3.10.06

Well, nothing lasts forever

Feeling much better, so it's back to work tomorrow, so just to fill in the day, here's an interesting story nearly 40 years in the making.

I'm sure that most people are aware of the joke surrounding the 1969 Moon landing, where Neil Armstrong apparently fluffed his lines. On the way to the Moon, Armstrong says, he came up with the now famous phrase "that's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

But then, from the recording, he stuttered at the crucial moment and missed the "a", turning the phrase into "that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

Well, apparently, he did no such thing. And a $45 computer programme proves it.

Allegedly.

One of the wierd things is that I have always thought that Armstrong intended to say "one small step for man", and never saw that there was anything wrong with it until a few years ago when it was pointed out to me. I mean, one small step for man? That means, like, a small step for man, as in a man, right? Isn't that, I thought, why he put in the difference beween man and mankind?

And, in the final analysis, wouldn't Armstrong be able to settle the argument by saying "Man? A man? Who cares? I was on the Moon, dude! Have you been on the Moon? Didn't think so! So shut up!"

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