Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it

Post by russellbeattie » Fri, Feb 05, 2021, 5:47 PM UTC

russellbeattie wrote: post #25

bpodgursky wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also important to note how much a bit of goofing around got the public engaged in the missions. It wasn't a dry, clinical, scientific expedition — real humans were on the moon, and took the opportunity to... be actual humans. Hitting golf balls. Jumping around. Those antics, even if they had nominal risk, are part of what got millions of people (especially young people) excited about manned spaceflight.

What in the world are you talking about?? That is actually completely opposite of what happened! As cool as this was to many of us, public support plummeted after seeing NASA "fooling around", and golf especially was seen as an elitist white man's activity. In the wake of the Civil Rights Act, this only highlighted NASA's cultural bias. Political support, which was already waning, immediately fell off a cliff as well…

Post by simonh » Fri, Feb 05, 2021, 9:41 PM UTC

dmurray wrote: post #69

simonh wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a British children's adventure film called "Swallows and Amazons". A family of children want to go on a sailing trip without adult supervision to camp on an island. Their mother sends a telegram to her husband, who's an officer on a navy ship asking his advice (or permission, it was another time). He sends a telegram back "If not duffers won't drown, if duffers better drowned".

It was originally a book, or actually a series of books, written and set in the 1930s. Great reading as a child, but to have such permissive parents - they barely make an appearance while their kids as young as 7 spend days at a time boating and camping - seemed as fanciful to me as Harry Potter . I wonder if it was really like that in the 30s.

Post by akhilcacharya » Fri, Feb 05, 2021, 11:33 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #91

akhilcacharya wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had pretty good grades but I couldn’t get into any great universities with my stats. Best I could do was UNC-CH. The bifurcation is extremely real in my experience, and I’m not in the charmed class.

But your claim is built on certain assumptions that there is a certain path to get in based on “stats”. Sometimes you can improve your chances because there are other paths to get in. I don’t know if it’s still the case, but years back schools were clamoring to get veterans. I know some who were accepted to prestigious schools despite relatively underwhelming “stats” had they applied straight out of high school. I’m…

Post by mattr47 » Sat, Feb 06, 2021, 2:28 AM UTC

mandevil wrote: post #19

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #17

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>I suspect that it's more a generational thing than an occupational one. I've met a couple of test pilots from the '90's and '00's and they were the some of the most by-the-book people I've ever met, they were meticulous and followed their steps precisely, even for quotidian things like making breakfast or pitching a tent. The people who were test pilots in the 90s were people who succeeded under a system of massive…

And test pilots regularly died in the old system, and come home to their children in the current one, so I prefer the current one. The point is that it isn't "they were test pilots, so crazy" it is "in the 1950's and 1960's a lot more death was accepted and because of that, the standards were lower."

Post by JohnBooty » Sat, Feb 06, 2021, 3:26 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #77

JohnBooty wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't speak for the parent poster but it seems abundantly clear they're decrying the widening gap between those with access to good-paying jobs and those who are deprived of opportunity. Frankly, it seems like you're on the same side.

No, it’s the implication that without a college degree you have some shitty life deprived of opportunity. This is both paternalistic and condescending. There is nothing wrong with making 80k a year in Iowa as an electrician and paying down a mortgage on a 250k house. That’s not a deprivation of opportunity.