The three men who flew the historic Apollo 11 moon mission talked about their feat Sunday.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins spent time discussing the first time man landed and stepped on the moon’s surface, which happened 40 years ago Monday.
It was more about what they didn’t say that has drawn attention. Aldrin and Collins both took the opportunity to discuss why the United States and National Aeronautic and Space Administration should target Mars for the next landing, rather than going back to the moon.
The 485 people attending the event Sunday at the Smithsonian Institute National Air and Space Museum may have been wanting more details about what transpired 40 years ago. What they got was reasons why this country should send a man flight to Mars.
I do not have a problem with this.
Much has been written and videotaped about these three men through the years. I do not think their words or thoughts on the event have changed through the years. Sunday was a good time to put their issue up front.
They met with President Obama on Monday. I am sure the subject was discussed there as well.
NASA’s shuttle program has had limited success compared with Apollo. The International Space Station is all right, but why not go to Mars.
It is another frontier that may pay dividends.
Take a small step and giant leap to do something out of the ordinary.
Who was the smarty pants who turned the calendar to autumn?
A couple of weeks ago we had hot, muggy conditions, but those have been chased away by temperatures we are accustomed to in early October.
Even when we have had a hot, humid run of weather, it has not grabbed the area and held it for the typical 10 to 14 days.
For the record, I am not complaining. This saves on the energy bill.
This cool summer weather reminds me of the weather conditions we had when vacationing at my grandparents’ in Erie, Pa. They live along the lake and it is a refreshing feel.
I got a kick out of a friend saying he thought a windchill could have been measured today in Elmhurst.
This is July 17. Usually this is when we have 90-plus degrees with triple-digit heat index readings.
I tweeted back on Twitter that the ground hog saw his shadow today. That means three more months of early fall.
The friend tweeted back, “That’s what I fear. Eternal fall.”
Never fear we still have August left to save us with some steamy days.
NASA is preparing for the 40th anniversary of man landing and walking on the moon.
It just blows my mind that the space agency has admitted that the videotape used to record the historic event was later erased so it could be used again. NASA said there was a shortage of videotape, so about 200,000 15-minute reels were erased.
According to a story by The Associated Press, NASA said it searched for three years before deciding the tapes were erased.
Excuse me, even if this was an honest mistake, why in the heck was this left out to be used again.
A monumental event such as the one that took place on July 20, 1969 should be treated as such.
There is a happy ending.
A California film restoration company is 40 percent through a project that is putting together the footage of the landing using four sources. Yes, the quality has been improved, but at what cost.
It will cost $230,000 for the restoration project. But for the men and women who made that moment in July 1969 a reality, it is a slap in the face.
It is one small step for stupidity and a giant step into a pile of dog poop.
It is like telling us that the whole darn thing (landing on the moon) was staged.
Here are 10 things I would rather do before going to the dentist:
10: Clean out the gutters.
9. Rearrange the furniture, in all rooms.
8. Go to four meetings on the same day.
7. Listen to Slim Whitman albums.
6. Pull weeds.
5. Paint a fence during a 100-degree day.
4. Give our cat a bath.
3. Listen to talk radio.
2. Wash the siding on our house.
1. Work with a cat giving a weather forecast.
Should Smokey the Weather Cat be added to The Weather Channel lineup?
On Saturday, a high school classmate posted a music video on Facebook. He put up the group Nickelback’s “If Today Was Your Last Day.”
The lyrics talk of not holding back because time is not on our side. Every day is a gift and not a given.
“Don’t take the free ride in your life,” one line of the song says.
What adds punch to this song is the story lines in the video.
A group of people grab several trash bags. Two suspicious-looking men stand on a bridge. A well-dressed man robs a bank.
It turns out the trash bags are filled with red jackets with different messages on the backs. The group passes them out in a busy downtown area.
The two men on the bridge release a bag full of confetti, which also have printed messages, positive ones.
And our bank robber hands out all the money to people in need.
Do not rob a bank, but paying kindness forward is a wonderful thing.
One random act of kindness can easily cause a wonderful chain reaction.
Most important is realizing right now is all that we have. We cannot change the past and we cannot worry about the future.
The choice is yours.
Many thanks to my friends at the journal Current Biology for uncovering the mystery of different sounding chatter coming from my cat.
In an article to be published Tuesday, researchers suggest some purrs cats make send a different message to their owners — feed me.
The researchers found that the purr of a hungry cat is a higher pitch, sounds like a cry or meow.
I didn’t need 50 human volunteers to tell me that when Smokey our cat wakes me in the middle of the night, it is for food. Not cat food, but more important to him, treats. Those little sweet morsels.
The purr or cry starts when he jumps on the bed and sticks his face in mine. It continues from the time I get out of bed until the time I throw the morsels on his place mat.
And I sure didn’t need the researchers to confirm that I was the one that let this happen. Instead of ignoring Smokey’s cries, I let them rule me. So much that I now chatter back with him as we make our way to the kitchen and the cabinet where his food is stored.
He doesn’t stop with the overnight cry. He also does it when we are awake. He goes so far as to sit in front of the cabinet looking as if he had not been fed in a few days.
It is even better when the wife or I deny him treats. He gets that mad look and tries to stare a hole through us. It’s not going to happen buddy. OK. We do buckle to his demands some times.
I love that Smokey wakes me in the middle of the night. It means I can check out the latest news and weather. I have to be on top of the situation. Sleep is over-rated.
That is if you are a cat, who just so happens to nap for three-quarters of the day.
I am feeling down today.
It is because I am trying hard to understand how social networking sites and the Internet can help newspapers attract new readers/viewers.
I am a firm believer in the Internet and what it adds to the newspaper industry.
There is talk of no one in the media industry having the model that will work. Do you give your content free or put a price tag on it.
Don’t even think about shutting a site down. Not a good idea. We Web surfers have had a good thing for too long.
I can see media Web sites charging for different levels. There would be free stuff, but by paying the viewer would get premiums (video, free archive usage).
It is like a discussion that took place Thursday among media executives about Twitter.
The attendees discussed how the red-hot site is going to make money. Twitter doesn’t charge users, nor are there ads.
They just do not see the founders making money. Twitter’s founders say that monetizing their site is low on their priority list.
The question I hear from colleagues is what good is Twitter. What does it give us?
Right now, it gives us a place to get news out. A place to learn things by reading the posts (tweets). A place the masses go to to offer their views on any subject.
Being part of my newspaper’s online strategies committee, I have a front-row view.
I like it, but I don’t know if we as a whole (the industry) have taken a look, a long look, at the many platforms we have and will have to communicate. We want solutions now, and for good reason. The industry has taken a huge blow economically.
One thing I do know is that we must try and keep trying.
Even if it means playing straight man to a cat doing a weather forecast for our daily Webcast. I find it therapeutic due in part to corralling the cat for the daily filming sessions.
Today we dig into the mailbag to answer another outstanding question from one of the six people who read this blog.
Hey Jeff,
When you aren’t getting pummeled by Smokey the Weather Cat on News@Noon, what do you do?
Seymour
After having my wounds tended to by our on-site medical team, I jump in to my duties as Web editor for The Daily Journal.
I admit, sometimes I like to put the Spider-Man mask on because of my web-slinging duties.
There are story comments to monitor, posting story updates and answering the occasional question a consumer has about what surf board wax to use while surfing the Internet.
There are days I go home after a 8-hour shift and wonder what in the world did I do.
It’s a lot of little things, behind the scenes, that add up to keeping things running as smoothly as possible with the news side of our Web site.
There is also time to referee a debate between co-workers regarding who has a better blog or who has more real friends on their Facebook page. That cuts in to my time tweeting on Twitter.
I help Smokey answer his fans on Facebook and Twitter. He’s having a hard time using the keyboard. Those darn paws don’t operate so good without the claws.
I’ve got to go. I have to take one of those Facebook tests where I find out what kind of blogger I am.
What really is in bottled water?
That is something two groups of researchers would like the public to know.
The Government Accountability Office and the nonprofit organization Environmental Working Group recommended in separate reports released Wednesday that bottled water be labeled with the same information municipal water providers must disclose.
Both groups feel consumers should drink tap water over bottled water. They also recommend the water from the tap be purified using a commercial filter.
Bottled water is regulated as a food product by the Food and Drug Administration. It must show nutrition information and ingredients on its labels. Municipal water is regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
While the two government agencies had similar standards for water quality, the FDA has less authority to enforce regulations. The EPA requires much more testing.
A lot is at stake here. Bottled water brought in $16 billion in sales in 2008. According to the GAO’s report, from 1997 to 2007 the amount of water consumed per person in the United States more than doubled (13.4 gallons to 29.3 gallons).
The GAO said the FDA should require the labels on bottled water to tell consumers to find more information.
The International Bottled Water Association was going to tout how safe their product is. The organization was also pointing out consumers could learn more by contacting the company, reading information on Web sites and reading state agency reports.
The GAO report found state safeguards often exceed the federal but are less stringent than for tap water.
I converted back to drinking mainly water from the tap more than a year ago.
The reason being, why pay $1 for a bottle of water when it costs much less coming from the faucet. I never did taste a difference.
I am glad to know the tap water I drink has to pass more stringent tests.
Plus, I don’t have to sniff the cap like I did with bottled water to see if it was vintage or not.
