Tomorrow marks an anniversary, one that most of you are familiar with by now… 100 years since the Wright brothers first flew. I was watching a documentary on the History Channel last night. In it, they claimed that it was six years before anyone other than the Wright brothers engaged in “heavier than air, self sustained flight”, following that historic day in 1903. Furthermore, when others did find similar success, even though it was six years or more later, they also claimed to be the first. Although the program did not elaborate, they seemed to imply that the event was not well publicized. How else could someone claim the same thing – six years later!

Two guys who made bicycles invented then flew an aircraft, and none of the wealth and resources of the rest of the world could do it for another six years? I found that, as much as anything else in the documentary, absolutely fascinating. Maybe it is because I take flight for granted. Just because it is routine now, doesn’t mean it was then. After all, it wasn’t like the Wright brothers could make a photo copy of their research and mail it in. They couldn’t fax it in. They couldn’t call someone on the phone and discuss it. They couldn’t email anyone either. By today’s standards, they were cut off from the rest of the world. It’s a wonder that anything got done at all back then.

So what would happen if a comparable achievement happened today? Surely it would get a weeks worth of coverage on all of the 24 hour news stations. We would be inundated with close-up shots of the inventors, their families, their birth place, and outside shots of the facility where the historic work was done. But more importantly, would it take six years to replicate the achievement? Are the circumstances of today more conducive to the free flow of information? It is a given that technology removes many of the barriers to communication, but are there more societal barriers? Are people more protective of their discoveries, particularly if they stand to make money from their discovery?

This is the point at which you may be expecting me rail against today’s self interested scientists that hinder the advancement of mankind. I could bring up the example of the private sector effort to map the human genome, and the flurry of (undeserved, overly vague, detrimental?) patents that came with it. The thing of it is, I’m not going to. I don’t think human nature has changed in one hundred years. The Wright brothers documentary stressed, over and over, the secretive nature of the Wright brother’s project. Even if they had a fax machine, the documentary seemed to suggest that the Wright brothers would not have been stumbling over themselves to share the plans of their aircraft with other researchers. Was this the real reason no one else flew like the Wright brothers for six more years? Was it the lack of information technology, the secretive nature of their project, or a combination of the two?

Folks are always telling me about the good old days; the days when people behaved better, when all the world got together after church on Sundays and sang Kumbaya.

Yeah, sure.

I will go out on a limb and say that the Bucs season is done. They are effectively four games back with seven games to go. Oh, the agony of defeat…

As sweet as a super bowl win last year was, having to hear every sports commentator say, “what’s wrong with the world champs?”, is painful. Just when you’re getting used to the label “world champs”, things start to revert to 1993. Does anyone know where Sam Wyche is? I hear Craig Erickson is available.

There has been a story in the news lately which has taken several twists. It involves two families, one patient whose condition is often described as “chronic vegetative state”, the courts, and now the state legislature and the governor. It has prompted many interesting “water cooler” discussions at the office. What is “life support”? What does it mean to be kept alive by “artificial means”? Should assisted suicide be legal; and if so, would it make this case moot?

Not your typical “water cooler” conversation, is it?

I wonder how many other folks are talking about things they never thought about before. I wonder how this case has shaped their outlook. I hope that everyone involved in the case can find peace.

It was late at night. The Red Sox had completed their annual tradition of disappointment. A melting pot of emotion was sitting at my computer, typing an entry. Thirteen hours have passed, and it now seems that last night’s entry was the 400th – or so says the iBlog stats. Does 400 seem like a lot to you? I’ll bet it would if you had read them all. (Warning: the author is not advocating the reading of all 400 entries in one sitting. This web site may contain an English like substance that can cause: eye strain, repetitive motion injury, headache, fatigue, cramping, nausea, and diarrhea. Do not read this site for extended periods unless otherwise directed by your doctor.)

A dark cloud descends over the land as the evil empire prevails again. Who, outside of New York, wanted to see this again?

If you did, and you are, then you suck. It’s too late (or early, depending on your perspective) to pull any punches. Yankee hatred may be a birthright for the Boston bred, but I think I’m just barely objective enough to say this with deserved conviction. That, or I’m just really disappointed.

As for me? This New England product hasn’t been this depressed since Calvin Schiraldi served up spaghetti and meatballs to the Mets in game six.

Yeah, I know. I’m too upset to come up with good metaphors. This will just have to do.

My football teams made a clean sweep and hockey was a big success too. What more could you ask for in a sports weekend? Well, the Red Sox lost. You can win them all, it just doesn’t happen that often.

Of all the rights we have in this country, free speech is one of the hardest to love. Yet at the same time it is perhaps one of the most important. It is very easy for me to take it for granted. I am accustomed to thinking out loud sometimes, as I’m sure many others are. This would not be possible without a basic right to free speech.

This morning I ran into one of those examples that makes this right hard to love. I was driving down the road and I pulled up behind what appeared to be the quintessential redneck: beat up American made truck (heavy accent on the “u”) covered with stickers suggesting the Civil War is still raging on. I am a citizen of the United States of America. I believe that the argument over “states’ rights” (in the context of the Civil War) was really only about one “state right” – the right to enslave part of it’s own population. I believe that the battle flag of the confederacy was a symbol for one side of that fight, the side that was wrong. People say the flag in question is a historical symbol of a culture, a culture of independence and pride. It seems to me that the flag was created for one reason – to represent a group of states that wanted to retain the right to enslave. Now one question persists… why bring this up now? Wasn’t it just another ignorant, angry, southern white man? Aren’t they a dime a dozen? Am I really getting worked up over a bumper sticker again? Well, yes I am. The sticker said: “I’ll give up my flag when you give up Martin Luther King Day!”

Who can honestly compare the two? Has the education system in this country really failed us that badly? By all accounts, one stood for peace, love and equality. At best, the other stood for pride and independence – and at worst for racism, intolerance, and the right to be cruel. It pains me that we even need to have this discussion.

Does anyone know what is going on in the world today? I’ve taken a bit of a sabbatical from news reading in the last month or so. Gone are the days when I could participate in an informed discussion on current events. The last I heard our country was having trouble keeping the peace in Iraq; a recall election mess was brewing in California; Democrats were fleeing Texas to avoid a vote on reapportionment; and, presidential hopefuls were already campaigning in New Hampshire and Iowa for NEXT YEAR’S primary elections.

So what’s new? Did I miss anything?

Another sick day has come and gone. My magical streak of months with at least one sick day has reached three… and the management goes wild! This little bug has given me the opportunity to milk a little more value out of ” HBO on Demand “. Several movies caught my fancy, but I only watched one, a little flick called “In Country”. It is a movie that was released in 1989, starring Bruce Willis, which told the fictional story of a Vietnam veteran and the daughter of a Vietnam casualty. Upon graduating from high school the girl asks questions about her father, whom she never met, and about the “vets” in town who aren’t in a hurry to answer her questions (and relive the past). The end of the movie has the girl, her paternal grandmother, and the “vet” (her maternal uncle, played by Willis) traveling to Washington, D.C. to visit the Vietnam War Memorial. The girl and her grandmother seek out the father/son who died, and the “vet” seeks out friends who were lost. Everyone finds emotional closure. Maybe it was the cold medication, but this was one of the few movies that moved me to tears in the end. It reminded me of a work of art called ” Reflections ” by Lee Teeter.

Fast forward to 2003.

What began as a short incursion to depose a dictator has become more. The word on the street is that those in the know should have known that it would take more than just a brief invasion, and they didn’t adequately prepare for the invasion’s aftermath. Now some good folks are in another country longer than they were told, and possibly unprepared for their task.

I had seen the movie “In Country” before, but today it seemed to have more meaning. Here’s to hoping that today’s fight will leave a more uplifting legacy.