The Daily Dose/August 21, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
OUTTA SITE: At first, the headline excited us: a private company, funded in part by NASA, awarded a contract for a component of its mission to the moon. It’s target date for a landing, a bit ambitious if you ask us, is for 2024.
All Together Now: We pontificate about manned space travel regularly here. It has long been our opinion that Apollo in general, and Apollo 11 specifically, were mankind’s finest hour, providing a line of demarcation separating everything that came before from everything that has followed.
Once More With Feeling: America could have had men on the moon in the 1980s had she wanted to. She didn’t though. America lost interest.
Dry, Technical Matter: The company planning a lunar mission is Astrobotic and they have spaces available for anyone who wants to send something to the moon. Space appears to be priced to move, too, the company charging $1.25 million for every kilogram (2.2 lbs) of payload.
FunFact: The plan is to have 20 unmanned missions go to the moon.
We found ourselves asking, though: for what?
We’ve been to the moon. We’ve walked on it, driven on it, even played golf on it. Heck, several American flags are still there. While mindful the assorted technological advances we’ve made over the ensuing decades, what are 20 more unmanned missions going to tell us?
Dry, Historical Reference: America going back to the moon is akin Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two to summit Mt Everest, announcing with appropriate fanfare, his plans to climb a hill.
OTOH: It’s important not to miss the big picture here: that it is a private business, with some government funding, that is planning a lunar mission. Good for private business. But the fact it took private business so long to catch might be a sign of what we began suspecting a few years ago:
Apollo was ahead of its time, both socially and technologically and we are only now starting to catch up.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: And Sparrow is back in the gym. Today’s Diary.
Ol’ Sparrow was back in the gym tonight, too…It had been about a week and I plead illness because my nose was a snot locker the past week…Good gravy, if snot were a salable commodity I could have put it in #10 cans and made a mint.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
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On This Date
In 1831 – A rebellion led by a slave named Nat Turner begins in Southampton County, Virginia. Using knives, hatchets, axes and anything else they could get their hands on, Turner led up to 70 slaves and free blacks from house to house, ultimately killing around 60 whites. The following day the state and local militia got involved, finding and killing over 150 blacks and the rebellion was completely suppressed on Aug. 23rd, though Turner wasn’t caught until late October, after which we was tried, convicted and executed.
In 2002 – Kentucky defeats Texas 2-1 in 11 innings in the US semifinals at the Little League World Series (LLWS), tying the record for the longest game in LLWS history. The team from Louisville would go on to win the LLWS title, defeating Japan 1-0 in the title game. The 11-inning record had been established in 1998 when New Jersey defeated Michigan 13-9 in pool play and was equaled last year when Hawaii defeated Georgia 2-0 in an opening round game.
In 1971 – The Bee Gees are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the third of four consecutive weeks with How Can You Mend a Broken Heart. It was the group’s ninth Top 40 hit in America and their first of nine #1s. The song also went to #1 in Canada and Malaysia and was Billboard’s fifth biggest song of the year. The song was originally offered to Andy Williams before the group decided to record it themselves.
Quotebook
People are more disposed to suffer than right themselves by resistance.
John Locke
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Gino Auriemma was the head coach of the US women’s basketball team at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Six of the Beatles 20 #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 spent one week at the top.
Today’s Stumper
Which song was the Bee Gees last #1 hit in America? – Answer next time!
