I’m still filling
myself up with news of this rail crash back in the Bronx. Metro north train flips the tracks and the
engine in the back pushing the cars, shoves them all right up off into the
dirt, one by one. That is one ride I
know in my sleep. A guy described waking
up to it. That would have been me. Dozed off to the click-clack of the wheels on
the tracks. Then wake to something you
can’t stop.
Some things seem so routine that the element of any danger
has been completely removed. Like commuter
trains, where you forget you’re riding along steel rails at 60 mph. You always know there is danger in a car,
whether or not you’re attuned to it. A
plane may be statistically safer but you’re always pondering the imponderable
crash, regardless. But a Metro North
commuter train? I can’t think of when
I’d have ever spared a thought for safety aboard those trains. And I’m sure everyone on board had felt the
same way, when they got on that morning.
Blessings then, to all those who were killed or hurt in this terrible
accident.
Not sure why I’ve such a lingering headache today. It is a dull drag on everything. Sleepy too, when I really shouldn’t be. I’ve bit of Philly Joe Jones on. That Bill Hardman from a few days earlier
lead me to this album “Showcase” from 1959 . . . (dozing off just now, like
someone on the train. More morning
coffee is required.) Apparently both Miles
and Bill Evans regarded the man from Philadelphia as their favorite
drummer. While Mr. Jones said he owed
what he had to Tadd Dameron, the “romantacist of the bop movement” who I’ve
taken a note on to dig deeper into some other time.
I wrote about the goddess Chang’e the other day, who made
her way up to the moon. I couldn’t see
the moon this morning for the early morning ride over for the school drop-off. But that didn’t stop China from launching the
Chang’e Three mission today to put the Jade Rabbit on the moon. If Mel Blanc and Warner Brothers were still
making Bugs Bunny cartoons this would be rich material. I seem to recall one Bugs episode where he is
hanging on the corner of a crescent moon.
When they achieve radio contact calling: “Earth to Bugs Bunny, Earth to
Bugs Bunny, “ he grabs the mic and yells “Get me out of here!”
I’ve read quite a bit lately the unpleasant, unscientific ramifications
of Congress' 2011 law that bans NASA from developing bilateral relations with
China. There have been scientific
gatherings where Chinese were not allowed to attend. Scientists sheepishly forced to rescind
invitations to purely scientific exchanges.
Shades of Dr. Tsien Hsue-Shen who was unjustly hounded out of the U.S.
during the red-scare only to go and launch China’s ballistics program from
Beijing. I saw one quote in the NY Times
article that caught my eye:
“But China’s program has
reached a point where deeper cooperation with the United States or Russia would
make little difference, said Gregory Kulacki, China project manager at the
Union of Concerned Scientists. He nonetheless supports closer contacts to
foster cooperation and reduce mistrust. “They don’t really need to rely on any
outside sources to continue to make the progress that they’re making,” Mr.
Kulacki said.”
Innovation
is still driven by the West, for a while.
But it isn’t necessary. That’s
fascinating to ponder. On the one hand,
good for humanity that so many smart capable minds are liberated to think about
and work on matters such as space exploration.
But at the same time, what a pity that nation states being what they
are, we seem doomed to continue this effort in a competitive rather than
collaborative manner. And innovation will now begin to spawn things
widely in a way that the West will no longer control, if it ever once did. One more milestone for China as it 推陈出新[1]
America’s
space exploration was and is good for humanity while at the same time good for
American military power projection. It
is difficult for Americans to untangle the two.
While it is a rather easy matter for the Chinese. If you don’t want to live under American
hegemony, you’ll have to figure out how to do these things for yourself, step
by step. And the days of needing to
“steal” technology, at least in this arena, espionage, by another name, appears
of waning relevance.
I’m eager
to learn what my kids learn about the mission today at school. I can recall, at least I think I can, looking
for the “man on the moon” as a child, during the U.S. space mission and
believing that, if I squinted, I could see him up there. It reinforced a marrow level sense of
pride. And I would imagine that for kids
of most other nations, it was a more complicated affair mixed with awe at human
achievement and a bit of envy from a national perspective. Envy is a powerful motivator with unintended
consequences. The Medieval tonic for
envy was “kindness” though as I’ve suggested earlier, I don’t think it's a
sufficiently powerful, or perhaps appropriate, antidote.
Still, the world should meditate on a bit of kindness, rather than envy or scorn for this mission. May the Jade Rabbit reach the Bay of Rainbows and share with the world many new insights into our shared lunar body. May NASA (or more appropriately Congress) reconsider its aversion to dialogue, as a result. We should be trading, not hording baseball cards, about the moon. The innovation of mankind is, alas, uncork-able. And the balkanization of innovation portends something very dangerous to my ears.
Still, the world should meditate on a bit of kindness, rather than envy or scorn for this mission. May the Jade Rabbit reach the Bay of Rainbows and share with the world many new insights into our shared lunar body. May NASA (or more appropriately Congress) reconsider its aversion to dialogue, as a result. We should be trading, not hording baseball cards, about the moon. The innovation of mankind is, alas, uncork-able. And the balkanization of innovation portends something very dangerous to my ears.
[1] tuīchénchūxīn: to push out the old and bring in the new
(idiom); to innovate / to go beyond old ideas / advancing all the time
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