Commander:
Neil A. Armstrong
Pilot: Columbia Command Module
Michael Collins, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF
Pilot: Eagle Lunar Module
Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., Colonel, USAF
Launched: 16 July 1969 UT 13:32:00 (08:32:00 CDT)
Landed on Moon: 20 July 1969 UT 20:17:40 (15:17:40 CDT)
Landing Site: Mare Tranquillitatis – Sea of Tranquility (0.67 N, 23.47 E)
Returned to Earth: 24 July 1969 UT 16:50:35 (11:50:35 CDT)
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
11 comments
That was one of those “never forget where you were at the time” moments for me.
I have been watching When We Left Earth, Discovery Channel’s six-part documentary of the first 50 years of US space exploration, and it excellent.
The sad thing is that we could not return to the moon today if we wanted to. We no longer have the expertise, the technology, or the industrial base to pull off something that big.
Twenty years from now, we’re going to look up at the moon, and watch it twinkle as the first Moon city shines in the dark. And erected over that city will be a red flag with a large gold star and four smaller gold stars. Prepare to say hello to your new Chinese overlords…
— Badtux the Chinese-ruled Penguin
As the American firms are shutting down plants to “weather the storm”, the Asian companies are building new ones. US companies don’t believe in R&D or upgrading, just milking the cash cows and throwing away capabilities.
There may be an industrial base in the US in 20 years, but it will be owned by Asian companies “exploiting the cheap labor”.
If we had followed Carter’s advice on energy we would still have the largest economy in the world. but Republicans don’t want to sacrifice anything. They are, as a group, obsessed with clocks, and have no use for calendars.
I have a friend who is a project manager for a very large mining/engineering company. He’s currently working on projects in China. He told me a couple Months ago that China is popping out billion dollar power plants like toasters! A new one goes online every month. Awesome!
The Apollo years were truly the heyday. An era long gone.
And the funny thing about those power plants is, China intends to replace them within the next ten years with nuclear power plants. That’s right, they’re popping out billion-dollar coal powered power plants like toasters… *with the intention of replacing them within ten years*.
Now that’s Thinking Big. That’s the sorta Thinking Big that built the current (decaying) American infrastructure and took America to the moon. Sadly, can-do America is can’t-do America nowdays. Can’t provide health care for all its people. Can’t solve the problem of homeless junkies shooting up in public restrooms. Can’t built a replacement for the Space Shuttle before the last Shuttle is junked. Can’t find Osama bin Laden. Can’t solve the problem of people’s jobs getting exported overseas. Can’t. Can’t. Can’t. It’s damned depressing, to tell you the truth, to live in a country that’s so obviously over the hill. About the only thing the United States can do nowdays is build military hardware, but even that capability is decaying… the United States, for example, could not build a new M1A2 tank today even if it wanted to. The industrial capacity isn’t there anymore. The gas turbine engine used in the M1 isn’t made anymore. The tooling for the rest of the tank was sold to Egypt. Etc. We’re living on stored Cold War gear, and that gear is going to run out sooner or later, and then what?
– Badtux the Depressed Penguin
It’s like the AF tanker deal – it doesn’t make any difference whether Boeing or the Northrup group wins, both will have major portions of the project built in other countries.
For years major sections of Boeing aircraft were/are built in Italy.
US corporations have been training their competition for years, and the competition is now better able to do the job because they started out with newer plants and have been up-grading.
You are right about China going nuclear in a decade. 🙂 My friend said that he knows that our new PM and China made a *gentleman’s agreement* to supply China with lot’s of Uranium. And we have a lot of Uranium to sell. 😉 All Rudd has to do is… figure out how he will sell the deal to the people who elected him, and break (or bend) a few global agreements on the way! Shouldn’t be a problem… he has time! 😀 So… China is out bestest buddy for now. 😉
As for my view on it… go for it! It’s not doing us any good in the ground. 😉 And China has all the money! SO long as the usually stupid politicians don’t give it away, as they have with just about all our resources in the past, take the money and build our country to where it should be, and was going BH (Before Howard)!
An American friend working at GD in the 80’s-90’s told me they discovered one flaw in the design of the M1 during the ’91 Gulf war. One of the roles for a main battle tank is as an advance guard of Infantry. He said that when an M1 sat in one spot too long in the desert, that sand became like molten glass! Makes it a bit difficult for Infantry (or anything else). Venting the hot exhaust upwards wasn’t a viable option. Might as well paint the tank iridescently red and paint a big bulls eye on it for the heat-seekers. 🙂
Say a teary farewell to the annoying frog! 😉
It seems another huge US company is going OS (one that should REALLY upset all true Amerikans!) 😉 LOL
Anheuser-Busch accepts $52 billion InBev offer
I’m not surprised to see Anheuser-Busch take the deal considering the climate. If the deal were done 4 or 5 years ago, I suspect it would have cost a lot more than $52bill. I expect to see other companies doing the same thing.
If it meant that AB was going to produce Belgian quality beer, that would be something, but InBev is another “slice and dice” operation that “cuts out all the fat” to produce a “lean and mean” company that bottles carbonated water and calls it beer.
It’s hard to imagine that Bud could get worse, but based on the reviews of what they make in Europe, it will get worse.
The Clydesdales will have a new purpose in the company.
The Clydesdales will have a new purpose in the company.
😆 thanks for the day brightener!
Glad to oblige.