rocket Plans

YouTube – SpaceRip’s Channel

Approximately six minutes of on-pad post-ignition pre-liftoff aborts in a single YouTube link.

Shuttle launch aborts. | MetaFilter

JAXA offers video clips (English versions) of its latest aerospace activities, project introduction, JAXA image software, and observation images.

YouTube – Broadcast Yourself.

The Aurora Seen from Space [PICS]

It took NASA to launch the formula for The Right Stuff. But, it took them 15 years of meticulous testing with athletes and astronauts to get it just right. Now, it’s available for every athlete!

The Right Stuff

An insight into the hardware from the first manned mission to land on the moon

Product: NASA Apollo 11 Manual

Researchers are calling for space headache to be established as a new secondary disorder after carrying out a study of 17 astronauts [I get them]

New Space Headache Category Proposed Following Astronauts’ Survey