June 11 - The Undersea World at 100

I miss the world I grew up in. Every age has its angels and devils, but this was a magical time when you had to believe that the angels were winning! I remember the Apollo space program, and things like summer camp on July 20, 1969 and the newspaper headline that day as if it were yesterday. These were dynamic times and scientific times, and we were proud of our scientists and our science. From July 20, 1969 to freshman year at MIT 10 years later was a short step for me.

In that world Jacques Cousteau was one of my heroes. He'd have celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday, and I still marvel at the "undersea world" he created in the very short time since his birth in 1910. I grew up with "scuba gear" as a cool idea, when he grew up such gear wasn't even invented yet.

He first did the inventing (the air regulator was the breakthrough of the "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus"), and then he used his inventions to share his love of the sea with the whole world. Everyone my age remembers his TV shows - so interesting, so passionate, so scientific, and so French. He had the best voice I ever heard on TV, and no one could have conveyed the science, the beauty, and the love of the sea as he did. Our world is a better place because he lived, born 100 years ago yesterday.

He would be heartbroken at the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and mystified at how we could have lost respect for the sea he loved so much. If there is science in the solution, that science might well have come from him. I admire his world, his life and how he lived it, and I hope at 100 his spirit still lives on with us.

Aye Calypso the places you've been to
the things that you've shown us,
the stories you tell.
Aye Calypso I sing to your spirit
the men who have served you so long and so well...

100 Years. Happy Birthday, Captain Cousteau.

Here's a final bit - John Denver singing live at his 75th birthday, and Cousteau's mission for the rest of his time with us. Bon anniversaire, Commandant!