RedLineIs writes \”Even in the midst of sorrow and disaster, internet information offers some solace and support. Two links from the Wall Street Journal’s OpinionJournal “Best of the WebToday” concerning the loss of the astronauts on the space shuttle Columbia are illuminating.
The first, “The Web Gets a Scoop”, notes that first word of the disaster “didn\’t come across the Associated Press wire until 9:16, the scheduled landing time. Free Republic scooped the AP by at least 11 minutes–which is an eternity in the competitive world of wire-service reporting.”
The second, “The Price of Appeasement”, brings to world’s eyes a drawing entitled “Moon Landscape” that was carried on Columbia. It was the work of Peter Ginz, who was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1944. “Peter was 14, so if he had lived, he would be about 10 years younger than John Glenn. Who knows–if the West had stopped Hitler earlier, Peter Ginz just might have grown up to become an astronaut.” The original work is now lost, of course, but because of digital libraries and the internet, the artist and his work can be remembered by all. Additional information is available in a press release from the museum which held the work, “Holocaust-era Art from Yad Vashem’s Collection sent into space with Israeli Astronaut” \”
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