Ken MacLeod's comments.
The title comes from two quotes:
“Work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation.”—Alasdair Gray.
“If these are the early days of a better nation, there must be hope, and a hope of peace is as good as any, and far better than a hollow hoarding greed or the dry lies of an aweless god.”—Graydon Saunders
Pages
▼
Monday, August 06, 2012
Landings and crashes
Curiosity landed successfully this morning. In perspective:
Semiology fail: the most important thing about that list is whether the probe crashed or not--the list is called "Landings and Crashes". But the most eye-catching thing about it is what country each probe was launched by. For a second I thought it was telling me no American probe has ever crashed, until I confirmed my memory by carefully inspecting the text.
We must stop needlessly provoking a peaceful but powerful planet with these spy missions. The Martian Imperial Navy, once unleashed will destroy us.
ReplyDeleteSemiology fail: the most important thing about that list is whether the probe crashed or not--the list is called "Landings and Crashes". But the most eye-catching thing about it is what country each probe was launched by. For a second I thought it was telling me no American probe has ever crashed, until I confirmed my memory by carefully inspecting the text.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the list is produced by a US site, this may be a feature ...
ReplyDeleteIf you want to land on Mars fly American, but if it's the hot spots of Venus you're keen on experiencing Ivan may be your best bet.
ReplyDeleteWe all know what happened to the ones that "lost radio contact" ....
ReplyDelete