Back then Carl Sagan was astronomy's poster boy, and a great spokesman for the space program. He really was great, changed a lot of lives. After his death Arthur C. Clarke kinda took over again, but I think A.C.'s health and legal troubles have forced him to lay low the past 5-10 years. Astronomy needs a new face, a person to serve as its spokesman and ambassador. Sally Ride was really active and visible for a while, but haven't heard, seen, or read anything about her for a few years.

I think Hawking needs to stick to physics, Quantum Theory, and all that. He just lacks charisma and often takes the fun out of space exploration because his view of the universe is so huge that he sees well beyond our tiny little Milky Way, as if there's nothing to find in this galaxy. To infinity and beyond!!!


[This message has been edited by grasstains (edited 07-21-2006).]

grasstains:

Face on Mars? Ha! I was on GoogleEarth the other day (the site where you can look at cars and houses in about any city of the world from satellite)...and I tuned to my friends' countryside home in Yugoslavia, specifically Bitola.
And from about 20 miles up (according to the distance scale)... lo and behold along the terrain of Yugoslavia, there was a face, something looking much like Hemingway himself, and then again maybe Santa Claus. Plain as can be. And then nearby a huge outline/profile of a dog's face, and next to that, mountain ranges looking like another bearded face. Quite distinct. I take it there must be intelligent life in Yugoslavia.

I couldn't figure out how you could link this, so you have to take my word for it, tho I do have the world co-ordinates if you know how to locate things by that!

And about Viking Landings? Hmm. You must mean this: (you may need to click on the picture to open it fully) .http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/image/planetary/mars/vikinglander2-2.jpg

=========================================

=========================================


[This message has been edited by Nard Kordell (edited 07-21-2006).]

Any truth to the rumour that Yugoslavia, Wales, and Poland are sending a CARE package of consonants to Hawaii in exchange for much-needed vowels?

My Great-Grandmother didn't speak a word of english, she was from Wales, and with that knowledge it's easy for me to sympathize with the current batch of immigrants. She raised my Father, and he didn't understand any of that gibberish. It must have been a very lonely life for her here with not even a family member to converse with. My Grandmother on the other side came down from Victoria, Canada in a covered wagon around 1906. She, of course, spoke perfect English.

I don't really know if my mother knew English when she came to this country with her family from Lithuania... just before they locked down the country. She did learn German, Russian, and Polish while in Lithuania.

When I was growing up and her side of the family came over the house, it was strictly Lithuanian spoken. Most of her family lived in the Lithuanian section in Chicago. Outside of her family, it was English that was spoken.

===============

THANKS! dandelion... for the continued upkeep on this board!!!

It appears that we are being in collision with internet searchers looking to eat abandoned websites. That's how they put it, at least in part ".searching for abandoned websites". So it appears THIS website is in no particularly glorious list of active websites...

My mind is going, Dave...I can feel it...I can feel it...

May the spark be with you. We are being probed, I can feel the tentacle-like appendages searching here, feeling there, giving a twist, a pull, a tweak somewhere else. Good god, is there nothing we can do but surrender?

Wasn't it Victor Frankl who said that even in surrendering we can claim victory?

[This message has been edited by grasstains (edited 09-06-2006).]