Nate
: ?A photo from the Apollo 16 mission, Charles Duke's family portrait. I love the juxtaposition of the iconic and the personal -- and the plastic bag protecting the photo.?
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[Aldrin] and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement:
“This is the LM pilot. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.”
He then ended radio communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he took communion. Here is his own account of what happened:
“In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, ‘I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.’ I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O’Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly. . . . I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.”
Nate
: ?I think the Cartographic Society's argument only carries so far—first, because any map-making is by its nature an act of editing, simplification, stylization, and erasure; and second, because as the technology improves, we'll start to see more ways of accessing the info included on the old maps as well as the new.?The president of the British Cartographic Society says Internet mapping (Google Maps etc.) is wiping away the richness of Britain’s geography and history. She says “corporate cartographers” are leaving off landmarks like churches, ancient woodlands and stately homes. And history out of sight is history out of memory. [BBC]
]]>Nate
: ?A photo from the Apollo 16 mission, Charles Duke's family portrait. I love the juxtaposition of the iconic and the personal -- and the plastic bag protecting the photo.?Nate
: ?Similarites to the Culture-Making logo are entirely coincidental.
Robbo sez, “Stunning photos of the Earth and the Moon taken from Mars by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.Akin to the seminal Earth rise photos from Apollo 8 in 1968 - these images made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.That’s us out there.”Link(Thanks, Robbo!