Operation AXIOM | Urbi et Orbi
'Tis Michaelmas, the Feast of Saint Michael the Archangel (alternately, the Feast of Saint Michael & All the Archangels). There was a time when Michaelmas served as an important moment on the calender, the final end of summer & beginning of the fall, a tradition preserved after a fashion in the Michaelmas Term at many schools throughout the Commonwealth. 'Twas also a time when Michaelmas was a holy day of obligation throughout Christendom. No more, no more. We live amidst multifaceted upheaval, an age of staggering progress & shattering savagery. We have made great strides in these last centuries, created a civilization with more justice for more of its citizens than any other the Earth has known, but I fear that in our headlong rush to lift ourselves above the dark past we are in grave peril of leaving behind the light that sustained us through that darkness. To mine eyes, the neglect of Michaelmas is emblematic of what we risk losing amidst all we have gained. Pray pardon me if the day fills me with an overwhelming sadness, a longing for precisely what I cannot say. The peace of Christ be upon you.

The Stars My Destination
For those of you who, like a certain resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, believe that Red China does everything faster & better than the "declining" United States, let me submit the following example: The Ice Pirates-link. It's taken the Chinese space program eight years (2003-2011, & maybe more, since the mission—rendezvous & docking in orbit—has not yet been successfully completed) what it took the American space program five years (1961-1966) to accomplish. Not to mention that the Chinese achievements are coming forty-plus years later, & have the dual advantages of infinitely more computing power than was available to N.A.S.A. in the '60s & decades of American & Soviet/Russian experience to study & from which to learn. (The spacecraft that carried Red China's first astronaut into orbit in '03 was a copy/rip-off of the Soviet-era Russian Soyuz capsule, not an indigenous design.)

All that said, I applaud the Chinese effort. The cynical reason is that President Obama is obsessed with nakedly aping Red China's achievements; so, Chinese manned spaceflight might be the only thing that could interest him in American manned spaceflight. The idealistic (though cynical seeming) reason is that international competition was the fuel that propelled the first fifteen years of the Space Age, from the launch of the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I, in 1957 to the final Moon landing, as part of Apollo 17, in 1972. The thirty-six years (& counting) of the era of international cooperation, inaugurated in 1975 by the Apollo-Soyuz mission, has seen far less ambitious goals & far less impressive strides. (The International Space Station is all fine & good, but it's peanuts compared to MAN WALKING ON THE MOON!) I doubt the P.R.C. truly has the scientific & technical acumen to be a true rival to the U.S./E.U./Canada/Japan partnership, but here's hoping that Beijing's continued successes will get Washington to think seriously about space again.

Perchance to Dream
I had a nightmare this morning, the only genuine nightmare in my recollection. It was a dream within a dream—terrifying, but not as pretentious & bloated as Inception. I was trimming my beard using scissors & accidentally cut several patches of the beard way too short. Suddenly, my moustache & beard were completely gone! Even worse, my hair was also long enough that I had bangs, the awful, stringy bangs you'd seen on a distaff police officer in a motion picture circa 1992-1993. I awoke with a start & immediately raised my hands to my face to see if my whiskers were still in place. They were, but I then realized I was still dreaming; I don't know how I knew, that's the frustrating way dreams work. When I awoke for real, I checked on my real-world whiskers, which to my great relief were intact, though my beard does need a trim. Verdammt dreams.

The Rebel Black Dot Song of the Day
Metric, "Black Sheep" from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (T.L.A.M.)