“Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light only by which men can be free.”
— Frederick Douglass, “Blessings of Liberty and Education (1894)” (via philosophybits)
“Arena” was a story from 1944 where Earth was about to have an apocalyptic final war with a hideous, unseen alien race known as “the Outsiders.” On the eve of the titanic battle, advanced alien artificial intelligences teleport one human and one Outsider to a planet to fight it out, man to man, and the loser will have their entire battle fleet and planet destroyed.
It was very common in the 60s to turn an award winning scifi short story into an episode of the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits (as Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson can attest), but “Arena” was adapted into an episode by none other than the famous Star Trek, in one of their most famous episodes (aka the one where Captain Kirk fights a big lizard by the famous Vazquez Rocks), with Frederic Brown paid and given an author credit on screen. This is one of the only times that Trek would adapt a non-Trek short story.
In this image, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Expedition 32 flight engineer, appears to touch the bright Sun during the mission’s third spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide is visible in the reflection of Williams’ helmet visor.
Today, April 12, is the International Day of Human Space Flight—marking Yuri Gagarin’s first flight in 1961, and the first space shuttle launch in 1981.
As we honor global collaboration in exploration, we’re moving forward to the Moon & Mars under the Artemis Accords.
