RIP Neil Armstrong

tender spots! we all need our saints. i agree that symbolically the earth images run counter to the mission. doesn't make the hero-worship any less nauseating. and it doesn't make me nihilistic to point out that calling the moon landing a great accomplishment is completely ideological. xps

otoh space is cool

oh okay so you don't have any heroes or saints? or are yours just not nauseating like the ones us proles worship?

we all need our saints.

just because:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq5gjfN5lns

http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs/182376_o.gif

i'm not above hero worship but i try to recognize its limits, what it actually accomplishes and when it becomes something else usually en masse and i hope/trust at my best we can all do this. xp

Thing about US propaganda and the moon and all that. The cultural narrative to me has always seemed more or less that it was fulfilling Kennedy's dream, which was from a cool and nice and idealistic time before he was assassinated. Neil was pretty humble about his role in all of it, which is something i greatly admire, and he had the skills and wits to pull of some much-needed last minute SAVING THE DAY type actions, so that seems pretty heroic too. Undermining it by saying it's just a product of US propaganda just seems like empty "Sheeple!" talk. If the mission was to go to the moon and shoot missiles at Russia along the way i would be cynical. But this didn't involve physically attacking another country, and him evoking "One giant leap for mankind" rather than "One giant leap for America" sort of takes away from that propaganda talk anyways. All in all, a pretty righteous dude. Pretty much everyone I've read about the was involved in the mission saw it as something bigger than themselves, and bigger than the Cold War.

ok maybe not all of us.

that was glib and lame. i guess i made my point. anyway roll on being inspired everyone.

calling the moon landing a great accomplishment is completely ideological

But it WAS a great achievement. I don't have a horse in this race, I'm not American and I'm not blind to the fact that you guys have done an awful lot of terrible, horrible things (hey, so have we! Woo!). But to deny that PUTTING A HUMAN BEING ON THE MOON is a great accomplishment is just insane.

if a carefully staged engineering exercise is really your idea of a great accomplishment than i'm just... sad i guess.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDB4_y8Nbf0/UDkqyIVJfLI/AAAAAAAAn_c/GscZ2uuovRI/s640/Scan10001.JPG

Neal Stephenson, Neil Armstrong, Neil Gaiman

you're definitely sad, yeah

i mean it's basically the same as the 1980 olympics but replace hockey fans with technophiles xp

you distrust the "en masse" idea because your game is to look down on the majority of people

congrats

Matt P, I am confused, what would your idea of a great accomplishment be? I find it very strange that you can't conceive of engineering something that can travel outside of the Earth's atmosphere as a great accomplishment. What have you got against engineering? I mean, are you also not impressed about discovering the theory of relativity because 'oh, well, if you consider doing a bit of maths a great accomplishment then I'm just... sad'?

a moonship journey, if you will

― the late great, Saturday, August 25, 2012 4:04 PM (38 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

indeed

meanwhile we're about to destroy ourselves and our planet but going somewhere and coming back is a great accomplishment.

i mean the physical part of a journey can be an important element in transformation--i guess the earth pictures tease at the possibility of a transformation.

fast forward to 2012 and our vision of the future is mining asteroids.

xp i distrust ideology, which majorities are usually constructed in order to reinforce. i trust human decency and sharing/enabling life. doesn't usually whip everyone into a fervor unfortunately.

more xps engineering is a tool with potential, not an accomplishment.

I appreciate how there's always someone willing to turn every thread into a teachable moment. God's work. God's work.

also all technology flies like that. you think columbus was looking for *THE TRUTH*

maybe he was looking for THREE CHORDS.

― KARLOR CAN FUCK ANYTHING! AND HE WILL AND HAS!!! (Eisbaer), Saturday, August 25, 2012 9:41 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Where's a 'like' button when you need it?

you really got to stop using that royal we matt

Hang on a second, Matt. YOU were the one who reduced the act to the tool. The tool is what gave people the ability to do the thing we're talking about. So don't go "ugh, it's just engineering" in response to "why isn't it an achievement?" and then go "engineering is just the tool" in response to "well, why isn't engineering impressive?" You've just nullified your first response, and need to re-think and answer again.

This thread has reminded me that I need to start showing up more random funerals and telling the grieving families that the decedent's life was a sham.

guys couldn't we at least have waited at least a day before shitting up the thread

hey you're right, what can i say i grew up religious, i'll work on that. xp

I mean I realize that this is ILX SOP but guys

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Hang on a second, Matt. YOU were the one who reduced the act to the tool. The tool is what gave people the ability to do the thing we're talking about. So don't go "ugh, it's just engineering" in response to "why isn't it an achievement?" and then go "engineering is just the tool" in response to "well, why isn't engineering impressive?" You've just nullified your first response, and need to re-think and answer again.

― emil.y, Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:00 PM (59 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're right, i'm not being clear. going to the moon was an accomplishment. it was hard. lots of odds.

guys, I don't even think Matt P has even been to the moon
this explains a lot 4 me

have only skimmed the thread, but did we talk anywhere about his recent interview? the circumstances of it were really fascinating, partic considering how bizarre everyone had assumed he'd become on account of being a 'recluse' or whatever; i heard excerpts on the radio & he spoke so humbly & impressively about his work - which is what he'd considered it, talking abuot how his main thought on stepping onto the moon was that they had a job to do, had checklists.

meanwhile we're about to destroy ourselves and our planet but going somewhere and coming back is a great accomplishment.

chill dude, we already tore up your ticket

silent runnings

http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/

xpost yeah i kinda love that watered down john maus run there

I appreciate how there's always someone willing to turn every thread into a teachable moment. God's work. God's work.

tbf this is how all human culture and "fun" works, fuiud

'man who spends hours every day posting about power pop online considers apollo 11 trivial distraction'

have only skimmed the thread, but did we talk anywhere about his recent interview? the circumstances of it were really fascinating, partic considering how bizarre everyone had assumed he'd become on account of being a 'recluse' or whatever; i heard excerpts on the radio & he spoke so humbly & impressively about his work - which is what he'd considered it, talking abuot how his main thought on stepping onto the moon was that they had a job to do, had checklists.

― very sexual album (schlump), Saturday, August 25, 2012 3:07 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so he was basically a good bureaucrat

sorry 'team member'

MOONMAN

so he was basically a good bureaucrat

instead of what, an organic farmer or martin luther king?

most teachers are good bureaucrats, as are nurses, you going to shit on them next

So much of me doesn't want to feed the troll...espeically in this thread on this day but I have been so sad for hours and then to see you say all this crap, goddammit Matt, you are so full of shit about this whole subject that it's personally offensive to me.

Maybe on a social and political level the moon landing and the 1980 US hockey team are similar, but if that's the only lens you're going to view it through then you are insane. The only way those two feats are similar is if the Hockey team had to invent the game of hockey, create the wood itself for their hockey sticks because such a material didn't exist before they played, and then if the stadium they played in ran the risk of losing oxygen at any given moment and or bursting into flame.

If you don't personally care about space exploration that's one thing, but don't come in here with your bullshit handwaving and try to imply that Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission didn't achieve something scientifically remarkable. It was an inarguable FEAT and you should get over yourself.

you post a lot on i love nfl huh

also winning a game of hockey would have to be an eternal human aspiration (except for matt p)

many philosophers would argue that as a mutual appreciation of athletic beauty, the olympics are one of the highest achievements of human civilization

OH BUT CREDIT CARD COMMERCIALS

Wow, more cuntitude than I expected on this thread.. I really can't thing of anything more technically complex and demanding of a humans bravery than travelling 250,000 miles to a hostile environment with no certainty that they could return safely. I'm just about the generation that remembered the Apollo missions as something inspiring and wonderful and smdh at anyone who demeans that achievement.

i started free-form writing a week ago, asking myself questions and trying to be as real as i can cuz i've got issues. does writing help you? how about, say, recording yourself. i.e. what's the best way to look at problems under a clear light so u can start untangling them. what do you think??

― bind music up, scratch my discs up (Matt P), Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:03 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

troll ilx

― jveggra va pbqr (Lamp), Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:04 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

peas in a pod there. fucking glue sniffers giggling outside a dairy queen.

for real though a little depressing to think at least one of those two is an adult irl