Buzz Aldrin reflecting on fear, bravery and valor in the New York Times:

“I don’t think anybody astronauts or otherwise is born with some kind of right stuff. It’s something you work into.”

To learn about bravery, ask a man who walked on the moon.

That article also got me thinking about Michael Collins. Talk about your unsung hero. He went all the way to the moon and stayed in the Command Module (incidentally named Columbia) orbiting the moon alone, to make sure they’d be coming back to Earth. Imagine what must have been going through his head while Neil and Buzz were hopping around Mare Tranquillitatis — The Sea of Tranquility. On the far side of the Moon no communications were possible. One man in a tin eggshell whose orbit defined the furthest frontier of humanity’s reach. With all the Moon and space behind him, no one has ever been so far from home. The loneliness and awe of those 26 and half hours must be unprecedented in all of human history.

Five months later Michael Collins resigned from NASA and the Air Force.

“The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.“

darkened in memorium

Though my initial favorite design for Ground Zero was the Norman Foster design, I’ll be looking forward to either the Daniel Libeskind or THINK Team buildings. The THINK building, two towers of lattice was one of the ones I really didn’t like at first, but that was based on seeing only one photo. The 3D walkthrough on the New York Times Envisioning Downtown site is astounding. Both designs are exceptionally well thought out, I especially liked Libeskind’s use of light to commemorate the times of impact on September 11th.

2-pop recently implemented UBB fourms, which is a huge improvement. I threw together a quick forum jump menu for their front page, but it got eaten by the forum ampersand translation. Here is a working version:

2-Pop ForumsSpotLight:Final Cut ExpressProduction:DV CinematographyDV CamcordersPanasonic AG-DVX100 CameraGear & AccessoriesProduction AudioFinal Cut Pro:FCP EditingFCP 101FCP – Advanced TechniquesFCP for FilmFCP -AudioFCP for DocumentariesFCP- Titling, Compositing and EffectsFCP – PAL IssuesFCP on PowerBooksFCP – HardwareFCP – Feature RequestsApple iMovieCompositing, Animation and Effects:Compositing, Animation and EffectsNLE Software:Adobe PremiereAvid XpressDVPinnacle EditionDV Hardware:Decks, VTRs, Media Storage and FirewireCapture CardsWeb and Multimedia:DVD – Authoring & CreationCleaner, QuickTime & other Compression ApplicationsEducation & Training:Education & TrainingDV for TeachersCommunity:FeedbackUser Groups Announcements2-pop Café – Open DiscussionAdvertise ServicesMarketplace – The Place to Sell your GearJobs:JobsCreative Planet Communities:CinematographerDigital Cinema MagazineDesign In MotionPost IndustryDirector’s WorldEditor’s NetVFX ProVideography

Hilarious MiSTing of the Democratic response to the State of the Union address. In all fairness to Governor Locke, he got better towards the end as he grew more comfortable. However after watching both speeches the Democrats now seem even more scattered and disorganized than they did before blowing last November’s elections.

Transcripts:

• State of the Union address
• Democratic Response

Ugh. Just spent the better part of four hours dealing with hard drive problems. Lost mail and Dock preferences again, but everything’s better now. Thank you Disk Warrior.