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    The Great Gordino Newsletter - Issue 327 - Mon 8th Aug 2005
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    Archive Issues online at - gordonbryan.com/archive

    Hi There,

    I hope everything is ok where you are.

    I was eagerly waiting to see the space shuttle Discovery land
    today, only to find out the landing had been put back 24 hours
    due to clouds.

    So that's one idea down the pan.

    Then over the weekend, I was eager to see my buddy Yelena
    Isinbayeva do her pole vault thing at the athletics World
    Championships.
    No joy, as it turns out it was only the namby pamby qualifying
    event, the final is not 'til Wednesday.
    So that's two ideas down the pan.

    By the way, as I was not watching the pole vault, I saw one of
    the most hilarious events ever - the 20km walk, for men and
    women.
    What is that all about?

    I accept that people may not enjoy the pole vault as much as I
    do, but at least that event, along with all the other track and
    field events, served some useful purpose in times gone by.
    You had to develop those skills to survive.

    But walking quickly?
    The men walk at 6 miles per hour, and the women at 7!

    What possible advantage can there have been in ancient
    civilisations to walking quickly?
    Being the first in line when the local shop opened?

    Hmm, I can just picture it now, walking along, and then noticing
    that an old duffer is walking to the shop quicker.
    'Quick, I'd better walk faster!'
    Then the old duffer speeds up.
    'Oh no, how can I get past? Ooh, I know, I'll walk quicker!'

    The end result being me and the old duffer walking in
    that 'refined mince' like the athletes do.

    JUST RUN INSTEAD!!!!

    Or, even more efficient, push the old duffer over!
    Only joking...of course.

    Talking of the delayed Discovery shuttle, one of the astronauts
    on board is Japanese.

    The timing wasn't planned, because this crew was assigned
    around 4 years ago, but this co-operation between the US and
    Japan is very timely, with Sat 6th marking the 60th anniversary
    of the bombing of Hiroshima.

    Hundreds of thousands of people killed, with one bomb.

    The positive spin is that it saved many times more lives,
    because Japan was not prepared to surrender, and that would
    have led to a US invasion.
    Secondly, it has led to 60 years of 'peace', on the basis of
    mutually assured destruction.

    The negative spin is that the bomb was designed for use against
    Nazi Germany, and when they surrendered, the bomb was built,
    so they might as well use it to see what happens, and the
    people of Hiroshima were used as human guinea pigs, in a
    country which was on its' knees anyway, and in no position to
    fight.

    You can see the arguments both ways, but I tend to agree about
    the mutually assured distruction theory.

    The weapon was bound to have been developed anyway, after
    Einstein's theories in the early 1900s, and its' use showed what
    would happen in a global war, so although we had the Cold War,
    and the Cuban crisis, it has generally kept the peace.

    We humans are strange, aren't we?

    As we develop, investigate and experiment, we find ever more
    ingenious method of destruction.

    As Soichi Noguchi said in his in-space interview, it's things like
    the space program which remind us that countries do much
    better when they work together.

    Ok, and here's the thought - is there someone you should be
    more peaceful with?

    'Til Next Time,
    Health and Happiness,
    Gordon
    email me at gordon@gordonbryan.com - you'll have to copy and paste
    thanks to the idiot online spammers!



    
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