Coldplay's "Viva la vida" is a great song - but why ?

It is simple and thus many people on Youtube play it and sing it and even teach tutorials how to play it. Why is this ?

1) The hammering sound is made of very few accords and thus very simple and this actually makes it powerful, in fact it carries the song.

2) These few accords are kinda brutal.

3) They talk to the archaic, the most ancient part of our brain, to our earliest instincts: It talks about a stormy world where we withstand the winds that are blowing our face. The hammering is actually showing both things at the same time: The strength of the storm and the repetition of the beat is showing the resistance of us standing in this storm not letting us being blown away but encounter the storm. Well, that's just my interpretation.

4) The artists voice in this song is kinda understated, maybe by intention, maybe by accident, maybe for other reaons, but the lyrics hammer out the same message that the archaic music tells:

(Free repetition:) "I was sent to earth, the first man, the one who came to rule the world. But I didn't do well as a king, not even as a prophet, I overestimated my powers and was displaced from my post by some higher forces."

Actually the band name Coldplay fits into this scenario pretty well: "An unimotional (cold) description of the protagonist of the song being set into this world and describing his way of life from a distant point of view.

There is an artist named xcaroolyn (search for her on youtube) who intensifies (interprets) the message of the song even more than Coldplay themselves do. And I think she is totally right about the stricter accentuation of the hammering sound, so I recommend listening to her interpretation of Viva la Vida on Youtube.

About semi-skilled space workers and how to change that

I was asking myself a question that no current space worker or aficionado would probably want to pose: What would it take to make work in space more professional ?

Most people will probably protest and tell: "Are you crazy man ? Who could imagine more professional people in space than our current astronaut crews ?!"

Indeed our current work force in space are men and women who were educated and trained continusously for many years to fulfill their respective missions. Who could imagine a more professional work force ?

The answer is: I could.

But why? - Because I just call those guys semi-skilled: They trained hard to become an expert in handling almost everything. But they were never trained to become a plumer, a carpenter or an electrician. And Mike the astronaut was an engineer in space travel down on earth but he was not a Master of Science in Biology or Physics. Or if he was a Master of Science in Physics, then he was no Master of Science in Chemistry.

Almost every Joe the plumer or Fred the carpenter would beat their handling skills here on earth.

"So what", people might say: Space is different. We need another kind of specialist there.

I say: "No, that's the error in reasoning: We don't need semi-skilled specialists who can handle stuff in space, we need another space environment for craftsmen, engineers, scientists and tourists !"

I think technical progress in three deceisive areas will make this possible:

1. a cost effective method of going into orbit
2. the presence of artificial gravity
3. re-usable space ships and a carefree re-entry method

Ad 1) A company called SpaceX and others will be able to deliver a cost efficient lift into space soon.
Ad 2) Based on the spinning wheel concept artificial gravity is possible.
Ad 3) a cost effective method to protect space ships from the dangers of re-entry is essential. When there is such, many more real specialists can be brought into space and work there effectively.

We don't need specialists up there who can just handle stuff, we need specialists up there who can do stuff because it's their job, their profession !

If we have those people up there, not every broken pipe or problem will cost millions or take weeks to repair.