A lot of people are scared. People are scared of a variety of things, be they spiders, rats, the imminent demise of man, the current financial recession, terrorism, or (as the Daily Mail would have you believe) the closely linked immigration.
Personally, I'm terrified by the sorts of people who are terrified by immigration. I had a look at figures of recent general elections. The BNP (British National Party) have gained 0.5% of the vote in the 4 years between 2001 and 2005. This may not sound like much, but this is still over 300,000 people. Over 300,000 people believe that anybody with skin darker than Snow White's must leave the country, or get shot.
Sadly, I've now got the BNP website in my browser history. On the plus side, this is hilarious.
"The British National Party believes in telling the truth, even if it is sometimes uncomfortable to hear or offensive to those who would rather bury their heads in the sand than face real problems in our society."
One would assume the truth doesn't include holocaust denial. Nick Griffin (Founder of the modern BMP) has actually gone on record, stating
"'I am well aware that orthodox opinion is that 6m Jews were gassed and cremated or turned into soup and lampshades... I have reached the conclusion that the "extermination" tale is a mixture of Allied wartime propaganda, extremely profitable lie, and latter witch-hysteria." (You can read this in his publication The Rune or here.
I'm also highly amused by the comment about the "Real problems in our society" which would appear not to include racism or bigotry.
If these bastards ever come to power, Britain is FUCKED. Fucked like a bitch on the Jeremy Kyle show. As well as various racist policies, they also follow a homophobic agenda. So, should these fascist shits ever make it, we lose Stephen Fry. And Alan Carr, but that's not much of a loss.
So, with the general election approaching us next year, vote for absolutely anybody. Anybody at all. Unless you want to vote BNP. In which case, don't vote at all, and have yourself committed for extensive neurological experiments.
-Az
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Larger Leaps for Mankind
Space. The Final Frontier. And we're about to cross it.
Most of us here on Earth look at Space as an unreachable thing. It is the sacred ground were only the bravest of men and the most advanced and expensive technologies in the world dare to tread. Space was first touched by Man's gloved hand only a generation ago, and as such it in over 50 years of exploration, only around 400 people have ventured there. We've all grown up with this image of space. And so we don't give much thought to the idea that... we could actually go. And this isn't some crazy pipe dream, this is reality. It's happening today - the next visitors to this vast Frontier will be you and I.
You may well have heard of Richard Branson and his "Virgin Galactic" business. Their prototype, SpaceShipOne, successfully completed it's sub-orbital tests and they have all but completed development on their first passenger model: SpaceShipTwo. Test flights of this model have already begun, and the first passengers are scheduled to fly as soon as late 2009. Ticket price? $200,000.
"But this isn't exactly within the reach of normal people," you may well say. And you would be right. But consider this - Space Tourists already exist. They apply to NASA or the ESA and pay millions of dollars for the privilege of tagging along on a mission. $200,000 for a flight is alot more within reach, if only for the still-extremely-rich types that light their cigars with $100 bills. Fortunately, this ultra-high price tag is soon being replaced by a half price version, once the second "SpaceShipTwo" craft comes into service a few months after the first. In fact, by the end of 2010 (that's just TWO YEARS people), a ticket is planned to cost only $20,000.
Still alot of money? Yeah. But do-able for your average Joe! What if, in 5 years time, you are about to buy a Ford Focus X12 (or whatever model it is then) for £12,000. What if instead of getting that, you buy a used car for £1,000? You can then afford a trip into space. And with competition coming in (one would assume, eventually) against Virgin Galactic, and with technological improvements, those prices are only going one way.
If you don't already have "Go into Space" on your list of things to do before you are thirty, now might be a good time to add it. Because it's a very real possibility that you can achieve it.
Keep the Fire Burning.
- Fox
Most of us here on Earth look at Space as an unreachable thing. It is the sacred ground were only the bravest of men and the most advanced and expensive technologies in the world dare to tread. Space was first touched by Man's gloved hand only a generation ago, and as such it in over 50 years of exploration, only around 400 people have ventured there. We've all grown up with this image of space. And so we don't give much thought to the idea that... we could actually go. And this isn't some crazy pipe dream, this is reality. It's happening today - the next visitors to this vast Frontier will be you and I.
You may well have heard of Richard Branson and his "Virgin Galactic" business. Their prototype, SpaceShipOne, successfully completed it's sub-orbital tests and they have all but completed development on their first passenger model: SpaceShipTwo. Test flights of this model have already begun, and the first passengers are scheduled to fly as soon as late 2009. Ticket price? $200,000.
"But this isn't exactly within the reach of normal people," you may well say. And you would be right. But consider this - Space Tourists already exist. They apply to NASA or the ESA and pay millions of dollars for the privilege of tagging along on a mission. $200,000 for a flight is alot more within reach, if only for the still-extremely-rich types that light their cigars with $100 bills. Fortunately, this ultra-high price tag is soon being replaced by a half price version, once the second "SpaceShipTwo" craft comes into service a few months after the first. In fact, by the end of 2010 (that's just TWO YEARS people), a ticket is planned to cost only $20,000.
Still alot of money? Yeah. But do-able for your average Joe! What if, in 5 years time, you are about to buy a Ford Focus X12 (or whatever model it is then) for £12,000. What if instead of getting that, you buy a used car for £1,000? You can then afford a trip into space. And with competition coming in (one would assume, eventually) against Virgin Galactic, and with technological improvements, those prices are only going one way.
If you don't already have "Go into Space" on your list of things to do before you are thirty, now might be a good time to add it. Because it's a very real possibility that you can achieve it.
Keep the Fire Burning.
- Fox
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