[X] My Assistant

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Sputnik at 50 !

[Thu]

Here's a music clip about Sputnik that I made from the song "Surprise!" and some vintage footages of the early Space Age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-mZ9pKvCmk

Just a few more days and it's the 50th anniversary of this first satellite. Time flies fast but nobody can forget Sputnik.

Surprise!
by Leslie Fish

Remember the fifties, those fat complacent days
When the future seemed a century away?
Then up went Sputnik, gave the world a butt-kick,
And made it clear tomorrow starts today.

Beep beep beep beep...Hello there!
Sputnik sails giggling through the skies.
Red flags, red faces, jump into the race
As the space age begins with a surprise. (well duh!)

You generals once thought Von Braun a waste of cash,
And Goddard needed treatment really bad.
Then that global shot put gave you the hotfoot
And -- beep beep -- you're blasted off the pad.

Done for a threat, propaganda or prestige --
The point is, the thing was in the sky.
It made the generals frown and put their money down,
And meet that bet or know the reason why.

That's how it started, all those years ago,
The push that got us climbing into space.
Cynic beginnings, greed for big winnings.
But look at all we've gotten from that race!

Sputnik wore out, and spiraled back to Earth;
On re-entry it burned up very soon.
Hail and goodbye to that goose in the sky --
And in twelve more years a man walked on the Moon!

[nprev]

Here's a music clip about Sputnik that I made from the song "Surprise!" and some vintage footages of the early Space Age.

Bolshoi surprise indeed, Thu; thank you, that was extremely cool!!!

BP, I share your concerns. Although the latest projections don't say Malthusian disaster this century, we all know damn good & well that something happens, eventually; hell, the geological record clearly indicates that catastrophic events are the very engine of evolution, and the fact that we are a voilitional, contentious species vastly increases the likelihood of such events.

High time to hitch the wagons; high time to go out into space, seek fresh vistas, see things that have never been seen...time to secure our future, before time runs out...

[dvandorn]

Although the latest projections don't say Malthusian disaster this century, we all know damn good & well that something happens, eventually; hell, the geological record clearly indicates that catastrophic events are the very engine of evolution, and the fact that we are a voilitional, contentious species vastly increases the likelihood of such events.

No need to worry -- we all know that the world will only end just as soon as quantum reality coalesces around the event of the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series. No less than a picosecond before that event occurs, this world, aye, perhaps even this entire universe, will meet its end.

But since this is the Cubs we're talking about, I don't imagine we have anything to fear anytime soon... wait, what's that, you say? The Cubs just won their division and are in the playoffs?

Uh-oh...

-the other Doug