Hmm… I said earlier that I did not put these thoughts in any of the other threads so that it would not interfere with others greiving and shock. I started a different one to stay out of peoples way.
Hard to tell if you are being sarcastic or not without the ever present rolleyes that accompanies half the posts on SDMB.
Fucking Hell.
Do you want 24-7 coverage of fucking car accidents? Maybe you should start FATV (Fatal Accident Television). Goddamit, there is a business opportunity. Now turn off your TV and take your car to go video some car accidents.
Well, no, but how about taking some of the massive investment in military strength and using it instead to provide health, safety, and environmental improvements to mankind rather than instruments of destruction?
Where the hell did this come from?
I hardly think that appreciating the sacrifice made by the astronauts dimishes the efforts of other heroes.
You don’t seem to have read or absorbed my post. My point wasn’t to just to say that astronauts are passionate about what they’re doing, it’s why they are passionate about it. I was trying to impress upon you that they could not possibly be as passionate about it as they are for purely selfish reasons. They are passionate because they think they are doing something that is very, very important to the future of the huamn race.
Firefighters WANT to run into burning buildings. They enjoy the excitment. They get off on the danger. This is not an insult. They HAVE to be the sort of person who likes it, or they couldn’t do their jobs. But is that why they WANT to run into the building? FUCK NO. They go into burning buildings because they WANT to save lives.
Saying that an astronaut is a hero in no way makes a firefighter, or a law enforcment officer, or a solider less of a hero. All working heroes do their jobs because they believe that they are making people’s lives better.
I don’t think that I should be reading this kind of bullshit, much less posting in the pit, in my current emotional state, so I’ll leave it at that.
From an idea that, yes we need to get off the earth eventually, and a general hatred of mankind…I’d apologize, but I’m just learning the rules here, and haven’t got the feel for posting.
I’m going now…I bid all of you a very fond farewell…
NASA has asked everyone who took video of the Shuttle esxplosion/breakup to turn their copy over to NASA.
NBC News reports practically all of the videotape we see on TV of the Shuttle falling is amateur video taken by ordinary people. As each heard the explosion, people rushed outside and videtaped what they saw.
NASA is asking that all those taped this tragedy be turned over to them for analysis.
It’s much different from other accidents. The space program is a huge and new frontier. It is our future, and we’re only at the baby-steps stage. Things like this are major set-backs. Let’s try a different example. What if some tragedy in the Navy that killed… 500 people, say… were to essentially shut down the entire Navy for a number of years. That would be newsworthy, no?
I wasn’t alive for the Challenger.
I’ve heard for years how stunned people were when it happened, how they felt, how it was a national tragedy. I’ve read the speeches given by the President. I’ve read and watched and studied about both the Apollo1 fire on the launchpad and the Apollo 13 situation. I’ve heard and read and watched and thought, and I never could quite tunderstand. I never quite understood how those millions of people watching the liftoff all across the country felt.
Now, this morning, I do.
When I woke up this morning, I visited the UnaBoard, and at the top, where board announcements are listed, it says “Shuttle Columbia destroyed.” I clicked on the link, read through the thread, and quickly turned on CNN. I saw the fireball. And I understood.
But that’s not what this thread is about.
I will probably cover what some previous posters have already.
The space program is a national entity. Everyone who pays taxes has a financial interest in the program, but it goes deeper than that.
The waning interest in the space program, coupled with this disaster and an impending war could mean the extreme cutback or even loss of the national space program, but it goes deeper than that.
This is the first time the United States has lost a shuttle on landing, only the second time the United States has lost astronauts in flight, and only the third time our astronauts have ever died in a spacecraft. This is not a common occurence, certainly not as common as car accidents, or even plane crashes, but it goes deeper than that.
The seven people aboard the shuttle died. These people were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. Commander Rick Husband, 45, who has sung in church choirs for years. Pilot William McCool, 41, father of three, who was on his first space flight. Payload commander Michael Anderson, 43, the son of an Air Force man, lived out his childhood dream of being an astronaut. Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla, 41, an Indian immigrant who was on her second space flight. Mission specialist David M. Brown, 46, who was on his first space flight, and who carried a Yorktown H.S. (Arlington, VA) flag that had previously been carried up Mount Everest. Mission specialist Laurel Clark, 41, mother of an 8-year-old-son who sometimes worried about her being an astronaut. Payload specialist Ilan Ramon, 48, father of four, the first Israeli astronaut, whose mother and grandmother survived Auschwitz, who served as a fighter pilot through the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s. Yet it goes deeper, still deeper than that.
The space program, since the 1960’s, has been one activity that has not only brought the country together, but has shown the tremendous ability of mankind to dream, and then to achieve those dreams. To overcome setbacks and mishaps and tragedies. To plan and build and achieve. This, to me, at least, is why this is different. Why this is important. Why this is news.
I’m sorry, I must correct my statements. I was alive for the Challenger disaster. However, it was in 1986, and I was 2. So I don’t remember it. All my statements but the first one still stand.
Thank you Garfield, Some of the other posts by insensitive fucks have upset me greatly. Your post makes me realize that maybe there is some hope for humankind.
Equipoise if comments in this thread upset you so much then why did you come back here to read some more? Why not go to one of the numerous other threads for support in your time of need?
ZikZak makes really good television sets, but they do have that downside of having no off button. Competing brands still have one, though.
First of all, there was no “explosion” of the space shuttle today. Nor, if you want to get technical about it, was there a fireall.
As for having the footage replayed over and over, I have no problem with it.
If you do, then change the fucking channel to Comedy Central so you can catch their latest showing of B.A.P.S.
Because sometimes I have to remind myself that people are cold, heartless, cruel and uncaring. Usually I can do that easily if I peek into the Yahoo Message boards. Today I was reminded of it here.
You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to hear a news anchor say “That’s all we know right now. We’ll get back to you when have new factual information” and not fill time with people’s reactions. Especially family members of the victims.
Not that their reactions aren’t poignant. They are, they’re just not news. And I don’t need to hear about it. Let the families mourn in peace. And return us to the regularly scheduled program.
Actually, I have yet to see the footage of the shuttle breaking up. Anybody got a link to it somewhere?
Esprix
You pick your heroes and I will pick mine. In my opinion this crew is heroic because they dedicated themselves to an endeavor that was noble. They have made the ultimate sacrifice in order to advance our understanding of the unknown.
I have followed the news coverage pretty closely. I know that at some point the networks will resume their schedules however I believe this is a story that is without question news worthy. If I do not wish to view what they are showing, I can always turn the tv off.
You can’t remember something like that for more than 9 hours so you had to come back to “be reminded”? Do you have a hard time remembering how to breath and eat or do you set a reminder on your Casio wrist watch?
I hate people who assume they are the only person tv or the internet exists for…
yeah, you saw it a million times by noon, but some people don’t sit and watch tv all day like you, they loop the information so new people can see it, you are not so important that they should stop showing it the second you have seen it all?
do you watch tv 24 hours a day? have you ever done ANYTHING other than watch tv? in that time you were doing something else, if something important happened wouldn’t you be glad that they didn’t just show it once and go back to normal programming?
tv is sometimes made for people other than people who can watch tv 23 hours in a row.