Monitor Celestra: LARP in spaaaace

One year ago, I wrote a blog about my best LARP (“live-action role-playing”) experience so far: Carolus Rex, i.e. “Das Boot in space”. Now that particular team of organizers are — at last — at it again by organizing an equally spectacular LARP for March 2013: Monitor Celestra (link >>>). This time the LARP will have Battlestar Galactica as inspiration and they will use a genuine Cold War destroyer as the “stage”. They will even have special arrangements for English-speakers.

Well, I really hope to be able to participate.

Batman’s wisdom

Henry Ducard: Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share.
Bruce Wayne: That’s why it’s so important. It separates us from them.

The Cuban Missile Crisis 50 years later

On October 20, 1962 the Cuban missile crisis reached its peaceful conclusion. I was a child then, but I have vague memories of the event. Today when I watch kids walking to the nearby school in the mornings, I get happy by knowing that they are growing up in a world that has become less warlike and more tolerant than we imagined 50 years ago. I am convinced that their children will experience an even better future in 2062.

The Youtube clip shows the confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union in the UN Security Council during the crisis. It from a movie, but the two diplomats’ heated exchange is in the original wording.

Scully’s truth is out there

When I was a boy around 1970, UFOs were a frequent subject in newspapers and magazines. Observations, abductions and speculations, most of them with little credibility. The UFO fad started just after World War Two and provided good income for many charlatans. Perhaps it was fueled by Cold War fears, what do I know, with the extraterrestials sometimes serving as “enlightened saviors” and sometimes as “vivisectionist bogeymen”.

Anyhow, now the fad is fortunately fading away, killed by the combination of space exploration and modern recording technology. When everyone has a camera in the pocket, it is hard to explain away the absence of good pictorial evidence of a UFO sighting. The skeptic agent Scully was right.

Read more in this newspaper article >>>>

Johnson Space Center behind scenes

This article is about an in-depth guided tour to the Apollo Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Lots of anecdotes about the Apollo moon flights by an eyewitness, too. The text is long, but well worth the effort: Link >>>>

The Rosvalla incident

Swedish painter Fredrik Alfredsson depicts the little-known Rosvalla UFO incident in 1961. Two J29F fighters intercept an alien spacecraft over southern Sweden. (You will view a much better version at Mr Alfredsson’s site if you click on the picture.)

The aircraft belong to the 3rd squadron of the F10 air wing in Ängelholm, a unit charged with guarding the airspace of southern-most Sweden.