|
|
The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
Oh My God, the RSS Feed Actually Works!
Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
|
|
|
|
|
Daily Blah for... Saturday, March 25, 2006
"Obviously A Major Malfunction"
It was all going so well. We saw the rocket clearing the tower, and a brief shot from the rocket's perspective. Then the webcast cut out. "Must be about ten billion fanboys tuning in," I said to Brad Stone, my former opposite number at Newsweek and one of the half-dozen space geeks I was having IM chats with at launch time. (Brad in turn was emailing back and forth with Elon Musk himself, who was sitting on the island, about to watch the rocket launch -- this culmination of many years and millions of his dollars -- and had nothing better to do than check his email).
We started celebrating, albeit cautiously. "Let the private space age begin!" I said. We started trawling the web for confirmation that Falcon 1 had actually launched and was hurtling its way into orbit. "MSNBC thinks the launch was success," said my friend Felix, sending me this link. I clicked on it, and found the headline "SpaceX launches -- and loses -- first rocket."
"Oh crap," I said, and sent everyone else the link. Brad wondered how I got it, since it apparently wasn't linked to from MSNBC's homepage. "A glitch, or a clever hoax?" I said. "I will cling to the last shred of hope ..."
Felix, meanwhile, apparently hadn't heard me. "Yup, I see confirmation [of the launch] here," he said, and posted this link. "Falcon 1 destroyed shortly after liftoff," it read.
What the hell? Were we getting our news in parallel universes? If so, I envied him his. The last thing I wanted was another sinking feeling like I got post-Challenger and Columbia -- another reminder that our cruel and jealous mother Earth does not want us to flee the nest, even as we appear to be doing our damndest to kill her.
But that old sinking feeling is what I've got. A major malfunction had indeed happened, and in a few days, weeks, or months, we'll know why. SpaceX will try again -- thank God they're not NASA, or they'd shut down all operations for a decade. And my space geek generation and I will once again gather round our laptops, a little older and a lot more wary. But how many more times will it take? How long will it take, how old will we be, when we finally get the spacefaring civilization we were promised as kids?
|
|
|
|
