Amizar and the Astronaut

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16 years 11 months ago #20637 by Amizar (Amizar)
Dear KR folks,

Please forgive the self-ref...

Yesterday I had the honor of meeting Astronaut Garrett Reisman.



As some of you may know, I'm the curator of the ENIAC, the world's first computer.  Last year, Dr. Reisman requested we lend him a small bit of the ENIAC to go with him for six months as he spent the summer aboard the International Space Station.  We gave him a knob, he went up and later returned.  Yesterday was the "re-attachment" ceremony.  More pictures from the re-attaching can be found at:

www.seas.upenn.edu/event-photo-archives/SEAS_Reisman_2.19.09/

Dr. Reisman is also noteworthy for his appearance on The Colbert Report on May 8, 2008:

www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report...2008/garrett-reisman

It was a heck of a day.

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16 years 11 months ago #20638 by geezer (geezer)
Speaking of product placement, its nice to the the Penn Engineering on the podium.

Congrats, Paul.  You were wearing your official outfit.

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16 years 11 months ago #20642 by Gwynedd (Gwynedd)
Congratulations!!  What a wonderful honor. 

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16 years 11 months ago #20648 by Seamstress (Seamstress)
So does the knob still work?  ;)  But seriously, the whole process must have been cool!  Good for you!

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16 years 11 months ago #20650 by GJSchaller (GJSchaller)
Oh, wow - VERY impressive!


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16 years 11 months ago #20654 by geezer (geezer)
BTW, Paul, when my dad attended Penn's Moore School of Engineering (1946-50), ENIAC was the best there was.  It was used to compute ballistic trajectories.  If you got the same answer three times (damned tubes), you were in business.

The Colbert segment is priceless.  It is heartening to see a great sense of humor in an astronaut's public persona.

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