Watch your mouth, kid

I just ran across an offhand comment somewhere that slammed into me with a bit of perspective, a simple one with a lot of baggage: Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Star Wars.

Fifty years ago. Half a fucking century. Why did that little datum suddenly register so specifically? I mean, it’s always been there, waiting to be found, and I’ve been hearing things about our read more

Now it’s been 60

That’s right – sixty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union became the first human in space, and the first to orbit the Earth, and the first to scare the hell out of some Russian farmers when he landed, mostly due to the secrecy that the Soviet space program maintained. I’ve covered my thoughts on this accomplishment, and the space race in general, read more