Journal: News & Comment

Flash Gordon never imagined this

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My parents return from a month in Europe today. We've missed them—my oldest daughter has kept a photo of them by her bed the whole time.

Try to imagine how amazed someone 100 (or 1000) years ago would have been if they could understand this: My parents are taking only about 9 hours to return from Europe, flying a third of the way around the world in a metal tube in the sky. And, here in my kitchen, I can type a few letters on a keyboard and see, on a flat, electrical screen on my laptop (which, incidentally, has no wires connected to it at all), a map of where that metal tube is right now (over southern Greenland) and how long they have left to fly (about three and a half hours).

That last part would have been amazing 10 years ago, never mind 100.

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