Today the Space Age offically entered its fiftieth year, as today marks fifty years since Sputnik roared off the pad at Baikanor Cosmodrome and into history.  Amazingly only twelve years later man would walk on the moon.  Since the end of the Apollo progeram one has to wonder if the intervining years of space exploration have been wasted.  I would say that they have not been wasted, but rather under utilized.  Our continuing efforts in space have returned massive dividends here on earth, but we need to and finaly are resuming the path of outward human exploration of our solar system.  The Orion program to return to the moon is a well thought out and well designed program, it combines the early NASA grand vision and seemingly impossible goal (manned missions to mars by 2030 or so)  with all of the knowledge and experince NASA has gained through the shuttle and robotic exploration programs of the last thirty five years.  What will the next fifty years of the Space Age bring?  Who knows, but I would benture to guess that in the next twenty five years Space will be opened to the average man and woman as commercial space tourism and other commercial ventures in space go from a niche market catering to the super rich (current) then the well to do (SpaceShip 2, 5 years or so away) to afforable to all (10-15 years from now).

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From the Taipei Times: Tibetan nomads ordered to settle down in cities for the sake of the environment.

     China is ordering 100,000 ethnic Tibetans to give up their traditional nomadic habits and settle in towns because their way of life is threatening the environment, state press reported yesterday.

     Overgrazing from the Tibetan herders' livestock and the growing number of people living on the grasslands of China's Qinghai Province are endangering the source of the nation's great rivers, Xinhua news agency said.

NEW TOWNS

     By the end of this year, 60,000 Tibetans will have been moved into new towns in Qinghai, with the number to grow to 100,000 by 2010, Xinhua reported, citing a government document and local environment officials.

     While the agency highlighted compensation packages of up to 8,000 yuan (US$1,060) a year for families, it acknowledged that not all Tibetans were happy with having to give up the lifestyles their families have known for centuries.

     The real reason for this order is so the commies can keep an eye on their restive and for their liking all too independant and self sufficient subjects.  This along with the deliberate efforts to flood Tibet with ethnic chinese is clearly aimed at creating a situation that short of external miltary intervention it would be politically impossible for Tibet to be free of the Chinese yoke.  This move also reinforces the fact that the reds in china realy haven't changed all that much since the sixties, they still have no respect for history and tradition, given that they are trying to destroy one of the last remaning Asian nomad cultures.  Much like the misguided three gorges dam they don't give a damn about protecting history when it gets in the way of their misguided and foolish schemes.  The sooner these bastards are kicked to the curb the better, for they have inflicted far too much suffering on far too many people for far too long a time.

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     After a long time, at least for me anyway, chapter 14 of Bunnies of Love is up and I like this one a lot.  It isn't my favorite, because in a way they are all my favorite but I think that moves things nicely toward the next chapter.  Although I am not so sure now as to wether or not the next chapter will be the last as I noted in the note to chapter 14, we will just have to wait and see.

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   I have been working intermittantly on Chapter fourteen of Bunnies of Love, I have eight pages done so far and I hope to have it complete late tonight or by the middle of monday.  That means I will be splitting my attention between the Cowboys game and writing from noon until about three fifteen or so when the game should wrap up.  Also I should have a couple of posts going up in the late afternoon, one on the situation in Burma and another dealing with the political situation in Japan, and possibly one more piece about the upcoming inter-Korean summit.  Beyond that maybe a fresh from the front, but that will probably wait till monday night given, we shall see.  So now back to work on that chapter, since I can't really weasel out of it now.

     Oh if you are wondering what the heck I am talking about in the first half of the paragraph above I should reiterate that I write fan fiction. (how otaku is that?) Not too surprisingly I post under the name Raging Tachikoma at Fan Fiction.net.  Bunnies of Love is my only story thus far but I will probably be throwing the first part of a FMA story up later this week or early next.

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     A personal peeve of mine has been for a number of years the term "Emergency Management."  What is it I dislike about this term?  I dislike it for the passive-re-active nature of it and the mindset that it breeds.  In some ways the poor response to hurcane Katrina in New Orleans was due to the mindset that the job of officials was to re-act to a major emergency, rather than taking procative steps to amielorate the damage done by taking proper precautions before hand.  I would like to see "Emergency Management" replaced by the term it has largely superceded, Civil Defense.  The Intelectual concept behind Civil Defense is that one must have and maintain the capability to re-act to emergencies the best protection and response is to be prepared ahead of time and to take steps that limit the damage and suffering that a major emergency can cause.  If one takes the problems at the Superdome as an example the technology (extremely low tech at that) and capability to prevent many of the problems has long exsisted as a response to the needs of the cold war.  In the '60s and 70's the federal government located and stocked public fallout shelters across the US.  The basic needs that had to be met were the same and simple, robust and inexpense solutions were found and deployed before they would be needed.  If the superdome had been so stocked many of the issues relating to basic first aid, clean water, sanitation and food would have been avoideed.  Certainly the ration for fallout shelters was the absolute bare minimum but with modern technology a much better and fully balanced diet could have been prepositioned and ready to feed those in need.

     Why then were these measures not taken in New Orleans?  Govermental incompetence at the city, parish and state level certainly played a large part.  But what is left unsaid is that "Emergency Managers" are trained to think only of how they will react to a situation and little to no thought is given to preventing it in the first place.  Furthermore the concept of "Emergency Management" seperates those in governemnt charged with responding to disasters and emergencies from the skills and abilities of the public at large.  The backbone of Civil Defense in the US during the cold war was the participation of civilian volunteers from all walks of life in dozens of capacities to reinforce first responders in time of need. Even with proper planning the New Orleans police force would have been well served by a few hundred civilian auxillaries called up before the storm to provide additional manpower in the aftermath.  In the end the mindset of people has a real affect on how they do their jobs, and what those jobs are called has a direct and major bearing on that mindset.

For a good overview of US Civil Defence go to the  Cold War Civil Defense Museum.

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     It sucks, well actually it sucks spending all day sitting around getting nothing done and not ending up on a jury.  Fortunately I don't have to go back tomorrow, but I probably will have to go in on wednesday.  I don't mind performing my civic duty, but the lawyers could try and move things along just a little bit more quickly.    I mean really, I was in the first pool called and it was the last to leave. I know that the process is important but it isn't rocket science either.

  Feeling tired and a bit frustrated, excuse me while I go get me a stiff drink.

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     One of our four dogs, and two Labs, Jasmine doing what she does best, converting oxygen into carbon dioxide.  I speak for all dog owners here when I say that I can't help but to be jealous of them at times.  They certainly seem to have come out on the better end of this whole domestication thing.  The live longer, sleep more, work less and are lavished with attention whenever they want it.  Yeah I could handle being a dog, except for maybe that whole butt sniffing thing they have going on.

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