Posted on 09/30/2006 3:11:28 PM PDT by wagglebee
That's one small word for astronaut Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for grammar sticklers everywhere.
An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
The story was reported in Saturday's editions of the Houston Chronicle.
Some historians and critics have dogged Armstrong for not saying the more dramatic and grammatically correct, "One small step for a man . . ." in the version he transmitted to NASA's Mission Control. Without the missing "a," Armstrong essentially said, "One small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind."
The famous astronaut has maintained he intended to say it properly and believes he did. Thanks to some high-tech sound-editing software, computer programmer Peter Shann Ford might have proved Armstrong right.
Ford said he downloaded the audio recording of Armstrong's words from a NASA Web site and analyzed the statement with software that allows disabled people to communicate through computers using their nerve impulses.
In a graphical representation of the famous phrase, Ford said he found evidence that the missing "a" was spoken and transmitted to NASA.
"I have reviewed the data and Peter Ford's analysis of it, and I find the technology interesting and useful," Armstrong said in a statement. "I also find his conclusion persuasive. Persuasive is the appropriate word."
Space Ping.
Maybe we can use this software to truly understand what the hell Bubba was 'actually' saying during the 90's. Maybe its true that he was obsessed with Bin Laden and was talking about him all the time and we just couldn't hear it because of the quality of the television transmission.
It was still better than saying "hey, Buzz, could you toss me down the rock hammer." :)
Damn, I'm glad they found it! Now maybe we can all get some sleep!
yep, that grammatical error had been a huge black eye on the NASA program for years.
"That's one giant leap for a man, one small step for mankind."
This would be more true according to scale - on the small scale of a man stepping from the Earth to the moon is a very big step, but on the much larger scale of mankind the step is relatively much smaller, though on that scale this may well have been mankind's very first (and so far only) real step.
That reminds me of a hysterical conversation that I had with (an unfortunately now banned) Freeper- about what Armstrong's historic first words from another world might have been if he'd twisted his ankle as he stepped down from the lander to the Lunar surface. The thread started on that shakey ground and just degenerated from there. It was hilarious.
I thought it was perfect the way it (sort of) was. It became a unique phrase. The missing "a" may make it grammatically correct, but it also reduces it in my eyes to just a simple, straightforward sentence. Sort of the difference between someone saying in a computer game, "All your base are belong to us," which is legendary, vs. saying something like, oh, "You are defeated, lamehead."
I think I read somewhere that was the original script.... Armstrong pronounced it wrong in all the excitement!
Please, they don't need any more revisionist ideas. : )
I heard what he really said was;
"That's one small step for an American, one impossible dream for for anyone else who wants to give it a try"
I wonder if we're ever going to learn to walk?
I distinctly remember Neil issuing a "correction" after his return from the moon, inserting the "a". Unfortunately, a historic recording widely distributed cannot be recalled. Because it is so historic and genuine, I think it has actually shaped grammar as a result. This footnote will not change anything.
Oddly enough- I have Liberal friends and family who agree with that, totally.
You know ... my question has always been not what was said, but who took the pictures ?
Inquiring minds want to know...
I have always heard the 'a' . It's obscured by the nasal stop of the 'm' in "man". Just say it yourself with the midwest twang - "fer a man" - "fer man" ... very little difference.
What Arab Civilization?You state, "its mathematicians created the algebra and algorithms that would enable the building of computers, and the creation of encryption." The fundamental basis of modern mathematics had been laid down not hundreds but thousands of years before by Assyrians and Babylonians, who already knew of the concept of zero, of the Pythagorean Theorem, and of many, many other developments expropriated by Arabs/Muslims (see History of Babylonian Mathematics, Neugebauer).
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