Magic

According to the New Zealand Herald, Fernando Alonso, has worked as a test pilot and engineer at Airbus in Toulouse for 22 years, rising to director of flight testing and development. His comment, "it's still magic that they fly" in today's report of the maiden flight of their biggest, fattest creation, Airbus A380, was the topic of our lunchtime discussion. It's not magic, it's science, says Jones. Zac expands, How would you feel if you were sitting in a plane and the pilot comes in dressed in a silly hat, wearing a shiny jacket and waving a wand announces, 'For my next trick, I'll make this thing take off '!

But it is magic, in aromantic kind of way. Wasn't it Arthur C. Clarke who said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"?

It doesn't have to be about technology. When I was a little kid, a round shiny plague hung on the bedroom wall.It was a child's drawing (or a pretend child's drawing) of a rainbow. It had the words 'I believe in god because of rainbows' on it. As it turns out, I don't believe in god but if I did it would be because of rainbows. Yes,I have studied all the diagrams that explain about prisms, raindrops and the refraction of light ... but no one can convince me that rainbows aren't magical. I just don't want to know.