Supersonic stuff and more.

 

Hi Carolyn,

 

 

 

Wow, after reading your July 20th entry,  I can't believe just how significantly one can be affected by " switching hands" as it were. Your recollections about just how fundamentally taxing  those activities were that we all do without thinking was genuinely alarming at times.

 

 

 

 

 

I figure your left-handed piloting of a motor-vehicle was probably better than  the norm out there in this world of almost institutionalized  distracted-driving that technology has had a hand in producing.


Mind you, your talk about riding the bus did make me think that if you actually do so you may find its a treasure trove from the people watching, and banking of images and ideas standpoint. Should you find yourself back writing there could be things you'd see that would be helpful in plotting and describing events in your own stories later on. You might even be there first hand for something that would be the kernel of a future sweet story.



Your mention of international co-operation about future space-based resource development set the direction for the next part of this blog.



At first, I figured that the idea of countries co-operating in the development of resources in a new arena, was not gonna fly well at all. I guess I was thinking too historically. The colonial period and even before that, the spice trade struggles,  stuck in my head. I'm seeing countries more interested in planting their economic flags in lucrative new vistas than countries cooperating for the greater good.




Okay, that's a cynical student of history viewpoint, I agree. But there was so much empirical evidence to back it up that I wasn't ready to look further right away.

 Well then I thought about it further and
started to think that here in the twentieth-century and beyond we have come some distance in terms of international co-operation .


 Although,  very recent events in more than one international theatre might contradict that .




The International Space Station certainly makes a great case for multi-country co-operation in the interests of technological progress.


Then I realized that one of my most favorite aviation icons was also a charter example of this very same concept. 




The Concorde supersonic airliner  ( a Franco-English effort )  hit the skies just before I hit matrimony. I remember riding down to the Toronto waterfront for the annual air show and almost riding off the road on my motorcycle because the Concorde was landing at Toronto International just as I was going by. I must have been one of tens of thousands of distracted drivers as that majestic aircraft touched down within eyesight.


I am surprised that there weren't any accidents on the freeway when it touched down.


Do you suppose that the folks who did the Hobbit movies looked at this when they thought about how Smaug would look touching down?


Anyhow, flitting about the net to refresh myself on Concorde led me, of course, to Gizmag and a couple of items about " Son of Concorde " and boy, is it cool.


" It" in this case is a supersonic executive jet , the  S 512 , being developed by Spike Aerospace for approximately 2018. They have a very sweet and slick web presence including lots of info on this jet. I have to admit I got so thoroughly and totally sidetracked and mesmerised that I'm immediately launching a business career that will feature a meteoric rise to the top of the corporate ladder by 2018, just so that I can have one of these puppies in my executive garage.  ( I wouldn't be the first, now, would I! )



For me, at least, the absolutely knock me down coolest part of this whole aircraft is the total lack of outside windows.  Aerodynamically they have always been a drag ( pun thoroughly intended ). They are replaced by cameras that project a spectacular vista of what's happening outside the fuselage onto screens that flow down both sides of the cabin and are inter-connected with web-based data generators from anywhere and everywhere.







 



It is flabbergastingly cool to think that this is for real stuff.







So, our trip to the big city and the big doctor place is done. It only took a couple of days but when I got back I did feel that I had come back from a much longer journey. Those changes in diet and fitness that I was talking about a bit ago seem to have made some impact. The PSA stuff has receded to previous levels and seems to be stable said the good doctor.


Gee, I believe you told me that such a thing would take place.
Carolyn, be sure to include " prescient " on your next CV update.



I'm gonna sit down soon and restock the riddle larder, too

bye for now.

Don