2/ It was the era when you looked to newspapers the day after big events for spectacular coverage.
That's when they could capture the event in photos, could write stories, could unleash those 8-column headlines.
Here's the NYT front page the day after the launch.
3/ Couple fun things happened the Wednesday of the launch (in addition to the flawless launch itself):
Pres. Nixon called for a national holiday the following Monday (July 21), so everyone could stay up late the day of the Moon walk without worrying about work & school.
4/ The holiday idea got a little traction, but not much.
That day after the launch, in addition to the big 1A coverage of Apollo 11, the NYT produced a whole separate 20-page section.
'Man and the Moon.'
Opening page below.
5/ The NYT special section was an astonishing, bravura New York Times performance.
A dozen pieces & essays, many by NASA officials writing about what they were in charge of.
• Wernher Von Braun on rockets
• Sam Phillips, Apollo program director, on project management
6/ And more…
• Thomas Paine, head of NASA, on the prospect for nuclear-powered rockets making routine roundtrips to the Moon
• Chris Kraft, head of mission control, on Apollo's computers
• Rocco Petrone, head of Cape Kennedy, on the 5 months of prep for a single launch
7/ Plus…
Isaac Asmiov
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert Jastrow
…and stories by the NYT space reporters on the astronauts, the lunar module, & the 50,000-foot flight from lunar orbit to Moon landing.
The section would take a day to ready thoroughly.
And: a couple cool full-page ads.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
If you're an especially talented graduate student in STEM, you can get a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help pay for graduate school.
These are competitive, much sought-after awards called NSF GRFPs.
—>
2/ You apply as you head to grad school. NSF awards about 4,000 a year—but each fellowship is for 3 to 5 years of funding.
The award is tuition + a small stipend to reduce the need to TA.
Students get the grants, but in practice, they go straight to universities from NSF.
—>
3/ These are prestigious. Yes, you're in to Michigan or Texas or Stanford or MIT—and top of that, you got an NSF GRFP to pay for a couple years.
If you’re curious when fascism arrives in the US, it has. A US President attacking individual companies & institutions by name—and threatening ‘punishment’ if they don’t comply with his whims.
6 days ago: Walmart
Yesterday: Harvard
Today: Apple — *must* make iPhones in US
—>
2/ That’s not the way American democracy & capitalism work. Trump doesn’t get to decide what Walmart charges for back-to-school supplies.
Trump doesn’t get to decide who enrolls at Harvard.
Trump doesn’t tell Apple where to make products.
This is the test.
Right. Now.
—>
3/ Trump didn’t pick small, less powerful, less well-known organizations.
Walmart.
Harvard.
Apple.
Everyone in the whole world knows those names. Knows those brands. Knows they are the pinnacle of American achievement.
Those are the places Trump is maliciously attacking.
In the trade 'deal' with China, the US got nothing.
We're mostly back to where we were before the global trade war started—before Donald Trump started the global trade war.
The Chinese conceded nothing.
Indeed, from the outside, China won this round.
—>
2/ An economist from Hong Kong explains:
'From China’s perspective, the outcome of this meeting is a success, as China took a tough stance on the US threat of high tariffs & eventually managed to get the tariffs down significantly without making concessions.'
The chaos…
—>
3/ …The chaos for American business these last 5 weeks has been incredibly costly—financially, psychologically, in terms of planning, morale, a sense of predictability about the future.
You know how sometimes, you follow the weather & you know the blizzard is coming tomorrow morning, but today it's 39º & crystalline sunshine, & you can't quite believe the blizzard's coming?
But you can look at the radar and, yup, it's coming.
That's where we are now.
—>
2/ We know that in the next month, almost nothing is coming by ship to US from China & Chinese factories.
Ships full of merchandise, not coming.
The Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach has said cargo for the next couple weeks is down 36%.
Fascinating element of Harvard's refusal to buckle to the Trump Administration today.
Who are Harvard's lawyers in this matter?
#1 is Robert K. Hur.
Sound familiar? Trump named him US Attorney for Maryland.
—>
2/ Then Robert Hur was the special counsel who investigated Pres. Biden's mishandling of classified documents. Hur as the one who said Biden was 'an elderly man with a poor memory.' And declined to charge Biden.
That's Harvard lawyer #1.
—>
3/ Harvard lawyer #2 is William A. Burck.
Currently a member of the Board of Directors of Fox Corp., the owner of FoxNews.
Burck served as special counsel to the Republican House task force that investigated the attempted assassination of Pres. Trump.