“Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, died Saturday, weeks after heart surgery and days after his 82nd birthday on Aug. 5. Armstrong commanded the Apollo 11 spacecraft that landed on the moon on July 20, 1969, and he radioed back to Earth the historic news of ‘one giant leap for mankind’. He spent nearly three hours walking on the moon with fellow astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin.” Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Such a great man. The world lost a true legendary hero today. This man will be an inspiration for generations to come.
A great man has left us.
Puts our stupid bickering over stuff that doesn’t matter in perspective, don’t it?
We just went to the movies and while I was standing in the parking lot I noticed the moon only to find out moments later Neil Armstrong passed away.
I think that looking at the stars or looking at pictures of the Earth is a great way of putting things in to perspective.
Chances are we are the only intelligent live in this part of the galaxy and instead of being happy and doing science stuff to reach out to the stars and the mysteries of live, the universe and everything we make up all these things that make us unhappy. Money, borders, patents, rules, religion.
Just think about it how insane money is. Money doesn’t exist, we made it up and then we spend our lives acquiring it, killing others for it, saying we can’t help others because we don’t have enough money or don’t want to spend it.
One day a killer astroid will come at us and we can’t stop it, because we don’t have enough money.
If aliens visit us one day, no matter how smart they are they’ll never figure out what we are doing here and why.
Neil was lucky, for a brief moment he escaped the madness and walked on the f*cking moon! It’s hard to top that.
“It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons.” — Douglas Noel Adams
Money is a measurement of scarcity of resources, and a way to reward effort. Its no small coincidence that the nation with the most money (the nation that was born on the idea that wealth is created, not a zero-sum game) is also the only nation that has put a man on the moon.
The first man on the moon rose to his position by dropping bombs on Koreans as a 20 year old pilot. I’m not saying this detracts from his later accomplishments at all, only that the world isn’t as cut-dry black and white, good and bad as you make it.
Apple has money, the US has an enormous debt and Neil Armstrong didn’t go bombing Koreans because he figured it was a quick and safe way to earn a buck.
Money doesn’t exist. To make trade easier we made stuff we called money and agreed it has a certain worth, just like we agreed how chess pieces move.
In nature and the universe there is no money. No anthill or beehive ever went bust. No birds ever stopped migrating, because they couldn’t effort the trip. No lost tourist was ever able to bribe a lion with money. No dolphin ever stopped having a fun time, because he was too busy finding a job to pay his bills. No alpha ape ever went around collecting taxes. No alien species would ever accept our money in exchange for their technology, because money is worthless unless you and others agree it has a value.
Earth and the universe did fine for billions of years without any money.
I’m going to smack the next person who mentions “Apple” in this article.
As long as you don’t smack an alien. We don’t want an article about Neil Armstrong to be the cause of an intergalactic war.
Reminds me of Death in Pratchett’s “Hogfather”. Grind down the entire universe and you won’t find a single molecule of mercy or justice.
If alien visitors ever visit Earth, they might not care about money, but they will be far more interested in the species that has sent men to the moon, vehicle-sized craft to Mars, and probes beyond the solar system than they would be in animals that live day-to-day trying not to get eaten.
Edited 2012-08-27 00:00 UTC
Of course. But probably that would be true just because there’s some other even more intelligent alien species who has never bothered to build a spaceship to discover our Earth and instead refined the art of spending a blissful existence playing in the seas, skies or on the surface of their unpolluted planet.
It might sound pessimistic, but I’m still convinced that happiness and knowledge are two separate paths and you can not pursue one unless you abandon the other. Obviously there’s infinitely more complexity to this matter than that, but it’s a realistic rule of thumb.
There still are costs. In fact, lots of animals pay with sex or food or building materials.
Anthills and beehives go bust all the time. Of course, it now turns out that Colony Collapse Disorder is caused by Bayer’s insecticide, but entymologists would tell you that a great number of beehives die out every year normally.
Except that’s precisely how flightless birds came about.
If the lost tourist had the right amount of money in the right currency then they would be able to bribe the lion.
Actually, the only dolphins that have a “fun time” are those you see at those water parks (whatever name it is). How do you know they are having “fun”? They’re having “fun” to get the continued supply of fish. Out in the wild, it’s a constant battle against starvation and murder.
Humans are apes.
Which goes back to the question about the currency in use.
And yet, money emerged. The earth and the universe obviously had a need for money.
No. Just several people had a need for money. One may speculate that some amount of them could be categorized as parasites, as today there’s a significant share of people benefiting from the existence of money without creating any value or contributing to mankind, draining energy from the whole system.
No. Just several people had a need for money. [/q]
Are people not part of the Earth and the universe?
* Hint: just because the universe has no need for money doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist. The universe has no need for life either. You can’t argue about the need for properties which are emergent.
** This is not to say that money is perfect. I would say money needs to be subject to conservation laws like the rest of physical and biological laws. None of this “Company A is really worth $600 billion because the total of its shares at the current share price is worth $600 billion” nonsense.
How much is a piece of bread worth?
Whatever you are willing to pay for it…
How much is a share worth?
Whatever you are willing to pay for it…
Why do you continue to deny this simple truth? You seem to understand the concept of money, yet you think it doesn’t apply to stock prices the same way it applies to everything else…
Wrong on so many levels. What you’ve highlighted is that money is a PROXY measure for how much something is worth. It’s an ESTIMATE. It is not reality.
FACT: Everybody on this planet has to eat and drink.
Ultimately, all money needs to be converted to food and water. The calculation may be exceptionally complex. Ultimately, people are going to have to make that calculation. They make that calculation every time they buy food and drink and houses and petrol and electricity and gas and they compare that to their budget. This is why stock prices crash every once in a while – people realize they can no longer afford it. That value at the end of the crash? That is what people REALLY think something is worth.
FACT: Some things are more price elastic than others. Some costs are more variable than others.
The value it had before the crash is an illusion that people buy into hoping to cash out before the illusion pops. Why do you persist in this nonsense New Age bullshit that reality is whatever people think it is? You’re over 40. Stop it.
Your changing the definition of words to suite your arguments. Proxy != Estimate. A proxy is a substitute, something used in place of – it is not an estimation.
As far as money not being reality – we made it reality by deciding to use it in the first place. They fact that you accept payment for work done in the form of money and trade it for stuff makes it real – otherwise it wouldn’t work. Its real because everyone agrees it honor it’s value.
That’s like saying that if tomorrow someone flooded the market with cheap bread – which would drive the price through the floor – it makes today’s price of bread fictitious and not “real”.
Your argument is that since stocks are volatile and are prone to extreme fluctuations that this makes their value at any given time illusionary.
It doesn’t. It’s just an example of how valuation is only meaningful at a given moment. It is fixed in time. Today something costs X, tomorrow it costs Y… It doesn’t matter if it is a stock or its bread.
Same thing.
Prices change…
If Apple’s stock crashes tomorrow it will piss off a lot of investors. They will lose a lot of money. But it is STILL worth $600 billion dollars today – that is its REAL value.
The reverse can happen too you know. Stock prices can double or even triple in value in a short amount of time… I promise you when someone benefiting from an investment like this cashes out the money they receive is just as green as all the other money…
Of course some things are more price elastic than others. That doesn’t make their monetary value less real – it just makes it less stable.
I can come up with 100s of scenarios where extremely stable commodities suddenly have huge price swings – it happens all the time. Does that make their current market price an illusion? The value of money itself is unstable… That does not make it an illusion.
If you really believed that you wouldn’t accept it as a form of payment…
Do you not understand the concept of a qualifier? Money is a proxy measure which is ALSO an estimate.
Strawman. I didn’t say money wasn’t real. I’m saying the amount of money we assign to things wasn’t real. Things are worth money. I’m debating the amount. The amount is not real for shares.
Keep living in your fantasy world if you want. No one ever became worse off by staying out of the stock market. I understand that you need to convince yourself to stay sane.
Fair enough – a subtle misunderstanding. I still stick by my initial example (which you completely ignored) – how is the price of a share different than the price of bread (or anything else)? They are both established in similar ways. Its all supply and demand…
Im not trying to convince you of buying stocks
Honestly, there are lots of very good reasons to stay out of the stock market – I don’t blame you for avoiding it. All Im saying is that if the price of a stock is an illusion – so is the price of everything else. There is nothing special about stocks that make them different than any other thing you might buy or sell.
Anything is subject to volatility, supply swings, bubbles, speculation, price fixing, etc., etc. Look at “Tulip Mania” from back in the 1600s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_17/b3678084.htm
This is the defacto example of a bubble from history. Prices went up to ridiculous levels before the bubble burst. All Im saying is that this can happen with anything, it is not a exclusive property of the stock market.
You can’t say a stock price is an illusion but accept that an hours worth of you labor is worth $XX dollars. They are either both illusions are neither of them are.
I’m with the dolphins.
Hear hear.
The guy had nerves of steel.
He saved the Gemini 8 mission after a thruster stuck open, rolling the spacecraft so rapidly that the astronauts’ vision became blurry.
He ejected from an out-of-control LLRV that could’ve killed him.
And he guided the Eagle to its lunar landing, with just 25 seconds of fuel to spare. Not only that, but the computer overloaded twice and then directed the LM at a boulder field that could’ve destroyed it. And to top it all off, a premature fuel warning that made him think he had even less fuel than the little he had.
Unbelievable story..examples right stuff.
I’m not sure if ejecting out of soon-to-crash vehicle is a fitting example to “nerves of steel”… what does that make the people on passenger aircraft, who have no means to eject, not even a parachute? (especially those in the 20s or, partly, 30s – when airlines had safety record fairly comparable to space missions)
Very true.
I know Dr Who is only make believe, but I’m reminded of a scene where the Doctor refers to the moon landings as the most watch piece of video footage ever; and I quite believe that to be the case. Regardless of age, gender, race or even personal interests: nearly every single person on the globe will have at some point seen Armstrong’s iconic first steps. And with good reason too!
I don’t know if I’ll ever live to see anything as pioneering nor extraordinary as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s lunar antics, but if -as a planet- we do take up manned space flight again, Armstrong will definitely an inspiration to everyone involved.
RIP
And, possibly because of images of the Silence disrupting, humanity believes the first words on the moon was “a small step…” when they really were “I’m down the ladder now”
He really did have the Right Stuff.
Godspeed Neil!
Look up to the sky this night. We all will see a new bright star shining with an unsual steady light that was not there yesterday.
We have one less hero walking on earth. Rest in peace great man.
This is an unfortunate day for man, one giant miss for mankind.
That’s not how stars work.
Or rather, it statistically happens all the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBJ6yptGqm4
Sad to see him go. Important historic figure yes but that’s where I draw the line. The praising in the media is just ridiculous. This man was nothing special. He wasn’t a hero and he was no greater than any of his numerous other colleagues waiting to take that seat.
The true heroes and great men are the scientists and engineers working their ass off to get him (up) there; the ones who didn’t receive any sort of praise or credit.
Edited 2012-08-26 07:15 UTC
What’s your definition of hero?
Here’s a lesson in simple logic for you:
The statement “Neil Armstrong is a hero” does not imply “Therefore he was greater than his colleagues”.
Your complaint is thus idiotic.
They receive praise and credit ALL THE TIME. Neill is receiving praise and credit today especially is because HE DIED. When those scientists and engineers die, they too will get the praise and credit on that day.
Recognizing someone on a special occasion does not result in a shortage of supply for the next praiseworthy person or act.
There’s an art to cynicism. You do not have it.
Errr, I’m pretty sure many of the NASA engineers responsible for that mission have passed away since then. You are aware that such a project is supported by hundreds of engineers. I’m pretty sure that there haven’t been any headlines for them.
I understand the publicity; people want to celebrate this man’s life because for some reason he was important to them. However I object to the over-exaggeration of his accomplishments and all the hero statements being thrown around.
kwan_e,
I agree with the OP that we tend to over-credit the individual and under-credit the team, many of whom will never get public recognition for their efforts.
Not to be disrespectful to Armstrong, his moon landing is a testament to human achievement and he deserves credit for being the first, but he would probably admit that he was a *very* lucky guy to have landed that role, it might have easily gone to someone else.
Well, he did mention something about a small step for one man and a giant leap for mankind as he got of his ride.
He would admit it. But it doesn’t change the fact that no one would choose a less qualified pilot to do the first lunar landing. It wasn’t through luck that he was one of the best test pilots available for the job.
“He would admit it. But it doesn’t change the fact that no one would choose a less qualified pilot to do the first lunar landing. It wasn’t through luck that he was one of the best test pilots available for the job.”
Armstrong was a great inspiration to us because of what he did, there’s no denying that. He was certainly qualified, however none of the other qualified people who could have gone will get much recognition in the end simply because they were not lucky enough to go on that first moon mission.
Quoting astronaut Walt Cunningham:
“Most of our group in those days could have accomplished the challenge of the mission, but I do not know a one that could have handled the resulting notoriety as well as Neil did.”
I hope I don’t offend anybody by the way I said that. I don’t want to lessen the public admiration of Armstrong, but I do want to increase the admiration of all the early anonymous engineers and space pioneers. It shows that humanity can achieve great feats when we decide to work together towards a common goal.
Our technology has advanced by magnitudes, but somehow I feel like humanity has regressed since those times. Maybe we need another “space race” of sorts to kickstart the next human milestone in which we can all take pride in again.
Regarding the space pioneers, everyone is a hero, from the scientists and engineers to the navigators and astronauts. Everyone was important and everyone had to do their job, otherwise the mission would have failed and the astronauts would have been killed.
A previous comment by tanzam75 showed just that: the scientists and engineers could not have done Neil’s job (and vice-versa). Neil’s colleagues are also heroes. This is not a zero sum game.
But only a few had the Balls to crawl into a soup can and be hureled millions of miles hoping to hit a small speck of dirt. But then again he was a Marine pilot, he had a lot of practice landing on a pitching/ rolling speck of asphalt in pitch black night.
Semper Fi my Brother Neil, the world lost a great one
Edited 2012-08-28 01:51 UTC
Not sure I would like to be shot in to space using 1960’s technology, walk around on the moon and then fly back.
There are thousands of scientists for every astronaut, but many more astronauts died in accidents than scientists did.
When a scientist makes an error he or she doesn’t die, someone else does.
After the first few successful launches, the only errors that caused deaths were those of management. Records show that the scientists and engineers clearly warn of technical problems which management is recorded to have ignored, leading to deaths.
Whatever one thinks of the state of US science, it is undeniable that NASA still has the best in the business and they are rarely wrong.
For the usual meaning of “rocket scientist” (~=”a specialist that works with rockets) that is simply incorrect, disasters on launchpads alone killed many more scientists/technicians than astronauts …in fact, just _one_ of them did that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_…
Meanwhile, it was a bit of a farce that, out of the twelve people who walked on the Moon, only one was a geologist, during the last Apollo moon mission – and only because he was bumped up at the last moment, after pleads from the scientific community, from a mission which never flew.
Frankly, I’m a bit surprised & disappointed that the scientific community wasn’t more firm in their expectations – something to the tune of “we won’t work on Apollo unless there will be a pro scientist on every two-man landing crew, and a scientist will be also the one who steps down first”
Edited 2012-09-02 00:16 UTC
The man sat on a tube filled with explosives and traveled farther than any other man had ever traveled before that, in one of the most hostile environments known.
How is that not special? Can you do it? Have you done it? No? Then STFU.
Edited 2012-08-27 17:47 UTC
Apollo 9 and 10 missions were just as far… (and, earlier to that, turtles on Zond 5 ;p )
And no, I can’t do that – for one, I was born at the wrong time, in a wrong place (just one man from my country was ever in space, and that was mostly just Intercosmos political PR).
Also, I was essentially outright blocked from such feats: for one, I have one generally hardly significant medical condition (caused by other people, by one medical frak up when I was 1 year old), but which disqualifies me from ever being a pilot of even a glider – meanwhile, I more than passed the educational requirements needed to get to a school that educates fighter pilots in my country; also, I was first in the final of “physics olympics” …it didn’t matter, and I suppose you’d just told me to “STFU”
Generally, people overestimate the individual contribution to the “end effect”, and how our life ends up – it’s one of the cognitive biases. Now, I’m not seeing the chosen twelve were poorly qualified, they weren’t – but you could easily find at least hundreds which were just as well. Plus, curiously how all of the twelve were white males, most of them with angular jawbones…
Or ponder that: out of the twelve, only one was a professional geologist, during the very last Apollo moon mission – and only because he was bumped up at the last moment, after pleads from the scientific community, from a mission which never flew.
Kerosene, liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen are not very strictly speaking explosives, BTW …unless you’re also marvelled at the fact that I use explosives in my kitchen, SEVERAL TIMES PER DAY?
(and either way, disasters on launchpads alone killed many more scientists/technicians than astronauts… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_… )
Edited 2012-09-02 00:18 UTC
Except that he was part of a team that flew into space and to the moon in the 60’s in a tube filled with highly explosive rocket fuel and with less computing power than your phone.
No offence to the scientists and engineers but their life wasn’t on the line.
To possible non-believers who tend to claim that there were no man on the moon …
No matter what is the truth, mr Armstrong was a great astronaut or a great actor. Either way he was a great man
Buzz Aldrin will punch you in the face.
As usual, people don’t get the joke and probobly think that I have something against this great man.
Humanity … d’oh!
Yeah, right, mod the f$@! down. You have an obvious reason to do so, you bunch of insensitive clots!
PS in case anyone’s wondering: yes, that is also a joke. Bye.
I loved watching that.
RIP.
My mother did a school research project back in the day and she manage to get a signed letter by Neil Armstrong. She still have it in a box to this day. I remember to have read it.
Armstrong spent 3 hours on the moon, saw there was nothing there, and came back with a handful of sand.
The guy is an icon, celebrity. Same as Gagarin (even as both were just a tip of the iceberg that made this happen). First guy to be there, and as such will be noted in the history books, although we could say the moon is only a rock out of many (and US merely made a cold war spectacle out of it).
A true American hero.
Edit: make that a true human hero.
Edited 2012-08-27 07:14 UTC
i reckon it’s related to Apple…