Sunday 27 November 2011

Apollo13

The Evening Standard dated Tuesday April 14th 1970
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Apollo 13 was launched on April 11th 1970 with Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise aboard, and was intended to be the 3rd manned moon landing.  About 200,000 miles from the Earth (the Moon is on average 238857 miles from the Earth) an oxygen tank exploded due to a short-circuit in the wiring.  This happened at about 3am GMT on April 14th. *** Spoiler Alert ***  After enough drama to fill a feature film the crew successfully splashed down at about 6pm GMT April 17th.
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The newspapers have always demonised the young – from flappers to zoot-suits to teddy boys to mods and rockers, hippies, skinheads, punks and up to hoodies. So it is nice to see a positive youth story.


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I include this because in 1970 I’d been ‘in computers’ for 4 years and people really did say “Wow you must be clever. Computers are the job of the future.”


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This new TV series ‘Family at War’ ran for 3 seasons with a total of 52 episodes. According to IMDB.com Coronation Street, which started in 1960, is still on season 1 after 51 years with over 7700 episodes to date. So no contest.


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A quick look online shows prices for 5 bedroom semi’s in Wimbledon from £695,000 to £2,450,000 so £7,500 looks like quite a good bargain.  I’d snap it up if I were you.


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Cassius Clay changed his name to Mohammed Ali after joining the Nation of Islam in 1964 (it seems no-one had told the Standard). In 1967, three years after he’d won the World Heavyweight Championship, he refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military, based on his religious beliefs and opposition to the Vietnam War. He was quoted as saying "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.  No Viet Cong ever called me nigger".
Ali would eventually be arrested and found guilty on draft evasion charges; he was stripped of his boxing title, and his boxing license was suspended. He was not imprisoned, but did not fight again for nearly four years while his appeal worked its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was eventually successful.



At a cost of so much a line it would have been cheaper just to write ‘Thug wanted – apply box A934’














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