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Computer Analysis Sets NASA History Straight
Ellis D. Tripp writes, "A computer analysis has upheld Neil Armstrong's version of the first words spoken on the lunar surface. The word 'a' was dropped due to a communications glitch, and Armstrong has been accused of flubbing his words since the historic 1969 landing. The corrected statement was 'That's one small step for *A* man, One giant leap for mankind.'"
Well, I am glad that's finally sorted - I've been losing sleep over the issue for years.
AT&ROFLMAO
When stories keep changing, it is a sign of a cover up. Yet more proof that the moon landings were a hoax. .. .. ...
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(now to take bets on whether this gets modded funny or troll)
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I doubt this will ever become realised in the mainsteam concious, it's been ingrained on the entire world and I don't think there is anyone (english speaking) who wouldn't be able to quote it. I don't think it's ever really been an issue of dropping the 'a', the line gains memorability for that. At the end of the day I think this research will end up as a nice section of trivia somewhere, but we will all remember the quote that came through on that day, and surely the communications glitch was a part of history too, so it should be remembered that way IMHO.
Business Voyeur
This just in: computer analysis has revealed that Han Solo did, in fact, shoot first!
Good, inexpensive web hosting
But wasn't it all recorded on a NASA Sound Stage? I mean seriously how are we to believe that such prestine equipment setup for the moon landing would drop the 'a'. //HEHEHE Sorry..
Are you sure that it's "*A* Computer Analyst..." and not just "Computer Analyst..."?
Silly rabbit
Computer analysis also reveals that these analysts are the only people with more spare time on their hands to waste on arcane geeky shit than slasdot readers.
It's Saturday night, it's a beautiful fall evening...WTF am I doing here?
I was just reading about this on my giant Uncle John's Bathroom Reader on the toilet a few minutes ago! What a coincidence.
He really meant to plant a goatse.cx flag. :-)
Niel Armstrong did have alot of critics who complained that he changed his story, or was trying to change what he had apparently said in order to make it sound better/different. This computer analysis should quiet his critics, but the unfortunate truth is most of the public will probably never hear about this analysis and life will go on...
There was an interview several years back where Mr. Armstrong said that he said the word *A* during his famous radio transmission from the moon. Someone could try Voice Stress Analysis on that interview to determine if he is lying or telling the truth, to verify the results of this analysis. =)
Yahma
BLASTProxy - A public, anomymous Apache based proxy service.
The last foot in the first half sounds better without the `a.' I tried posting the scansion, but the lameness filter found that too dorky. =)
Actually he said:
"Ah shit! I pissed my pants!"
because he was so nervous. Remember, he is an engineer, not a spokesman. But it was covered up.
Table-ized A.I.
The time is ripe for Slashdot editors to try and convince us that duplicate stories were the result of communications echoes.
Sometimes at night I imagine the darkness is filled with horrible things with too many teeth, like Julia Roberts.
First NASA loses Apollo TV master tapes, and now it loses pronouns. At this rate it will lose a planet within a decade such that we'll have only 8.
Table-ized A.I.
I was just a kid when this happened, but I do remember it. It was magic.
But I've never understood this fuss about his pronounciation. It seemed perfectly clear to me what he said at the at the time, and it seems perfectly clear on all the endless replays.
In retrospect, I think he should have said "Wow; holy shit!" instead. Then we wouldn't have this endless handwringing overanalysis.
"According to Ford, Armstrong spoke, "One small step for a man ..." in a total of 35 milliseconds, 10 times too fast for the "a" to be audible."
Damn, I wish I could talk that fast.
...I read it somewhere a long time ago and been telling folks this for years - whenever the subject came up.
/., I can triumphantly wave the printout in peoples' faces and scream, "See! This proves it! Its right here in.....uh...uh..."
Now that its been officially reported in
Hmm. Never mind.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a951117.html
While searching for this in the web site's archives I also found an entry from 1990 discussing the "small step for a man" argument:http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_362.html
My parents tell me that I actually saw the moon landing, but since I was a baby at the time I really can't comment on what I heard him say.Quantum mechanics: the dreams that stuff is made of.
Weren't the first words spoken on the lunar surface:
"Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
I always prefer it anyway - it doesn't sound like some crap written by a PR wanker.
In take #1 he really messed it up, but they had it all right by take #5.
On Apollo 12:
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me." -- Pete Conrad
On Apollo 14:
"It's been a long way, but we're here." - Alan Shepard
Hmmmm - not *quite* so memorable.
www.sjbaker.org
I wonder what bifurcation of history occured due to that glitch. That brief statement is imprinted in so many minds - how would we each have gone about our lives differently if that word hadn't been dropped?
All I can say is thank goodness the first person on the moon wasn't put there by a commercial entity. I'm sure the first words would have been something like, "That's one small step for a man, but a Taco Bell Gordito(tm) is much bigger!"
Either that, or some other government making a political sound bite that promotes a specific ideology or theology instead of something referencing the accomplishments of mankind in general, would have been equally disturbing.
I'm really proud that the folks at NASA took time to plan what would be said, realizing that it would be a historic moment.
used to be that Armstrong was experiencing stage fright while the moon landing was being faked, and flubbed the line as a result. I kid you not. Now that some evidence of the letter 'a' has been found in this recording, it seems to cast some doubt on the Diamonds are Forever version of history. Maybe...just...maybe...Armstrong set foot on the moon after all? Nah, too convenient. ;)
Possibly to cover up the whole face on Mars thing.
Table-ized A.I.
A quick sidetrip - Listen to the reverse audio of his words -
Man will spacewalk
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
, and would have been spoken by Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot.
I prefer the version without the A. It was far more thoughtful of a remark.
But either works, and its good hes vindicated before his death.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
"Good luck, Mr. Gorsky"
You mean like one of these?
When I first heard the recording, I thought I heard him say "a man". I've always understood it to be merely a shoddy record. I didn't know there was a controversy.
Then again, when I first heard about it, I thought the gay marriage bill in Canada was going to be a triviality that was barely even newsworthy.
People make such a big deal out of nothing.
http://outcampaign.org/
I read this story and wondered a bit about the guy who was involved. Saying he's "a computer analyst" is like saying Bush is just a little slow.
His work is pretty cool http://www.shann-ford.com/001%20programming.htm
Oh and he's also a jounalist.
Error: Sig not found.
Yup, the Moon spoke first! No, wait...
"From the Earth to the Moon", command module pilot Mike Collins suggested that if Neil "...had any guts, you would say "What the hell is that?!", then scream and cut your mike." :)
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org
One giant step for 'the' man, one giant leap for mankind.
God spoke to me.
I just wish they would stop changing histroy. Won't somebody please think of the trees that will have to be cut dow to make the new books.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
You're right. "One small step for man" will be remembered, just like "Beam me up, Scotty", and "Play it again, Sam".
However, I just listened to it, and here's my take:
Armstrong has the "One small step" speach properly memorized and ready to go. He knows he has to do it right, because it will be broadcast live to the entire planet. He describes the lunar surface, then steps off the landing pad, and says, "That's one small step for man... One..." Damn! I goofed. "giant leap for mankind".
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Algerath
Yeah.. that's the only to get moderated +5 troll... One moderation for troll followed by 4 'underrated' moderations.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
He blew it big time ---- not as described. I wonder why they are covering it up.
He blew it in the 1st AND second phrases.
Oh well ---- rewrite history, assholes
If it was me, I would have screamed "Oh my God what is that thing??!!" then turned off the mic.
Unknown host pong.
Die in a fire.
The Onion respectfully disagrees
I think it is Saturday night and the moder4tors are drunk. Discuss.
-A
I hear the first words said by the first man after first SETTING FOOT on the moon were:
"It's some kind of soft stuff. I can kick it around with my boot."
(Though I really need to get hold of a transcription or tape of the landing to check.)
The "That's one small step for {whatever...}" line was the first words said once he was STANDING on the moon. B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
That's one small realization for me. One giant leap for Ice Wewe.
According to Ford, Armstrong spoke, "One small step for a man ..." in a total of 35 milliseconds, 10 times too fast for the "a" to be audible.
Can someone explain this one for me, PLEASE?
And all the wolfs howl...
Man walks on fucking moon.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Personally, I've grown to like "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", as if Armstrong is saying something deliberate and profound for future generations to assimilate, as if man is homo sapiens, while mankind are all the species of Earth, being collectively represented in Tranquility Base.
However, I'll be sure to ask Armstrong about it if I bump into him next January, since he comes to Baja to hunt siberian brant, which migrates here every winter. Maybe I can just leave a message to the bartender at the watering hole he visits when he's down here.
I'm not saying which bar it is, as the last thing he'll want is groupies hanging around. He was, after all, the most famous man on the planet before Michael Jackson told us to Beat It. In fact, I'm not even saying what town the bar is in, as even that would be too much of a giveaway.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
This wouldn't have been an ISSUE if they just supported FLAC! I bet the spacesuit doesn't even support OGG!
Nope, it's a noisy channel, and good ol' midwest boy that Neil is, he slurs it a litte:
"That's one small step f'r a man" etc. And then Walter Cronkite tells everybody he said "for man", and everyone believes it.
If the channel is slightly noisy, you can "hear" whatever you think you're going to hear in it. Consider how often people misperceive song lyrics into something totally different. Once Cronkite told them that - and it hit the headlines that way - that's what people think they hear. Try hearing it as "step f'ra man".
-- Alastair
So the quote that was usually translated in French to "C'est un petit pas pour l'Homme, mais un bond de géant pour l'humanité" now becomes "C'est un petit pas pour un homme, mais un bond de géant pour l'humanité."
Armstrong desended the ladder and was about to step on the surface when it was Aldrin that spoke first...
"Wait, Neil! That's no moon..."
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(I know it's not kosher to reply to yourself but I accidentally set this set up with the "No, wait...")
Neither did I.
By the way, I heard it live (well, radio delay), when he did it. I don't recall any 'a'.
I might have said: "Holy Crap! I'm on the goddamned MOON!"
This soundclip and similar ones are under "R.S. examples" at this website:
http://www.reversespeech.com/
And yes, I first heard this clip when this man was on Art Bell's radio show in the late '90's.
And yes, I think he's a complete luna tick. No offense meant to true Moon residents or visitors.
Tag lost or not installed.
Well, for "a concise, eloquent statement for the ages at a unique milestone for our species", slurring it to the point that it was '10 times too fast for the "a" to be audible', is just as much an error as accidentally leaving it out altogether. The point is moot, however. The phrase "One small step for man" is forever embedded in our culture, and "a" is left for trivia junkies and pedantists.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Sorry, but I find that the word "a" was omitted because of a technical error is hard to believe. I'd be willing to bet those first words were well rehearsed. Besides, the recording does seem to maintain continuity. I find it easier to believe that in this age of political/sexual correctness that the word "a" has been added to the statement made by Armstrong and labelled a glitch to satisfy the opposition. BTW, this is a pet-peeve of mine. "Mankind" _DOES_ include women. To say that "mankind" is excluding a sex is pedantic and childish. It's typical semantic jibbersish from those who have no real argument. Thanks :-)
What the world heard in July 1969 are what counted, not what he actually said, since those were the first words that humanity heard spoken on the moon.
Canadian software is very good at detecting 'a's, eh?
"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!" -- Kurt Vonnegut
Upon even more analysis, the researchers uncovered not one, but TWO new sounds in the famous quote.
'That's one small step for da man, one giant leap for mankind.'
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
No, it sounds like "That's one small step fer man". It is noisy, but you hear the noise as clicks, and nothing else mysteriously was cut out but this supposed "a".
I thought of it more so as a comparison meaning being a small step forward towards bigger things, but at the same time a giant leap in history as we know it. You could see it as landing on the moon and then an end point being something like warp technology.
I heard him say "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." To me that's what counts. It doesn't matter whether he said "a" or "gay" or whatever because I didn't hear it. Plus, I find it hard to believe that back in the late 1960's the predominantly male NASA (made up of a bunch of engineers and Air Force guys) would have added the "a" in there! When the hell did this controversy start anyway?
Can someone else tell me where exactly the 'a' went? Glitches in analog equipment don't just drop 'a's without an obvious gap.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
It's always blown my mind that we can put a man on the moon (finally the cliche is appropriate :), but we can't get his phonecall clear to our TVs. I know it's hard, from across so far using so little power and with so much interference, but it's not rocket science (got that one, too, just barely!).
--
make install -not war
This is Slashdot's automated mod point removal system.
"contact light" was spoken by Aldrin when he noted the signal which indicated that the dangly things hanging from the legs of the lander had made contact. Armstrong was pretty busy at the time and later could not recall that this had been said.
There were dangly things hanging off the legs of the lander so that there would be some indication that the lander was *very* close to touchdown. So, "contact light" were the first words spoken after the lander made contact with the moon. It had not landed at that stage (although it may well have by the time he finished saying it).
Sorry I can't remember what the dangly things were called and I can't be bothered googling for it.
My elementary education invalidated by a single /. post. :(
I wonder why they didn't just believe Neil to begin with? I mean, it's not like he'd lie about what he said.. And why, after 37 years.. they are still doing this? Why did someone decide after this long to research it? Or would some guy grow up thinking "Hmm, he probably meant this, I'll devote my life to it!" IMO, good trivia, but i think a very low percentage really care enough to change their lives or current lifestyle.
Thanks much to Minitrue for finally clearing this issue up.
as much as I'm gonna get burned a bit for this suggestion.... MOD PARENT UP!
Going back to school for entry-level jobs?
This is already in Wikipedia, although it's only a couple of days old. Have a look at [[Moon landing]] if you don't believe me. Or see the diff here:
n ding&diff=78690314&oldid=78496939
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moon_la
Ask me about repetitive DNA
Well, it was an extremely tense period. The guys had no idea whether they would be able to get back to earth again or whether they would die on the moon. So even if he did flub his words, nobody would keep it against him. If it was me, I probably would not have been able to utter much more than a squeek...
And listen to the rest of it (and much of the the other transmissions); his "a"'s are clearly heard. He may have intended to say it, but it's not on the tape. I don't buy this 35ms crap. Give me the original tape and I'll see what's there... anything else is junk. (mp3's are destructive as are most modern compression formats.)
I went off and downloaded the Sound clip
Obviously, this was originally an analog recording, so there was no possibility for 'time farts' which are sometimes caused by digital congestion.
There's no space between 'for' and 'man' that leaves room for a 'A'. If you *want* it enough though, you can imagine one right there. Note however that mr. Armstrong was speaking clearly and articulately at the time of those historic words (as anyone would, knowing they were making history). I find the explanation that Neil realized his goof-up and therefore paused after the word 'Man' more plausible.
"The "a" was transmitted, though, and can be verified in an analysis using a Canadian sound editing software called GoldWave, Ford said."
Gold Wave would probably be my LAST choice in any audio analysis. And what an in-depth analysis it was: Ford viewed the wave form in spectrum view, wanted to see an 'uh' sound and guess what? There it was, right at the end of the 'r' sound (which has similar spectral characteristics).
"Ford contacted Hansen and compiled his findings in the format of a scientific paper."
Which doesn't automatically make it a scientific paper. Of course if someone can link to the paper, I'd be more than willing to verify it.
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
I loved this quote from TFA: "Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia of sorts, states in an entry on Armstrong that "for some reason the 'a' was never spoken." [emphasis mine] "Of sorts", huh? Why didn't they put "encyclopedia" in quotes, too?
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Am I the only one here who thinks being on the moon is a good excuse for fumbling over things to say? I mean here he was on this massive technological precipice for mankind looking into the vastness of space from what must have felt like another planet...I'd totally bomb my lines too.
Marky Mark Killed Jason Bourne!
"one small step for a man..."
it should have been "one small step for a human... one giant leap for humanity."
People laugh at that now, but maybe in a few centuries people will wonder why this mentality persisted for so long.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Since you think you're so awesome as to *know* the man but don't want to let the cat out of the bag I WILL!!
;)
He's in Ensenada Mexico. You can't get a list of all the fancy schmancy restaurants here: http://www.ensenada-tourism.com/
HOW DID I KNOW THAT?? Did I hax0r your computer? Nope 'fraid not. Contrary to Google's mantra, Do no Evil, You can in fact do plenty of evil by simply googling your username. And geez to put up so much personal info about yourself. If you want to know more about Juan you can check that out here: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/79de2/
It's seems he's an artsy type of guy who apparently loves cats.
Waving tidbits around like you're an ubergeek sucks and then not even sharing? But SERIOUSLY, you shouldn't be posting all that personal info about yourself on the web. I've known way too many people who've gotten ID thefted or just plain agrravated by script kiddies by the stuff they've put up on Yahoo and Myspace.
To quote a classic movie, MESS WITH THE BULL, GET THE HORNS! Wave stuff around like that and SOMEBODY'S gonna call ya on it
Phenomenon
1. 'That's one small step for *** man, One giant leap for mankind.'"
2. Everyone has blamed him for flubbing his lines since then
3. Neil Armstrong says he did say "a man", backed up by analysis today
I don't think anyone has yet mentioned that this whole issue would be perfectly logical if one allows:
Hypothesis
1. With the word "a" deleted, "man" means earth-based humanity as we know it and "mankind" means anything like humanity, i.e. all sentient beings including aliens who have been presumed to be distant (or by a small segment, to be hiding) until now.
2. Interference could easily be generated from the moon, earth or its vicinity
3. Occam's Razor may say to take the simplest proposition, however:
a. The odds are low that interference would hit just that word because:
i. When I say the phrase it takes 8 seconds and the word "a" is less than 1 second.
ii. Deleting other words would render the sentence much less intelligible, while just the "a" is subtle enough to allow a controversy and blame to last 39 years.
iii. The existence of sentient civilizations besides ours is not generally thought to be in question. The Drake equation says just how many there are likely to be. There would have to be a very nasty physical law in fact to make the proposition of the existence of aliens false.
iv. Lately we are finding a lot of things in physics that we just don't know what the hell they mean.
vi. Proof of the existence of narrowmindedness of humankind is evident in both the "man-centric" prejudice as opposed to "human-centric" conceptualization as noted by above poster, not to mention fundamentalist terrorism and draconian implementation of "feel-good" measures at the beginning of the millenium.
The above exercise is intended to provide an alternate explanation for reasonable consideration has the requirement that the person opens their mind widely enough to encompass a cosmic viewpoint, which is of course the entire point of Neil Armstrong's phrase.
Less open minds will instead of thinking about other possibilities, instead attempt to calculate randomness of interference and balance that as "odds" against the existence of alien life.
Personal notes: Personally I find this incident the best and most positive item so far since the WOW incident lending weight to the existence of friendly non-human intelligent life in our vicinity, and to note that they have a sense of humor in allowing subtle hints to build up while we work out our own problems.
My Dad says "I don't want to get in contact with alien bugs!" probably influenced by Heinlein's Starship Troopers, but it seems to me we will get much farther along in our development if we try more to embrace a cosmic viewpoint, which necessarily entails minimizing differences among earth-bound players, and to devote more of the global GNP to eliminating disease, poverty, minds not connected to the Internet, and at the same time investing more in space. At the very least it will be nice if we can do higher energy experimentation a little farther away from our only home, the planet Earth.
TFA doesn't explain exactly why you can't hear the 'a', or why they think it was spoken but not heard. It mentions that the entire phrase was spoken in 35ms, which is presumably a mistake and they mean that the 'a' was spoken in 35ms.
So, what went wrong? Some kind of radio equipment failure? Interferance? It doesn't mention how they figured out it was spoken, except some passing remark about Goldwave.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Somoene should do the same with Dick Scobee's final message from the Challenger. He clearly says "Go with throttle up", but those deaf dullards at NASA insist he says "Go at throttle up" - because thats what he was SUPPOSED to say.
The actual quote of Neil Amstrong was "one small piece of cheese for a man, a giant pizza for mankind".
But due to errors from NASA engineers, we got the "one small step for man, a giant step for mankind".
Seriously now, the accomplishment of going to the moon, one of mankind's greatest accomplishments, is quickly fading away from people's memory, especially younger ones. If you ask youngsters, they will probably do not know that mankind stepped on the moon a few years back.
The same thing happens with events like WWII, Perl Harbor, etc. In a century, 9/11 will also be a distant memory.
And all this memory loss is really sad, and people will make the same mistakes again.
Being a little older than the average /. type, I remember
Apollo 11 firsthand.
The timing to me has always sounded like "That's one small step for man...(pause 1)...one giant leap...(pause 2)...for mankind...(burst of static)". There are thus three places for missing words.
...laura
What does the authorm mean by "grammatically correct phrasing"? Or is it "more...grammatically correct phrasing"? And still, what the hell does the author mean by that? "That's one small step for man" is a perfectly grammatical utterance. How is "That's one small step for a man" any more grammatical? Becuase it has another article? Whoopee.
No, it doesn't "technically" give the same meaning of humankind to "man" and "mankind". It *precisely* gives the same meaning of humankind to "man" and "mankind". Which is why I'd always interpreted the a-less version of the statement as showing an amount of poetic flair. I *like* the juxtaposition. But that's really beside the point... back to bashing the article.
I hope Ford didn't say that. And I'm sure Armstrong didn't say that. Armstrong said "One small step for a man" in 35 milliseconds? As in
I can't speak to the study or the conclusions thereof, but the accuracy of that article was crap.
I looked at audio of Armstrong's line in Audacity, slowing it down and doing a noise removal, and there definitely is something between the "for" and the "man," but it's all slurred togther. It seems weird to me that this was only noticed now. The technology existed for certainly over 20 years, I think and was probably around when the original recording was made. This doesn't require any high-tech software/hardware or special skills to see.
The article says "According to Ford, Armstrong spoke, 'One small step for a man ...' in a total of 35 milliseconds, 10 times too fast for the "a" to be audible."
I just checked the video (first one I found... I'm sure there are some that don't have Mahler music in the background, and it takes him a good three seconds to make the statement.
With pure bullshit like that, how can I trust anything else the article says?
The official transcript confirms the mistake, and the lengthy Snopes article (with an embellished recording indicates that Armstrong himself acknowledged and regretted the error. He flubbed his line, and encyclopedias that quote him with as "That's one small step for [a] man" are doing so for courtesy, not historical accuracy.
As so why some of us are so bothered by the whole issue... it is very disturbing to see a perfectly plain, perfectly simple bit of history being distorted within one's own lifetime. I listened to that broadcast as it occurred. There was no static. It took everyone a moment to absorb the fact that he'd obviously made a mistake, and quitely likely some people "heard" what they expected to hear.
If we can see history distorted in a case like this where the only thing at stake is very mild embarrassment to Mr. Armstrong, it certainly makes me feel that we can't trust history in cases where anyone has anything important to gain from distortion.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
In 1972, Armstrong cleared up his first words were actually:
Holy Shit! I'm on the fscking moon!
I think he was the subject of a lost time incident. The aliens residing on the other side of the moon probably shot him with their beam and when they returned him to his previous position where he was in mid-sentence, the "a" just got lost.
I always thought it sounded like he was holding back a burp when he said.
...can't understand what he meant.
That whole "man in that context means mankind" argument is crap. Man in that context means "man" as in a small no doubt singular thing and mankind means the vast human experience, lest the whole thing does not make sense. Therefore anyone with half a brain knows EXACTLY what he meant and the significance of it.
Jeez!
Hang On. I was watching and listening and I thought "Huh?" when I heard "One small step for man." I think I figured out that "a" was missing a few moments later. Now where my recollection may be faulty is that I remember no added beat between for and man, and I don't remember Armstrong's delivery being all drawly and nonchalant. In fact, I remember Armstrong speaking deliberately as he knew the world was watching and the words to be recorded. I also thought that the pause between "man" and "one giant leap..." was longer than it should have been, as though he were playing back what he had just said and realizing it didn't sound quite right. Maybe you doubt the 37 years later recollections of a then 12 year old, and maybe 21st century computers and analysis of the audio tape (didn't we learn the other week that the video tape has disappeared) show me to be wrong, but please don't suggest I was brainwashed by Uncle Walter on this one.
Have you listened to the audio? I have. The full first phrase takes 2.20 sec, the `for man' takes 0.62 sec. There is very little noise, and the speach is quite clear.
Damn it I'm tired of this. I'm not going to give you a bunch of links. You're smart people. The truth is: WE DID NOT PUT A MAN ON THE MOON. It's all lies and I'm tired of the lies. Wake up people. Do the research. See for yourself. The pictures were faked. Everything faked. We were lied to people.
I saw the actual landing on TV and thought I heard the "a". There was some static and hesitaton. It made a lot more sense with the "a".
The scariest part is "The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has declined to file charges."
I seem to recall being accused for this once before... wasn't true then, isn't true now.
Anyway, I was obviously rooting for a Flamebait mod, not Troll. So you're provably wrong.
I'd like to use this opportunity to warn the metamodders: the Flamebait moderation was asked for, and therefore fair.
Ignore this signature. By order.
Listen to the tape. OK, so clearly he doesn't say 'for a man' But if you isolate that syllable, it does sound like he says 'fruh' I'd take that as a valid contraction of "for a". So the complete quote is: "That's one small step fruh man"....."One,..giant leap, fur mankind"
Not true. Take any +5 comment, give it -1 Troll, then (someone else) +1 Underrated.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
See? We wouldn't be having this discussion if we'd plugged up the a hole a long time ago!
It's the footprint that mattered.
... he just happened to be wearing a Lunar Module over his space suit.
The words of Buzz Aldrin as the Apollo 11 Lunar Module approached the
lunar surface:
Light's on.
Down 2 1/2... forward, forward. Good.
40 feet, down 2 1/2. Picking up some dust.
30 feet, 2 1/2 down. Faint shadow.
Four forward, drifting to the right a little.
Forward...drifting right...contact light.
OK, engine stop. ACA out of detent. Mode controls both auto.
Descent engine command override off. Engine arm off. 413 is in.
Keep that hangar door closed!
I manage to do that all the time, and it gets easier the more I've had to drink. I can throw myself at the sky and miss with my eyes closed, even. Although, those times tend to hurt more when I hit the ground.
Throwing myself at the ground, and missing, on the third hand, still needs work.
You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
That's one great relief for a Neil...
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
I think it hurts when i do that.
Hivemind harvest in progress..