COSMO-PLANETARY MESSIAH STATUE
“The Statue represents the sect’s founder Gilbert Boudin, the Cosmoplanetary Messiah of Synthesis, the Great Master of the Order of the Knights of the Triumphant Vajra, the Master of the Selection of Souls and the Great Pontiff of the Cosmic Diamond Order, who claimed to be immortal. He died of heart disease in 1998 aged 74.”
“A controlled explosion toppled the 33-metre (110-foot) homage on 6 September 2001″
Jonathan Meades on France – 2. A Biased Anthology of Parisian Peripheries
Spektr was the fifth module of the Mir Space Station. On June 25, 1997, the Progress M-34 spacecraft crashed into Spektr while maneuvering for a docking with the Kvant-1 module.
The module was sealed off from the rest of the station to prevent depressurization of the entire Mir station, but required cutting off the power cables from Spektr’s solar panels, which had to be cut manually with fire axes.
Via – Warren Ellis SPEKTRMODULE
EARTH SIMILARITY INDEX
Earth – 1.00
Gliese 581g – 0.89
Gliese 581d – 0.74
Gliese 581c – 0.70
Mars – 0.70
Mercury – 0.60
HD 69830 d – 0.60
55 Cnc c – 0.56
Moon – 0.56
Gliese 581e – 0.53
PLANET HABITABILITY INDEX
Titan – 0.64
Mars – 0.59
Europa – 0.49
Gliese 581g – 0.45
Gliese 581d – 0.43
Gliese 581c – 0.41
Jupiter – 0.37
Saturn – 0.37
Venus – 0.37
Enceladus – 0.35
As Earth becomes less like itself, other places become more like Earth than Earth.
How close are these places to pre-humanity Earth?
How close are these places to post-humanity Earth?
BBC News – Most liveable alien worlds ranked.
via @jimmyl0izeau
Toshiba Apples
“…followed by Toshiba apples. This is his special recipe-apples gathered from the garden, peeled, chopped, packed into a pyrex dish and cooked in the microwave (a Toshiba) until they are sticky and solid.”
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“You see as Marx said himself, the relations of production are embedded in the machinery of production. Take for example the tractor. In nineteenth century, early tractors were made by the individual craftsman in his workshop. Now they are produced on assembly lines, and at the end of assembly line stands man with stopwatch. He measures the process.”
“To make more efficiency the worker must work harder. Now look at a man who ploughs in the field. He sits alone in cab. He moves levers and the tractor ploughs. He follows the gradient of terrain, he takes account of soil and weather. He believes he is master of the process. But at the end of the field stands another man with stopwatch. He observes the tractor driver, makes note of his lines and turns. So certain time is allotted for the ploughing of a field, and man’s wages fixed accordingly. Now, you see, in this era of computerised numerical control, even the man with stopwatch will be redundant, and stopwatch itself will be incorporated into dashboard equipment.”
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewycka
