Category Archives: History

Sad news

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, passed away yesterday.

Some relevant videos:

  • Apollo 11: Prelaunch Press Conference / EVA Training (1969)
  • Landing of the Apollo 11 lunar module
  • “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”
  • Armstrong’s message of thanks after leaving the moon surface
  • BBC interview with Neil Armstrong from 1970
  • 60 Minutes interview
  • The Bottom Line Interview (posted previously)

    • I also highly recommend the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon (I’ve got it on DVD), the part about the Eagle landing is available online.

    The Big Picture: Remembering Apollo 11.

    Statement from his family:

    “For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink.”

    Links via MetaFilter: Man on the moon, which is worth reading in its entirety because lots of people share their memories of the Apollo 11 mission and Neil Armstrong.

    My favourite physicist…

    … who actually worked on the Manhattan Project in New Mexico during WW2:

    MetaFilter: The FBI has a “Do Not Contact” List?

    The Feynman Files. “For the first time, FBI records for Dr Richard Feynman have been released to the public. They document the Bureau’s apparent obsession in the 1950’s with outing him as a communist sympathizer, and include notations from several background checks as well as interviews with his colleagues, friends and acquaintances.”

    Venus Transit 2012

    Garret reminds us that this year you can watch a rare astronomical event on June 5th and 6th: a Venus transit, i. e. the Venus in front of the sun. This only occurs once every 105 to 122 years, in pairs separated by eight years. The last one was on June 8th, 2004, and I watched it with my students at school.

    Venus transits were used in the past to measure and calculate the distance from the earth to the sun – which is easy with today’s technology but was not so easy a few centuries ago. They’ve only been observed six times so far: 1639 (Kepler calculated the one in 1631, but it was not visible from Europe), 1761 and 1769, 1874 and 1882. The next one after this year will be in 2117, and I’m not sure how many of us are going to be around then… so if the transit is visible from where you live, make sure to take a look! Sadly I will only be able to see the last part of the transit here in Germany in the early morning.

    More information and discussion at this MetaFilter thread: Venus to transit sun in June.

    Mehr Informationen auf deutsch gibt es bei Venustransit.de.

    Adventure in 1944

    “The Lure of the Open Road. Wartime wandering through the Eastern states by bicycle, truck, and riverboat 1944. By Thelma Popp Jones, 2007.”

    I thoroughly enjoyed reading Thelma Popp Jones’ account of the adventures she and her friend Doris Roy enjoyed riding their bikes from New York to the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers and working as maids on a boat. (There’s a map and lots of photos, too.)

    Link via Ask MetaFilter: A Vintage Bicycle Tour.