Author: Gordon

Why go?

Why go to space? What possible benefit can there be? Werner Von Braun said the following at the end of the 60’s:

During the Renaissance, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal
established in his seaside castle of Sagres the closest precedent to
what NASA is trying to accomplish in our time. He systematically
collected maps, ship designs, and navigational instruments from all over
the world. He attracted Portugal’s most experienced mariners. He laid
out a step-by-step program aimed at the exploration of Africa’s Atlantic
coast and the discovery of Africa’s southernmost tip, which he knew had
to be circumnavigated if India were to be reached by the sea. With equal
determination he pushed for the possibly shorter west-bound route to the
Far East. Prince Henry trained the astronauts of his time, men like
Ferdinand Magellan and Vasco de Gama, and he created the exploratory
environment that launched Columbus from neighboring Spain on his
historic voyage.

Self-centered medieval Europe was subsequently turned into an outgoing,
exploring and expanding continent. England became a different place
after men like Sir Francis Drake or Sir Walter Raleigh followed in the
footsteps of the Portuguese and Spanish navigators. As a direct result
of an age of exploration that opened their eyes and revamped their
standards, Europeans and their American off-spring have ever since led
the world in intellectual dynamism.

Henry the Navigator would have been hard put had he been requested to
justify his actions on a rational basis, or to predict the pay-off or
cost-effectiveness of his program of exploration. He committed an act of
faith and the world became richer and more beautiful as a result of his
program. Exploration of space is the challenge of our day. If we
continue to put our faith in it and pursue it, it will reward us handsomely.

The Sons of Martha

Here’s to the people who know how to run things: “People who society
allows to get kicked around like slaves for no reason other than because
they know what they’re doing… a mind-set that makes no fscking sense to
me. I mean… the sheep bleat and trample us… because *we’re* the ones
who know how to keep their precious sites and blogs and e-mail running?” (Steed in ASR).

The Sons of Martha
Rudyard Kipling 1907

The sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited
that good part;
But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the
careful soul and the troubled heart.
And because she lost her temper once, and because she
was rude to the Lord her Guest,
Her Sons must wait upon Mary’s Sons, world without
end, reprieve, or rest.
It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and
cushion the shock.
It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that
the switches lock.
It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care
to embark and entrain,
Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by
land and main.

They say to mountains, “Be ye removed.” They say to
the lesser floods, “Be dry.”
Under their rods are the rocks reproved-they are not
afraid of that which is high.
Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit-then is the
bed of the deep laid bare,
That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly
sleeping and unaware.
They finger death at their gloves’ end where they piece
and repiece the living wires.
He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry
behind their fires.
Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into
his terrible stall,
And hale him forth a haltered steer, and goad and turn
him till evenfall.
To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till
death is Relief afar.
They are concerned with matters hidden – under the
earthline their altars are-
The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to
restore to the mouth,
And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again
at a city’s drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a
little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop
their job when they dam’-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark
and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren’s
day may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path
more fair or flat –
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha
spilled for that!
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness
to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their
common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed – they
know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for
them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the Feet – they hear the Word – they see
how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and – the
Lord He lays it on Martha’s Sons!

This poem is part of the ritual of Calling the Engineer. I am not an Engineer, but as a programmer and, especially, a systems administrator, I know the feeling.

History

Bill Whipple has a new essay. Nuff said.

A friend of mine in Lebanon made mention the other day of “the Arabi perspective”. What if that perspective, while certainily sincere, is based on false assumptions and outright disregard for reality, and thus simply wrong?