Everyone Is Everybody Else Barclay James Harvest ; Negative Earth

For fifty-five days I've been flying around the world
Didn't anybody know, didn't anyone suppose
That my life up here was slowly drifting by
And all I've got to do is sit and cry
The Earth is so clear and it's simply a reach away
I just had to laugh today but the news it seemed to say
That my life once full was surely running dry
I prayed a while but then I had to cry

Look in my eyes - I know
That man is surely just a man
It's no surprise - I know
The road is far too long
And life too short to carry on

For fifty-five days I've been flying around the world
Here in syncopated time, while my tangled web of rhyme
Dangles aimlessly, time drips slowly by
And all I've got to do is sit and cry

Look in my eyes - I know
That man is surely just a man
It's no surprise - I know
The road is far too long
And life too short to carry on

[Les Holroyd, © RAK Publishing Ltd]

I personally rate "Negative Earth" as one of BJH's most underrated songs: Les based the song on the near-disastrous Apollo 13 space mission in April 1970, when an explosion forced the astronauts to use the lunar module Aquarius as a "liferaft" to return to Earth. The song captures the isolation of the astronauts with understatement and a superbly evocative melody. Mel made a rare foray into lyric-writing, and came up with the superb lines beginning "here in syncopated time". More, please!
Taken from : www.bjharvest.co.uk


The Evolution of the Stars and the Formation of the Earth by William Wallace Campbell
Sir George Darwin has been the great contributor to the subject. His popular volume, "The Tides," devotes several chapters to the effects of tidal friction upon the motions of two bodies in mutual revolution. We must pass over the difficult and complicated intermediate steps to Darwin's conclusions concerning the Earth and Moon, which are substantially as follows: the Earth and Moon were originally much closer together than they now are: after a very long period of time, amounting to hundreds of millions of years, the Moon will revolve around the Earth in 55 days instead of in 27 days as at present; and the Moon and Earth will then present the same faces constantly to each other. The estimated period of time required, and the final length of day and month, 55 days, are of course not insisted upon as accurate by Darwin. These tidal forces were unavoidably active, it matters not if the Earth and Moon were originally one body, as Laplace and Darwin have postulated, or originally two bodies, growing up from two nuclei, in accordance with the Kantian school. Whether these forces have been sufficiently strong to have brought the Earth and Moon to their present relation, or will eventually equalize the Moon's day, the Earth's day, and the month, is a vastly more difficult question
From : www.worldwideschool.org
" L'Etoile Mysterieuse / De Geheimzinnige Ster "
'Hommage à Hergé '
door Jan Bosschaert



Een allerlaatste boodschap van mijn oom aan zijn familie. Hij wierp dit briefje uit de trein die de gevangenen uit de bunker van Kamp Vught naar Sachsenhausen bracht op 7 september 1944. Het moet mijn oom bekend zijn geweest dat er op het wegwerpen van briefjes uit de zwaar bewaakte trein door de commandant van het transport met de doodstraf was gedreigd. Waarom nam hij dan dat risico? Dat heb ik mij wel meer dan eens afgevraagd. Is misschien de informatie 'Neef van Linthorst is ook bij ons ' van belang geweest voor het verzet waartoe hij behoord heeft? M'n oom was ten tijde van het transport naar Sachsenhausen al een half jaar in gevangenschap als z.g. 'Schutzhäftling'. Zonder vorm van proces preventief gevangen gehouden. Navraag bij de leden vd vereniging van het Sachsenhausen-transport van sept.1944 leverde geen resultaat op. Er is op de na de oorlog gereconstrueerde transportlijsten géén persoon met die naam bekend. Er is wel in Kamp Vught een medelid van de verzetsgroep van mijn oom met de naam Oom Jan Linthorst bekend. Maar deze werd reeds eind augustus '44 gefusilleerd.