[ExI] Google Air

spike spike66 at att.net
Sun Feb 10 21:52:56 UTC 2013


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of The Avantguardian
>...

 

 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hangar_One_September_2012_-_2.jpg> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hangar_One_September_2012_-_2.jpg

 

>…I don't suppose they have started reskinning it eh?

 

No.  It stands as a big skeleton, a sad reminder of squandered potential.  Read on please.

 

>…Interestingly enough here is an overview of NASA's plan:

 

 <http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=historicproperties.arc.nasa.gov%2F...%2Fhangar1_carp_20111215.pdf&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CD0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhistoricproperties.arc.nasa.gov%2Fdownloads%2Fhangar1_carp_20111215.pdf&ei=k8kXUdmLL8LIiwKTxoGQAg&usg=AFQjCNH4a451UdNinMsf68XU1Fmt2Ige_A&bvm=bv.42080656,d.cGE> http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=historicproperties.arc.nasa.gov%2F...%2Fhangar1_carp_20111215.pdf&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CD0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhistoricproperties.arc.nasa.gov%2Fdownloads%2Fhangar1_carp_20111215.pdf&ei=k8kXUdmLL8LIiwKTxoGQAg&usg=AFQjCNH4a451UdNinMsf68XU1Fmt2Ige_A&bvm=bv.42080656,d.cGE

 

Ja.  Our generation has mismanaged our resources.  Do let us face our own blame my friends.  We blew it.

 

>…Of the options on page 92, only the ones that keep it in use as an airship hangar will be of any use to us. But I would opt to *modernize* it in lieu of restoring it to historical specs…  Stuart LaForge

 

 

Historical specs.  Avant, you touch on a painful topic for me.  The historical societies of the Silicon Valley did so many wacky things I am astonished, appalled.  For instance, a number of years ago, there was a big debate over some properties which had been tagged for historical preservation.  It seemed like such an oddball collection of stuff, what they chose to preserve and what they chose to throw away.  For instance, two examples of stuff that was preserved: a hotdog stand over next to San Jose State U which is orange roughly spherical structure, built in the 1930s.  OK I kinda get that, generations of students bought hotdogs and orange juice at the orange.  So, OK whatever you want, save the silly thing, we don’t have much around here that predates about 1960.  

 

Next they chose a neon sign motel that advertised this particular cheapy inn had a pool.  The neon sign of a diving woman in  the old-style one-piece bathing suit and a cap.  The place was built in 1955, and this sign was an example of classic urban kitsch.  So the orange stays, and the diving woman neon sign stays.

 

Now, what about the laboratory where Kilby and Noyce INVENTED the freaking INTEGRATED CIRCUIT?  That lab was built in 1950, so it would qualify as a historic structure by Silicon Valley standards.  But that wasn’t preserved.  Apparently the most important development since multicellular life was considered of insufficient historical value.  There is a sign in the parking lot (at least most of the building is still there) noting the fact, but the remaining building itself is now a Mexican vegetable stand and small grocery store.

 

That whole orange hotdog stand/neon diving woman/integrated circuit birthplace fiasco kicked up quite the controversy when it happened.  It would have cost so very little to buy that building and set up a shrine out front, so that we geeks don’t need to get our knees muddy as we worship in the rain out in the parking lot.

 

Every time I drive over by San Antonio Ave, I feel so unworthy.  It feels like sacred ground, that I should remove my shoes.  No, removing my shoes would be so insufficient to show the appropriate respect for the holiness of that ground.  I should take off more, to demonstrate the awe I feel just being on the site of that place.  But I don’t want to cause a stir with the grocery patrons asking, ¿por qué está allí un hombre desnudo que adora el edificio sobre sus rodillas en el área de aparcamiento?

 

spiko

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