Armstrong got moon script right

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

"AN Australian computer programmer has saved pioneering lunar astronaut Neil Armstrong from grammatical ignominy, finding he indeed did slip an "a" into one of history's most quoted sentences."

From The Australian - Science & Nature

I always suspected Armstrong said it right - the astronauts were "the best of the best of the best" and correct English was the least of their skills. 

Sorry:  HERE is the correct link. STUPID BBC CODE!!!

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20514917-30417,00.html

[Sibling Chatty]

I was listening the day he said it...you could hear the "a" through the static. (I was still in school.)

Dan was an adult, doing radio work, and heard it broadcast live as well. He always knew the "a" was there. He'd heard it, too.

Only the people with machines to "clean it up" and a tin ear for the flow of the language didn't know that he'd said it. And since you can't tell an engineer anything...

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I was watching it on TV the day he said it.  In fact, "Apollo Fever" had caught on and for the FIRST time, my public school had a TV IN SCHOOL!

I remember, they set it up (it was an old B&W set) in the Cafeteria/Library (were combined). It even had the requisit tin-foil on the rabbit ears ...

Anyway, anytime we were in the Library/Caf. if there was an Apollo broadcast, the TV was on & tuned in.

But, that famous speech was in the evening, was it not? At least for most of the USofA, I seem to remember ... I distinctly recall sitting there watching/listening with my Dad, Mom & Sister. 

We had even stayed up well past our normal bedtimes, when the earlier mission first flew around the moon (but did not land).  We waited the roughly 90 minutes with baited breath (literally!) until contact was restored.  High Drama!  Wasn't any real-time pictures with that mission, voice-only.  So, they had VERY crude animations on the idiot-box, for those folk with too-little imagination to "see" it in their mind's eye.

As for me, I had been steeped in SciFi by this time, and had a MUCH clearer [mental] picture than any stupid animation-artist!  <grin>

I just checked Google, and found this cool link to the Apollo 8 mission (the first around the moon)
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo8info.html

NOW I remember, it was on Christmas Eve.  Anyway, those were heady times!

____________________

Edit:  HERE is a link to a transcript of the first landing.  It contains many additional notes by the various folk involved (including the astronauts) that make for interesting reading.  There are also media links, if you want to have a listen ...

http://www.history.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.landing.html

[Bluenose]

I have always been neutral on whether Neil said the "a" or not.  However, to me it is a minor matter, I have always thought that the most momentous transmission was not "One small step..." but rather "Houston, Tranquility Base.  The Eagle has landed."  I still get goose bumps when I hear recordings of that transmission.

After all, once they were safely down it was basically inevitable that they would walk on the moon.  However, it was never certain beforehand that they were going to make it safely and indeed they very nearly did not - Neil cut it very fine on the fuel supply and landed with only seconds of fuel remaining.

Nick

[Sibling Chatty]

I had lunch today with our Congressional candidate for this district, who was an Attache to Australia during the Carter Admin, and has worked for NASA both before and after that time. (He was Aeronautics and something-or-other Attache) One of the points he made was that the Lunar landing was momentous FOR THE WORLD, and that people everywhere had watched it. I'd never thought of it in that manner before.

And you're so very right. The 'putting down the feet' was very symbolic. But the actual LANDING was the thrilling thing. Until that had been accomplished, the whole thing was still speculative.

(How did the US go from making momentous advances for the world to where we are now, where nobody wants to even consider making an advance that the other party might have any claim to helping? It's enough to make you sick.)

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

(How did the US go from making momentous advances for the world to where we are now, where nobody wants to even consider making an advance that the other party might have any claim to helping? It's enough to make you sick.)

Yes, yes it is. 

In those heady-days, the US was on top of it's game in nearly everything:  it was a world leader in food production, scientific achievement, space exploration, OCEANIC exploration, etc, etc, etc.

Even it's engineering on it's cars was still world-class.

US made airliners were the majority flying.

"Made in the US of A" was a stamp of pride, and those products were in demand world-wide.

We didn't take "no" for an answer, either:  remember the Cuban Missile Crisis?  Happened along about the same period.  We stood firm, and the ONLY OTHER world power in our league backed down (U.S.S.R.) (China was only about 1/2 as dangerous -- and mainly due to it's million-man army.  China's technology in those days was abysmal, as compared to the US's.  Some said that China was really only dangerous if directly attacked ... but I digress.)

What happened?

Personally, I blame George W Bush for it all. 

[Sibling Chatty]

Well, his Daddy and his "Uncle Ronnie" helped.

Geo.W. can't be trusted to do ANYTHING on his own. If you filled his footwear with liquid waste, and put emptying directions on the sole, he'd probably be stymied. (Translation to Texan: That boy couldn't pour piss out'n a boot with the DI-rections printed on the bottom.)

We're being outclassed and out-produced by people that aren't closed to the idea of innovation. American corporations HATE innovation. It means someone might want to CHANGE something...and changes cost them precious profits. (Never mind that the change might be more profitable, it's CHANGE!! Horrors!!) You can do what you want, but don't step on their blue chip profit centers!!

Feh. To all of the Bush family, and Bushistas everywhere.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I agree:  this "what is the bottom line THIS WEEK" mentality is a HUGE reason why we're rapidly falling behind.

Most folk won't argue that Japanese cars are very well engineered - even if they do cost more for their parts.

The Japanese company will have committees that meet regularly to discuss their 5 year plans.

And their 10 year plans.

And their 20, 50 and even 100 year long-range goals and plans.

Contrast this to a typical US company, who often is still in meetings about "what happened last month?"

[Opsa]

The "a" makes a big difference.

I remember when they landed. I was at a friends house overnight, because it was late at night when we saw it live on their TV. It was also the time of the Miss Universe pageant, and I distinctly recall being impressed seeing a replay of the contestants from around the world all watching the landing and group-hugging eachother. I think it's the only time in my whole life that I felt that the civilized world was unified. We were just Earth People at that moment, and it was beautiful.

"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind"

Why is it we've never made that small step again?

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Why is it we've never made that small step again?

Basic greed/selfishness?

I remember Kennedy's famous speech, in 1962 (actually, I was a too young, but it was replayd often enough). Addressing a crowd at Rice University, he exclaimed, "We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and our skills ... we do not know what benefits await us ... [but] space is there and we are going to climb it."

At that time, the USofA was proud of it's ability to achieve much. 

The Apollo space program saw serious across-the-board support from many different population groups.

Contrast today, where the many diverse groups can hardly agree on who's to be president, let alone get together long enough to do a 10-year program like Apollo.

Think of it:  the speech was made in 1962.  By 1972, Apollo 17 was the last mission.  But the grand-scope of the project really took longer than just 10 years - it sat upon the work of years of research that had gone before.

Today, it's nearly impossible to keep folk concentrated long enough to remember what happened last WEEK, let alone 10 years!

[Al Dante]

My opinion:

Screw the moon.

Screw mars (for now).

Materials science is where it's at. Figure out how to make buckytubes miles long, or something better. Then tool up until you can buy two-by-fours made of the stuff at Lowe's.

Then, space elevator.

Then, screw taking off from the bottom of this hole with rockets. That ain't technology, it's pyromania. "Let's move around by blowing up a bunch of explosives inside a can with a hole in one end." It's like sending express mail by setting up lines of catapults and flinging the mail from one to the next. It can be done that way, but never well.

A space elevator... now that would be a giant leap for mankind. Especially for BASE jumpers.

- Allenbatrachus

[Sibling Chatty]

I remember Kennedy's famous speech, in 1962 (actually, I was a too young, but it was replayd often enough). Addressing a crowd at Rice University, he exclaimed, "We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and our skills ... we do not know what benefits await us ... [but] space is there and we are going to climb it."

At that time, the USofA was proud of it's ability to achieve much. 

The Apollo space program saw serious across-the-board support from many different population groups.

Contrast today, where the many diverse groups can hardly agree on who's to be president, let alone get together long enough to do a 10-year program like Apollo.

Think of it:  the speech was made in 1962.  By 1972, Apollo 17 was the last mission.  But the grand-scope of the project really took longer than just 10 years - it sat upon the work of years of research that had gone before.

Today, it's nearly impossible to keep folk concentrated long enough to remember what happened last WEEK, let alone 10 years!

I was at Rice University that day, in the audience for that speech.

The statements made that day have informed my life since then. I never want to be told "We can't." I then  must  know WHY we can't.

Don't tell me that the only cure for illness R is medicine Y, but the people that need it can't tolerate it. (If you've ever known anybody with histoplasmosis or any of the other terrible fungal diseases, the plan to keep amphotericin from killing the people that got it and the way to prevent the worst side effects was from one doctor, my husband, a pharmacist and me, watching and charting every reaction, temperature change and twitchy muscle for 6 weeks.)

The ONLY way to progress is as a people. Individuals may make a part of the move, or a large leap, but a group moves forward.

It makes me very aware of my responsibilities as a human being. It is imperative that not just this group, or that group learn to work together, but that ALL Americas, ALL the citizens of the world learn to work together.

It's not the American ozone layer, or British warming, or JUST the Indian Ocean...it is an interdependent world, and what one person does WILL make a difference.

For want of a nail     
         
      the shoe was lost.    
      For want of a shoe    
      the horse was lost.    
      For want of a horse    
      the rider was lost.    
      For want of a rider    
      the battle was lost.    
      For want of a battle    
      the kingdom was lost.    
      And all for the want    
      of a horseshoe nail.

That's the original.

"For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for the want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for the want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy, all for the want of care about a horseshoe nail."
  --  Benjamin Franklin

A hard lesson about the importance of the little things. Everything you do changes something. Every little detail you pay attention to is important somehow. And there's no excuse to sit and shrug your shoulders and say "not my job" if the job needs doing and you're there and able to do it.

Unfortunately, we can't keep people on track enough to identify the problems, much less search for the solutions. After all, we might miss 'Survivor' or not get to see the premier of the new Paris Hilton video. (We need the barfing emoticon.)

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Ugh.

I think that a lot of it is simple laziness and lack of drive and discipline, of my generation and of previous. Most of us have never had to fight for something, never had to really strive. We've had everything handed to us by mommy and daddy. (EG--A friend of mine flunked out of UC Berkely because he played World of warcraft too much  )

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I dunno.  My generation had a lot handed to it, too, but we managed not to blow ourselves up (even though we sat on our MAD* butts far, far longer than needful).

I do distinctly remember when my family purchased a TV.  And again, I remember when they bought a color TV.

I did not have TV when I was first learning to talk, and taking my initial mental-steps towards becoming a human person.  I had books, instead.

It COULD be these later generations, who DID grow up on TV-culture, has a different drive than mine and earlier ones.

I DO remember when the unspoken rule about religion-on-TV was broken (It just was not overtly 'in your face' like it is today).

I also remember when TV news was actual journalism, and not "infotainment".  Even the local stations, usually at a loss, kept pretty good news teams going.

And most radio stations were LOCAL.  You could actually drive out to the studios, and sometimes talk to the radio personalities before or after their shows.

I dunno.  I DO think there is more emphasis on greed, today.  I also think that the almighty "profit margin" has replaced "pride in your work" as a company motto.

I also remember when a person took pride in their job, just because it had their name on it.

Today, it seems, the most important factor is to cover your butt; do the job just good enough to pass whatever restrictions are in place, always looking to the next gig.

Company loyalty to employees, and in turn employee loyalty to the company are both things long gone.

The next 50 years will be interesting ones, I should live so long.



















______________________________

Mutual Assured Destruction.  The name of the policy the USofA used against the former U.S.S.R.  It was estimated at the height of the cold war, that between the two countries, life on Earth could be exterminated anywhere from 3 to 10 times over.  Other sources say it was never as severe as that, likely simpler animals and plants would have survived, like cockroaches.  Indeed, this observation has led to many jokes about the cockroach inheriting the Earth, after WWIII.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

That's what I meant. My generation has had everything handed to it, pretty much. My friend who flunked out had his parents pay for everything. We had too much money, too much time, and too little parenting/teaching for our own good, in my opinon.

I do believe I agree with you on the company loyalty/etc. issues.

I remember our first computer, and my mother's first cell phone in the mid-90's.