Reluctantly, I must admit to having been recently sucked into the Facebook milieu. Depending on my mood, it can sometimes be an amusing distraction from… whatever it is I need to be distracted from.
Last week, however, I was troubled by a Facebook posting from someone who described himself as an “economic conservative”. In the midst of a discussion on the healthcare debate, said poster started whining about how he sure as hell didn’t want to pay for some other person’s healthcare. After all, HE went to college, worked hard, got a job with benefits and doesn’t need to rely on the government for HIS healthcare.
I replied that I, too, went to college, worked hard and got a job with benefits. Tomorrow, in fact, is my 20th anniversary as a full-time employee at WFUM. But at the end of October, I am scheduled to lose my job through no fault of my own. I and my family will, at that time, lose all healthcare benefits. I pointed out that from my perspective a government-run healthcare option seemed like a pretty damned good idea.
The poster replied that while he was sorry about my job loss, I should have been saving 20% to 40% of my paycheck over the past 20 years and should therefore have plenty of spare cash just lying around on which I should be able to comfortably live.
I didn’t bother responding to that. Apparently, unlike the poster, I live in a world where transmissions go bad, well-pumps go kablooie, roofs need replacing and kids need braces. 20% to 40%? I wish!
The attitude expressed by the poster exemplifies the near-religious belief in the mystical power of the free market economy held by some. In his mind, if you do all the right things, the free market will, in its oh-so-rational way, reward you. If you do stupid things and/or are lazy, you deserve all the bad luck and hard times you get. Conversely, if you’re having a hard time financially, it HAS to be YOUR fault since the all-knowing free market would simply not allow a worthy individual to be bereft of its benefits.
Which is why to people like him people like me must be – to borrow a phrase – an inconvenient truth.
I did, in theory, all the right things. I went to school, was a loyal employee, worked hard, (never having been without a job since age 12) saved what I could, maintained a stellar credit rating and the reward for all my efforts is pending unemployment and the loss of health benefits for me and my family.
But to people like the poster, this still somehow MUST be my fault. To say otherwise would be to admit that unregulated free market capitalism is somehow flawed. And an economic conservative simply COULDN’T allow such blasphemy to enter his mind!
So I suppose this means at the end of October I’ll suddenly be transformed from a longtime hard working taxpayer and educated member of society to a lazy and stupid slacker sponging off the labor of others.
Otherwise, it would mean unregulated free market Capitalism has problems.
And we simply can’t admit that!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
I've Got Those Vaughn Meader Blues
I haven’t written too much about my impending job loss lately. Partly because it’s too damned depressing and partly because there’s so little information to write about. That’s one of the most frustrating things about this situation: there’s no real reliable information being disseminated. There’s nothing to go on but anonymous rumors and attempts to look for subtle clues in an attempt to guess what’s going on.
Some of the latest developments: more of my longtime co-workers have been let go. The once-bustling station is slowly becoming a much quieter and lonelier place. It’s a strange feeling when people you’ve worked with for years and years are no longer around.
Another development is the radical change in the WFUM broadcast schedule. Since we’re currently operating without a budget, we can no longer afford full PBS membership and had to go to what’s called “PDP” status. What that means, essentially, is we can no longer air the full PBS schedule and we are forced to air only a few PBS programs and those must be on a delayed basis. The biggest casualty is we were forced to stop airing the Newshour with Jim Lehrer. And the phones lit up! I joked with my wife that I’d sure hate to be the guy who had to answer THOSE phone calls! (Of course I WAS that guy!) The viewers, mostly older folks, it seemed, were quite upset that the Newshour was no longer on our station. When I explained the situation, most of the callers, though still upset with the change, at least were understanding of our situation and didn’t take it out on me personally. Most. A few callers, though, were very upset and proceeded to take it out on me personally, calling me every name in the book. (I once believed the stereotype that “little old ladies” tended to avoid foul language. Not any more! It’s a strange feeling being berated by an elderly-sounding woman in terms that would make a drill sergeant blush!) Of course, what really sucked was essentially being blamed by these folks for something I would have given anything to prevent. I sure as hell didn’t want to shut down WFUM! Not only do I like being employed, but I actually believe all that idealistic stuff about serving the public and providing information and quality programming.
At least a few of the calls I got were sympathetic, though, which made the overall experience at least somewhat less painful. Like the gentleman who thanked us for our years of service to the community and who said he would miss us. Although I wish the circumstances were different, it’s still good to know that some people noticed what we were trying to do and that it made a positive impact on them.
As for me personally, my last day currently is scheduled to be September 30th “subject to possible extension”. In other words, more uncertainty. I know I’ll be losing my job, but I don’t even know for sure when my last day will be. At least I’ll last past my 20th anniversary as a full-time employee on August 28th, which will be some small consolation.
The rumor mill, meanwhile, is working overtime. I don’t know what to make of these rumors since they are often anonymous and of uncertain veracity. Thing is, officially, we’re hearing nothing, so the rumors are all we have.
One rumor is another Michigan PBS station will be taking us over and will simply pass their signal through the WFUM transmitter. Another rumor is that other Michigan PBS station will partner with Mott and Kettering to continue a local public broadcasting presence in Flint. But these are simply rumors floating about and there’s no certainty at all about any of it.
And given this uncertainty, I’m still busily trying to find a job elsewhere. I’ve been searching diligently since April. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and excellent references. I’ve sent out I-dunno-how-many applications to various places, but I haven’t even gotten as far as an interview yet. This sucks.
Which brings me back to the title of this screed. I do indeed feel like Vaughn Meader… at least how he felt after November 22, 1963.
If you don’t know who Vaughn Meader was, (and I suspect that may be most of you) that’s kind of the point. Vaughn Meader was a comedian who produced a record album called “The First Family” back in 1962, the year I was born. The album, which poked fun at the Kennedy family, soon became the fastest selling album in history, selling 7.5 million copies in just a few months. Meader was suddenly in demand and was making decent money. The album won a Grammy and he was doing quite well.
Then came November 22, 1963.
What happened next was best summed up by comedian Lenny Bruce, who, at the beginning of a live performance shortly after the assassination, simply shook his head and exclaimed “Vaughn Meader is SCREWED!”
And career-wise, he WAS screwed. A planned Christmas sequel to the First Family album was scrapped. Existing albums were pulled from the shelves. Pre-taped television appearances were not only cancelled, but the videotapes containing them were actually destroyed to prevent them from ever being aired. A nation in mourning over President Kennedy was in no mood to laugh. Meader’s career was over just as suddenly as JFK’s life.
And that’s why I’m beginning to think I know how he felt. Meader had found something he enjoyed...something he was good at. Once that was gone, he never really knew what to do. In my months of job searching, I’m beginning to wonder if maybe working at a PBS station is the only damned thing I know how to do. Maybe I’m one of those idiot savants who excels at one thing but is clueless when it comes to anything else.
I keep trying to tell myself it’s just the soft job market and that I’ll eventually find something out there I can do. I think if I could at least get an interview, I’d have a shot at a job. But I’m not even getting that far! I guess I’m fortunate that I’ll at least have a job for a few more weeks, but it kinda sucks not being able to find anything else at all!
As for Vaughn Meader, he eventually descended into drug use and worked various odd jobs before finally achieving modest local success as a bluegrass singer in his native Maine. He died in 2004.
As for me, I can’t afford a drug habit, can’t play the mandolin and have never been to Maine. I suspect, therefore, my future will be different. But what that future will be, who knows. If you hear any anonymous rumors about what I may be doing in the future, feel free to let me know.
Some of the latest developments: more of my longtime co-workers have been let go. The once-bustling station is slowly becoming a much quieter and lonelier place. It’s a strange feeling when people you’ve worked with for years and years are no longer around.
Another development is the radical change in the WFUM broadcast schedule. Since we’re currently operating without a budget, we can no longer afford full PBS membership and had to go to what’s called “PDP” status. What that means, essentially, is we can no longer air the full PBS schedule and we are forced to air only a few PBS programs and those must be on a delayed basis. The biggest casualty is we were forced to stop airing the Newshour with Jim Lehrer. And the phones lit up! I joked with my wife that I’d sure hate to be the guy who had to answer THOSE phone calls! (Of course I WAS that guy!) The viewers, mostly older folks, it seemed, were quite upset that the Newshour was no longer on our station. When I explained the situation, most of the callers, though still upset with the change, at least were understanding of our situation and didn’t take it out on me personally. Most. A few callers, though, were very upset and proceeded to take it out on me personally, calling me every name in the book. (I once believed the stereotype that “little old ladies” tended to avoid foul language. Not any more! It’s a strange feeling being berated by an elderly-sounding woman in terms that would make a drill sergeant blush!) Of course, what really sucked was essentially being blamed by these folks for something I would have given anything to prevent. I sure as hell didn’t want to shut down WFUM! Not only do I like being employed, but I actually believe all that idealistic stuff about serving the public and providing information and quality programming.
At least a few of the calls I got were sympathetic, though, which made the overall experience at least somewhat less painful. Like the gentleman who thanked us for our years of service to the community and who said he would miss us. Although I wish the circumstances were different, it’s still good to know that some people noticed what we were trying to do and that it made a positive impact on them.
As for me personally, my last day currently is scheduled to be September 30th “subject to possible extension”. In other words, more uncertainty. I know I’ll be losing my job, but I don’t even know for sure when my last day will be. At least I’ll last past my 20th anniversary as a full-time employee on August 28th, which will be some small consolation.
The rumor mill, meanwhile, is working overtime. I don’t know what to make of these rumors since they are often anonymous and of uncertain veracity. Thing is, officially, we’re hearing nothing, so the rumors are all we have.
One rumor is another Michigan PBS station will be taking us over and will simply pass their signal through the WFUM transmitter. Another rumor is that other Michigan PBS station will partner with Mott and Kettering to continue a local public broadcasting presence in Flint. But these are simply rumors floating about and there’s no certainty at all about any of it.
And given this uncertainty, I’m still busily trying to find a job elsewhere. I’ve been searching diligently since April. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Communication and excellent references. I’ve sent out I-dunno-how-many applications to various places, but I haven’t even gotten as far as an interview yet. This sucks.
Which brings me back to the title of this screed. I do indeed feel like Vaughn Meader… at least how he felt after November 22, 1963.
If you don’t know who Vaughn Meader was, (and I suspect that may be most of you) that’s kind of the point. Vaughn Meader was a comedian who produced a record album called “The First Family” back in 1962, the year I was born. The album, which poked fun at the Kennedy family, soon became the fastest selling album in history, selling 7.5 million copies in just a few months. Meader was suddenly in demand and was making decent money. The album won a Grammy and he was doing quite well.
Then came November 22, 1963.
What happened next was best summed up by comedian Lenny Bruce, who, at the beginning of a live performance shortly after the assassination, simply shook his head and exclaimed “Vaughn Meader is SCREWED!”
And career-wise, he WAS screwed. A planned Christmas sequel to the First Family album was scrapped. Existing albums were pulled from the shelves. Pre-taped television appearances were not only cancelled, but the videotapes containing them were actually destroyed to prevent them from ever being aired. A nation in mourning over President Kennedy was in no mood to laugh. Meader’s career was over just as suddenly as JFK’s life.
And that’s why I’m beginning to think I know how he felt. Meader had found something he enjoyed...something he was good at. Once that was gone, he never really knew what to do. In my months of job searching, I’m beginning to wonder if maybe working at a PBS station is the only damned thing I know how to do. Maybe I’m one of those idiot savants who excels at one thing but is clueless when it comes to anything else.
I keep trying to tell myself it’s just the soft job market and that I’ll eventually find something out there I can do. I think if I could at least get an interview, I’d have a shot at a job. But I’m not even getting that far! I guess I’m fortunate that I’ll at least have a job for a few more weeks, but it kinda sucks not being able to find anything else at all!
As for Vaughn Meader, he eventually descended into drug use and worked various odd jobs before finally achieving modest local success as a bluegrass singer in his native Maine. He died in 2004.
As for me, I can’t afford a drug habit, can’t play the mandolin and have never been to Maine. I suspect, therefore, my future will be different. But what that future will be, who knows. If you hear any anonymous rumors about what I may be doing in the future, feel free to let me know.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Clueless Patriotism
Today, as I drove into work in my Toyota Corolla (the best and most reliable car I've ever owned, by the way) I found myself behind a Pontiac Vibe. The Vibe had a red white & blue bumper sticker with something about "Buy American" on it and an arrow pointing to the Pontiac logo saying "I did my part!"
Yep. in their mind, the Vibe owner was a real patriot 'cause they bought an all-American car... a Pontiac! Me? I'm an anti-American liberal Commie scum 'cause I bought a goddamned Jap car.
But, oh! The delicious irony! What the Vibe owner apparently didn't realize is that underneath the body, the Pontiac Vibe is... a Toyota Corolla! Yep, the "all-American" Pontiac Vibe is nothing more than a Toyota Corolla E-platform chassis with a different body and a Pontiac logo slapped on the side! But I guess they're still more patriotic than I am, though. THEY had a red, white & blue bumper sticker that said so!
Yep. in their mind, the Vibe owner was a real patriot 'cause they bought an all-American car... a Pontiac! Me? I'm an anti-American liberal Commie scum 'cause I bought a goddamned Jap car.
But, oh! The delicious irony! What the Vibe owner apparently didn't realize is that underneath the body, the Pontiac Vibe is... a Toyota Corolla! Yep, the "all-American" Pontiac Vibe is nothing more than a Toyota Corolla E-platform chassis with a different body and a Pontiac logo slapped on the side! But I guess they're still more patriotic than I am, though. THEY had a red, white & blue bumper sticker that said so!
Saturday, August 1, 2009
My Sheltered Life
Last month, I celebrated my 47th birthday. During those 47 years, I have had the opprtunity to do and experience a great many wonderful things. But until today, there was one thing I had never done which very many Americans have taken for granted. Until today, I had never in my life had a Slurpee.
It's not that I had for any reason been intentionally avoiding them or boycotting them for any bizarre socio-political reason. And it's not that I haven't had the opportunity to get one. In fact, there's a 7-11 within a mile of where I live. And with the occasional free Slurpee promotions here & there it's not as if I can claim a financial reason for not having had one. It's just that, well - for whatever reason - I had just never gotten around to having a Slurpee. Ever.
Well, today, we drove to the local 7-11 and for the first time I went to the Slurpee machine. I was especially intrigued by a handwritten sign taped thereon with selected words capitalized and highlighted in red (and I am NOT making this up!):
"CAUTION - air pressure in the lines may cause the Slurpee machine to EXPLODE during use! Sorry for any inconvenience. 7-11"
Holy crap! Are ALL Slurpee machines this dangerous? I could only assume that what this meant was either 1.) air bubbles in the feed line may cause some dramatic spattering when pouring the Slurpee but the person writing the sign wasn't too nuanced in writing the warning, 2.) someone at the 7-11 has a brilliantly warped sense of humor or 3.) the Slurpee machine was in imminent danger of exploding.
But even if it was option 3, I had waited the better part of half a century for this moment and I wasn't going to let the threat of a catastrphic Slurpee inferno stop me!
And so, I poured my first-ever Slurpee. Two-thirds Coke and one-third some Pineapple stuff.
And y'know what? I really liked it! Good stuff. Hopefully, I won't wait another 47 years for another one. By that time, I'll either be 94 years old or, more likely given my family history, dead.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Traverse City
I recently took one of those online surveys where you answer a bunch of questions and it tells you which Michigan location would be the best match for you. For me, if the result is to be believed, that match was Traverse City.
Thus I suppose it was a good thing that that's where I just spent a long weekend. As with the vacation in Washington DC, it was good to get away from my troubles for awhile and just relax and have a bit of fun. Among the highlights of the trip: reading on a beachside bench while my kids swam and hunted for fossils (they found some nice ones, too... quite the junior paleontologists).
We also rented some bikes and rode around the TART bike trail along the bayshore and around scenic Boardman Lake. (Being an eco-nerd, I was happy to see a small wind turbine along its banks.)
The highlight for me, though, was a public observing session at the Rogers Observatory south of town on Saturday night. The clouds were pretty thick around sunset, but we decided to check it out just in case. Good thing, too. The clouds drifted away as if by magic and we were soon treated to awesome views of Saturn, the moon, some multiple stars and some really cool star clusters.
There's a saying among amateur astronomers: never look though a telescope you can't afford. Well, I violated that one when I enjoyed the view from the nearly half-meter-aperture scope located in the observatory's main dome, but I have no regrets. The view of M11 was a fantastic sight through that scope and was worth the trip for that alone.
Almost as beautiful as the astronomical objects we were treated to was the view of the Traverse City area from the hilltop on which the Rogers Observatory is located. From that vantage point one could see both bays and the lights of the city. Very nice indeed!
But now it's back to Flint, fruitless attempts at job hunting and putting the finishing touches on the final schedules of WFUM.
But those few days in Traverse City made it more bearable.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
You Taped Over WHAT???
Well, it turns out the rumored and much-hoped-for recovery of the original Apollo 11 EVA video is not to be. After much searching and investigating, those involved have reached the inescapable conclusion that the tapes were likely over-recorded with material from later Apollo missions.
While instances of wedding videos being wiped-out by careless husbands recording football games have been sitcom fodder ever since the rise of Betamax, this is in a class by itself. Damn! Erasing the original video data from Apollo 11? Waaaaaah!
As someone who has been responsible for a rather large videotape inventory for the past couple dacades, though, I can actually understand how it could happen. Whenever an organization has conflicting pressures of needing to constantly make new recordings while at the same time not being able for budgetary reasons to purchase new recording media, there are strong pressures to re-use recording media one would rather preserve. It kinda sucks, but in the day to day world archiving things sometimes is a secondary concern... if it's even a concern at all.
And - to be perfectly honest - I don't think the REAL importance of the Apollo 11 landing will be realized within the lifetimes of those of us who experienced it. I mean, sure, we all knew it was "important", but I don't think we fully realize that 1,000 years from now Apollo 11 will probably be the only thing people will remember and/or care about from our era in history. Had we known, we would have taken better care to preserve the original tapes.
At least the search has been made to find the best surviving tapes so they can be cleaned up and preserved for the future. They do look much improved, and I appreciate the hard work of those doing the preservation, but "if only"...
And that makes me wonder about the future preservation of digital media. Back in my day, taking pictures, for example, required an investment in film and processing and the number of exposures you could take was, relatively speaking, highly limited. When you got your stack of 24 exposures, you had a physical artifact you were more likely to hold onto and store in a safe place. Now, you can store a gazillion images on a single memory card with great ease. But will they just get deleted and forgotten? Will it be a matter of "Oh. well, taking pictures is so effortless now..." it seems more a matter of instant gratification rather than a question of preserving things for the future. But we'll see. Just a word of advice for those of you young 'uns with digital pictures/video/recordings... make sure to back up your stuff and save it for the future. You never know what will be important to someone someday.
In other news, this 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 is a groove-fest for space nerds like me. I'm totally digging the streaming audio from NASA in which they're playing the Apollo 11 mission audio in real time (plus 40 years). AWESOME!!!
While instances of wedding videos being wiped-out by careless husbands recording football games have been sitcom fodder ever since the rise of Betamax, this is in a class by itself. Damn! Erasing the original video data from Apollo 11? Waaaaaah!
As someone who has been responsible for a rather large videotape inventory for the past couple dacades, though, I can actually understand how it could happen. Whenever an organization has conflicting pressures of needing to constantly make new recordings while at the same time not being able for budgetary reasons to purchase new recording media, there are strong pressures to re-use recording media one would rather preserve. It kinda sucks, but in the day to day world archiving things sometimes is a secondary concern... if it's even a concern at all.
And - to be perfectly honest - I don't think the REAL importance of the Apollo 11 landing will be realized within the lifetimes of those of us who experienced it. I mean, sure, we all knew it was "important", but I don't think we fully realize that 1,000 years from now Apollo 11 will probably be the only thing people will remember and/or care about from our era in history. Had we known, we would have taken better care to preserve the original tapes.
At least the search has been made to find the best surviving tapes so they can be cleaned up and preserved for the future. They do look much improved, and I appreciate the hard work of those doing the preservation, but "if only"...
And that makes me wonder about the future preservation of digital media. Back in my day, taking pictures, for example, required an investment in film and processing and the number of exposures you could take was, relatively speaking, highly limited. When you got your stack of 24 exposures, you had a physical artifact you were more likely to hold onto and store in a safe place. Now, you can store a gazillion images on a single memory card with great ease. But will they just get deleted and forgotten? Will it be a matter of "Oh. well, taking pictures is so effortless now..." it seems more a matter of instant gratification rather than a question of preserving things for the future. But we'll see. Just a word of advice for those of you young 'uns with digital pictures/video/recordings... make sure to back up your stuff and save it for the future. You never know what will be important to someone someday.
In other news, this 40th anniversary of Apollo 11 is a groove-fest for space nerds like me. I'm totally digging the streaming audio from NASA in which they're playing the Apollo 11 mission audio in real time (plus 40 years). AWESOME!!!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
No, I'm Not Dead Yet
Yes. I realize it has been well over a month since I posted last. Sorry 'bout that.
Here's a brief recap of what has been going on since my last post. First of all, we took our family trip to Washington DC. At first, I didn't know if I would be too stressed-out to enjoy it, but I needn't have worried. The trip was the best thing I could have done, sanity-wise. It was wonderful sharing the awesomeness of the Smithsonian museums with my kids and I also got to fulfill a lifelong dream and finally see Monticello.
In other news, I finally got my "RIF" letter, meaning my last scheduled day of work will be September 30... "subject to extension". What that means is if another station makes a successful bid to buy the station there's a chance that the transfer process could take a few additional months during which my services may still be needed. But that's all speculation and I probably won't know anything for certain for at least another month... if not even further down the line.
In the rumor mill is news that another Michigan PBS station has made a pretty serious bid for the WFUM transmitter, so if that's the case, my educated guess is I will probably indeed be working at least a little while past 9/30. But again, that's just a guess and nothing is certain.
On the personal front, I had hoped to get through these stressful times without resorting to any "happy pills", but the stress regarding the impending change in employment/income status and the resulting anxiety and insomnia were finally getting to be too much for me to take. So, a visit to the doctor later, I got a prescription for some Zoloft (25mg daily). I had been on it once before for about a year and it did me a world of good. I've been taking it for a little over a week now. The adjustment period is a real pain in the ass. In fact, early on, I found that the anxiety and insomnia actually increase, but I knew what to expect from the last time I was on it. But then it starts to slowly kick in and things become a bit more manageable.
So here I am. Drugged out and happy to be that way.
Hopefully, I'll be able to resume semi-regular blogging.
In other TOTALLY unrelated news that has me totally hyped: the rumor mill is abuzz that NASA has located the original videotapes of the Apollo 11 lunar landing somewhere in Australia and will unveil these long-lost treasures in a press conference on July 16 (the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch). If that's the case, as a space nerd I'm TOTALLY geeked about this! I've heard stories about how the Australian transmission tapes were vastly better than the highly compressed video that was recorded in the states, but that these tapes went missing shortly after the landing. Something to look forward to, for certain!!!
Here's a brief recap of what has been going on since my last post. First of all, we took our family trip to Washington DC. At first, I didn't know if I would be too stressed-out to enjoy it, but I needn't have worried. The trip was the best thing I could have done, sanity-wise. It was wonderful sharing the awesomeness of the Smithsonian museums with my kids and I also got to fulfill a lifelong dream and finally see Monticello.
In other news, I finally got my "RIF" letter, meaning my last scheduled day of work will be September 30... "subject to extension". What that means is if another station makes a successful bid to buy the station there's a chance that the transfer process could take a few additional months during which my services may still be needed. But that's all speculation and I probably won't know anything for certain for at least another month... if not even further down the line.
In the rumor mill is news that another Michigan PBS station has made a pretty serious bid for the WFUM transmitter, so if that's the case, my educated guess is I will probably indeed be working at least a little while past 9/30. But again, that's just a guess and nothing is certain.
On the personal front, I had hoped to get through these stressful times without resorting to any "happy pills", but the stress regarding the impending change in employment/income status and the resulting anxiety and insomnia were finally getting to be too much for me to take. So, a visit to the doctor later, I got a prescription for some Zoloft (25mg daily). I had been on it once before for about a year and it did me a world of good. I've been taking it for a little over a week now. The adjustment period is a real pain in the ass. In fact, early on, I found that the anxiety and insomnia actually increase, but I knew what to expect from the last time I was on it. But then it starts to slowly kick in and things become a bit more manageable.
So here I am. Drugged out and happy to be that way.
Hopefully, I'll be able to resume semi-regular blogging.
In other TOTALLY unrelated news that has me totally hyped: the rumor mill is abuzz that NASA has located the original videotapes of the Apollo 11 lunar landing somewhere in Australia and will unveil these long-lost treasures in a press conference on July 16 (the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch). If that's the case, as a space nerd I'm TOTALLY geeked about this! I've heard stories about how the Australian transmission tapes were vastly better than the highly compressed video that was recorded in the states, but that these tapes went missing shortly after the landing. Something to look forward to, for certain!!!
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