The Magic of Television

Time travel is possible!

Dateline July 16, 2019, 6:32 a.m. PST, 50 years to the day. Once again I’m glued to my television watching the original CBS broadcast of the Apollo 11 launch live streaming on YouTube.

In the 1960s NASA’s Apollo program was science fiction come to life. It was July 16, 1969, I was 13 years old, watching Walter Cronkite, on a black and white Zenith console television with complete fascination and suspense; the space program held me captive. As an avid science fiction reader, this was not fiction - but mankind’s greatest achievement.

Looking back, humanity can now see the obvious advances in communications technology, medical advances, space travel, and human relations. But at the time, during those early Apollo years, people were enduring simultaneous conflicts with Vietnam, The Cold War with Russia, Civil Rights, and all the political unrest. Television news was rampant with the world’s problems.

1969 was also the year of Woodstock, the miracle Mets would win the World Series in baseball, the Beatles would break up, Richard Nixon became President of the United States, Eddie Merckx would win Le Tour de France, and the first public point of the ARPANET was installed at a computer in UCLA in September - the predecessor to the Internet.

But that morning, July 16th, the world stopped. People from all countries came together via satellite transmission to watch this history-making spectacle. Since the launch of Sputnik in October 1957, the United States rallied to land a man on the moon first. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy stood before Congress, just twenty days after Alan Shepard made America’s first 15-minute sub-orbital flight, and proposed that the US "should commit itself to achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

According to a recent interview with Astronaut Michael Collins, “It took over 400,000 people to develop the technology; the computers, the software, the spacesuits, the mathematical calculations to achieve Trans Lunar Injection (TLI) of one of the most complex machines ever built, the Apollo 11 Command Module atop the massive Saturn V rocket.

Has technology moved so fast that in 50 years we’ve forgotten the immensity of that achievement? I think not. During that 50th anniversary celebration, all the television networks have once again jumped to produce some coverage of mankind’s greatest adventure.

It gives you a whole new perspective on what Einstein said, “Time is Relative.” So, though the magic of television (and YouTube) maybe, time travel is possible. It certainly was for me.

This is Patrick Ball, thanks for listening. See you in the next episode . . .

Comments

Opening Day Magic 2026 . . .

It’s back. Baseball—yes, baseball ! If you’re someone who finds themselves inexplicably drawn to this peculiar ritual, let’s be honest with each other: it’s a bit odd, right? I mean, 162 games. That’s a lot of hot dogs, a lot of standing around, and a lot of grown men in oddly tailored trousers spitting with remarkable precision. And yet, here we are, poised on the precipice of another season. Thursday, March 26, 2026, to be precise—Opening Day. It’s a curious thing, this Opening Day. You walk into a stadium, or turn on the TV, and suddenly, everyone is infected with a highly contagious strain of . . . Optimism . It’s a spectacular form of collective amnesia. All of last year’s fumbles, the endless losing streaks, the existential dread of watching your bullpen implode in the eighth inning—poof. Gone. It’s entirely replaced by a wide-eyed, childlike belief that this year, finally, the baseball gods will smile upon us. The Cycle of Hope and Despair As a Cubs fan, I know this cycle intim...

Overcooking the Grid

In this episode, terrified of smart toasters, yet demanding infinite electricity for potato personality tests. Pull up that chair again, and let’s hope your coffee is safe this time. In our last chat, we talked about our well-meaning but occasionally delusional AI friend, Chef Adamas, and his penchant for hallucinating blueberries into your Carbonara. We learned how to manage his quirks by keeping our “digital pantry” organized. But today, we need to look past the chef and take a hard look at the sheer size of the kitchen we are building for him. And folks, that kitchen has gotten completely out of hand. Down in Louisiana, tech companies are currently building an artificial intelligence data center the size of 70 football fields. It is a four-million-square-foot digital brain that requires so much electricity they are building three new natural gas power plants just to keep the servers from literally melting down into a puddle of expensive silicon. And what are we using this god-like, ...

The "Doctor" Who Never Was

In this episode: The "Doctor" Who Never Was — A Return to the World of Seuss. Let’s take a trip back to March 2, 2022. I was four years younger, significantly more naïve, and I made the mistake of asking an innocent question that—somehow—still echoes through the halls of pediatric offices everywhere: Where exactly did the name Dr. Seuss come from? Because if we pause for even a moment, the whole thing is absurd. At some point, we collectively decided to accept moral guidance, life advice, and the occasional existential gut‑punch from a man whose résumé included oversized footwear, gravity‑defying cats, and an aggressive campaign to convince us that green ham was not only edible, but desirable. No white coat. No stethoscope. No medical board. Just rhymes. This wasn’t really a question about a title. It was a question about authority—and how easily we accept it when it comes wrapped in whimsy and ends with a couplet. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, M...

Sierra Reflections 2011

Wrapped in the cozy warmth of a down bag I’m jolted awake from a deep slumber - nature calls. The silence is shattered by the rustle of my sleeping bag. The sweet aroma of the mountain fills the air, and that ever-present biting crisp air on your cheeks! The zipper moans as you free yourself, then the struggle to find your wool sweater, pants, and shoes to stumble into the brisk morning air. Another zipper whines as you crawl to escape the protection of your mountain shelter. Quietly . . . do not disturb is the invisible sign worn by your fellow campers. Photo: Robert Weldon Darkness surrounds you, it's early morning, late summer. It’s tranquil, except for the soft gurgle of the trout stream that lulled you to sleep the night before. Finally - clear weather, the rains have stopped; millions of stars twinkle like tiny sparkling diamonds against a pitch-black sky. Orion, the hunter is clearly visible in the eastern sky; careful inspection you can see ...

On The Fly

Search This Blog