Now You Can Buy NASA's Own Original Apollo 11 Moon Landing Footage:
Got a player for 2-inch Quadruplex videotapes sitting around? You could view original NASA recordings of the Apollo 11 moon landing in your living room.
Sotheby's is auctioning off three first-generation tapes of the historic touchdown as part of its July 20 auction of space exploration artifacts set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing.
The tapes run a total of 2 hours and 24 minutes and capture moments including Neil Armstrong declaring, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Also on the tapes are the "long-distance phone call" with President Richard Nixon and the planting of the American flag on the lunar surface.
[...] Gary George, an engineering student and NASA intern, purchased the tapes for $217.77 at a government surplus auction in 1976. It's estimated they'll sell for at least a $1 million at the Sotheby's event.
I was under the impression that the original tapes had been lost or recorded over. Does anyone else remember hearing that? Either way, this is a irreplaceable national treasure and I am astonished at seeing these up for auction. I am hopeful some philanthropist steps up, buys them, perhaps makes a personal copy, and then donates them to the Library of Congress.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @11:46AM (3 children)
In a democracy or democratic republic ultimately that's the job of the voters. But often their priorities are things like whether gay people can marry or not...
Trump has proven that US voters can make a difference. Trump's America is noticeably different from Obama's. ;)
Yes, and it's a matter of
1) whether the government prioritizes the interests of the normal citizens or the corporations or others.
2) whether the government is strong enough to actually do 1)
Unregulated capitalism with a weak government will just mean the stronger corporations are effectively in power and most won't prioritize the interests of the normal citizens.
One way or another you're going to get a Government, but if the effective government ends up being a Corporation, the votes and the voices of the non-shareholders matter even less.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @12:41PM (1 child)
How will the corporations form if there is not a government regulation to charter them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 16 2019, @12:51PM
By arms power. Granted, they'd be called gangs or mobs, but the behavior won't be much different from a multinational corporation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday July 16 2019, @05:39PM
"Unregulated capitalism with a weak government will just mean the stronger corporations are effectively in power and most won't prioritize the interests of the normal citizens."
Which is what we all seem to have today.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---