10 Years Ago – In March 2002

Many years ago I started collecting headlines/news blurbs as a way of honing my reading of news. Over the years, the headline collection has been warped by the sources of news I was reading…increasingly online. Reviewing the March 2002 headline gleanings - I forced myself to pick 10.  

  1. NASA To Try To Contact Pioneer 10 Spacecraft Once Again – 30 years after its launch
  2. Shuttle grabs Hubble telescope for repairs
  3. Mars Odessey Spacecraft Detects Ice on Mars
  4. NASA Drops Women's Spacesuit Plans
  5. Dino Fossil Shows Feathers Predated Flight
  6. Kmart cutting 22,000 jobs
  7. Air Pollution Causes Healthy Blood Vessels To Constrict
  8. A government survey of 139 streams in 30 states turned up small quantities of a host of manmade chemicals, including antibiotics, other prescription drugs, veterinary drugs, hormones, steroids and fire retardants.
  9. Arthur Andersen LLP charged with obstruction of justice Thursday for shredding Enron Corp. documents
  10. British Queen Mother dies at 101 

Notice that the first 4 are all related to space exploration. I am drawn to that topic because it aligns with the most strategic thinking we do as a society.

Items 5, 7, and 9 are about understanding our world - what has happened in the past and how what we do may have unintended consequences.  We know more about these topics 10 years later but have not made substantial changes in our behavior in the past 10 years. We are more talk than action.

Items 6 and 9 are economy related. There were stories from 10 years ago that indicated the candle was burning at both ends…but the stories did not get a response from our government or institutions to avoid the crash a few years later.

And finally - the story about the British Queen Mother.  She was a public person that I had known about for all my life. I came to think of her as a grandmotherly figure as I’m sure a lot of other people did.