Very interesting.

Good find subby

What about Buzz Aldrin?

Unlike Apollo, the Orion mission to the Moon won't have any survivors if they can't get the lunar lander back into orbit.

Nobody's getting left in orbit this time. *Everybody* lands.

CougarJeff: What about Buzz Aldrin?

He would punch Nixon in the face.

Headline: The speech Nixon would have made if Neil Armstrong had died on the moon set

FTFY

I hope my legs don't break; Walking on the moon

DamnYankees: Headline: The speech Nixon would have made if Neil Armstrong had died on the moon set

FTFY

Your tin foil hat seems a little loose.

What's really fascinating about it is the language used to mourn a truly random disaster, for which no single party is to blame.

If it happened in 2009, a very popular Internet meme would get going that their deaths were caused by the greed of a few Wall Street billionaires and the failed policies of the Bush administration.

Our cultural ability to comprehend that something just-plain-went-wrong, and it's nobody's fault, that's the way life goes sometimes...has become a casualty. And that's very sad.

It was fake. Turns out it was written on Dukes of Hazard stationary.

Imagine what a pariah Mike Collins would have been if he left Neil and Buzz on the Moon.

No chairmanship of the National Air & Space Museum, that's for sure.

DarthBrooks: Imagine what a pariah Mike Collins would have been if he left Neil and Buzz on the Moon.

No chairmanship of the National Air & Space Museum, that's for sure.

What would Collins have possibly been able to do? And would he have been able to get home by himself? I don't think he would be any kind of pariah. I think if he got home by himself he'd be a huge hero.

VERY interesting big of history that never was.

CougarJeff: What about Buzz Aldrin?

Buzz Aldrin once roundhouse kicked a grizzly bear, and now wears the teeth that fell out as a necklace.

Probably the most interesting thing ever.

I'll plug From The Earth to the Moon. One of the best miniseries ever. A it has a really great episode on Apollo 11, focusing on Buzz Aldrin and his mixed emotions (with the awesome Brian Cranston in the role). Just great stuff.

I have a friend who still thinks the moon landing was fake. He also believes 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing were both inside jobs.

/Yes, he drives an electric car and a scooter.

Is this REALLY REALLY CREEPY to anyone else?

WTFDYW: Very interesting.

Good find subby

If this hadn't been released years ago (here is a BBC link from 1999) I would agree with you.

SockMonkeyHolocaust: It was fake. Turns out it was written on Dukes of Hazard stationary.



wanted for questioning

Bull. Nixon would have announced a plan for rescuing the astronauts, then bombed Mars.

tzzhc4: WTFDYW: Very interesting.

Good find subby

If this hadn't been released years ago (here is a BBC link from 1999) I would agree with you.

You are the sultan of finding news when it is fresh! I bow to your amazing ability.

Interesting that there is no mention of god in the whole thing (at least the parts they showed). That would never happen now.

timefishblue

Is this REALLY REALLY CREEPY to anyone else?


Why would it be creepy? Each president has an army of speechwriters who write individual pieces to address any likely contingencies fro a given event. They were rather new at the "space travel" thing at the time, and people dying was certainly not off the list of possibilities.

WTFDYW: Very interesting.

Good find subby

Don't you mean, good find, Sunday Express writer Ted Jeroy?

While Neil Armstrong's immortal lines "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

It was "One small step for a man...", dumbass.

You are the sultan of finding news when it is fresh! I bow to your amazing ability.

Have you seen the dancing baby video?

tzzhc4

well, it's new to me.

so, you're gonna have what, five, ten green lights in the next hour or so for me to look forward to?

TeddyRooseveltsMustache: CougarJeff: What about Buzz Aldrin?

Buzz Aldrin once roundhouse kicked a grizzly bear, and now wears the teeth that fell out as a necklace.

Buzz Aldrin taught Chuck Norris all his moves.

fro a given event


That should be "for a given event", though "fro" is not without its charms

tonesskin: You are the sultan of finding news when it is fresh! I bow to your amazing ability.

No I am certainly not claiming that. Just saying something released decades ago and generally considered common knowledge is not a great find" nor new news. Must be a slow news day and the mods must not know history very well so we are doomed to read it again.

Say what you will about Nixon and the people he surrounded himself with, that's one hell of a speech. And the good news is that we can still use it. I mean, eventually someone's going to die on the Moon.

Between that and Peggy Noonan's "slipped the surly bonds of earth" speech, it seems Nixonites are at their best when people are getting blown up in spacecraft. Who knew?

Tragedy today, as former President Gerald Ford was eaten by wolves. He was delicious.

antihuman: I have a friend who still thinks the moon landing was fake. He also believes 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing were both inside jobs.

/Yes, he drives an electric car and a scooter.

I always wonder about people like that. It's like they can't comprehend how a little technology can make a single person or a small group much more powerful than they would be otherwise. Yet we live in a world with that kind of technology all around us (the electric car he drives is a damn miracle in itself). Amazing.

Oh, and cool article.

The Decider: You are the sultan of finding news when it is fresh! I bow to your amazing ability.

Have you seen the dancing baby video?

Your a idiot.

mkfreeberg: Our cultural ability to comprehend that something just-plain-went-wrong, and it's nobody's fault, that's the way life goes sometimes...has become a casualty. And that's very sad.

It could be the fact that we are becoming very good at getting to the bottom of things. "It just went wrong" is no longer an acceptable excuse (and I'd argue that it shouldn't be). We have the technology and ability to investigate things and determine the root causes and the responsible parties. Our tort system provides a financial motivation to place blame. We are both able and motivated to go beyond explaining disasters with a simple "shiat happens".

I'm personally glad our society finds it important to place blame: Challenger Investigation Report.things.

Interesting. The New York Public library had the actual speech on display several years ago. There were variations depending on the exact nature of the disaster (explosion on takeoff, unable to return, etc). I remember reading it just after Reagan had given his post shuttle-disaster speech, and wondering if it had been written by the same person.

pugsleythegreat: well, it's new to me.

so, you're gonna have what, five, ten green lights in the next hour or so for me to look forward to?

Maybe you should hit the books a little more. This has been floating around for a looooooong time.

SockMonkeyHolocaust: It was fake. Turns out it was written on Dukes of Hazard stationary.

Man those Samoans are a surly bunch.

Good old William Safire always has had a way with words. Nattering nabobs of negativism was his. Shame about his championing that Prague yarn.

tzzhc4

"If this hadn't been released years ago "

Must be a slow news day. Usually this story shows up closer to July.

Here's the message Eisenhower prepared in case D-Day failed:
Link (new window)

No mention of the suicide pills?

mkfreeberg: Our cultural ability to comprehend that something just-plain-went-wrong, and it's nobody's fault, that's the way life goes sometimes...has become a casualty. And that's very sad.

... and that's the fault of media toxicity; not any one member of the media (Limbaugh, Hannity included) Our being accustomed to a constant stream of information, and argument in front of us about what went wrong.

I was at a friend's house the other day, and his 4-year old came into the room, interrupted our conversation simply with his bearing and said "Angie and Gloria were fighting" and wept. How far we have all come from being so sensitive to conflict ... many of us not look for it, challenge every perception and precept, and even when the truth is clear, we argue about irrelevancies simply to keep from accepting the one true thing :

We don't have a lot of control over our lives, and we can't change that fact.

Englebert Slaptyback: timefishblue

Is this REALLY REALLY CREEPY to anyone else?


Why would it be creepy? Each president has an army of speechwriters who write individual pieces to address any likely contingencies fro a given event. They were rather new at the "space travel" thing at the time, and people dying was certainly not off the list of possibilities.

It's mostly creepy to me because the speech says that it was fate. Also because heartfelt speeches from politicians that are written by speech writers creep me out in general.

timefishblue: Is this REALLY REALLY CREEPY to anyone else?

Yeah. But you know NASA. They prepare for ALL possible outcomes and contingencies.

DarthBrooks: Unlike Apollo, the Orion mission to the Moon won't have any survivors if they can't get the lunar lander back into orbit.

Nobody's getting left in orbit this time. *Everybody* lands.

At least this time they have the experience of the Apollo missions to build on. Now they KNOW how to make sure the lunar lander will get off the surface. And besides, it would suck to be the guy stuck in orbit around the moon. Michael Collins is the most-forgotten member of the Apollo 11 mission, and he had to float around by himself for all those days while Armstrong and Aldrin had fun on the moon. And besides, would you really want to be the sole survivor if everybody ELSE got stuck down there? That would fark you up in the head, I'm sure.

Tillmaster: I remember reading it just after Reagan had given his post shuttle-disaster speech, and wondering if it had been written by the same person.

Since there was a lot of overlap between Nixon and Regan's administrations I wouldn't doubt it.

Mr. Potatoass: While Neil Armstrong's immortal lines "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"

It was "One small step for a man...", dumbass.


Come on. I hate to say it, but he didn't say "a." Yeah, he messed up his big line. But think about it. If you were *walking on the moon* for the first time in human history you'd be nervous too. In 50 years some asshole will surely dub in the missing "a", but for now we should acknowledge that the man didn't say it.

Sudlow: Must be a slow news day. Usually this story shows up closer to July.

Or around the anniversary of the Challenger or Columbia.

mkfreeberg: What's really fascinating about it is the language used to mourn a truly random disaster, for which no single party is to blame.

If it happened in 2009, a very popular Internet meme would get going that their deaths were caused by the greed of a few Wall Street billionaires and the failed policies of the Bush administration.

Our cultural ability to comprehend that something just-plain-went-wrong, and it's nobody's fault, that's the way life goes sometimes...has become a casualty. And that's very sad.

Yeah, I remember those popular internet memes that showed up after the Indonesian tidal wave that blamed Bush, Tony Blair and AT&T.

Oh, and don't forget all the blame that was passed around during the great floods of 1993 in the midwest. Man, did Clinton and Bill Gates really get called out on that.

Adults, mkfreeberg, often differentiate between events that humans have no control over, versus those that could have been mitigated or even prevented. Things like Katrina could have been mitigated, things like the recession could have been mitigated or even prevented. People tend to start blaming Wallstreet billionaires and political officials when it becomes obvious they could have done more in their respective spheres of influence to alter the outcome.

Maybe one day you can begin to tell the difference between events out of our control versus the ones we have control over. First though, you're going to have to get over the twin butthurt of capitalism and Republicans getting a black eye.