Friday 24 July 2009

Moons

I'm back in Belfast now, and have been for several days, so no longer do I have to type this perched on the edge of a bed. I am now safely tucked in and unlikely to fall out.

I was listening to a podcast the other day about the 40th anniversary of the moon landings, and they were talking about whether it was worth the amount of money it cost ($13 billion, as Virtual Methodist reminded us recently). The scientist guy (I really must learn to take notes about these people's names) said it was worth it for (and again, I should have made a note of exactly what he said, but this is the general gist) the sense of worldwide collaboration, the sense of achievement and the symbolism of human advancement or something.

But to be honest, I think I could also have got quite inspired if the world had collaborated to spend $13 billion dollars to achieve worldwide reduction in poverty and increased access to, like, clean water. I could have been impressed by how far we had come.

Just sayin.

1 comment:

Stuart McDonald said...

The amount of coverage this event has been given is ridiculous. Why such a fuss over a 40th anniversary? I don't remember the 20th or 30th anniversary getting more than a mention. What's so special about number 40?

Maybe it's because I wasn't around to see it at the time, but I've been underwhelmed by the whole event.

It was all faked anyway.