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One Giant Leap For Mankind: Apollo 11 Moon Landing
When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue
Detroit, 9:48 AM
Thu Nov 26
20 posts in the last 24 hours
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One Giant Leap For Mankind: Apollo 11 Moon Landing |
When Ugliness Was a Volkswagen Virtue |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
07/21/09
07/20/09
JFK, speaking about the challenge of the Apollo program: "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 which we intend to win, and the others, too...Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there." Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked."
Even more than the moon walk, what really gets to me is the Apollo 8 mission: the first pictures of the Earth rising over the moon, taken by man, broadcast live to the world on Christmas Eve, 1968. The broadcast concluded with the three astronauts reciting the first verses of Genesis, closing with "good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth." It's overshadowed by 11, but especially in the context of the holiday and a tumultuous year, the smallness of our planet off in the distance is so humbling. It's the kind of drama and imagery you just can't make up. It's also the kind of thing that could never occur again in our jaded, PC society (even then, an atheist tried to sue the government of the Genesis reading - fortunately, the Supreme Court didn't recognize jurisdiction over outer space).
Ah, to have lived in the times when sex was safe, cars were dangerous, and man dreamed of taking the first steps on the moon...
07/20/09
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The Titusville riverside (or partway across the Indian River if you had a boat) was the closest point an ordinary civilian could watch a Saturn launch. During the moon shots, Titusville would turn into an all-night street party along US 1 the night before a launch, what with a million visitors descending upon a town of 30,000 or so. All the businesses would stay open, and it was an endless parade of cars, campers, RVs, and people. Great fun for a teenager bent on a little carousing. There were a lot of tired faces and hangovers among the massive crowd along the river at launch time. After the launch was a 6-hour traffic jam as everyone tried to leave at once.
07/20/09
07/20/09
In that last picture, those aren't Cuban cigars...they're actual Cuban people. They just rolled 'em up in brown paper and fucking smoked 'em.
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Mankind, I salute thee.
07/20/09
I can't imagine what it would have been like to see the landing on TV is grainy fuzzy black and white then pick up a copy of Life magazine a few weeks later and see these stunning Hasselblad images. It must have been shocking to everyone.
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@pres:
Ahem, you forgot something.
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07/18/09
07/18/09
Anyway, VW design today combines the "greatness" of being vague, naive and sterile. Audi follows the suit.
07/18/09
What's most lacking in today's auto industry is iconoclasm. There aren't enough automakers that are willing to take the kinds of risks that VW did back in the day. The result: You may have a record number of choices in a given vehicle class but very little meaningful differences.
Any of the automakers that are on the verge of disappearing from the US market could revive themselves if they took a page from VW. Alas, it won't happen. Group think is too strong in today's auto industry.
07/18/09
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07/18/09
race them!