Newspace

And maybe they’ll be able to explain the Olympic Opening Ceremony: The Queen’s astronomer, Lord Martin Rees, suggests our scanning of the cosmos may lead to the observation of alien life in the next forty years.

MacGyver lives! The crew of the International Space Station use a toothbrush to make an emergency repair.

Notify the conspiracy theorists: A recent notorious murder case may have an outer space connection.

Recovering past dreams: Brookyn-based Singularity and Company plans to save SF, one obscure classic at a time.

Don’t forget about medical research: Recent experiments suggest a possible treatment for Alzheimer’s.

Below: Political figures encourage space exploration, and images from the 2012 World SF Con in Chicago and DragonCon 2012 in Atlanta!

Will the ships be cigar-shaped? Former American President Bill Clinton adds his support to the interstellar starship initative.

With their own Mars Mission in the works: India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh defends space exploration.

Photo Gallery: We had to scupper our plans to attend WorldCon in Chicago some time ago, so I don’t have a video of the Con. However, Michele Poague did post a video photo gallery:

And here are videos of DragonCon 2012:

3 replies on “Newspace”

    • I took it as a history of British culture, but it just played so oddly (and it sent the Tinfoil Hat Crowd completely around the bend with bizarre explanations). However, I am always open to hearing more.

      Mind you, it would be interesting to know what aliens thought of it.

      • It would be interesting to find out. They probably thought it was odd.

        Basically (if I can remember it right – I did understand it all at the time) it was a run through a heavily abridged version of British history, starting from the idealised rural life from not long before the industrial revolution, which was definitely not idyllic (it was very hard work). Then it was the industrial revolution, with the chimneys going up, the countryside being mined and Isembard Kingdom Brunel wandering around looking at it all (he was a civil engineer of the period, responsible for some remarkable bridge-building, tunnel-building and the Great Western Railway. And other things. He also had an awesome name).

        After the industrial revolution it paused to mark the losses of the two world wars, with lots of people in period uniforms with their hats off.

        The post-war era moved through music and dance. The music for that was in pretty strict chronological order, gradually moving through the 50s and 60s and 70s and 80s and 90s with the dancers changing to go with it. To go with the modern era was a family, with their house, which caused some furor when the Daily Mail (probably our nastiest newspaper) claimed for a while (before they changed the article) that no happy multicultural families existed anywhere in the country. Which is most untrue, I know some of them.

        My memory of the ordering is breaking up around now, but there was a big tribute to the National Health Service, and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, and the armed forces.

        And music and stuff.

        But basically: whistle-stop tour of relatively recent British history, then some love for the National Health Service and the armed forces, all done in great style.

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