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Astronaut Gordon 'Gordo' Cooper, 1927-2004
Grant writes "Leroy Gordon 'Gordo' Cooper, one of America's first seven astronauts, died today in his home at the age of 77. A number of space related sites are carrying the news." Grant points to coverage at SpaceRef.com, Space.com, Nasa Watch, and CNN, writing "His accomplishments will continue to inspire and he will be missed."
He will be remembered.
Sig
That his death occured on the day the Anasari X-Prize was claimed by the first group successful for launching a commercially-developed space vehicle.
"Leroy Gordon Cooper, one of the nation's first astronauts who once set a space endurance record by traveling more than 3.3 million miles aboard Gemini 5 in 1965, died on Monday, NASA said. He was 77." -CNN
I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Astronaut Gordon Cooper was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to space exploration. Truly an American icon.
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Blue skies, Gordo.
This is a time for everyone captivated by spaceshipone to remember Gordon Cooper and all the astronauts for their contributions to space exploration and for just having the right stuff.
Notice on spaceshipone's first space flight last week, when asked about the 29 rolls at the top of his ascent, the pilot brushed it all off, "oh, it was nothing, training just took over."
Also, notice spaceshipone's incredible resemblance to the X-planes tested in 50's by test pilots like Chuck Yeager. Basically, spaceshipone is using 1950's technology to make its headlines.
It was the mercury astronauts and Russian cosmonauts who brought our backward world kicking and screaming to new frontiers first.
Thank you Dave Raggett
CNN can handle the modest trickle of traffic that is slashdot.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I don't know anything else. Would someone else care to comment on this?
Amazon link to the book:/ qid=1096943403/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_2_1/002-2236212-76 16055
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061098779
I would think these people would live well into their 80's and early 90's. These people tend to stay in peak physical and mental condition (which by the way is why they are astronauts in the first place). I'm actually suprised that he would die at 77.
I doubt the minimal radiation levels and stresses from a couple weeks in space would account for an early death.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
The same day that the first hobbyist rocket went to space was the first day an astronaut died of old age...
I'm sick and tired of these "I just heard some talk on the radio" trolls. Just because you're turning them into something that actually happened, doesn't make it any better.
Don't encourage the trolls. Mod parent down.
If one of our first 7 just died a age 77, don't you think we are taking our sweet time improving on those missions?
r.i.p.
-- oh.... so..... sleeeeeepy.
I'm reading Gene Kranz's book "Failure is Not an Option" and there's a nice mention early on about how he gets a lift from the airport to the base by some madman in sunglasses and an open necked shirt who gets saluted by the guards at the gate and drives 100 miles per hour and faster. Wondering why civilian speedsters get saluted at the gate, Kranz realises he's met his first Mercury astronaut, who was in fact Gordo Cooper.
Sorry about the mistakes, I was typing quickly. ;-)
;)
You have heard about copy and paste, right?
I hope you're happy! Only on Slashdot is the TRUTH moderated down!!
The man obviously did a lot of drugs. Can you think of a better explanation?
From the end of the film "The Right Stuff" based on the book by Tom Wolfe. Not written as an epitaph, but it fits.
On that glorious day in May 1963
Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American:
22 complete orbits around the world.
He was the last American ever to go into space alone
and for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became
the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.
Godspeed Gordo Cooper
Godspeed, Gordo Cooper.
I want you to know I am Deeply Offended (tm) by your comment. Don't you realize this is Slashdot?! How dare you.
Gordon Cooper : You know what makes this bird go up? FUNDING makes this bird go up.
Gus Grissom : He's right. No bucks, no Buck Rogers.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
The guy lived a rich full life. He lived the dream. He was a pioneer.
My guess is he would laugh about the post, and think you were what we call a "dickweed".
Honestly, lighten up.
I hope he learned of SpaceShipOne's flight.
It would be really tragic if he died without knowing that private mankind was going into sub-orbital
flight successfully.
I mean, its like an era of space flight ended today.
Private enterprise pushed a starship(admittedly, miniscule) into flight, and one of the Mercury Seven died.
/b
|f(x)dx = F(b) - F(a)
"They" always say they go in threes... who else are we missing?
Today we gained a new astronaut and also lost one. Anyone know exactly how many people have made it into space? (living and dead [not counting Carl Sagan])?
I still love the famous line from the "Right Stuff" Who's the best pilot you ever saw......you're looking at him! I was just over 3 years old when he flew in Faith 7, and it was nice back then to have real "heros" to look up to, unlike the gansters that todays youth look up to. God speed Gordo Cooper! I'm sure you, Gus, Deke, and Alan are having a good time catching up on things up there in heaven......
... of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. The second and third presidents of the USA, who both died on July 4th, 1826, 50 years to the day after Independence Day.
Stupid media. Always going after the useless thing.
John Adams
According to NASA he was the first astronaut to make two orbital flights.
It's just the trolls way of showing his respect...
You sick fucko.
He was the backup commander for Apollo 10. 5 other astronauts flew twice on Apollo, 7 if you include Apollo-Soyuz.
St Peter: Who is the Best Gatekeeper in the World?
Cooper: I dunno. Who IS the Best Gatekeeper in the World?
St Peter: You're looking at him....
eat shiat and bark at the moon
NAME: Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. (Colonel, USAF, Ret.)
NASA Astronaut (former)
PERSONAL DATA: Born March 6, 1927 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. His hobbies include treasure hunting, archeology, racing, flying, skiing, boating, hunting and fishing.
EDUCATION: Attended primary and secondary schools in Shawnee, Oklahoma and Murray, Kentucky; received a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1956; recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Science degree from Oklahoma City University in 1967.
ORGANIZATIONS: The Society of Experimental Test Pilots, The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The American Astronautical Society, The Blue Lodge Masons, The York Rite Masons, The Scottish Rite Masons, The Royal Order of Jesters, The Sojourners, The Rotary Club, The Daedalians, The Confederate Air Force, The Boy Scouts of America, The Girl Scouts of America.
SPECIAL HONORS: The Air Force Legion of Merit, The Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross, The Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross Cluster, The NASA Exceptional Service Medal, The NASA Distinguished Service Medal, USAF Command Astronaut Wings, The Collier Trophy, The Harmon Trophy, The Scottish Rite 33, The York Rite Knight of the Purple Cross, The DeMolay Legion of Honor, The John F. Kennedy Trophy, The Ivan E. Kincheloe Trophy, The Air Force Association Trophy, The Primus Trophy, The John Montgomery Trophy, The General Thomas E. White Trophy, The Association of Aviation Writers Award, The University of Hawaii Regents Medal, The Columbus Medal, The Silver Antelope, The Sport Fishing Society of Spain Award.
EXPERIENCE: Cooper, an Air Force Colonel, received an Army commission after completing three years of schooling at the University of Hawaii. He transferred his commission to the Air Force and was placed on active duty by that service in 1949 and given flight training.
His next assignment was with the 86th Fighter Bomber Group in Munich, Germany, where he flew F-84s and F-86s for four years. While in Munich, he also attended the European Extension of the University of Maryland night school.
He returned to the United States and, after two years of study at AFIT, received his degree. He then reported to the Air Force Experimental Flight Test School at Edwards Air Force Base, California, and, upon graduating in 1957, was assigned as an aeronautical engineer and test pilot in the Performance Engineering Branch of the Flight Test Division at Edwards. His responsibilities there included the flight testing of experimental fighter aircraft.
He has logged more than 7,000 hours flying time--4,000 hours in jet aircraft. He has flown all types of Commercial and General aviation airplane and helicopters.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Colonel Cooper was selected as a Mercury astronaut in April 1959.
On May 15-16, 1963, he piloted the "Faith 7" spacecraft on a 22-orbit mission which concluded the operational phase of Project Mercury. During the 34 hours and 20 minutes of flight, Faith 7 attained an apogee of 166 statue miles and a speed of 17,546 miles per hour and traveled 546,167 statue miles.
Cooper served as command pilot of the 8-day 120-revolution Gemini 5 mission which began on August 21, 1965. It was on this flight that he and pilot Charles Conrad established a new space endurance record by traveling a distance of 3,312,993 miles in an elapsed time of 190 hours and 56 minutes. Cooper also became the first man to make a second orbital flight and thus won for the United States the lead in man-hours in space by accumulating a total of 225 hours and 15 minutes.
He served as backup command pilot for Gemini 12 and as backup commander for Apollo X.
Colonel Cooper has logged 222 hours in space.
He retired from the Air Force and NASA in 1970.
http://www.busyweather.com/
The movie The Right Stuff is one of my all time favorite flicks... I remember seeing it in the theater when I was a kid. (I've seen it several times since then, of course.)
Gordo (played by Dennis Quaid) steals the show at the end of the movie! Here's the movie's narrator's outcue, which, combined with the imagery of Dennis Quaid blasting into space and Bill Conti's awesome musical score, is one of the all-time coolest moments in cinema:
"The Mercury program was over.
Four years later, astronaut Gus Grissom was killed, along with astronauts White and Chaffey, when fire swept through their Apollo capsule.
But on that glorious day in May, 1963, Gordo cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American.
Twenty-two complete orbits around the world.
He was the last American ever to go into Space alone.
For a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen!"
You can read a transcript of the entire film here...
http://www2.ice.usp.ac.jp/wklinger/film/scripts/r
Listen up here jerkwad. Not everyone can be an astronaut. Plenty of fighter jocks, however, have gone on to get advanced degrees in engineering, aerospace, physics, and the like. So before you go singing the praises of a bunch of slide-rule thumbing pencil-neck geeks who never chanced to hang their balls out over the line and risk having them snapped off, remember that the Astronaut corps truly does represent the best of the best. So it wasn't the guys with the calculators (which, by the way, took up entire floors in the days of Apollo) who beat Russia. It was everyone who worked hard for a common goal.
The first group of astronauts were at the apex of the pilot pyramid. A VERY competitive field. Test pilots are engineers who happen to fly extremely well.
And it was not quite as simple as you make it seem, because no one had ever done it before. NASA didn't simply build it and dump some random warm body in it. The astronauts were as much a part of the development team as the sliderule carrying geeks. The campaigned (and won) for windows ("Oh, the extra stress factor!"), and a control stick to actually fly the damn thing.
Get off your military bashing, and realize that some people go into the military for other reasons beyond "a bleak future". That is the only place where you can fly fighter jets. If you'd ever flown or ridden in one, or known some of these pilots, you might get the merest inkling of what these guys were all about.
After seeing "The Right Stuff", and hearing my dad (who met him) tell me about meeting Gordo Cooper when he was an elementary student in Eastern Ky, he was always my favorite of the Mercury Seven.
He was truly one with the "right stuff".
Like the rest of the original 7, he was not only a fantastic pilot, he was also a scientist, and a damn good one.
It's ironic that on the day we lose the last American to go into space alone, we send another American into space alone.
Corporatism != Free Market
I met Gordo in July 2001 when he visted Rocket Guy. http://www.rocketguy.com/rocket/jul172001.html He was a fasinating person and still had a sparkle in his eye when talking about the old days. Even got to go to lunch with him when the TV crew took him to lunch. I miss the good old days when we had heroes like him.
Never went to the moon because is not feasible.
Well, I guess he's exploring the final frontier now...
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
Oh give me a break...
How can you think that the development of space will have anything but a corporate logo on it? The Anasri prize was a great idea, but spaceshipone isn't LINUX for god's sake. It's a 1950's concept for space flight packaged and promoted to be sold to consumers as a product.
Who was the first person to seriously commit to using spaceshipone's concept for mass tourism? Richard Branson. He's a cool guy, but once he makes his money and paves the way, the big publicly held conglomerates will be tripping over eachother's fattened bodies to profit from space.
I do not support space tourism, which would lead to exploitation. I support space exploration and mining.
Thank you Dave Raggett
For interested /. readers, this is a brief list of some of the major people (military and civilian) who are known to have given convincing testimony to the reality of unusual craft (UFOs) they have witnessed. It is by no means exhaustive. Most of them have stated in some way or another that a percentage of craft encountered were definitely unknown to the Air Force and were not discussed because of that. Many also testified that they received orders to keep their mouths shut about it. Thankfully, they felt it was important enough to disregard that order. Investigations into what these people have stated (which I have been doing for several years now) is extremely fascinating. They are not kooks. Many are career military officers, scientists, academics, and others of high station. I have a great respect for them. I only wish more people would at least hear them before dismissing the whole notion. Their accounts do not come from the Weekly World News. They are not wearing tinfoil hats. They are very serious about it.
Brigadier General Stephen Lovekin: Army National Guard Reserves
Brigadier General Arthur Exon: US Air Force (ret.)
Brigadier Thomas Dubose: US Air Force (deceased)
Merle Shane McDow: US Navy Atlantic Command
Lance Corporal Jonathan Weygandt: US Marine Corps
Maj. George A. Filer, III: US Air Force (Ret.)
Maj. Donald Keyhoe: US Air Force (deceased)
Nick Pope: British Ministry of Defense Official
Larry Warren: US Air Force, Security Officer
Sgt. Clifford Stone: US Army
Master Sgt. Dan Morris: US Air Force, NRO Operative
Officer Alan Godfrey: British Police
Sgt. Karl Wolf: US Air Force
Ms. Donna Hare: NASA Employee
Dr. Robert Wood: McDonnell Douglas Aerospace Engineer
Dr. Paul Czysz: McDonnell Douglas Career Engineer
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell
Astronaut Gordon Cooper (deceased)
John Callahan: FAA Head of Accidents and Investigations
Michael Smith: US Air Force Radar Controller
Franklin Carter: US Navy Radar Technician
Neil Daniels: United Airlines Pilot
Captain Robert Salas: US Air Force, SAC Launch Controller
Harry Allen Jordan: US Navy
Sgt. Chuck Sorrells: US Air Force (ret.)
Commander Graham Bethune: US Navy (ret.)
Mr. Enrique Kolbeck: Senior Air Traffic Controller, Mexico
Dr. Richard Haines
Mr. Franklin Carter: US Navy
Sgt. Robert Blazina (ret.)
Lieutenant Frederick Marshall Fox: US Navy (ret.)
Lt. Bob Walker: US Army
Mr. Don Bockelman: US Army
Professor Robert Jacobs: Lt. US Air Force (ret.)
Lt. Colonel Dwynne Arneson: US Air Force (ret.)
Colonel Ross Dedrickson: US Air Force/AEC (ret.)
Mr. James Kopf: US Navy/ National Security Agency
Lieutenant Colonel Joe Wojtecki, US Air Force
Staff Sergeant Stoney Campbell: US Air Force
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Brown: US Air Force (ret.)
Admiral Lord Hill-Norton: Five-Star Admiral, Former Head of the British Ministry of Defense
Major-General Vasily Alexeyev: Russian Air Force,
Mr. Don Phillips: Lockheed Skunkworks, USAF, and CIA Contractor
Captain Bill Uhouse: US Marine Corps (ret.)
Lieutenant Colonel John Williams: US Air Force (ret.)
Mr. Gordon Creighton: Former British Foreign Service Official
Mr. John Maynard: Defense Intelligence Agency (ret.)
Mr. Harland Bentley: US Army
Dr. Alfred Webre: Senior Policy Analyst Stanford Research Institute
Denise McKenzie: Former SAIC employee
Colonel Phillip J. Corso, Sr.: US Army (ret.)
Sergeant Leonard Pretko: US Air Force
Mr. Dan Willis: US Navy
> The Air Force itself
Yes, because it makes perfect sense for the air force to talk about classified flyers (thats assuming you've got the ear of someone high up there) to the press. And its just a big coincidence that so many of these "sightings" are not only around air force bases but indistinguishable from once-classified jets.
On top of it, you have a lot of opportunists who are ready to make (and have made) a mint from "believers." The stories start plausible enough and then the worst stereotypical 50's sci-fi elements are tossed in. Or New Age BS about abductions, etc.
The history of UFO's is really interesting in the way the history of religion is. They both show us what we project. Early sightings were often met with messages regarding (at the time) a new and dangerous threat called nuclear weapons. Everyone who claimed to met an alien claimed to have a message of world peace, sometimes from Jesus or some other deity who is in cahoots with the aliens.
The idealistic 60s ended and the 80s brought us abductions and comical "space rapes." I'm not sure what this says about our collective unconscious, but I'm sure its not exactly a positive message.
Then the 90s came by with more "proof" this time in form of crop circles. Believers flocked to them like a concrete stain that looks like Jesus in the bible belt. Now we know that they were just pranks and easily reproduced.
Its sad people still believe these things. I would hope they could work out their emotional issues within a credible and responsible religious organization or choose a secular approach to life instead of UFO conspiracy theories.
ehintz
/.ers are kind indeed...here's some interesting text from the wikipedia article on the X-15
The North American X-15 rocket plane was perhaps the most important of the USAF/USN X-series of experimental aircraft. Although not as famous as the Bell X-1, the X-15 set numerous speed and altitude records in the early 1960s, reaching the edge of space and bringing back valuable data that was used in the design of later aircraft and spacecraft.
During the X-15 programme, 13 flights met the US criterion for a spaceflight by passing an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) and the pilots were accordingly awarded astronaut status by the USAF. Out of these, 2 also qualified for the international FAI definition of a spaceflight by passing the 62.5 miles (100 km) mark.
Spaceshipone is nothing but a cheap corporate-sponsored venture to develop space. True manned space exploration has been dead since we got to the moon. I admire the goals of the Anasari prize, and I hope it will increase an interest in space exploration, but I am not optimistic.
We as a world went from simple rockets to the moon itself in a very short time. Then we just hit a wall. I think to progress as a people we need to bring back more risk-taking.
Spaceshipone is great, god bless, but it's not a risky new technology. It's regurgitated and being made progressively safer so that passengers won't sue the space travel company.
Space tourists are the true 'spam in a can'
Thank you Dave Raggett
I may be about half my span...but I already feel twice the age! I cannot believe that is the actual span (on average), it just seems so short.
OTOH, considering that Israel has total/male/female life expectancies of 79.17/77.08/81.37 years, vs. the US 77.43/74.74/80.36, wouldn't it be advisable to downgrade "terrorism" as a source of danger to life in general?
I wonder -
Is this the first American astronaut to die of natural causes?
Perfectly Normal Industries
Here's a short article about that. He wasn't a test pilot then, afaik. That was when he was stationed in Germany. The film was shot later, while on the ground at Edwards AFB. He denies seeing any from space, however.
"Our interests are to see if we can't scale it up to something more exciting," he said.
Edgar Mitchell claimed that he was one with the universe or some such crap on his return from the moon on Apollo 14. Since then he has become involved in pseudo-science/religion.
After James Irwin finished his moon trip on Apollo 15, he founded some religious organization and went on trips to Mt. Ararat in Turkey to try to find Noah's Ark.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
I loved Pete Conrad. The characterization of him in the "From the Earth to the Moon" miniseries was pretty enjoyable and showed just how humorous and life-enriched he was.
However, he was not an Original 7 astronaut, but part of Group 2, which includes most of the Apollo and Gemini veterans including notables like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Jim Lovell, and John Young.
The three surviving Original 7 astronauts are John Glenn, Wally Schirra (also interestingly portrayed in "From...Moon") and Scott Carpenter, who kinda got all hippie-high during his flight, overused his fuel reserves and dropped himself about 250 miles off target from splashdown.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
One would presume that, after St. Peter delivered that last line, Gordo would bust out laughing, and St. Peter would wave him through, saying, "Go on, Gordo, Al and Gus are waitin' for ya..."
Be who you are...and be it in style!
You complain about the media covering an actress over an astronaut yet you link to the Internet Movie Database. Why would you expect a movie site to honor astronauts over actresses?
SpaceShipOne flew to space twice before. I was at the first such flight.
This is also the 47th anniversary of Sputnik.
You've got to think, at least I do, that he may have known exactly where he was going in his last moments. Anyone that has gone into orbit, is somehow changed I think in that they have viewed our blue marble from afar, and after that... well this earthly plane must seem a bit restricted. Good Journey Gordo
He got to fly in *SPACE*! That's *got* to be worth trading 10 years for!
...as you might think. Japan has really high numbers because of diet (rich in fish, tofu, not too much red meat, etc). Other countries probably have higher figures due to lifestyle and infrastructure issues. In particular, less dependance on the automobile which gives the US a Vietnam casualty rate every other year. The US lifestyle sucks in a lot of ways when it comes to health; in particular our overindulgence of fatty foods.
So, I really wish people would quit trying to use these figures as justification to push for a beurocratized socialist "health care system". These social systems may be a result of good health as opposed to being the cause of it. In other words, socialism is expensive, and those who are already healthy and wealthy can afford it.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Several U.S. presidents have died on the Fourth of July, two (Adams and Jefferson) on exactly the same day.
(July 4 is when the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain.)
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Before long there could be no one alive who has set foot anywhere other than Earth. That's damning.
Are you just a stupid troll or are you really that ignorant? Do you have ANY FUCKING CLUE how hard it is to become a military test pilot? These guys werre not a bunch of average achievers that randomly picked military flying instead of working at the hardware store after having a few beers.
On that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American - 22 complete orbits around the world; he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.
Can you provide any scientific evidence for what you're saying? I don't think that any exists.
On the other hand, actual studies, using actual science, have concluded the US has the worst medical outcomes of any developed nation, even after controlling for other factors. And, US healthcare is the most expensive by far.
Worst outcomes... most expensive... gee, "berocratized [sic] socialist "health care" system[s]" are starting to look pretty darned good - unless you're a doctor in need of a new Mercedes.
Does anyone remember on the old David Letterman Show that he would randomly call into the show? Dave would be sitting at his desk and the phone would ring and he'd pick it up and the voice on the line would say, "This is Colonel Gordon Cooper Speaking."
A heartfelt thanks and goodbye to yet another maverick and pioneer whose accomplishments contibuted to a day in history when the entire world held its breath as Neal Armstrong set foot on the moon.
One of the top five most memorable moments in my life was meeting, shaking hands and chatting with Alan Shepard and Wally Schirra when they spoke at an Intergraph sponsored event in Huntsville.
...Did the original Tom Wolfe book paint a somewhat unflattering view of Gordo Cooper?
From what I read from the book, Cooper loved to race cars, flew well-known race driver Jim Rathmann in an airplane at very low altitude, and literally fell asleep inside the Mercury capsule before his all-day Mercury flight! Mind you, Cooper masterfully controlled the spacecraft near the end of the flight when the automated flight control system went out....
No really, my grandfather can wait eight months for his hip replacement. After all, it's "free" right? The point that socialists miss is that lots of us want to make our own decisions, not have some one-size-fits-all crap crammed down our throats by the self-annointed "experts." The point that a lot of fence-sitters miss (tinfoil hat firmly in place) is that once the government controls healthcare, and healthcare includes the "right" to euthanasia, we'll all be living in a Logan's Run world.
Difficult to explain how people are living longer and healtier lives as never has been seen before in the history of mankind.
That food may not be that hosrrible after all.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
...he has just been carried off by aliens.
After yesterday I was starting to think that at least news about space wouldn't be sad.
There, was truely a dedicated spacewalker. Keep everyone interested in space, and keep NASA running.
He seems like he was a fairly decent guy, even though he was an Okie.
Catch you later, Gordo.
Other countries probably have higher figures due to lifestyle and infrastructure issues. In particular, less dependance on the automobile
Yes, because the lifestyle and infrastructure is *so* much different in Canada (which was one of the countries listed), right?
These social systems may be a result of good health as opposed to being the cause of it
No, the real cause is that socialized medicine improves the health of the overall population because people go to the doctor more often, and health issues can be identified and treated earlier.
When you have socialized medicine, the population isn't afraid of "what will it cost" to check out a problem. In the US system, if they have insurance, they have to worry about if their diagnosis will be covered, and (if it is) how much it will increase their premiums - the end result is that they simply put off going for as long as possible, which allows health problems to progress further, making them harder to treat.
those who are already healthy and wealthy can afford it.
Sounds more like the US system to me.
Well, okay, the last American ever to go into space (Capitalize Me? WTF?!) alone, where space means the set of points more than 103 km above sealevel.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
What I find mind-boggling is that despite hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on Medicare and Medicaid, people don't think we have socialized medicine already. We do, just a f---ed up verson of it, where people will claim permanent disability not because they can't work, but because they can't afford their health care if they do.
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
after 1927: great depression, WWII
Just thought I would point that out since the responses thus far seem to have missed the point.
Mrs Leigh helped to improve us in a different field or human nature.
Her role in one of the best movies of te last century will remain with many of us, you should not belittle people's achievements in other fields of human endeavour with such a hollier than thou attitude.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Only the crass uneducated people feel like boasting about their own ignorance.
What a sorry espectacle, so much ignorance and self righteouness (simulated or not, that is beyond the point) in just a few lines of text.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Buzz Aldrin has a PhD.
Current Karma Status: Roadkill
It's only a matter of time until someone orbits the earth alone, goes to the Moon alone, etc.
I, myself, plan on one day travelling to the Asteroid Belt alone, then eventually making my way out to the Oort Cloud alone.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Who's the best pilot you ever saw? I truly appreciate what these guys did for our country. Heck, we thought we were scientific losers. We didn't even know if our Germans were as good as the Russians Germans. Guys like Cooper put the bucks back in the Buck Rogers.
Yang Liwei did the orbit thing a few months ago.
But Cooper is still the last American to go into orbit alone. And if we destroy American soon, we can keep it that way.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-