Re: [OT] Columbia

At 5:20 PM -0500 2/2/03, Thomas Barclay wrote:
>I watched it on TV within moments of the
>happening. I know much time and analysis has
>passed since then (I had a lot of company this
>weekend), but what struck me the most was
>two things: How inane radio and television
>commentators and analysts can be (seeing the
>Dallas video and saying things like "what would
>the various rescue scenarios be?" when there
>aren't really any) and how seemingly artificial
>their veneer appears, moreso in the light of
>serious events.

You can put some of that down to a hard glazed exterior. At CNN, just 
working as a tech, I often see raw video footage of things that are 
as awful as they come. AP, Reuters and BBC will roll an entire tape. 
Everyone tends to cut out the really harsh material, but it's there 
in the raw feed.

You can also put some of that down to the reporter/anchor not knowing 
anything about anything but how to read the story, spell words and 
attempt to engage the audience. John Holiman would have been better 
than Brian, but he got himself killed getting maple syrup one morning.

I'm not only worried about those families that had people die, I'm 
also worried about the space program. Thousands of contractor jobs 
are up in the air if the put a hold on launches for the next 4 years 
and bring the Spacestaton crew down on the Soyuz module. I suppose 
they could continue crew rotations with Soyuz, but the Russians would 
have to step up their program first. Not a short lead time thing I 
suspect.
-- 
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Ryan Gill	       rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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