progress

In Inherit the Wind, Henry Drummond makes a very important point. Progress is in the sacrifices. You buy a phone so you can talk to people over great distances, but you sacrifice some privacy. You create a wonderful new, amazing, and popular device, but you sacrifice the electricity needed to power all those new machines. When you seek truth, you sacrifice faith.

This lead me to figure out that in the long term, the sacrifices are repaid a thousand fold. The progress made can lead to other progress, progress that replaces the current progress, and therefor also having a different sacrifice. Perhaps one of less consequence. Sacrifices can eliminate other sacrifices, but progress always adds to or replaces other progress.

---

"Reasonable men adapt themselves to their environment; unreasonable men try to adapt their environment to themselves. Thus all progress is the result of the efforts of unreasonable men." -- George Bernard Shaw

---

Which leads one to wonder. Ignorance isn't bliss; you are sacrificing bliss for ignorance and ignorance for bliss.

A proprietary fourth generation computer language (4gl) used primarily in business applications development in GUI mode, ChUI mode, and for the web, via the WebSpeed application server. It is created by Progress Software Corporation to provide interaction with their Progress RDBMS product.

The primary advantages of a language like Progress 4gl is its tight integration with the database, and easy-to-use language constructs. For instance:

DEFINE VAR i AS INTEGER NO-UNDO.
FOR EACH customer 
 WHERE customer.state = "TX"
 NO-LOCK:
    i = i + 1.
    DISPLAY customer WITH SIDE-LABELS 2 COLS.
END.
DISPLAY i LABEL "Texas customers".

Progress is a compiled / interpreted language, meaning that it must always run through an interpreter. However, it can be "compiled" into .r files, which speed up the execution and obfuscate the source code

The Progress freighter is a Soyuz derived spacecraft that has launched fuel and other supplies to all the space stations since Salyut 6. The idea of the Soyuz came from the realisation that for long duration space missions to be possible there would have to be constant resupply of stations. It had been decided that a cosmonaut needed 30 kg of consumables a day. This equates to 5.4 tonnes over a 6 month stay. It was impossible to launch all this with the station or to bring up new supplies in the small space available in the Soyuz.

Progress is of much the same size and shape as Soyuz. It consists of three modules:

• A pressurised forward module. This contained the supplies for the crew such as food, scientific equipment, clothes, prepackaged and fresh food, and letters from home. The docking drogue is similar to that of the Soyuz but featured ducting for the UDMH fuel and N2O2 oxidiser.
• The reentry module was replaced with a unpressurized propellant and refueling compartment with ducting along the outside of the spacecraft. This meant that if a leak occurred the poisonous gas would not enter the stations atmosphere. The fuel was carried in two tanks.
• The propulsion module at the rear was relatively unchanged and contained the orientation engines used for the automatic docking.

Weight savings were accomplished by the fact the Progress was designed to be unmanned and unreturnable. This meant that there was no need for bulky life support systems and heat shields. There was also no ability for the spacecraft to seperate into individual modules. After undocking the spacecraft performed a retrofired and burnt up harmlessly in the atmosphere.

The bureau in charge of designing the freighter was TsKBEM (now RKK Energia). They started designing in mid-1973, given the Progress the highly descriptive designation 11F615A15. The design was complete by February 1974 and the first production model was ready for launch in November 1977. Progress 1 launched January 20, 1978 aboard the same rocket used to launch the Soyuz. It still featured the same launch shroud as the Soyuz, though this was for aerodynamic purposes as the launch escape system had been deactivated.

This first version of Progress had a mass of 7,020 kg and took 2,300 kg of cargo or 30% of launch weight. It had the same diameter as the Soyuz at 2.2 metres but was 8 metres in length - a little longer. The automonous flight time was 3 days, the same time as that of the Soyuz ferry. It could spend one month docked. Progress also always docked to the aft port of the the station it was resupplying. This was the reason for the seat shifting that went on during the Soyuz 27 mission.

This version of the Progress was used right up until 1986 when it was replaced with the Progress M. This was basically the same as the original Progress but featured improvements from the Soyuz T and Soyuz TM. It could spend up to 30 days in autonomous flight and could carry 100 kg more to Mir. Also for the first time it could return items to Earth. This was accomplished by using the Raduga capsule. This could carry items of up to 150 kg back to Earth. It was 1.5 m long and 60 cm in diameter and had a dry weight of 350 kg. For the first time Progress could dock to the forward port of the stations and still transfer fuel. It also used the same rendesvous system as the Soyuz and featured solar panels for the first time.

This spacecraft is still used today for the International Space Station. It is currently the only thing available for transporting large quantities of supplies to the station with the Shuttle grounded after the breakup of Columbia at the end of STS-107. The ESA are planning their own supply freighter called the Automatic Transfer Vehicle. The first of these, Jules Verne, is due for launch sometime in 2004. It will be able to carry up to 7.5 tonnes of cargo into space and will be launched every 12 months by an Ariane 5 rocket.

---

• http://www.astronautix.com
• http://www.zarya.info
• http://www.russianspaceweb.com
• http://www.esa.int

My lover is watching the tee vee and my dog is chewing some rawhide bone in the living room and I’m here pounding these keys drinking the remnants of the dinner wine out of a juice glass.

Welcome to my world.

When I was grabbing the paper bag out of the trunk with dog in tow, the hottie betty upstairs neighbor girls stopped by the car.

”Got some wine huh?” The brown haired one asked.

”Yup, “ I replied, “One to deglaze the pan and one to deglaze me.”

The blond one laughed and told me about some tater tot hotdish her mom made or sum such but I wasn’t really paying much attention on account of her sun dress and all.

People think all the time how easy it must be to be me. They’re all the time telling me, “How easy I have it” and “Aren’t I so lucky to have this life to live?”

What the hell do they know? It isn’t easy being anybody. All the time we have to deal with fuckin’ people that don’t have the sense to even pay attention to their own lives. They don’t give a damn, they’re all damn brainwashed with the cell phones and internet and the tee vee stories. I’d ask all these people “What’s wrong with you?”, but then I get thinking about what’s wrong with me.

I go about a process when dealing with my life events. First, I assess the situation then, I either address the situation or ignore it. Ignoring it is far easier to implement earlier in the process, and as we all learn, procrastination produces results. Now, I’ll admit that the turmoil associated with procrastination is awful, but addressing a certain situation immediately can carry the overwhelming bane of hindsight and second guessing oneself. Sure, it’s done, but. I prefer procrastination, you know, sleep on a life event, assess if it is important or trivial and if revenge is necessary you can make a plan.

I digress.

I had the idea bout a year ago that I would make ceramic fish and that I would sell them for money. I rented a studio space, bought some clay, got a fishing licence I did all sorts of stuff I didn’t think I had to do. I even talked to a business advisor at my old University. His eyes just glazed over when I was talking to him. I also got into a whole political commentary about how Americans always want more and such, and he asked me about the fish,

”What will make this worthwhile for you?” The question had a monetary tone.

“It’s already worthwhile.” I replied, full of superior ease.

People don’t get it. At my art fairs people happen upon my tent and they say the most crazy things. Most people just walk by and say, “Fish.” Some think the fish are real and that I pour clay over real fish, some ask what they are made of, a few even ask me “What are these?” or “What do you do with these?” I don’t have the heart to rip into them, plus I want them to shell out some dineros for my craft so I answer ever so softly.

I better get going because the tee vee story my lover is watching is on it’s second to last commercial break. I have fifteen minutes to deliver a fond conclusion. This is it:
Process is paying attention to the little things. A cicada shell attached to a tree, the crunch of a leaf, an unusually quiet Sunday morning when you can hear your favorite song in some apartment in the building you walk the dog by. The smell of breakfast (not vegetarian) cooking, emotion, potential, being.

Take me for instance, making ceramic fish is easy. I just make them. It comes natural, but then I got the idea to sell them, and everything got corrupted. I started making stuff I thought people would want to buy, but all they bought were the other things full of my emotion. I was making myself and selling little bits of it off, like giving away words on the internet. Man, I wish I had a clue.

It feels good though when someone really gets into it, kids love the fish and their parents always warn , “Don’t touch.” I sure feel sorry for the kids and usually put a fish right in their hands, it’s a great marketing ploy. You just tell their parents they should make the bedroom with a fishing theme. God bless them.

The tee vee story is almost over and I made more than five hundred words, which was my goal. Progress is simple: Keep going, no matter how much time you have.

Prog"ress [L. progressus, from progredi, p. p. progressus, to go forth or forward; pro forward + gradi to step, go: cf. F. progres. See Grade.]

<-- each subdefinition implicitly begins with "a moving forward . . . " -->

1.

A moving or going forward; a proceeding onward; an advance

; specifically: (a)

In actual space, as the progress of a ship, carriage, etc.

(b)

In the growth of an animal or plant; increase.

(c)

In business of any kind; as, the progress of a negotiation; the progress of art.

(d)

In knowledge; in proficiency; as, the progress of a child at school.

(e)

Toward ideal completeness or perfection in respect of quality or condition; -- applied to individuals, communities, or the race; as, social, moral, religious, or political progress.

2.

A journey of state; a circuit; especially, one made by a sovereign through parts of his own dominions.

The king being returned from his progresse. Evelyn.

<-- sic. -->

 

© Webster 1913.

---

Pro*gress" (?; formerly pronounced like Progress, n.), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Progressed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Progressing.]

1.

To make progress; to move forward in space; to continue onward in course; to proceed; to advance; to go on; as, railroads are progressing.

"As his recovery progressed."

Thackeray.

Let me wipe off this honorable dew, That silverly doth progress on thy checks. Shak.

They progress in that style in proportion as their pieces are treated with contempt. Washington.

The war had progressed for some time. Marshall.

2.

To make improvement; to advance.

Bayard.

If man progresses, art must progress too. Caird.

 

© Webster 1913.

---

Prog"ress (?; see Progress, v. i.), v. t.

To make progress in; to pass through.

[Obs.]

Milton.

 

© Webster 1913.