h a l f b a k e r yGuitar Hero: 4'33"
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When setting foot on a new world, making the misspoken first words of Neil Armstrong the official proclamation would pay homage to the human condition and act as a reminder. "We're not perfect, but we strive nonetheless."
The historical greatest achievement of the human animal, traveling to another
world, carries with it an interesting footnote. For all the technological miracles achieved, one last task to write this epic chapter in human history was to punctuate it with a dramatic proclamation: "That's one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind."
But the task was given to a human, a human who had just seen that the automatic landing system was taking them into a field of rocks that could have killed all on board. He turned on the manual controls and, with seconds of fuel left, managed to save the mission and the lives of the crew. Perhaps having other things on his mind, when he took that historic step, he left the A out of his statement changing the meaning from profound to meaningless.
So be it. We're humans and I'd propose that future humans pay homage to this great hero by using that exact screwed up statement he made famous when they set foot on Mars, or Europa or Proxima Centauri B, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Hey new world, we're not perfect, but close enough to get the job done.
Stanford guide to harmful language
https://s.wsj.net/p...tanfordlanguage.pdf
[theircompetitor, Dec 21 2022]
Response to Stanford Guide
https://babylonbee....-replace-them-with/
[a1, Dec 21 2022]
Judge for yourself.
https://www.youtube...watch?v=Z9WDsgCIroE
I think he just rushed the A, but notice how the first part of the G in giant gets cut off. [doctorremulac3, Dec 22 2022]
Alexei Leonov
https://en.wikipedi.../wiki/Alexei_Leonov
[a1, Dec 22 2022, last modified Dec 25 2022]
[link]
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not likely to happen, given that the writer of their speeches would likely have had an ivy league education |
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Yea TC, I thought of that, but the woke culture isn't capable of keeping a civilization afloat much less traveling to other planets, but like other totalitarian fascist regimes before it, it's destined for the ash heap of history. |
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This is for when some future generation able to make great historical achievements comes back. It'll happen. |
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And by the way, if a woman (whatever that is) says it, great. The idea is to state our fallibility and express a little humility. |
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And if the people of Earth see this and have a little chuckle, well done astronauts, well done. |
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the absurdity, futility and idiocy of such efforts non-withstanding, they are actually hurtful and harmful. |
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they've already had to apologize for "American" being in the list. |
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their explanation for "ghetto" seems to have forgotten the origin of the word, in a way that I find personally offensive. |
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For what it's worth, however, translating Armstrong's phrase to, say Russian, one would automatically translate it to "chelovek" and "chelovechestvo", meaning human and humanity or humankind -- it would not make sense to translate it as "muzhchina" (man) etc |
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In Hebrew, on the other hand, it would translate as Adam (emphasis on second syllable) but of course that's because "man" is Adam, which itself derives from earth, and Adamim, which is "people" plural. Hebrew has a significantly smaller vocabulary then English of course. |
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You know, you bring up an interesting point, when Armstrong said those immortal words, they were translated across the world in how many languages? Wonder how many translations kindly filled in the A for him. What percentage of the population of Earth said “Huh?”. |
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As to First Contact, my assumption continues to be those words will be the equivalent of "tastes like chicken" |
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Hopefully not "Sckzgnatz cgneickngs" (Translation: "Tastes like food bird from our home planet of Crazulon.") |
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Are we sure it was missed out rather than merely elided? In some dialects of English it is unnatural to articulate f - r - a - m and there is very little audible difference between saying "for a man" and "for man". Both end up sounding like "frum ann". |
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I suppose it depends if you find it more idiomatic to pronounce the word "a" as "eh-ee" as in "pay (for something)"or as a short "a" as in "fat" |
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// Are we sure it was missed out rather than merely elided? // |
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Either misspoke or lost to radio noise. During a 30th anniversary gathering in 1999, the Apollo 11 commander acknowledged that he didn’t hear himself say it either when he listened to the transmission from the July 20, 1969, moon landing. |
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“The ‘a’ was intended,” Armstrong said. “I thought I said it. I can’t hear it when I listen on the radio reception here on Earth, so I’ll be happy if you just put it in parentheses.” |
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That said, a 2006 computer analysis of sound waves found evidence that Armstrong said what he said he said - so I'd go with "lost in the noise" which isn't much different from [pocmloc]'s "frum ann" version. |
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I know there was speculation that the radio signal just dropped out. He thought he said it. |
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Whether it was a human foible or a techical issue doesn't really matter. (actually that's a human foible as well) I think having a bit of a sense of humor about our next adventure might help lighten up an otherwise pretty stressful situation. |
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Bah, American propaganda. And we all know it happened in a studio somewhere anyway. |
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// American propaganda // |
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Yep. And it coulda gone the other way: |
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"I take this step for my country, for my people, and for the Marxist-Leninist way of life. Knowing that today is but one small step on a journey that someday will take us all to the stars."
—Alexei Leonov, June 1969 |
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"For All Mankind" season 1 was a great alt-history take on that (and one of the few things I found worth watching on Apple TV). |
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Kind of interesting, when you say "One small step for man" and "One small step for A man" the A happens to come out in the exact spot where the mouth is transitioning from "for" to "man", the only thing necessary is to make that A sound is continued airflow/vibration from the vocal cords. So without even trying, your mouth is in the A position. Being in a rush you might not keep that airflow going. Maybe you're a little nervous because, I don't know, you're the first human setting foot on an object outside of Earth maybe? |
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I think he mouthed the A but rushed it. Try it. Say "One small step for man" and see that you've mouthed the A sound in your transition between "for" and "man" without even trying to. |
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most of the steps for the Marxist Leninist way of life wind up stepping into dog shit. Not Leonov's fault, surely |
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Scary thing is, many in the next generation just thinks communism hasn't been done right, just need the right clever people to do it, like Russians was too stupid. Yea, they put the first satellite in orbit, first man AND woman in orbit, but they're just a bunch of dummies. Once the clever, woke, sensitive generation takes over the gulags will practically be amusement parks they'll be done so properly. People will be dying to get into them. |
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// Not Leonov's fault, surely // |
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Leonov was a genuinely great man. It shone through in most of this life despite his indoctrination. |
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Indeed. Because Marx misunderstood Hegel, the Dialectic of History has got stuck, a bit like a scratched record. I'm trying to build a technological fix for this, but it doesn't work yet. |
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I just can't fathom why you don't want to work as hard as possible for the glory of the state and for your fellow comrads, who rest assured, are all working as equally as hard as you are. The union master guarantees it, after all. |
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I fail to see the difference between "man" and "a man" here. You can get pedantic but the spirit of the phrase is the same: a small step for a pink humanoid, a giant leap for the collection of them. |
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But no-one actually leaped |
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They did sort of bunny hop though, does that count? |
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The new suits intended for the Artemis missions will allow a more natural gait. |
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So get it right. "That's one small step for a person, one sort-of bunnyhop for mankind" |
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If it was dropouts it could have been worse. |
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"That's one small... man...giant leap..." |
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