orbiter vehicle designation 101

On this day (Constitution Day in the United States of America to mark its ratification in 1787) in 1976 President Gerald Ford christened the Space Shuttle Enterprise, named in response to an overwhelming Trekkie (“one of the most dedicated constituencies in the country”) letter campaign and the event was attended by the creators and cast of Star Trek.
Like the NCC-1701, it was not originally designed for spaceflight with no heat-shield for atmospheric re-entry (absent the expository device of a teleporter), the test vehicle was an important stepping stone to improve next generation vehicle engineering, famously piggy-backing aloft on a Boeing 747 to bring it to attitude and speed and testing its gliding maneuvers. The Enterprise was later retrofitted and flew missions in support of Skylab.

bella ciao

After more than a two year hiatus, prompted by the disturbing tilt towards fascism that’s captivated many unexpected many lately to include the separation and incarceration of young children from their families, Tom Waits has contributed his voice to the compilation of Songs of Resistance—spanning from World War II until the present—collected and arranged by composer and guitarist Marc Ribot with the Italian lament “Bella Ciao,” Farewell Beautiful, a ballad of much older and universal pedigree. Listen to the song (follow the bouncing ball with the lyrics below) and visit the link above to learn more about the anthology of protest.

One fine morning
I woke up early
o bella ciao, bella ciao
bella ciao, ciao, ciao
One fine morning
I woke up early
to find the fascists at my door

Oh partigiano
take me with you
bella ciao, bella ciao
goodbye, beautiful
oh partigiano
please take me with you
I’m not afraid anymore

And if I die
a partigiano
bella ciao, bella ciao
goodbye, beautiful
Bury me
up on that mountain
beneath the shadow of the flower

So all the people
the people passing
bella ciao, bella ciao
goodbye, beautiful
So all the people
the people passing
will say: “What a beautiful flower”

This is the flower
of the partisan
bella ciao, bella ciao
bella ciao
this is the flower
of the partisan
who died for freedom

this is the flower
of the partisan
who died for freedom

transit hub

Though quite the committed walker myself, I’ve never quite mustered the occasion for the sort of point to point travel on foot from terminal to downtown that Ian Rose has developed into a rather intriguing pastime, sharing his routes and results—as we learn from Nag on the Lake and Things Magazine.
Ages ago I recall out of obstinance walking from Marco Polo airport to Pisa but that was only about an hour’s walk under relatively pedestrian friend conditions, and ages before that being told by a cab driver that he wasn’t licensed to take passengers to the airport servicing Havana and stopped on a parallel road and was told to dash through the intervening field of sugar cane to reach the airport. We don’t fly very often but do pass Frankfurt Flughafen on a pretty regular basis and I’ve wondered about those seemingly hard-to-access areas and industrial estates not meant for human perambulation. I think that this bears some further investigation.

interscholastic

Due to limited hours per semester, a sub-committee of the Texas Board of Education (that was the nickname of the paddle when I was in school) convenes regularly to cull figures from its social studies curriculum that no longer retain the relevance to devote a portion of a lesson to studying.
Among those nominated to be consigned to a memory hole include father of modern political philosophy Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Republican elder statesman and five term Arizona senator that urged Richard Nixon to resign Barry Morris Goldwater, author and activist that overcame her disabilities to flourish Helen Adams Keller (her inspirational story has become problematic for her support for socialism and civil rights), and First Lady, senator of New York, Secretary of State and presidential contender Hilary Rodham Clinton—to name a few victims of damnatio memoriae. What do you think? The space vacated by Hobbes and Clinton is to be filled with the prophet and lawgiver Moses and the late televangelist Billy Graham respectively, if the recommendations of the committee are enacted. These decisions have far-reaching implications beyond Texas public schools since the state is a large market for textbook publishers and their will be pressure to adapt national standards to the prevailing ones.