5 ms·

How is this relevant to HN?

gojomo 17y ago
Lots of hackers want to go to space. See the space startups of Allen, Bezos, Carmack, Musk; the trips to Mir by Shuttleworth, Ansari, Simonyi, and Garriott. It's fitting to remember the first man in space went there 49 years ago today.
ilkhd2 17y ago
It is relevant in many, many different ways: 1. In short - it is relevant in the same way as talks about banking system, unemployment e.t.c - indirectly but in a profound way. 2. It is also relevant in a way that this was a major event of the Cold War, and that war was a vehicle of many technological advances of USA. 3. It is also relevant for general knowledge of the world around - especially for brainwashed American people, who might have been thinking that American were first in space, and that happened in mid-80s.
rdtsc 17y ago
Well he was my hero growing up so this is at least relevant to me. Just to put in perspective, Gagarin was _the_ superhero of every boy in ex-Soviet Union. It wasn't someone like Brittney Spears or Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a real human being who flew into space. If you can discard all the communist propaganda and other party bullshit, it is pretty cool to have a real cosmonaut as your hero growing up instead of a fictional character or just an actor.
- kgrin 17y ago
  I grew up in Kiev, and went to a primary school named for Yuri Gagarin. In most ways, it didn't really matter (any more than the eponym of any elementary school does); but for what it's worth, yeah, it was pretty cool to once in a while reflect on the grandness of space travel, and to have your school named for a cosmonaut rather than, say, a politician.
  - eru 17y ago
    We also had some streets after him in East Germany.
    - eru 17y ago
      +named.
- nearestneighbor 17y ago
  Arnold may not have been in space (yet), but he was one of the very few to come back through time.
  - ilkhd2 17y ago
    that was funny :)))
philwelch 17y ago
"On-topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups." http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Lots of hackers want to go to space. See the space startups of Allen, Bezos, Carmack, Musk; the trips to Mir by Shuttleworth, Ansari, Simonyi, and Garriott. It's fitting to remember the first man in space went there 49 years ago today.

ilkhd2 17y ago

It is relevant in many, many different ways: 1. In short - it is relevant in the same way as talks about banking system, unemployment e.t.c - indirectly but in a profound way. 2. It is also relevant in a way that this was a major event of the Cold War, and that war was a vehicle of many technological advances of USA. 3. It is also relevant for general knowledge of the world around - especially for brainwashed American people, who might have been thinking that American were first in space, and that happened in mid-80s.

rdtsc 17y ago

Well he was my hero growing up so this is at least relevant to me. Just to put in perspective, Gagarin was _the_ superhero of every boy in ex-Soviet Union. It wasn't someone like Brittney Spears or Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a real human being who flew into space. If you can discard all the communist propaganda and other party bullshit, it is pretty cool to have a real cosmonaut as your hero growing up instead of a fictional character or just an actor.

kgrin 17y ago
I grew up in Kiev, and went to a primary school named for Yuri Gagarin. In most ways, it didn't really matter (any more than the eponym of any elementary school does); but for what it's worth, yeah, it was pretty cool to once in a while reflect on the grandness of space travel, and to have your school named for a cosmonaut rather than, say, a politician.
- eru 17y ago
  We also had some streets after him in East Germany.
  - eru 17y ago
    +named.
nearestneighbor 17y ago
Arnold may not have been in space (yet), but he was one of the very few to come back through time.
- ilkhd2 17y ago
  that was funny :)))

philwelch 17y ago

"On-topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups." http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html