Houston, Have We A Problem?

I've just heard that NASA's grounded the shuttle fleet again - apparently the problem with the external tank shedding foam has been observed with Tuesday's launch. Unless there's a quick fix for this, which I doubt, then I seriously wonder if the shuttle with ever launch again?

Of course, it will have to fly at least once more as Discovery - my favourite, since it was on the pad when I visited the Kennedy Space Center in 1984 - is currently in orbit. Hope they all make it back home OK...

Round Two ?

It sounds as if there was another terrorist attack on London this afternoon, though this one appears to have failed. Exactly what do the perpetrators imagine this will achieve?. It sounds as if things are getting back to normal and if, or when the next attack occurs, I expect the same will happen then.

My upcoming visit to "The Smoke" next month, remains as scheduled.

A Pause for Reflection

It's a week since the London bombings, and I've just observed the two minutes' silence. As I did so, I couldn't help thinking about the families of the bombers. They don't appear to have had any inkling of what was going to happen and their lives will have been just as shattered as those of the victims' families.

Come to think of it, are they not victims, too?

Special Relationship My @rse!

I'm not hugely impressed to read that the Americans have ordered their military to avoid London and anywhere within the M25 in the wake of what's now being called "7/7". I presume that similar orders were given regarding New York after the attack on the World Trade Center. No? Thought not...

For the record, I have a visit to London scheduled to see my family later next month. Even if there are more attacks between now and then, I'm going.

UPDATE: Apparently, the ban's now been rescinded. I should think so, too.

Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner

This is what London Mayor ken Livingston had to say following yesterday's atrocities:

" I want to say one thing specifically to the world today. This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers.

It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old.

It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion or whatever.

That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith, it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners.

I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee that the city of London is the greatest in the world because everybody lives side-by-side in harmony.

Londoners will not be divided by the cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I'm proud to be the Mayor of that city.

I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life. I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society.

Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."

Says it all, really.

Oh Sh1t

Looks as if London's just been attacked, with explosions on the Underground and also a bus. I lived in London for the first 25 years of my life and can only hope that nobody I know will have been caught up in it...

Wish I Was There

I really enjoyed watching the coverage of Live 8 on Saturday. Being of a certain age, I still remember watching the original Live Aid gig and it's interesting to see how polished some of the performers were this time around, compared to the rock'n'roll raggedness of 1985.

Of course, the highlight for me was watching Pink Floyd. I was lucky enugh to see them perform The Wall at Earl's Court in '81 and I'd forgotten just how good they were. I don't suppose there's much likelihood of them doing anything else, but if they do I want to be there...