genesis

Counted in the manifest in what aimed to be the first private space probe to land on the Moon among other cargo including a veritable Noah’s Ark the sum of human knowledge on a medium to last a billion year, Super Punch informs, the Beresheet mission was also carrying a sizable compliment of hardy tardigrade passengers.
When the craft crashed upon landing, it spilled out the water bears famously resilient for being able to withstand extreme and punishing environments, including the vacuum of space. While we cannot say whether this accident has transferred life to the Earth’s satellite, we learn that according to NASA’s Office of Planetary Protection this act of panspermia is not in violation of the agency’s directive meant to protect planetary environments like Mars, Europa or Ganymede that are understood to be more fecund and whose ecology might be threatened by contamination—as considered that humans have already quite befouled the lunar surface some fifty years ago.

ferrari veicoli speciali

Messy Nessy Chic directs our attention to the adorable off-road Ferves Ranger.  Introduced at the 1966 Salone dell‘Automobile di Torino, the four-wheeler (there was both a passenger and a cargo version) with an open chassis and Fiat motor notably had a left-hand drive and six hundred models were produced until the manufacturer ceased operations in 1970.

le vol

On this day in 1919, in order to redress what was perceived to be a slight during a parade on the Champs Élysées when flying aces were grounded and ordered to march on foot a month earlier, veteran and aviation instructor Charles Godefroy (*1888 - 1958) volunteered to pilot a Nieuport 27 biplane through the Arc de Triomphe.
Godefroy had his friend the reporter document the feat. Displeased with this surprise stunt that terrorised people on the streets and fearful of imitation that would put more in peril, however, authorities banned the publication of the footage—at least for the time being. Excused with a warning, Godefroy then retired from flying at his family’s insistence and ran a vineyard in a Parisian suburb.

invasive species

Via their excellences Nag on the Lake and TYWKIWDBI, we are reminded of how garbage we humans are and how noble our contrition can manifest itself through the adoption and caretaking of what’s labelled as endlings, the last of one’s kind—the sole remaining representative of a species reduced to this state not by honest brokers but by dint of the wantonness of our existence. Palliative perhaps but far from a lost cause, find out more about endlings and their unsurrendering custodians at the links above.