JAMES LILEKS: “It’s the anniversary of the plunge of Skylab. . . . Skylab was the butt of jokes when it was operational as well; they didn’t do anything fun up there. They just floated around and took notes. Big deal. My theory: science fiction in movies had gotten so good that people became bored with the real version. Why pay attention to an ungainly can rolling around the earth, when you can watch Luke swoop into the trench to blow up the Death Star for the 294th time? This perspective persists.”