At the Pacific Pinball Expo in San Rafael, players of all ages can try their hands at nearly 400 different pinball machines. The expo runs through the weekend at the Marin County Civic Center.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

SAN RAFAEL, California–You might not think of pinball as an educational tool, but to some devotees of the age-old arcade favorite, that’s exactly what they can be.

That’s because pinball machines have been around for decades, and often have themes representative of the era in which they were built. And this weekend, visitors to the Pacific Pinball Expo here, an event billed as the “world’s largest” pinball show, can see history on display in bright lights and enhanced with familiar bells and whistles, things like the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the first man on the moon, contemporary music from the 1950s and much more.

At the expo, which opened Friday at the Marin County Civic Center here (admission is $25 for adults and $15 for kids 12 and under), visitors can see more than 350 machines from as early as the 1920s, and with names like “Wild West,” “Quartette,” “Dragonette, “4-Belles” and much more.

And the mission statement of the Pacific Pinball Museum, which is behind the expo, is as follows: “To inspire an interest in science, art and history through pinball and to preserve and promote this important part of American culture.”

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Originally posted at Geek Gestalt

Turns out the way a door was oriented made sure Armstrong would be the first human to set foot on an extraterrestrial body.

Courtesy Wikicommons

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, which featured Neil Armstrong becoming for the first man on the moon. One of the few times in science fiction when reality matched the imagination (for late 60s geeks at least).

So why did Armstrong end up enjoying the first of firsts? (indeed, currently the only first not based on Earth) It all had to do with the way the lunar module—the vehicle mission commander Armstrong and pilot Buzz Aldrin used to land on the lunar surface—was designed:

The real decision had already been made, by some anonymous design engineer. The Lunar Module’s moonwalk hatch… hinged inward, with the hinges not at the top or the bottom, but at one side – the pilot’s side. It swung open away from the commander and toward the pilot. So when the hatch was open, Armstrong had a clear path to manoeuvre out through the opening, while Aldrin was penned in behind the hatch.

…The only way that Aldrin could go out first was for the two men to swap places before opening the hatch. This wasn’t quite impossible, but it was very difficult; when Armstrong and Aldrin tried it in an LM mockup, they damaged some of the cabin equipment! The commander simply had to go first.

Aldrin, who made sure everyone knew he wanted to be first, decided that being first was not worth crippling delicate equipment, potentially preventing a return flight.

Courtesy Wikipedia

At least being first was never an issue for Michael Collins, who remained in lunar orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin were busy making history.

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Post from: The Gadget Blog