Earlier in this week, newspapers mentioned the passing of Lillian Gertrud Asplund. She was the last American survivor of the Titanic sinking back in 1912.
As a kid I as fascinated with the Titanic. My childhood was the period when it had not been seen or found. So I grew up on all those old movies about it and would read tons of books on it. It was a historic event I could puzzle out with my youthful mind: What did the ship look like? What really caused it to go down? What was the captain thinking? What were the last thoughts and acts of the men and women on board? Where was it resting? What did it look like? Could it be (should it be) raised or salvaged?
My imagination got a huge boost with the Clive Cussler novel "Raise the Titanic". The follow up movie was good, but a letdown from the novel.
Then James Ballard and his team found it and the veil of mystery was drawn back.
Lillian Gertrud Asplund's passing struck me, not just as a reminder of how close yet how far away we are from truly historical events is, but also about our own future.
What will the world be like when the media of the future note the passing of the last American survivor of September 11, 2001? It's hard to imagine such a time, but it will come....if we don't muck the entire planet up too badly before then. I think we take history too lightly--especially here in the States. We forget our brief past to easily and don't plan for our national future. I hope as we continue to mature as a nation, that we will gain some maturity and vision.
Mundane Linkage:
Paintings by Alex Kanevsky (fair warning--contains some nudes)
Comic artwork by illustrator Francesco Francavilla. I really like his inkwork.
The wikiHOW billed as "The How-To Manual That Anyone Can Write or Edit". Useful stuff here. I fear my skills around the house are more like Red Green level.
Ken Newsome got a new camera. I envy...
What I wouldn't give to have a romantic meal with Lavie on the deck under this giant tree in Japan at the Hibiya Matsumotoro restaurant?
Finally, the Download Squad points out that there is a new Firefox alpha 2 version released. I'm not messing with this one just yet. Doesn't seem to have a major feature upgrade yet. With the announcement of the removal of the Places elements from (at least the intial) v2.0 release, my enthusiasm has cooled a little bit more. I really have to agree with some of the commenters, that v2.0 is starting to sound like v1.5, but with many of our favorite extensions rolled in. I know there is much more under the hood, but it isn't getting me very worked up. The scale of change from IE6 to IE7 that Microsoft is pulling of is what I am looking for. Never thought I'd be saying that!
I've also noticed that this blog renders great in Firefox and IE7. Layout kinda sucks for you IE6 folks. Sorry about that, but I don't work for Blogspot and am not a master HTML coder either.
Happy Mother's Day, all you Moms!
--Claus
As a kid I as fascinated with the Titanic. My childhood was the period when it had not been seen or found. So I grew up on all those old movies about it and would read tons of books on it. It was a historic event I could puzzle out with my youthful mind: What did the ship look like? What really caused it to go down? What was the captain thinking? What were the last thoughts and acts of the men and women on board? Where was it resting? What did it look like? Could it be (should it be) raised or salvaged?
My imagination got a huge boost with the Clive Cussler novel "Raise the Titanic". The follow up movie was good, but a letdown from the novel.
Then James Ballard and his team found it and the veil of mystery was drawn back.
Lillian Gertrud Asplund's passing struck me, not just as a reminder of how close yet how far away we are from truly historical events is, but also about our own future.
What will the world be like when the media of the future note the passing of the last American survivor of September 11, 2001? It's hard to imagine such a time, but it will come....if we don't muck the entire planet up too badly before then. I think we take history too lightly--especially here in the States. We forget our brief past to easily and don't plan for our national future. I hope as we continue to mature as a nation, that we will gain some maturity and vision.
Mundane Linkage:
Paintings by Alex Kanevsky (fair warning--contains some nudes)
Comic artwork by illustrator Francesco Francavilla. I really like his inkwork.
The wikiHOW billed as "The How-To Manual That Anyone Can Write or Edit". Useful stuff here. I fear my skills around the house are more like Red Green level.
Ken Newsome got a new camera. I envy...
What I wouldn't give to have a romantic meal with Lavie on the deck under this giant tree in Japan at the Hibiya Matsumotoro restaurant?
Finally, the Download Squad points out that there is a new Firefox alpha 2 version released. I'm not messing with this one just yet. Doesn't seem to have a major feature upgrade yet. With the announcement of the removal of the Places elements from (at least the intial) v2.0 release, my enthusiasm has cooled a little bit more. I really have to agree with some of the commenters, that v2.0 is starting to sound like v1.5, but with many of our favorite extensions rolled in. I know there is much more under the hood, but it isn't getting me very worked up. The scale of change from IE6 to IE7 that Microsoft is pulling of is what I am looking for. Never thought I'd be saying that!
I've also noticed that this blog renders great in Firefox and IE7. Layout kinda sucks for you IE6 folks. Sorry about that, but I don't work for Blogspot and am not a master HTML coder either.
Happy Mother's Day, all you Moms!
--Claus
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