The technique to making true Damascus steel was lost in the mid 1800s. The technique and composition to Greek Fire was lost in the 13th century or 19th, depending on whose stories you want to believe.

We were well on our way to losing the schematics and information on our original Apollo and Gemini space programs until they started trying to sort and salvage that data a few years ago. The problem is that when we replace something old with a better technology or limit the knowledge of a technique to a few people, we rapidly lose the methodology of 'how' to do the technique.

In the case of proper war and hunting archery, when guns became more common and easier to use, people gravitated to them because they were MUCH easier to learn than archery. Archery required specific training for war and for survival it was from the time you could hold a bow. Anyone could learn to use a gun quickly, so people just....forgot how to properly use bows. Probably as soon as the remaining archers died out.

What in the world are you on about? The private sector gets just as many chances as "the government" to f-up and keep moving forward.

Take a look here for some consumer product recalls:
http://www.esopro.com/erp-blog/industry-musings/the-10-most-disastrous-product-recalls-of-all-time

On that list are corporations like Firestone, Tylenol, Graco, Hasbro, Ford and Toyota. Despite their negligence leading to deaths, they seem to be doing just fine. And those corporations killed way more people than NASA ever has.

Is accountability important? Sure, absolutely. In the case of the Apollo mission, the Program Director was fired. I would the same is true for a lot of those product recalls: the highest up person with direct supervision of the project should be fired.

In summary, I don't really see where "the government" gets off easy while the "private sector" is unfairly punished.

I find it disgusting that people allow the government to have excuses and second chances but disallow the same for private sector. Neither should have excuses! It's not like there weren't inherent risks involved that could've been avoided. For example, NASA was fully aware of issues with Apollo I and was even warned by the astronauts themselves. They went ahead with it anyway and it resulted in a fire that killed all 3 astronauts. It wasn't a "sacrifice that needed to be made for science." It was negligence, pure and simple.
One thing I admit is that there was an artificial drive to get the moon -- which resulted in wasted dollars and lives because of negligence and the absence of pricing mechanisms -- that probably wouldn't have occurred in the private sector. So, how does that affect our everyday lives? How does that improve our lives? That's what the private sector works on. Not government. I think it could've been done better by the private sector as proven by parallel public versus private sectors in other markets. But really, there would have to be a desire and an efficient business plan. I don't honestly see what the problem is for not wanting to go to the moon right now.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/the-curious-wavefunction/2014/03/27/are-we-entering-a-golden-era-of-private-science-funding/

NASA's photos and videos are not the only evidence of the moon landing. They left reflectors which can be used to laser-range the moon.

I used this opportunity to sift a video about it. Sadly, in finding an appropriate one I went down a rabbit-hole of hoax videos for a while. So much dumb.

http://videosift.com/video/APOLLO-Lunar-ranging-experiment

Funny. I live in the bay area, and walk my son to soccer in the park all the time with no worries. We can take easy, peaceful strolls outside in the summer and winter. Looking around, it's no Norman Rockwell, but all I see are american families. We are surrounded by the best schools and universities in the country.

As far as Oakland goes, it's a great city to visit and to live. It's not just me that feels this way, demand for housing there has only increased in the past decade. It's expensive to buy there because people want to live there. Alot more than St. Paul, by the way. Last time I checked, St. Paul also had its crime ridden parts; or can you walk anywhere at night in your town?

So these dystopian pictures being painted on this thread exist in this thread only. In real life, Oakland is a thriving city with alot going for it, and the people with means who actually drive the economy agree, and are voting with their feet and wallets, and corporate headquarters.

I visit Oakland often. The last trip, I took my son on a tour of the USS Hornet, where he got to see the first footsteps of the Apollo astronauts after they returned to Earth. Before that, we visited the world class planetarium and took in great views of the valley. I love going to the great restaurants and live music venues downtown.

Zeus: Why you keep calling me Jesus? I look Puerto Rican
to you!?

John: That guy back there called you Jesus.

Zeus: He didn't call me Jesus, he said, "Hey, Zeus."
My name, is 'Zeus!'

John: Zeus?

Zeus: Yeah, Zeus! As in father of Apollo?.... Mount Olympus!?
Don't fuck with me or I'll shove a lightning-bolt up your ass!? Zeus! You got
a problem with that?!

John: No!??

No need to go through the whole Newtons things... easier to keep it all in kg since that's how we think anyway. So on the moon, astronaut + suit = 100/6 = 17 kg. Only about 40 lbs... So an astronaut should have no problem doing a pushup there.

As I said, probably more to due with the awkward, pressurized suits.

However, the jumping part... well, that's a puzzle to me why they aren't able to jump higher since I don't see any mechanical disadvantage. It's one of the arguments for the 'fake moon landing' thing.

However, if the moon surface were 'spongy' then it would be like trying to jump out of a barrel of mud.

Re: conspiracy thing... Alternative 3 claims that Apollo astronauts went to the moon, but discovered the bases that had already been there and were threatened/sworn to silence. Curiously, Neil Armstrong became a public recluse after his career as an astronaut, rarely giving interviews or talking about his experience.

However, if you believe the 'we never went to the moon at all' version, the claim is that NASA hired Stanley Kubrick to film the fake moon landing thing based on his realistic looking 2001.

I have a degree in physics. I'm guessing that English is maybe a 2nd language for you? Your explanation of mass and weight is a little confusing. With regards to our astronaut on the moon, it's the difference in weight that matters. He should be able to (approximately) lift six times the weight he could on earth.
(Sidebar: It's often been said that Olympics on the moon would be fantastic because a man who could high-jump 7 feet high on earth would be able to high-jump 42 feet high (7x6) on the moon. In fact, he would only be able to jump about half that. Do you know why? I'll leave that with you as a challenge.)

Insofar as faked moon landings, I'm 90 % sure we went to the moon. However, bear in mind that Americans didn't know their own government was spying extensively on them til last year. It's the old joke... "Just because your paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't watching you..."

Alternative 3 is an interesting study of conspiracy dynamics. I first heard of it 30 years ago. It started as an April Fools joke in Britain on a science news TV show. It was brilliant in it's conception...

Short version:
1. Global warming will lead to total collapse of earth's eco-systems in two centuries or less.
2. Global governments are co-operating to move the cream of earth's leaders, scientists, etc to bases that have been established for decades on the far side of the moon and on Mars. (Alternative 3. Alternative 1 was huge underground bunkers, Alternative 2 was huge geo-synchronous cities... both were deemed too impractical to carry out.)
3. Mars is actually very liveable. We landed there in the 60s, established bases, using flying saucer technology developed here on earth by scientists.
4. The general population is being kept ignorant of the impending disaster, our advanced technology, the true state of Mars, etc. Governments worldwide are co-operating at the highest levels to perpetuate the myth that our progress in space is a slow, laborious process. (Which explains why the Soviet Union did not expose the Apollo programs as fake...) They don't want to cause a panic while they advance their agenda.
5. They have even developed psychic assassins capable of killing with their minds via spontaneous human combustion.

Due to TV schedule changes it was shown at a later date convincing the general public there that it was the real deal. (You can actually see the original show on YouTube... you'll even recognize some of the 'real scientists' etc as British character actors if you're old enough.)

It's a long convoluted story but thanks to a couple of follow up books and the Internet which gave it new life it has now 'morphed' into this vast conspiracy that involves alien / government co-operation at the highest levels à la X-Files. (The original conspiracy did not involve aliens...)

Adding to the fun and mystery is that some real world events -- too complicated to explain here -- later played right into details of the conspiracy.

I always thought it would make for a brilliant Hollywood movie -- the original version, not the 'updated' version.

Ohhh! ....yeah, I was confused.
I'd like to see a clip of him doing that material at the Apollo.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'trevor noah, live at the apollo' to 'trevor noah, live at the apollo, apartheid, south africa, comedy, stand up' - edited by lucky760

I was watching this and thinking...wow the audience at the Apollo Theatre sure has changed. Never knew there was an Apollo theater (actual name is Hammersmith Apollo) in west London.

I am anot a fan of this series in any fashion. This kirks voice is terrible....McCoy is not done right and Doohans son really fouls it up. Spock is also very unbelievable. I do enjoy the persons who play Sulu and Chekov.. There are other, far better, actors who portray ST in other fan films that do a great job. I did enjoy the return of Apollo. Something done by other fan films already( previous actors like Takei and Koenig and Crosby. there is plenty of room in the ST Universe for this show and I am sure many enjoy it....

That's the original Apollo, played by Michael Forrest. Cool!

Watch the original episode featuring Apollo. Scotty's behaviour was right on the money. (Plus it doesn't hurt that the actor is James Doohan's son.)

Dr. McKenna is indeed gorgeous!

At 4 seconds, not if you count "Who's Knocking on the Wall" from Apollo 18, but it, along with the other short tracks on that album weren't intended as songs per se.

"The liner notes, in reference to these tracks, include the message "the indexing of this disc is designed to complement the Shuffle Mode of modern CD players". According to John Flansburgh, listening to the album on shuffle made a collage of songs, with the short fingertips interspersed among tracks of regular length.

- wiki