http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

They are currently live-streaming the event where a person is about to jump from 36 000m/120 000ft

I'm glad he finally made it.  Awesome thing to do.    

" ONE  GIANT  LEAP  FOR  MAN "

As one British newspaper's banner healines aptly proclaimed !!!   

Len, it would be one giant leap for man had they used this money to cure diseases.

This is more like a giant folly of man.

Originally Posted By Pygmy_Marmoset (15 OCT 2012 4:32am)

Len, it would be one giant leap for man had they used this money to cure diseases.

What, the kind of diseases caused by drinking too much Red Bull, the corporate sponsor for this event? Yours is a lovely thought but for the most part, corporations spend money on stuff like this for advertising their products.

Originally Posted By Pygmy_Marmoset (15 OCT 2012 4:32am)

This is more like a giant folly of man.

Yeah, I tend to agree Pygmy but not only was it good entertainment for many people, a lot of scientific data was accrued.

Let us hope that Red Bull, Inc. also donates money to medical research as well as scientific and - by the way - I've never consumed a Red Bull product that I know of, and probably never will. 

I had a sip of Redbull....once... pretty nasty. Don't understand the fascination with it, most energy drinks in general really. I get no rush, no crash, most taste like watered sugar. I can honestly say the only one i truly like is Sobe.

Originally Posted By Pygmy_Marmoset (15 OCT 2012 4:32am)

Len, it would be one giant leap for man had they used this money to cure diseases.

 

This is more like a giant folly of man.

I agree !!

What was the object of the exercise (other than publicity) ?

Except to show that a human being can survive a free fall drop from about 36 kilometers above the earth's surface?

I imagine that the gravitational acceleration is VERY much larger up there in the stratosphere leading to a velocity greater than "G" (the speed of the sound barrier), until 'normal' acceleration of gravuty  is counterbalanced by atmospheric air resista+nce,

Whether this is of any scientific or other importance I don't know ?!?

Originally Posted By Support (15 OCT 2012 12:46pm)

I had a sip of Redbull....once... pretty nasty. Don't understand the fascination with it, most energy drinks in general really. I get no rush, no crash, most taste like watered sugar. I can honestly say the only one i truly like is Sobe.

That is basically what it is. It is water, sugar & a bit of caffeine. Less caffeine than a similarly sized cup of coffee, and just a tad bit more than a similarly sized cup of black tea. Taurine is something that our bodies can produce enough of on its own, so it is just added as a marketing tool (taurine->taurus, hence the name Red Bull), and is produced in relatively large quantities as additive to animal food, as some animals (like cats) are unable to produce it on their own. 

Basically you are better off drinking coca cola if you want sugar & caffeine, as while it contains less per L, it contains more compared to its cost.

 Had energy drinks not been so incredibly sweet, I would probably have enjoyed their taste a lot more. 

And it was indeed not just done "for fun" (although I quite enjoyed watching the whole thing), but they also got a good amount of scientific data from the whole experiment. Among other things, the suit he was wearing were experimental, and based on the data collected, at least parts of what was used for creating it might be used in future space suits.

I lived (almost) the first quarter of my 87 years  in England and the remaining 3/4 in Israel (Apart from 4 years as a UNESCO educational specialist in West Africa)

Originally Posted By Len Green (15 OCT 2012 7:17pm)

I lived (almost) the first quarter of my 87 years  in England and the remaining 3/4 in Israel (Apart from 4 years as a UNESCO educational specialist in West Africa)

In NONE of those places did I ever come across or hear about 'Red Bull) !
According to posts above, I missed NOTHING !!!

I dislike intensely marketing gimmicks and am never influenced by them – and Mankind's great leap leaves me pretty cold !!!

 

87 years? Wow, that's quite an accomplishment. Do you have any words of wisdom for the rest of us about life in general?

Originally Posted By Support (15 OCT 2012 12:46pm)

I had a sip of Redbull....once... pretty nasty. Don't understand the fascination with it, most energy drinks in general really. I get no rush, no crash, most taste like watered sugar. I can honestly say the only one i truly like is Sobe.

I never drink energy drinks either.

But, I remember back in the day (mid to late 90's) the first energy drink was Jolt Cola. With the tagline "twice the caffiene" it was considered the highest caffeinated soda at the time. By comparison to all these energy drinks today with their myriad ingredients Jolt Cola seems just like a regular soda.

Originally Posted By Pygmy_Marmoset (15 OCT 2012 8:31pm)

Originally Posted By Len Green (15 OCT 2012 7:17pm)

I lived (almost) the first quarter of my 87 years  in England and the remaining 3/4 in Israel (Apart from 4 years as a UNESCO educational specialist in West Africa)

In NONE of those places did I ever come across or hear about 'Red Bull) !
According to posts above, I missed NOTHING !!!

I dislike intensely marketing gimmicks and am never influenced by them – and Mankind's great leap leaves me pretty cold !!!

 87 years? Wow, that's quite an accomplishment. Do you have any words of wisdom for the rest of us about life in general?

 

I wouldn't presume to dispense any 'wisdom' to anybody else or any 'right' to do so – only my personal opinions accumulated for nearly 88 years !

Originally Posted By Len Green (17 OCT 2012 3:18pm)

Originally Posted By Pygmy_Marmoset (15 OCT 2012 8:31pm)

Originally Posted By Len Green (15 OCT 2012 7:17pm)

I lived (almost) the first quarter of my 87 years  in England and the remaining 3/4 in Israel (Apart from 4 years as a UNESCO educational specialist in West Africa)

In NONE of those places did I ever come across or hear about 'Red Bull) !
According to posts above, I missed NOTHING !!!

I dislike intensely marketing gimmicks and am never influenced by them – and Mankind's great leap leaves me pretty cold !!!

 87 years? Wow, that's quite an accomplishment. Do you have any words of wisdom for the rest of us about life in general?

 

 A divorced man was banned from entering certain prestigious professions e.g. judge, magistrate, school headmaster and probably others !

 

Men rushed blindly by their millions into the horrific trenches like lambs to the slaughter or lemmings "For King (or Kaiser or Czar  or whoever) and country" without really questioning what for or why!

The only **"Wisdom"** I dare to offer is to be liberal, "Do unto others as they would do unto you" in similar circumstances, weigh & measure different opinions, personally accept some and POLITELY reject others in a truly democratic spirit, avoid being dogmatic and one sided and RESPECT the contrary opinions of others.

 

 

I'm still quite young and some of these i knew but the part about the divorced men being banned... that's very interesting, i never knew about that!

Men still seem to rush blindly to fight something they don't fully understand it seems. Don't get me wrong I appreciate our soldiers out there, but so many are so young and many I've known personally went military just because they could or because they felt they were going to return heroes...

I love your piece of "Wisdom" Len, this has been the standard for my life since i was very young. My grandfather embodied this rule and it produced the most amazing results, which inspired me. It's truly sad to see that this concept doesn't seem to take hold in others of my generation and the newer ones seem even less so inclined to have the common courtesy to respect one another. It's the most amazing feeling in the world when you're told by an elder (not necessarily of blood relation) who understands how you are and tells you that you are an example that should be followed

It makes one wonder... How would our world be different if everyone could have the decency even in a single country to have a mutual respect of one another?

Sorry, completely off topic from the thread there but I felt inspired to say something. So what sort of data did we collect from this guy leaping? Anyone know?

I wanted to reply to the above post a couple of days ag but couldn't due to a Server error on JA which prevented me from re-logging on (for the umpteenth time !!)/

Originally Posted By Support (17 OCT 2012 3:49pm)

Originally Posted By Len Green (17 OCT 2012 3:18pm)

Originally Posted By Pygmy_Marmoset (15 OCT 2012 8:31pm)

Originally Posted By Len Green (15 OCT 2012 7:17pm)

I lived (almost) the first quarter of my 87 years  in England and the remaining 3/4 in Israel (Apart from 4 years as a UNESCO educational specialist in West Africa)

In NONE of those places did I ever come across or hear about 'Red Bull) !
According to posts above, I missed NOTHING !!!

I dislike intensely marketing gimmicks and am never influenced by them – and Mankind's great leap leaves me pretty cold !!!

 87 years? Wow, that's quite an accomplishment. Do you have any words of wisdom for the rest of us about life in general?

 

 A divorced man was banned from entering certain prestigious professions e.g. judge, magistrate, school headmaster and probably others !

 

Men rushed blindly by their millions into the horrific trenches like lambs to the slaughter or lemmings "For King (or Kaiser or Czar  or whoever) and country" without really questioning what for or why!

The only **"Wisdom"** I dare to offer is to be liberal, "Do unto others as they would do unto you" in similar circumstances, weigh & measure different opinions, personally accept some and POLITELY reject others in a truly democratic spirit, avoid being dogmatic and one sided and RESPECT the contrary opinions of others.

 

 

 

I'm still quite young and some of these i knew but the part about the divorced men being banned... that's very interesting, i never knew about that!

 

Men still seem to rush blindly to fight something they don't fully understand it seems. Don't get me wrong I appreciate our soldiers out there, but so many are so young and many I've known personally went military just because they could or because they felt they were going to return heroes...

 

I love your piece of "Wisdom" Len, this has been the standard for my life since i was very young. My grandfather embodied this rule and it produced the most amazing results, which inspired me. It's truly sad to see that this concept doesn't seem to take hold in others of my generation and the newer ones seem even less so inclined to have the common courtesy to respect one another. It's the most amazing feeling in the world when you're told by an elder (not necessarily of blood relation) who understands how you are and tells you that you are an example that should be followed

 

It makes one wonder... How would our world be different if everyone could have the decency even in a single country to have a mutual respect of one another?

 

 

 

 

Sorry, completely off topic from the thread there but I felt inspired to say something. So what sort of data did we collect from this guy leaping? Anyone know?

 

To 'Support' (whoever you are !!!)
When we first settled in
Israel 63 years ago we became friendly with a Haifa English woman who had made her life here many years previously.     

At any rate Support, I wish the same for you !
*********$$$$$$$
P.S.
Homosexual men !!
I don't know if it was an actual law at the time or simply a rule of thumb & nobody would employ them in 'prestigious' jobs if they knew their (minority) sexual orientation.
 Remember Oscar Wiled was jailed (and virtually killed) only a bit more than 2 decades earlier.
What a shocking tragedy and symptomatic of mankind's (& no less womankind's) dogmatic nasty inbuilt hatreds !!!   

Ha ha. Thanks Len it means a lot! Same to you.

Len, it is very rare for an 87 year old to play video games of any type and use online forums. My grandparents are older than you and they don't even know what a "web browser" is, and youtube confuses them.

Because you are an 87 year old who is still healthy enough to use the forums and play computer games, doesn't this make you more successful than 99.99% of all other 87 year olds?

What is your secret? And what is your daily life like?

Do you remember living through WW2? What was that like?

What, in your 87 years is the most embarassing thing that ever happened to you? What is the scariest thing? How about the funniest thing?

How did you get to be interested in adventure games? Please, tell us your story.

Originally Posted By Support (17 OCT 2012 3:49pm)

 

Sorry, completely off topic from the thread there but I felt inspired to say something. So what sort of data did we collect from this guy leaping? Anyone know?

 

All the news seem to be focusing on him jumping, and little else, so this is all I could find out about it: 

SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION FOCUS
Red Bull Stratos aims to provide information that will further the progression of aerospace safety. The key benefits for the science community are as follows:
- To aid development of a new generation of space suits - including enhanced mobility and visual clarity - and other systems to lead toward passenger/crew exit from space.
- To aid development of protocols for exposure to high altitude/high acceleration.
- To aid exploration of the effects on the human body of supersonic acceleration and deceleration, including development of the latest innovations in parachute systems.

Originally Posted By Fnord (20 OCT 2012 12:11am)

 

Originally Posted By Support (17 OCT 2012 3:49pm)

 

Sorry, completely off topic from the thread there but I felt inspired to say something. So what sort of data did we collect from this guy leaping? Anyone know?

 

 

All the news seem to be focusing on him jumping, and little else, so this is all I could find out about it: 

 

SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTION FOCUS
Red Bull Stratos aims to provide information that will further the progression of aerospace safety. The key benefits for the science community are as follows:
- To aid development of a new generation of space suits - including enhanced mobility and visual clarity - and other systems to lead toward passenger/crew exit from space.
- To aid development of protocols for exposure to high altitude/high acceleration.
- To aid exploration of the effects on the human body of supersonic acceleration and deceleration, including development of the latest innovations in parachute systems.

Though I feel that the first point is probably moot, unless they also develop a form of shuttle that is capable of bringing people down from space to the lower thermosphere, and that would probably just be a waste of resources/a rather unpractical way of doing things. The fact that we now know that something like this is possible might prove useful in its own right though. One never really knows what good a scientific discovery might bring in the future.

I agree.  The main, if not the only, advantage of the Giant Leap, is the publicity for Red Bull.  Notwithstanding the fact that Red Bull, the advocate of Extreme Sports, has had 5 of its athletes killed during the past decade. 

Possibly the main, maybe only, 'scientific discovery' is the fact that it is apparently possible, if not always certain, that a human being can survive a jump from a height of somewhere around 24 miles. 

Maybe the development of the special suit which Newsweek claims took around 5 years to perfect, may be of some value to mankind?? 

According to the well-known dynamics formula  v=u+gt gravitational acceleration in vacuo is approx. 9.81 metres/sec/sec. 

According to this formula, Felix Baumgartner should have reached the speed of sound (roughly 343 metres/sec) in 35 seconds. It may have taken him a big longer due to the fact that up there although I guess there is very little atmosphere it is probably not a complete vacuum.    For a while I used to wonder why a person or an object falling from a great height (nowhere near 23 miles) did not accelerate more and more and crash to the ground with a huge velocity.  Later I realized that after a fairly short while the force of gravity downwards was balanced by the upward force of air resistance and hence the object would reach a terminal velocity and not accelerate any further. 

BTW :-

u & v are the initial and final speeds and t is the time whereas g is the above-mentioned acceleration due to the gravitational pull of the earth.

Whatever the reason for doing the jump, it was still very impressive.  My heart was in my throat as he stepped out of the capsule.  

Sometimes 'just to see if you can' is all the reason there needs to be. 

If mankind never did anything unless there was a specific benefit or guaranteed reward - we'd never have done anything at all.

Originally Posted By Caroline (21 OCT 2012 12:08am)

Sometimes 'just to see if you can' is all the reason there needs to be. 

 

If mankind never did anything unless there was a specific benefit or guaranteed reward - we'd never have done anything at all.

But there WAS a reason !!
To boost the sales of Red Bull !!!

The 5 previous victims also thought they could do it "

"just to see if you can"unfortunately they couldn't - 1 paragliding, 1 skydiving and 3 BASE jumping - all for publicity only.

I'm not in advertising so I wouldn't know how effective such events are upon the masses who seem to have a very short attention span nowadays.  In fact, I'd have thought a TV campaign would be more effective as not everyone caught this event.  Althought I found the event mildly thrilling to watch, I simply ignored any commercial aspect and I won't be swayed to even taste Red Bull - whose slogan is 'Red Bull gives you wings'. 

What I am finding more interesting is the media coverage being given to Felix Baumgartner.  What an amazing chap and how different his brain works to the rest of us.  I can't even cope with the Ferris Wheel.

I'm also "not in advertising" although one of my granddaughters is the head of the publicity department here of a large international company.

As a matter of fact I dislike advertizing in general – I would go as far as saying that I hate it in all its shapes & forms.
Maybe that's extreme and you may disagree – but that's how  I personally feel & act.

For the first 24 years of my life I lived and was brought up in England.  First there was over a decade of "Depression" – not as bad as in USA after the stock market crash of 1929 or Germany's economic crash – but quite bad enough. Then there were 7 years of WW-II with rationing of almost everything and one of the motto's was "Make do & Mend". And then a few years of post war austerity.

Apart from the essentials such as food, you couldn't buy silk stockings and women used to paint a black seam down the backs of their legs – and toilet rolls were precious rare items (Newspapers did a 'roaring trade' !!!'

Now I am bombarded daily by brochures, leaflets, and even booklets printed on the most expensive glossy papers or plastics – all of which go straight into my trash can without my even looking at them --- poor rain forests !!! and what a phenomenal waste of money apart from trees and other valuable resources !!!
Since we have hard disk gimmicks attached to our TV attached to our TV sets it is so easy to record & delete programmes,  so I do that well over 90% of the time – and I fast forward rapidly over ALL commercials and don't even look at them. Similar with Internet advertisements and the relatively new telephone commercials which are simply a great annoying nuisance and which I hang up on as soon as I can.

As far as I know, I have NEVER been influenced by ANY advertizing or commercials.
Some may say I HAVE been subconsciously influenced here & there – but lf so, I am not aware of same.
And I believe the world wide advertizing business runs into VERY MANY *billions* of dollars annually.
For my part, we could happily CLOSE DOWN the whole 'industry' and save colossal amounts of cash everywhere in the world, and conserve valuable resources (and sack enormous numbers of workers and re-employ them in proper **productive** jobs ???).

Methinks it's a bit too curmudgeonly out tonight.