Random Reflections on Apollo 11 and Miscellany
Random Reflections on Apollo 11, On the 50th Anniversary
-What's the best evidence that we landed on the moon? You can look through powerful telescopes and see our tracks!
-That's right... you can see "our" tracks. No, not your tracks, not my tracks, not American track, not even Neil and Buzz's tracks- you can you humanity's tracks. We did it!
-It proved that we know things about the world. Science is undeniably validated.
-The phone in your pocket is more powerful than all the computers used to land Apollo 11 on the moon.
-I watch documentaries on going to the Moon all the time. The whole time I'm thinking "this can't be real, this is real but it can't be real, this is real but it can't be real..."
-It would have been an honor for my tax dollars to go toward this project.
-When Michael Collins was young, he used to catch crabs using fish as bait, and then use the crabs as bait to catch more fish. So it was continuous cycle of turning fish into crabs and then crabs back into fish. I don't know why that's captured my imagination.
-Kennedy- "We choose to go to the Moon! 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 skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too."
We "choose" to go to the Moon. Perfection.
-You don't get inspiring speeches like that anymore. Today it might be something like, "We choose to go to the moon, not because it's a challenge, but because it is white. And it is part of Mars. The kidneys are a part of the heart, my entire body is part of my ass, and no part more so than my mouth."
-Speaking of awful presidents, Nixon's speech, "In Event of Moon Disaster" is quite eloquent and moving. It's not like he wrote it himself but he had the good sense to surround himself with people who could.
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."
-Don't forget Carl Sagan- "For me, the most ironic token of [the first human moon landing] is the plaque signed by President Richard M. Nixon that Apollo 11 took to the moon. It reads, ‘We came in peace for all Mankind.’ As the United States was dropping seven and a half megatons of conventional explosives on small nations in Southeast Asia, we congratulated ourselves on our humanity. We would harm no one on a lifeless rock."
-Those three astronauts were cool as proverbial cucumbers, and I just don't get it. Some estimated a 50% chance them making it back.
-Kennedy proposed a joint venture to the Moon, with representatives of various countries. Why do overlapping research? That idea died with him.
-We can have modern Apollo programs. Controlled nuclear fission could provide indefinite, free, renewable energy. It's possible, we just need a goal, and the drive to make it happen. What else is possible? We are wasting time. Let's DO something.
-Neil Armstrong's name will be remembered 10,000 years in the future, assuming we still exist. Who else can that be said of? Strange to think that I shared the Earth with him for my first 38 years.
July 20, 2019
...
"This photo Neil Armstrong took of me on the moon was very spontaneous. He said "Stop right there" and I turned and he took the photo. If you look closely you can see the strap still in motion below my left hand."
...
These two pictures are separated by 66 years. What does the 21st century have in store for us?
...
Pablo Picasso was asked by the New York Times for his impression on the moon landing. He said, "It means nothing to me. I have no opinion about it, and I don't care."
...
Neil Armstrong stepped onto the Moon at 10:56 p.m. July 20th 1969. But that's eastern standard time... what time was it on the moon???
...
Emma on Trump- "His family likes him so he couldn't be a total sociopath, right?"
Might be something to that? Or maybe she's fallen under the convention spell.
July 20, 2016
Postscript- Sociopathy has a genetic element.
...
The Ramones' Pleasant Dreams was released on this day in 1981. I love the story about the history of The KKK Took My Baby Away... Johnny stole Joey's girl.
...
The Go-Go's song, Vacation was released on this day in 1982 forty years ago today! It was originally written by Kathy Valentine, amazing to think there's some guy out there in his 60s, and whenever he hears it, he's like, "That's about me." Jane and Charlotte contributed though, so maybe that guy is actually a composite of several guys.
VACATION
Can't seem to get my mind off of you
Back here at home there's nothin' to do
Now that I'm away
I wish I'd stayed
Tomorrow's a day of mine that you won't be in
When you looked at me I should've run
But I thought it was just for fun
I see I was wrong
And I'm not so strong
I should have known all along that time would tell
One week without you
I thought I'd forget
Six months without you and I still haven't gotten over you yet
Vacation, all I ever wanted
Vacation, had to get away
Vacation, meant to be spent alone
Vacation, all I ever wanted
Vacation, had to get away
Vacation, meant to be spent alone
One week without you
I thought I'd forget
Six months without you and I still haven't gotten over you yet
Vacation, all I ever wanted
Vacation, had to get away
Vacation, meant to be spent alone
Vacation, all I ever wanted
Vacation, had to get away
Vacation, meant to be spent alone
Vacation, all I ever wanted
Vacation, had to get away
Vacation, meant to be spent alone
July 20, 2022
...
Inspirobot- "People who suppress authority figures forget crowds."
...
...
It would be a true miracle if highly improbable things never happened.
July 20, 2014
...
Natalie Wood was born on this day in 1938.
"There are certain stars who are not actors. I don't want to be that type."
...
Looking around at the lunatics at Giant I actually laughed out loud, imagining that THIS is what our ancestors fought and died for. Yes well, time to go home and cook up this $1/lb chicken into cat food.
July 20, 2013
...
"Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Guns just make it really fucking easy." -Clarke Kant
...
Watching Little Caesar tonight. You know a phrase you don't hear too often anymore? "Make it snappy." Tomorrow I'm going to tell someone to make it snappy.
July 20, 2009
...
...
On this day in 1944, Adolf Hitler survived an assassination attempt led by German Army Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. He should be a household name.
...
An early Sex Pistols concert on this day 1976 has been called one of the most influential concerts in history. There were 40 attendees, among them were Morrissey, Ian Curtis and Bernard Summer of Joy Division, pre-Sex Pistols Sid Vicious, Mark E. Smith of The Fall, and members of the Buzzcocks put it together. It's been suggested that they were not awed by the music, rather that the music was so bad that they knew they could be better.
...
On this day in 1977, the CIA released documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind-control experiments.
...
The Johnstown flood killed 84 people and caused millions of dollars in damages on this day in 1977.
Excerpt of Highway Patrolman by Bruce Springsteen:
Yeah me and Frankie laughin' and drinkin' nothin' feels better than blood on blood
Takin' turns dancin' with Maria
While the band played 'The Night Of The Johnstown Flood'
...
...
Geneticist, botanist and monk, Gregor Mendel, was born on this day in 1822.
"My scientific studies have afforded me great gratification; and I am convinced that it will not be long before the whole world acknowledges the results of my work."
Did you know that diarrhea is hereditary? It runs in our jeans.
We might not have that joke if not for Gregor Mendel.
...
Edmund Hillary was born on this day in 1919.
"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."
...
Buddy Knox was born on this day in 1933. He's the singer-songwriter of the quintessential oldie, Party Doll.
Well all I want is a party doll
To come along with me when I'm feelin' wild
To be everlovin', true and fair
To run her fingers through my hair
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
I'll make love to you, to you, I'll make love to you
Well I saw a gal walkin' down the street
The kind of a gal I'd love to meet
She had blond hair and eyes of blue
Baby, I wanna have a party with you
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
I'll make love to you, to you, I'll make love to you
Every man has got to have a party doll
To be with him when he's feelin' wild
To be everlovin', true and fair
To run her fingers through his hair
To run her fingers through his hair
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
I'll make love to you, to you, I'll make love to you
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
Come along and be my party doll
I'll make love to you, to you, I'll make love to you
...
Cormac McCarthy was born on this day in 1933. Here's one of the greatest run-on sentences in the history of the English language, from Blood Meridian:
"A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools."
...
Sex Pistols' drummer, Paul Cook, joined us on this day in 1956.
...
Bruce Lee left us on this day in 1973.
"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
His one inch punch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHKb0kuTiGw
...
Pancho Villa was assassinated 100 years ago today. Do you know his last words?
"Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something."
If assassination is even a remote possibility for you, do yourself a favor and pick out your last words beforehand! Have them at the ready, because in the moment you're going to have a lot more on your mind.
I think about the people who were around him when he died later being asked by others if he had any last words. "Well, yeah, but they aren't great..."
July 20, 2023
Nate:
Bens last words “I shouldn’t have eaten hot dumpster meat” or “bury me with hair”
Ben:
"The haired see not their vanity. Through detachment of hair, one finds detachment of ego. Loss of ego equals loss of suffering." The Bald Bible- Book of Ben, 3:16
Please read that in my funeral.
...
...
The opening of the textbook, States of Matter (1975), by David L. Goodstein.
"Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of his life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics.”
...
Stanley Kubrick- "A film is is- or should be- more like music than fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings."
...
McCarthy again, from No Country For Old Men- "You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
...
...
Daily Kos- How Deranged Are Trump Supporters? New Poll Shows That It's Worse Than You Ever Imagined
Chocked full of crazy stats. This one is particularly noteworthy, and not a surprise to me. Keep in mind that the Milgram Experiment shows that 2/3 of us will effectively murder someone based on an arbitrary person's authority.
"Is there any line he can't cross? Apparently not. Because the survey also asked a question referencing Trump's campaign comment that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. 45% of Trump voters said they would still approve of him if he shot someone. This is Jonestown-level dementia. When people talk about "drinking the Kool-Aid," they can't get closer to that comparison than this."
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/7/19/1682182/-How-Deranged-Are-Trump-Supporters-New-Poll-Shows-That-It-s-Worse-Than-You-Ever-Imagined
July 20, 2017
...
Onion headline- Trump Supporters Worried Racist Attacks Against Progressive Democrats Just Talk
...
The Guardian, July 19, 2020- Donald Trump v Fox News Sunday: extraordinary moments from a wild interview
Wow, the nonsense! Has this guy bragged more about beating Hillary Clinton, or being smart enough to identify an elephant? All of his weaknesses laid bare here. Bad polls, equal fake news. God, what a stale old line. And of course, his soon-to-be be timeless classic... no commitment to accept the results of the election.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/19/donald-trump-fox-news-sunday-chris-wallace-interview
Jul 20, 2020, 7:57 AM
Postscript- It was like I was somehow seeing the future. OK, it was easy.
...
...
A letter from Neil Armstrong to a teacher who accused him of lying about going to the moon.
Mr. Whitman,
Your letter expressing doubts based on the skeptics and conspiracy theorists mystifies me.
They would have you believe that the United States Government perpetrated a gigantic fraud on its citizenry. That the 400,000 Americans who worked on an unclassified program are all complicit in the deception, and none broke ranks and admitted their deceit.
If you believe that, why would you contact me, clearly one of those 400,000 liars?
I trust that you, as a teacher, are an educated person. You will know how to contact knowledgeable people who could not have been party to the scam.
The skeptics claims that the Apollo flights did not go to the moon. You could contact the experts from other countries who tracked the flights on radar (Jodrell Bank in England or even the Russian Academicians).
You should contact the Astronomers at Lick Observatory who bounced their laser beam off the Lunar Ranging Reflector minutes after I installed it. Or, if you don't find them persuasive, you could contact the astronomers at the Pic du Midi observatory in France. They can tell you about all the other astronomers in other countries who are still making measurements from these same mirrors—and you can contact them.
Or you could get on the net and find the researchers in university laboratories around the world who are studying the lunar samples returned on Apollo, some of which have never been found on earth.
But you shouldn't be asking me, because I am clearly suspect and not believable.
Neil Armstrong
...
...
On this day in 1912, Sherry Magee of the Phillies stole home twice in a 14-2 rout of the Cubs.
...
Collected Insights From Across the Internet:
While everyone is fascinated that every snowflake is different, no one gives much thought to the fact that every potato is different as well
.
The first humans probably didn’t have voices in their heads because languages didn’t exist yet
...
10 Short Rules For a Better Life, From the Stoics
3. Read every day
"Give yourself time to read something new and good, and cease to be whirled around." -Marcus Aurelius
...
Inspirobot- "Apprehended for murder? Try to see the humor of the situation."
...
McCarthy, yet again, from All the Pretty Horses- "Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real."
...
Hagakure- "If a warrior is not unattached to life and death, he will be of no use whatsoever. The saying that "All abilities come from one mind" sounds as though it has to do with sentient matters, but it is in fact a matter of being unattached to life and death. With such non-attachment one can accomplish any feat. Martial arts and the like are related to this insofar as they can lead to the Way."
...
Jean-Luc Picard- "To be alive is a responsibility as well as a right."
...
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea:
"Fish," he said, "I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.
...
Marcel Proust- "Everything great in the world is done by neurotics; they alone founded our religions and created our masterpieces."
*Perhaps not astronauts! Then again, perhaps so.
...
Kundera- "A long time a go a certain Cynic philosopher proudly paraded around Athens in a moth-eaten coat, hoping that everyone would admire his contempt for convention. When Socrates met him, he said: Through the hole in your coat I see your vanity. Your dirt, too, dear sir, is self-indulgent and your self-indulgence is dirty."
...
...
Comments
Post a Comment