
Well-Aimed and Powerful (2015) - danso
https://longreads.com/2015/07/07/well-aimed-and-powerful/amp/
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perilunar
"Soon, of course, we’ll be doing nothing at all. Faced with the fact that we
are losing American spaceflight altogether, suddenly the workhorse shuttle
seems as beautiful and daring as the Saturn V did in the sixties."

Hard to believe this was written in 2015, while SpaceX was busy sending
dragons to ISS and learning how to land Falcon 9s.

Edit: the excerpt is from Leaving Orbit, _published_ in May 2015, but written
in 2009, prior to the last Shuttle flight in 2011, which explains the sense of
sadness and loss.

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stefanwlb
Man has never landed on the moon. Especially not in 1969. Not only would they
not have been able to get a person there, but to bring them back as well is
ridiculous. Especially in light of the political situation at that time with
Russia.

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ashark
> [...] and refrained from considering the enormity of their undertaking

Sigh. Another perfectly good word dies due to being too similar to another
word.

At least we're still adding new words to the language to make up for these
losses in expressiveness and shades of meaning. "Bigly", "sexting".
"Cromulent".

~~~
gumby
Hey, deceiving a planet full of people with a made up moon landing seems
pretty evil to me :-)

(I actually share your sadness about the massive extinction of expressive
terms, but given the discussion in the article I couldn't resist).

~~~
ashark
It actually pulled me out of the article for a second as I thought, "wait, is
this actually about how the moon-hoaxers are _right_?" before I realized the
writer'd meant _enormousness_ —which is still not a great choice for that
sentence, but at least doesn't mean something else entirely from what was
intended.

~~~
danso
Wow, until I read this comment, I had no idea what your parent comment was
referring to, i.e. the misuse of _enormity_. I'm kind of an annoying pedant
about the misuse of "begs the question", among other things, but I'll admit to
have equated "enormity" with "enormousness", the latter of which I can't
remember the last time I ever saw it used in prose.

You're right to point out the flaw; professional editors are supposed to pick
that kind of thing out.

~~~
gumby
Hah, looks like whoever downvoted my comment didn't know the word either!

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mdekkers
> _This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Bart Sibrel._

~~~
j_s
If you don't mind giving the antagonist more views, he posted the video here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OROlF8zB9z0&t=50s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OROlF8zB9z0&t=50s)

For "some reason" the sound is cut out afterward...

> _“Did you get that on camera?” This line of dialogue, spoken so clearly and
> happily, subsequently helps to acquit Buzz Aldrin, seventy-two years old at
> the time of the incident, of assault charges._

~~~
mdekkers
_If you don 't mind giving the antagonist more views_

Not at all, it's not like he can buy anything with those views. On the other
hand, it's awesome to see Buzz Aldrin punch that guy.

