[LEAPSECS] stack overflow

Rob Seaman seaman at noao.edu
Wed Nov 12 16:36:27 EST 2008


Just back from the dentist and can't possibly spare the time to read
all the intervening messages with the attention they deserve, so I'll
just recommend (highly!) the book I'm currently reading:

"The Stuff of Thought", by Steven Pinker

And pass on a lovely quote from Immanuel Kant that gives name,
"Cleaving the Air", to chapter 4 from the book:

"The light dove, cleaving the air in her free flight, and feeling its
resistance, might imagine that its flight would be still easier in
empty space."

In short, we are better off for the challenges presented us by "the
surly bonds of Earth". (A familiar phrase quoted during Gemini and
Apollo, from the sonnet "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
Magee died at the age of 19 during WWII in a mid-air collision.)

A kite doesn't fly in spite of its string - it flies because of it.

Rob Seaman
NOAO
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