Off topic - comedy gold during Atlas rocket takeoff - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2018, 08:34:27 am
content: Just had to share this.The rocket takeoff half way through is cool and all but the best bit is the interview with the Air Force major afterwards (starting at 26 minutes).Your tax dollars at work.

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: April 15, 2018, 08:58:36 am
content: Nice relaxed off-the-cuff interviewSooo dissappointed, was hoping for a digitised Patrick Moore launch voice commentary but no, just some namesake!

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2018, 09:20:52 am
content: Quote from: voltsandjolts on April 15, 2018, 08:58:36 amYou understood a word of it?

author: donotdespisethesnake
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2018, 09:41:43 am
content: Quote from: Fungus on April 15, 2018, 08:34:27 amThe funny thing is that for all the sophisticated US know-how in the spy satellites, the Atlas V rocket uses Russian designed and built engines (RD180).

author: joseph nicholas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2018, 11:21:05 am
content: Precious, Stanley Kubrick couldnt have invented this dialog between the engineer and the major.

author: tpowell1830
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2018, 01:11:12 pm
content: Quote from: donotdespisethesnake on April 15, 2018, 09:41:43 amYes, it's true about the RD180 rockets, however, they have been modified and redesigned. When I worked at NASA 10 years ago, I discovered that all of the design informatiion of the Saturn V rockets were lost and that is why it wasn't until recently that it was possible to build another one. A group of engineers had to crawl all over the one at JSC to reverse engineer the thing.The air force "Major" is talking gibberish, she looks 17 years old (way too young to be a Major in the air force). That interview must have been an attempt at satire.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 15, 2018, 07:06:28 pm
content: Sorry, but when it comes to female officers in the US Air Force nobody beats Samantha Carterhttp://images0.hiboox.com/images/1206/wnxuao3.jpg

author: Fungus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2018, 03:55:30 pm
content: Quote from: tpowell1830 on April 15, 2018, 01:11:12 pmI'dreallylike to think so but the video is on the official ULA Youtube channel.It'd be the prank of the century if they got that one past the bosses.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2018, 04:15:44 pm
content: The major is doing an amazing job of using approved pre-scripted phrases to sound like an actual conversation. I wonder how long she studied to get all of the buzzwords memorized, and how much of her time was learning what she was not allowed to say.Using Russian engines is fine. They use our chips. Both countries benefit from the strengths of the other. Too bad that the era of reconciliation seems to have drawn to an end.Anyone who works in aerospace knows that the ability to build old designs is lost. If for no other reason that new environmental regulations virtually forbid it, and have definitely ended the commercial availability of many of the specified materials. Cadmium plating - still possible in a very few locations. Zinc Chromate? Many adhesives and paints have been reformulated to eliminate lead and mercury. Non ROHS parts are becoming unobtainium. The list goes on and on.

author: joseph nicholas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2018, 05:45:50 pm
content: Recently a friend of mine (older) went for a training session for a teaching assignment and was dismayed to see the emphasis on using acronyms and short term memory ability to sucessfully respond to the trainers questions. The younger trainees had a marked advantage since short term memory is better in the young.The major and the engineer are showing this ability. It is doubtful that a conversation like this would be this smooth if an older person was on the other end of the discussion with the major.

author: edy
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 16, 2018, 06:03:34 pm
content: She is clearly reading off a teleprompter or getting off-screen cue cards as her eyes keep shifting back and forth from the interviewer to somewhere between him and the camera (to the right of the gentleman as she is facing him, just left of the camera). I think they picked someone photogenic and able to do a nice scripted interview and did exactly that... a bit of memorization perhaps but plenty of reminders, otherwise why all the shifty eyes?As to the content of the response, it is something that would look good on paper but not good as oral style of communication as you would expect when interviewing someone. There is a big analysis of this especially in the Trump era due to a number of experts analyzing his speech style and comparing it to other more "scripted" presidential speeches. There seems to be a clear difference in preferences of audiences and how oral and written communication come across strangely when they are reversed (an improvized speech is written down, or a written script designed to be read is spoken).

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2018, 01:29:00 am
content: This is not just a style problem. She is carefully saying very little while sounding like she is saying a lot. I would guess that this satellite has some very interesting capabilities. And is designed in response to some very interesting capabilities of some other spacefaring nation. If you read Aviation Leak and Space Technologies you get some insight into the goings on. I am free to speculate because I am not involved in any of it.

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2018, 04:46:05 pm
content: I've never seen the phrase 'comedy gold' used in this sense before. An ironic use, in that the video is the total opposite of funny?I'm still hoping to see the total humiliating defeat and destruction of the American MIC, someday before I die.Preferably without WWIII. Much as it appeals to see a few carrier fleets demonstrate their obsolescence bygetting sunk by advanced missile tech, I don't even want that. Since they mostly contain nuclear reactors, andsinking them would be BAD. Same thing goes for practical demonstrations of nuclear tsunami coastal attacks.Really spectacular, but many nuclear plants and waste repositories would get smeared. More BAD.Best if everyone just came to the realization that it's all stupid, and went home.As for satellite tech, if the North Koreans (or anyone else) detonates a couple of truckloads of gravel in orbit, that's the end of that. For a very long time.

author: metrologist
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2018, 05:47:25 pm
content: Quote from: TerraHertz on April 17, 2018, 04:46:05 pmWhat is the American MIC?

author: Eka
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2018, 06:49:21 pm
content: MIC = Military Industrial Complex....As for the non content interview, I've given a few of them myself. It is an art to say nothing with lots of words. It reminds me of the quote "Pages and pages of painfully pathetically padded paragraphs." which used to be the state of most novels. Back then authors were paid by the word count, not royalties per book sold.

author: IanMacdonald
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2018, 06:53:50 pm
content: Quote from: German_EE on April 15, 2018, 07:06:28 pmAn excellent show and unusually for SF, quite realistic as to how military ops would be handled. I don't think they'd send their top scientist on dangerous field missions though, too high a risk of losing her.