Re: Odd FT Idea

 ---- Slattery wrote: 

> Shouldn't we think up an equivalent tradition for space as the one 
> for crossing the equator on earth? Any ideas?

there is one that turns up in no end of SF books: the
crossing-the-equator ceremony on earth is also known as 'crossing the
line'; the name is reused for the ceremony held on moon rockets when
passing the point of no net attraction between earth and moon (on the
earth side of this point, a body dropped from a stationary point falls
to earth, on the other side it falls to the moon). some sort of
high-jinks occurs as per the terrestrial version. this isn't much use an
an interstellar future where taking a moon rocket equates to catching
the modern 87 bus, but there you go.

PS: the small amount of physics in this message is not necessarily
strictly accurate. no flames please (i've got burned on this before ...
:-).

PPS sorry this is so late, i've got a big mail backlog (only 200
messages to go!).

Tom