Astro Soichi and the attack of the space sushi!

While some of us earthlings fumble about the inn or suffer at the hands of the oppressor in some forgotten, God-forsaken "gulag," (Not, The Gulag, it is hoped) I'm orbiting the globe finding myself not only in "mixed company," but with some of my favorite food, too (Hint: not bran muffins).

As time seems to get lost in space (the same in spirit world as we know from our Swedenborg (pg. 16) and possibly certain non-gastronomical experience), I thought I'd try and get a handle on Astro_Soichi and the sheer *impact* he seems to have had on all of Earth.

December 2009

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi begins his trek aboard the International Space Station. Representing the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, he is one of five astronauts from three countries who comprise Expedition 22 and staff the Japanese-built Kibo orbiting laboratory. Two Russians and two Americans round out the rest of the crew.

January 2010

NASA outfits the space station with live internet. Soichi Noguchi starts a live Twitter feed under the name Astro_Soichi.

February 26, 2010

Noguchi makes sushi in space while floating weightless aboard the space station. He wears a chef's hat in the live-feed interview and demonstration with Fuji TV reporters.


No mention was made of any wasabi accompanying Noguchi's space sushi.

History however notes that one astronaut, the remarkable American Sunita Williams (who has her own gallery of earth from space photos here) of NASA, took a tube of the spicy green condiment to the space station in 2007. It got loose and stuck to the walls and henceforth was eventually banished to a cargo ship to "avoid future spills," as Williams relayed it in a televised interview at the time.

For what else should the mission of Expedition 22 be remembered and noted in the annals of weightless timelessness?

backtrack a bit to . . .

February 17, 2010

Completion of the Cupola observation deck, the space station's seven-window observation deck that even Leonardo (Da Vinci) would be proud of. The huge, 31-inch (80-cm) window looking down on the Earth, is billed as the world's largest space window ever built. Noguchi is the first astronaut to send a photo of earth from it.

Here it is:

Credit: Twitter via NASA

Noguchi took this view from inside the cupola just after its windows were first opened. The cupola's window shutters are open and the Sahara desert is visible below.

Astro Soichi's reputation as Twitter space shutterbug may seal his place in Japanese and world history. As for sushi chef extraordinaire? Homeland security, time (and/or timelessness) will tell.

June 2, 2010

Astronaut Noguchi Soichi returns to earth after just over five months as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station via a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. That is the longest time any Japanese astronaut has yet spent in space.

As the National Geographic Society blog notes:

"Barring only the Hubble Space Telescope, Noguchi may go down in history as the most beloved orbiting space photographer."

One must wonder about that.

Belovedness, after all, may simply trump everything in the end.

As posted by Astro_Soichi 59 days ago:

One more look at our beautiful Mt. Fuji, Japan. on Twitpic

Astro_Soichi's full, amazing collection of Youtube Videos can be found here.

His Twitpics can be found here.

Be sure to keep following me on Twitter here; otherwise, I'll surely become twitterpated and that can't be all that good for Earth (or me).

Oh, and be sure read this on the importance of not being a litter bug.
Huge hunks of metal trump sushi.
And Chicken Little may not have been so wrong after all?

U.S. Still Fails on North Korea

A Baptist preacher and some others made some ethical points on North Korea recently:

"Americans may have limited knowledge of the details of North Korea's extreme repression of its people, but they know enough to bear responsibility if they do not take action," said Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land.

Speaking at a Washington news conference sponsored by the Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission called for Americans and their government to accept responsibility for aiding citizens of the Asian dictatorship.

"We may not know the precise numbers, but we know [the atrocities exist]....

If we know what's going on, and we choose to do nothing, then we become morally culpable, we become complicit," Land said.

*****************

Michael Horowitz, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a longtime
advocate for religious freedom, said the key to bringing change lies with
the Korean Americans, not with the U.S. government or the United Nations (U.N.).


"[W]hat I have learned about America living in Washington is that when
Americans speak out for their brothers and sisters in their home country,
the rest of America always listen, always," Horowitz told the audience,
which was dominated by Korean Americans.

"In America, you earn respect not by the wealth you have and the money you
get, but by standing up for others. There has not been enough of that ...
from the Korean-American community."

"You have more power than you understand, and American history teaches you
that."

The U.S. policy on North Korea "is a disgrace" under President Obama and was
under President Bush.

"Our policy is very simple: Kim Jong Il, if you promise not to have more
weapons, we'll give you money. If you promise not to use your weapons, we'll
make you legitimate," Horowitz said.

Read more here.

It Takes a Thief

The Gulags of not-so-old described by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (previously defined here and exposed in other stories from around the globe) are mostly gone, but that doesn't stop anyone from keeping the memory alive or uncovering gulag-like or inspired shenanigans today.

Witness the latest episode in regards to the trading of Russian spies imprisoned (according to at least one report "in harsh regions once housing the communist Gulag") for agents captured under "deep cover" here in America.

For some (non-spies, it is hoped) "deep cover" becomes code word for coping with an oil spill or life under oppressive circumstances (whether self-made, corporate initiated or government mandated).

Soviet stamp featuring Neft Daşları 'Oil Rocks'

"First oil platform in the world"

Getting to the impetus for writing anything at all today, the spy story coverage has been spotty (sparse, at best) so yours truly did a little more digging to uncover some of the details.

The Moscow Times notes that a man convicted of stealing oil from his own company got an "unexpected surprise" today "when he learned that he had won a presidential pardon along with the four prisoners involved in the U.S. spy swap."

Dmitry Malin, an oil engineer working in the Saratov region, convicted in 2008 (along with two accomplices) of stealing about 20 tons of crude worth $8,000 from an oil field was among 20 inmates pardoned by President Dmitry Medvedev late (last) Thursday night.

His lawyer, Lyudmila Tomsen, was candid:

“If we had known that he was going to be granted a pardon so quickly, we wouldn't have asked for early parole,” Tomsen told the newspaper. 

The 20 pardons mark only the second time that Medvedev has exercised his presidential right to pardon prisoners. In 2009, he pardoned 12 inmates, all convicted of minor offenses.

A Kremlin spokesman however could only comment that he "could not shed light" on Medvedev's thinking behind his decision to "abruptly" pardon the 16 prisoners in addition to the four sought by the United States.

Well, no kidding.

Columnist Dmitry Sidorov argues that Medvedev also should have pardoned former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky  "in a display of his commitment to democracy."

Khodorkovsky, who is serving an eight-year sentence for tax evasion, is currently being tried on charges of stealing 350 million tons of crude worth $30 billion from his own company. Supporters say the government's case against him is politically motivated and have called on Medvedev to pardon him.

The Kremlin has said that it cannot consider a pardon without a confession.
(It is good for the soul after all.)
Khodorkovsky however, has maintained his innocence.

Says Khodorkovsky's lawyer Yury Shmidt in regards to the Malin release:

"I'm not a big admirer of the Russian authorities, but giving a pardon to a petty thief is good."

Bigger admiration, bigger pardon, perhaps?

Meanwhile, in the USA (where size also matters), Marc Rich might be recalled along with certain presidential truisms (converging Trumanesquely) as regards all of these current events greased by/with oil.

Oh, and lest we forget:

"As long as you keep stealing . . ."

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: 
“Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him.
“Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.
But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)

America the Free (and still strong?)

On this day of commemoration for American independence (officially, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence), it is well perhaps for Americans to not only reflect upon the meaning of our national sovereignty, but the origins and price as well.

Michelle Malkin does a pretty good job on these subjects here and here.

USAF photo by Roland Balik

Army "carry team" transfers remains of Army Spc. Israel Candelaria Mejias at Dover Air Force Base, Del., April 2009.

While I am ever a believer at looking closer, particularly toward origins, national sovereignty underlies so much of both national and international discourse these days that it becomes impossible to ignore.

In regard to the subject at hand, there is the matter of Richard Henry Lee who acted under the instruction of the Virginia Convention.

 Richard Henry Lee

On June 7, 1776, Lee introduced a resolution in the Second Continental Congress that proposed independence for the colonies. The Lee Resolution contained three parts: a declaration of independence, a call to form foreign alliances, and "a plan for confederation." 

On June 11, 1776, the Congress appointed three concurrent committees in response to the Lee Resolution: one to draft a declaration of independence, a second to draw up a plan "for forming foreign alliances," and a third to "prepare and digest the form of a confederation."

Because many members of the Congress believed action such as Lee proposed to be premature or wanted instructions from their colonies before voting, approval was deferred until July 2. On that date, Congress adopted the first part (the declaration). New York cast no vote until the newly elected New York Convention upheld the Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776.

The plan for making treaties was not approved until September of 1776; the plan of confederation was delayed until November of 1777.

(Information excerpted from National Archives Education Staff. The Constitution: Evolution of a Government. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2001.)

The original resolution for independence by Richard Henry Lee of the Virginia Convention in his writing:

Resolved,

• That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
  
• That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.
  
• That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

Scribbles on a page that lead to more scribbles. And consensus (in more poetic, perfectionist form; pausing first in Philadelphia, then New York), at last. Culminating in a peaceful aftermath (until the year 1812), originating out of a few scathing skirmishes with scrambling farmers, known simply and succinctly today as the Shot Heard Round the World.

And so, America was born.

Can it be trusted, proven or verified that She stands, yet strong, today?

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."~Thomas Jefferson

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."~Richard Henry Lee

"Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong."
~Ronald Reagan