Open Thread [8.25.12]
How’s your Saturday going? Looks like the editors here have all been busy today, including me. So I’m stopping in here for abit to put up an Open Thread.
Sad news — the first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong died today.
In July, 1969, Armstrong commanded the Apollo team that included Aldrin and pilot Michael Collins that went to the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin descended to the lunar surface, landing in the dry Sea of Tranquility. Their lunar module touched down with about 30 seconds of fuel remaining, according to a biography.
Armstrong radioed their safe arrival back to NASA. “Houston, Tranquility Base here – the Eagle has landed”, he said. Seven hours later, he stepped out of the spacecraft and down onto the moon itself, speaking his historic words.
This event is one of the greatest memories of my life. It seemed as though the entire world came to a stop to watch this achievement. The nuns who ran my grade school were not much for TV, but they understood the history being made enough to let the schoolwork go and let us watch. And we were just rapt, amazed and proud that other humans were on the moon. Neil Armstrong became a legend and an inspiration that day.
Sher Valenzula’s business built on government subsidies and contracts has gone mainstream:
What interests you today?
Went canvassing with Kevin Kelley today. He really is a very good campaigner and he connects with people well.
A great memory indeed! That was the day when hero’s were our idols & they could do no wrong because they had achieved what we only thought impossible. Today, we must forgive them for their misgivings & understand they were as human as we. Our hero’s never die, how could they? If they inspire us everyday.
I really enjoyed attending Neil Armstrong’s series of lectures he gave in 1973. He added a real personal touch to his missions.
The moon trip deniers piss me off. There is no way this man could have given those lectures, as he did, had the effort been faked.
One of the things that I think that Armstrong taught some of us was that going beyond the edge of what we know and mapping that territory was not just thrilling, but vital. This was a government-led project that somehow had all of us invested in its success. At the time alot of that motivation was utterly nationalistic (beating the Soviets, etc), but who remembers that now? All that *ever* mattered about Armstrong and his colleagues was that they went well beyond our imaginations to remind us that exploring new frontiers was part of our DNA.
RIP.
And hey, it’s confirmed! The Wrath of God forces the RNC to start their convention a day later.
The moon trip deniers piss this guy off too.
I don’t live in the city, but I have met Kevin Kelley once or twice and thought he was a real nice guy. However, with no vote, I’m pretty much a neutral observer.
I feel older every day, but I don’t remember Armstrong walking on the moon.
CBS News: FISKER UPDATE
With unemployment peaking above 20 percent, Elkhart, Indiana was at the white-hot center of the economic meltdown, and a natural launch point for President Obama’s electric vehicle initiative.
” So that’s why I’m here today,” the president said three years ago. “To announce $2.4 billion in highly competitive grants.”
Everybody hoped that by this time there would be more than 400 workers inside a bustling plant. Instead, today, there are just two workers at Think City. Rodney and Josh are slowly finishing assembly on a few dozen 2011 models shipped in from Norway.
We were able to drive a Think City car around the empty space where investors once envisioned an assembly line churning out 20,000 vehicles a year.
Meanwhile:
…things for the company that has so far received $529 million in federal subsidies are so bad that also last week Fisker announced its third CEO hire in the past year (when in a supremely ironic move it hired the former head of the Chevy Volt program Tony Posawatz). As of last night things just went from bad to even worse, following the inevitable next step: a total recall of all Karmas currently on the road. Oh well: nothing that burning, quite literally, several hundred more million in taxpayer funding won’t solve.
From the link “The most recent fire occurred when an owner parked his car at a Woodside, California grocery store. By the time he was done getting the groceries his car was already on fire.”
It happened in Woodside, California. Oh the irony!!
Actually, the company has NOT received the bulk of the $529M in federal subsidies.
The question I have is why you conservatives are hoping so fervently for green businesses to fail. It really does show what mean-spirited assholes you are.
Green businesses are having a tough time right now with or without subsidies, because the world economic downturn has reduced the price of fossil fuel energy. But during the next energy price peak, we will be sorry we didn’t maintain our resolve to build out renewables. Now is exactly the time to invest in green energy. Not all the investments are going to pan out, but some will – which is exactly the argument Bain uses to justify its failures.
We provide huge subsidies to oil and gas concerns. Some are obvious but, the biggest is probably the ammount of military spending to keep oil flowing from the gulf states.
Actually green businesses in Germany and China are doing fairly well, thank you. Because their governments see the long-term writing on the wall and are supporting them. Much of the collapse of the US solar panel business can be laid at the feet of a Congress who won’t acknowledge that the Chinese are subsiding their manufacturers specifically to undermine ours. Perhaps this is the new patriotism, who knows. But cheerleading for the demise of American green energy companies is part of the conservative platform these days.
Tom: The reason we use the military to keep oil flowing from the Middle East is that our military can’t function without it. So we have to use the military to keep the oil flowing to the military.