9:59 AM
Lileks' new subsite pointed me to where one might purchase old Popular Science cover posters by artist Herbert Andrew Paus, and now I really want this one in particular: "Is Flying Really Safe?" Beyond the fact that it's a great piece of art, I love how the question is decidedly non-rhetorical--the plane is coming down in flames in the background, and the poor aviator is parachuting into what looks like Marrakesh (which in the 1920s was decidedly foreign--they had only just discovered golf! Savages!) with nothing but his shoulder sack of mail and his trusty goggles. It's either the beginning of a grand adventure, a terrible tragedy...or more likely just another mealy-mouthed Popular Science article; why should things have been different back then?