We've done it before...

photo credit: NASA

Forty-three years ago today, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin left the first human footprints on another world... we all watched, across the globe, as one people. It'd be kinda cool to have that sense of wonder and achievement again. Just sayin'.

Farewell, Bush House

Today, at 1200 BST (0600 CDT) 12 July 2012, the BBC World Service made it's final broadcast from Bush House in London. The World Service, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, will join the rest of the BBC in Broadcast House, a modern broadcast center about a mile away. It's hard to explain to younger generations why this building in a country far away was so important; the World Service isn't shutting down, merely moving, and we have CNN and the Internet... however, for those of us who were born before the Internet, when shortwave radio was often the only way to get news from the rest of the world, Bush House was the center of it all.

I remember staying up late, with a portable shortwave receiver attached to a long wire, as we listened to the news and events from around the world. The BBC was famous for its fair and unbiased reporting, and often we would hear things that we never heard on our local radio; sometimes not even the network news on the Big Three would cover things that the BBC told us about. During the years of the Cold War, it was an insight into what was happening beyond the Iron Curtain, and other countries around the world. It was an exciting and sobering realization that the world was much bigger than it seemed, and I think it gave us a larger perspective on things than we might otherwise have gotten, growing up in rural America. It certainly was one of the primary factors in getting my Amateur Radio license, many years later.

The BBC World Service discontinued their shortwave service to North America years ago; you can still listen on public radio and Internet streaming, but nothing will ever be quite as magical as tuning the dial, listening for the sounds of Lillibulero or Bow Bells - the interval signals transmitted before the start of broadcasting, to aid in tuning - and the magical words "This is the BBC, Bush House, London".

Here is a link to the BBC website paying tribute to Bush House:  >> CLICK HERE <<

Here is a link to a video of the last news bulletin - if you watch closely, you'll see a KUT bumper sticker on a wall near the very end of the video :)  >> CLICK HERE <<

2012 - A Survival Guide for The Rest of Us

Survival tips for the coming apocalypse:

• Drink plenty of water.
• Don't eat potato salad at picnics unless you brought it and can absolutely vouch for the chain of refrigeration.
• Stay the hell out of the way of all the morons and nutbags that will be running around at the last minute preparing for something that isn't even a real thing.

Seriously, if I have to listen to one more "end of the world blah blah blah" rant from someone who has no clue what the whole Mayan calendar rollover thing is about, I'm going to start carrying water balloons and anyone who opens their yap on this topic will get soaked. Just because we get to the end of their calendar, the whole world goes KA-BLOOIE? Then why doesn't anything happen when I reach the end of my Far Side calendar, or my Dilbert calendar,  or my Bob Marley calendar, or my Suicide Girls calendar, or my... you get the point. You just buy a new calendar and the whole thing starts over again, with a different number on the front... it's not even like Y2K,  where there was a real issue underneath all the hysteria. I, like many in those days, put in a lot of work to make sure that when the ball dropped on 01 Jan 2000, nothing happened. This 2012 thing, however, is simply a colossal mind-fuck - a practical joke on a massive time scale, the kind of thing that happens when you react to things without actually bothering to find out the back story. It's really made worse by the fact that we can spread rumors and memes at close to the speed of light, via the Internet... and if it's on the 'Net, it must be true, right?

If you are so inclined, you can read more about the Mayan Calendar on Wikipedia, here. It's really quite interesting enough in and of itself, without having to try to spice things up with New Age pseudo-mystical bullshit. 

Just sayin'.