One of the things that the end of the 20th century has done has been to start raising the question of what happened to the drive into space. Shuttle Endeavor is scheduled for lift-off later today, but you wouldn’t know that by listening to the national press. More to the point, what about men travelling beyond earth orbit again. It’s been almost 30 years since the Apollo program was unceremoniously canned. People were complained that launch coverage cut into their sit coms. The networks cut the coverage and the last three moonshots never happened. What may be the best recent piece by Political Cartoonist David Horsey sumarizes it perfectly: We’ve lost our will. When the Mars Polar Lander disappeared, there was moaning about the $165M lost. Of course no one mentioned that more is spent by Hollywood to make a flop like Waterworld. Have we gotten to the point that no one bats an eye at high-budget movie flops, but we worry about the small amount of money we’re spending to "explore". The Weekly Standard has a must-read on the topic.

If you travel frequently, you might be interested in a series of city guides osinga.com is developing. Currently they’ve only got a few available, but they’ve got a large staff and the guides are free.

Speaking of traveling, it’s time for the Hopelessly Complete Waste of Time with a blast from a cult favorite of the past. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Earth Edition) is now online. If you haven’t read the book, shame on you. Go check it out.