Small Steps and Giant Leaps [News Bits]

I was at Onteora Scout Reservation in the Catskills during July 1969, for Troop 291's annual two-week summer encampment. No TVs at our campsite, of course; we went to the mess hall to watch the moon landing.

http://www.trcbsa.org/onteora

Hey, I'd like to say now that I should have kept that to myself about deliberately missing the moon landing. Looking back now, I feel it's sad that we didn't join Paul to watch it. My apologies for bringing up that sad incident and giving credence to landing-hoax theories.

But even sadder, thinking back, I was trying to remember if anyone in my family or neighbors or friends watched the moon landing. I don't think anyone I knew besides Paul did. For all practical purposes, 1969 in my hometown of El Paso might as well have been 1959.

Thanks Nickc. I'm not saying I don't really believe it happened. I'm just keeping an open mind. For the most part I do believe we landed on the moon, despite the Van Allen Belt and other items posited by the conspiracy enthusiasts. An apparent adult? At 53 I'm still not so sure about that.

wait, people still believe we didn't land on the moon? Very definition of stupidity, to continue to grasp at a notion that has been thoroughly and completely refuted.

oh and BTW here's a picture of the Lunar Modules, and yes there will be higher resolution pictures from the LRO, but for some people it is a matter of blind faith not reason, and they will never be convinced.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html

Also: what 16-year old reacts to news that men are on the moon with "Ah, we don't care?" Profoundly ignorant, not for 16-year olds, but for you as an apparent adult to continue to hold such views.

I remember July 20, 1969, was a Sunday. I was 13 and exhausted after running around all night -- I told my parents I was camping out by the oleanders and they never checked. Anyway I was hanging out with some 16-year-olds and proud that they would indulge my presence when the little brother of one of them comes running out and shouting, "Hey, they're landing on the moon." One of them shouted, "Ah, we don't care," and I echoed his disdain with my own insult. So I missed my chance to see the moon landing live.

Do I regret it? Surely during the ensuing weeks I encountered someone who said, "What? You didn't see the moon landing?" That never happened. If anything, all I heard were negative assessments of it, like that it was a waste of money or that it never happened at all. No I guess I do regret missing that defining moment of American success. Or would I have just witnessed the one feat of government dishonesty that could have topped Watergate? Even with the new Lunar Reconaissance unit, we still have yet to see new images of the American flag or land rovers left there that would prove the landing happened.

buzz aldrin + snoop dog: this is soooo charming. trust.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/f7a26d7505/making-of-buzz-aldrin-s-rocket-experience-w-snoop-dogg-and-talib-kweli