A Waste Of Time And Money …

Cryosat was built by the European Space Agency (ESA) at a cost of £90m (135m euros) and launched on 8th October. The intention was to check-up on the polar ice cap as, according to a cute little graphic someone produced, it has been retreating since 1980. However, due to a teeny-weeny technical error minutes after lift-off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, they lost it.

Lost it?

Russian officials said that "an error caused the rocket's second stage to run out of fuel, rendering it unable to eject the satellite". Personally, I would have thought that "sorry" would have been more appropriate.

The happy people of northern Greenland now have a new off-shore tourist attraction.

Armand Pierre Fernandez, a French painter and sculptor, died in New York on 23rd October, aged 76. He went by the name of 'Arman' and, I have to admit, built an awful lot of crap.

I apologise to anyone who thought he was brilliant (well, that's the French dealt with) but I really don’t think that sawing guitars up into pieces warrants world acclaim.

And as for his 'nuts and bolts', well, I would have thought that the chaps at the ESA would want a few words …


'Arman' will now be flown back to his native France, sliced up, placed in a plexi-glass box and mounted in the lobby of ESA's HQ in Paris.

It's what he would have wanted.

Allabest,

Stu