Moonlight, moonbright

There's a bright and beautiful full moon out there tonight. With nary a cloud in evening sky I was treated to a fine view of it on the way home after a days Christmas shopping that proved to be far less torturous than I'd predicted. The way home involves crossing small bridge over a Thames canal lock. Looking out moonwards from the bridge, the moon was hanging high over the waters in a deep blue sky, its reflection rippling in the Thames. It was rather pretty.

Speaking of moons, I read a curious bit of commentary on Bush's proposal to launch a new moon mission. The gist of the article was that this was obviously a bit of political grandstanding to curry some favour with voters after the Iraq debacle. What was strange was that the article seemed to insist that with only one superpower we'd never see another space race. This coming only a short time after China put a man in space for the first time. I remember being quite worried by the somewhat aggressive stance the US and China took towards one another during the early part of Bush's term (the spy plane incident being a classic example). This was largely forgotten about in the wake of 9/11, but I won't be surprised if their rivalries start making headlines again soon. I read also that if China sustains it's current rate of growth it's on track to overtake the UK as worlds 4th largest economy within the next couple of years. I wonder how long it will be before it reaches superpower status? We may see a proper space race yet.

What I find a bit sad is that whilst I'm still excited by the idea of man exploring space I can't help but look at what's going on and see the political machinations behind it all. I realise that such machinations are nothing new, but I think I'd like to see a little more altruism in my politics. One for all and all that.

Good job I never gave any thought about working in politics really...