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The Human Zoo/August 12, 2011
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from the Human Experience...
THESE GUYS ARE IN CHARGE OF INTERSTELLAR FLIGHT? Last week we wrote about a government agency - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - that is going to hold a conference on interstellar, Star Trek-type space travel later this year in the hopes of boldly going where no man has gone before within one hundred years.
Thursday those on the vanguard of interstellar space travel watched helplessly as a plane designed to fly near Mach 20 stopped sending data and, they hope, crashed harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean.
FUBAR: The flight started well, as the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 flew on its rocket into low Earth orbit being released. The plan was to have it head back towards Earth, level out and then glide at Mach 20 over the Pacific Ocean, perform some complex maneuvers like rolling a few degrees either way and then drop into the Pacific Ocean.
Mission Accomplished: And, more or less, that is what happened, it just did it ten minutes earlier than scheduled and stopped on its own without warning.
Dry, Fiscal Matter: The first Falcon flight, in 2010, was also a failure. The good news is the flights only cost about $325 million dollars and no other flights are scheduled.
Ah, What The Hell: As explorers, and others trying to the never-been-done before, since time immemorial have learned, failure happens so while we aren't any more pleased about this than you are, don't expect new Writer's Shack policy to come out of this.
Dry, Technical Matter: The flight was part of a project known as the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) Program, which is attempting to come up with a plane that can deliver conventional weapons anywhere on the planet in an hour.
Fly In The Ointment: Hilariously, such a weapon would have a similar trajectory to a nuclear weapon and still to be worked out is how Chinese and Russian nuclear defense systems would be able to tell the difference between a conventional PGS weapon and a nuclear weapon.
FROM THE GOD DESK: Residents of Cross City, Florida are getting their shorts in knot over a court order forcing them to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments outside the Dixie County Courthouse by the weekend. Since nobody is able to take no for answer in this country anymore the ruling, is, of course, being appealed.
What's interesting is the suit had been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of someone from a neighboring county who decided to get their shorts in a knot over something that really doesn't affect them. Nobody who lives in Cross City has gotten too worked up over the monument, which was paid for, and is maintained by, a local resident.
Go In Peace, Serve The Writer's Shack: Look, we're pro-religion here. Heck, we spent four years in the Navy defending your right to believe as you see fit. Not only that, we may, or we may not, have specific religious beliefs. That's our business, not yours, though we do admit to having 13-years of Lutheran schooling.
OTOH/Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: You can't have the Ten Commandments displayed outside a government building. There are a lot of people in this country and we all don't share the same religious beliefs and to have a monument to a fundamental tenet of the Abrahamic religions outside the county building is wrong.
Editor's Note: In order to whip Writer's Shack reader(s) into a frenzy for next month's Rugby World Cup, The Human Zoo is pleased to present a daily Rugby World Cup Tidbit until our blanket coverage begins.
THE NAME GAME: Participating nations in the Rugby World Cup play for the Webb Ellis Trophy, The Webb Ellis Trophy is named for William Webb Ellis who allegedly invented rugby although, like Abner Doubleday and baseball, he probably really didn't.
Eff This Noise: Legend has it that Ellis, weary of only being allowed to kick the ball during the afternoon revels at the Rugby School, decided to pick up the ball and run with it sometime around 1823.
GO IN PEACE, KILL EVERYONE WHO IS DIFFERENT FROM YOU: August 12 was a great day throughout history for killing in His name.
Leading Off: Christian fighters wrap up the First Crusade by defeating Muslim forces at Ashkelon in what is now Israel on this date in 1099. The city, however, was not taken, mainly due to internal bickering between, get this, Christian leaders.
Praise God From Whom All Beheadings Flow: Ottoman troops behead 800 Christians for refusing to convert to Islam on this date in 1480. Others weren't so lucky and were sold into slavery.
Holy Trinity: The Soviets executed thirteen Jews on this date in 1952. The defendants had been arrested in the late 1940's on baseless espionage charges and tried and convicted in front of a three-judge court that had neither prosecution nor defense attorneys. History refers to the executions as the Night of the Murdered Poets.
Thought For The Day: He was not unreasonable - usually - as to demand both freedom and the fruits of popular slavery. - Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Alvin Karpis served the longest time of any federal prisoner at Alcatraz, almost 26 years. After Alcatraz Karpis was sent to a prison in Washington state, where he taught Charles Manson how to play the guitar. He was paroled in 1969, deported to Canada, and eventually made his way to Spain, where he died in 1979.
Today's Stumper: The trivia question will return.
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
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